Transcript of Did Victor Wembanyama Send The Code Red? | Hour 1 New

This is the Dan Levitart Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

This episode of the Dan Levitart Show is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Yesterday on the show, we had a 100% innocent mistake that resulted in the worst and funniest poll question in our show's history. The number of things that things that have to be going on both locally and in the world for, uh, Juju to not know who James is, the Colombian soccer player, uh, and, and put up a poll. Put up a poll.

It was, it was, it just, but it was so 100% innocent that it, it somehow is less offensive than, uh, you know, Manny Fernandez's teammates calling him taco because he was Mexican.

Uh, I can't believe that Cody is just sitting here I meant it lovingly.

I knew something was off when 80% was no. I mean, really? You've never been to Miami? Ergh! There are James jerseys everywhere. I'm like, maybe they think it's a LeBron James. Maybe that's the thing. I look over, I see Hamas.

The number of things that have to be happening both in the studio, like, what are the chances? We haven't talked about Hamas in 20 years doing this show. We haven't talked about the Colombian soccer player, James.

I mean, I can understand the mistake if you're not familiar with James Rodriguez.

I mean, Mike did say everyone should have a James jersey.

I did.

I did.

I was like, damn, how else would you spell this?

H-A-M-A-S does sound right.

It's clearly Hamas.

I don't think that anyone listening to this would read the word James and pronounce it Hamas.

What it says on the back of his jersey, the first time I saw it, I'm like, why is there a Colombian guy running around out there named James? Like, all these Brazilian players have just one name on their jersey. How's the Colombian guy named James?

It's his first name. It should be Rodriguez, right?

I'd like to formally ask the entire audience for your forgiveness. Out of bounds off my leg. Sorry about that, coach.

Uh, we're gonna get to basketball from last night in a second, but just going back for a second—

damn, the 20% that said yes.

There we are.

A little low.

Getting back to Manny Fernandez, he played as a defensive lineman at 6'2", 250 pounds, which tells you how much the game has changed. They're now 100 pounds heavier than that. But can you guys put up for me the picture of Manny Fernandez again?

This facial hair look, is, is anyone rocking this?

Because, I mean, I could see Stavey doing this, but like, is anyone else rocking this particular look of Full beard except for the chin, which is bare.

There's no one doing that, correct? That's not a look that anyone chooses with their facial hair to just shave their chin.

Those are called mutton chops, right?

But those mutton chops go into the mustache. I don't think of mutton chops connecting to the mustache, and I don't know why they're called mutton chops either. I don't know the origins of the mutton chop. But those are, those are untamed mutton chops because connecting to the, to the mustache is not something I've seen very often.

Lemmy from Motorhead.

Clouds.

That's a good one. His chin is so pristinely shaved though, and the rest of what he's got going on there. Cody, did you say everything you wanted to say? Because we started making jokes at the end of that. And this is somebody who locally meant a lot to people for a lot of —reasons, even though your son had never heard his name before you started uttering it after he passed away?

Well, he was, he was one of the leaders of what was called the No Name Defense. So by the very moniker, there weren't a lot of superstars on that defense. The stars were on offense— Paul Warfield, Larry Zonka. And Manny Fernandez had his best career games in the Super Bowl. So on the biggest stage, he rose to his highest level of play. And, and I don't know that they would have won the, the '72 and '73 Super Bowls unless he rose like that on defense. Maybe they would have, but maybe they wouldn't have. He was that good.

Yeah, that's what stood out to me is his stats in the Super Bowl. In the Super Bowl VII where they beat Washington, he had as a defensive tackle 17 tackles and a sack, which is crazy.

Mm-hmm. Mutton chops were originally a style of facial hair popularly worn in England but its popularity spread to North America by the early 1800s. If mutton chops are connected by a mustache, they are known as friendly mutton chops.

Oh, put it on the poll. Excellent work by you using the internet correctly. Did you know that there were friendly mutton chops at Le Batard's show? You should check out Tristan Juju after NBA playoff games at— Speaking of mutton chops— @DLSHoops on our YouTube page. Can you guys tell me from last night's game what stood out to you, because, uh, villainous Wemby is something that I'm enjoying. And, uh, Wemby, uh, whispering with his hand covered to Biyombo— I don't know when this started. I know the Miami Heat were covered in a way in 2010 that had Wade and LeBron always putting their jerseys over their mouth, but I think soccer players were doing it before that. I don't think that Wade and LeBron were, uh, were inventing the idea of, I don't want any anybody and all of these cameras to be able to read my lips, but, uh, Wembenyama is covering his mouth with his hand as he talks to Biyombo and Plumlee.

And then after that, they start hard fouling like crazy because this series is going to keep escalating. These guys, both of these sides, you got a champion, a proud champion that looks over at the other side. And before last night's game, Wemby was mortal last night and was -8, but the numbers in the series going into the game When Wemby's on the court, the Spurs are +50 over the defending champion. When he's not there, -46 going into the game. It means that anytime Wemby rests, everything's at the rim for OKC. They do whatever they want, and they're the champions when Wemby's not out there. But last night was weird because Wemby doesn't look like that very often and was frustrated enough that he sent Biyombo— it looks like he sent Biyombo and Plumlee out there to start hard fouling, and then they did.

There's no other way to see that. He whispers in the ear of Biyombo, who, you know, has a history of— and Plumlee. Yeah, who has a history of being questionable when it comes to the dirty play. And both Plumlee and Biyombo immediately commit hard fouls. Look, Jared McCain— Jared McCain was the one who took the hard fouls from both of them, and one of them that sent McCain to the free-throw line. Listen to Jared McCain. So this is after the game. McCain was asked about the hard fouls.

That was crazy. I didn't— I didn't expect it. Obviously, we were at the free throw line too, and I was like, why did you do that, man? I'm just asking a question. And he's like— he was like, I got another one for you too.

I'm like, all right, yeah, let me get to the corner real quick.

Let's finish this game out. But, you know, it's all in competition, so got to respect it. But definitely wasn't aware that my team told me after, like, just get to the corner at the end of the game like that.

I really don't have a problem with it. I don't have a problem with it because this is San Antonio's response. To what they believe has been dirty play by the Thunder throughout the series. So like, is it okay what the Spurs did last night in a vacuum? No, but we're not living in a vacuum. Like, the Thunder have played dirty, specifically Hardenstein, specifically Holmgren. They have played dirty throughout the series, and Wemba Nyama was clearly frustrated all of last night, and this was his response to it, was, you know, hey, listen, go use your fouls.

Yeah, the same way that hockey has its goons, I think basketball should have more of this, like, hey, number 35 is doing a little too much. Plumlee, do what you do. That's the way it used to be.

Right, right. I mean, you remember back in the playoffs in 2013 with the Heat, like, Tyler Hansbrough made Dwyane Wade bleed from a hard foul. So guess what? Haslem's checking in now. You're gonna get two arms coming down on your head.

I don't mind that Wemby has a villainous side that we're beginning to see a little bit. I think that that's good. I think that that's good for his image, if anything. But Wemby, everybody's bragging about, is he too good? Is he going to change the league? Because nobody can keep up with him. When you have a rare bad game and you go 4 for 15 or whatever it was, talk to the media afterwards. Address the fans and the world afterward, not just when you do well. I think that's classless when he didn't avail himself after last night.

And then you've got the media being like, I hope Wemby's okay. Yeah, which is crazy. It's like, you know, a lot of times these things happen for stars like Wemby and they have an emergency. There's probably a family emergency when you don't—

because they said Wemby was not going to be available.

Correct. And when you see a star that everyone loves and you don't like that star, it's very easy to see when the rose-colored glasses come on for things that on another player would be completely crushed by.

@LeBittardShow: Is the media treating Wemby like a 7-foot-3 Fabergé egg?

Egg. Um, there was a lot of interesting stuff that happened kind of outside the lines and after the game, but for me, the, the game was kind of interesting in that it was a laborious watch. That was not a good— the pacing of that game was— look, the style of play, we all get that. I'm not gonna get too much into the OKC thing and, and the foul calls, but on top of what is already working against, uh, this series when it comes to the whistle having so much power was it was just sloppy. Both teams were really sloppy with the ball. There were opportunities for San Antonio to get back in this game and they were really careless with the ball. And back to the whistle, there was one sequence where you're like, all right, I'll just turn this game off because it's not fun to watch. And when there was that non-goal-tending call, yeah, OKC takes it the other way, and then the fiasco of the ball rolling off of OKC. Yeah. San Antonio trying to challenge it, being smart enough to get a sub in to buy more time to get it right, and then being totally ignored, and then getting a technical for the officials not doing their job, you knew right there that it was over.

Now, the goaltending miscall, I kind of understand it because you could—

I don't understand it.

Well, it was clearly goaltending, but what might have also been goaltending was Cornett trying to get the ball on the rim.

I don't agree with that, but even if you're right, Something happened there. Yeah, something happened there.

What? There was a goaltend. Hell, there might have been two. And instead it just goes to OKC and then back the other way. A bad call goes their way. It's really unfortunate when I thought— I know the free throws don't tell the story, but felt like OKC got the friendlier whistle again. They did. But also you got to understand that if you're San Antonio, they were playing super aggressive. I hated when a dude, uh, A dude that weighs, you know, 225 pounds, that's 6'5", goes flying just because someone puts a hip into him. You're talking about Lugan Stort? Yeah, yeah, like—

He falls every time someone touches him, I guarantee. That guy is a brick wall. I guarantee you, Mike, if most of these NBA players, if Lu Dort is standing stationary and most of these NBA players run full speed into him, he will not fall down.

I saw Lu Dort at Las Vegas Summer League with a white t-shirt on And it's a core memory. It's literally now embedded into my brain. His back muscles have back muscles on top of them. I've never seen a more jacked, ripped human being. Like Miles Garrett, but on a basketball court.

Castle's also got to do a better job too. I got a little annoyed with SGA and Castle just on the perimeter, and it's not like Castle's running through SGA, but you give him a little bit and SGA will go flying, and they give him the call. I just I would like to see them play a little bit more, but if this is going to be the way that it goes, clean it up. Like, understand that that's the whistle. Don't be super aggressive, don't over-pursue. And when you have the chances to get back in the game, don't be so sloppy with the ball. It was a missed opportunity because SGA wasn't very good. He was living at the line and that was how he was getting in his rhythm. He never looked right the entire game. That, that should have been a San Antonio win, but they were too sloppy with it and they blew it and they might have blown the series.

If the Spurs are to win the series, they will be the first team in 2 years to beat them back to back. You cannot beat them back to back in the postseason. And the final game has to be at home. OKC does not get beaten back to back.

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Don Lebatard. He called me on my own podcast, he called me full of shit, claiming that I'm faking interest in the solar eclipse. Well, you do do this. You love to just get excited about everything. Okay, Junior. Stugatz. I had to school you and explain to you.

He was gonna take you to Augusta.

When I was 17 years old, Alan Cherry and I used to haunt the Bueller Planetarium.

This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

I've got a couple of things that I want to clean up here, though, and I want to ask you guys this question. Juju, you are doing our basketball expertise for us. If you had to take a guess, the entire postseason, just off the top of your head, fast as you can answer, give me a number. How many close games have there been the entire— the entire NBA postseason? Give me a number. 6. I think it's 4. Like, I'm just doing it off the top of my head and I think it's 4. And I don't know.

I don't know. Juju might be, might be right, but I'm sitting there, the Atlanta-New York series had 2 of them, uh, and you had Cleveland, uh, Cleveland-Toronto.

What do we consider close? Yeah, Houston-LA played probably the best game of the postseason.

Uh, not many is the answer to the question whether it's 4 or 6. I think this is the new thing though. I think this is the new normal when it comes to the sport and the 3-pointer and how things get distorted.

Well, and that's the question I was asking this to Tony and Juju last night on the Alley-Oop postgame livestream, which you can find on Thursday night after the game as well. But for a team, for two teams that we thought were going to be this heavyweight fight, two evenly matched squads in the San Antonio Spurs and the OKC Thunder, outside of Game 1, every game has been a blowout even though they're so closely matched.

Why do you guys think that is? I don't think I can answer that well except to say the 3-pointer is distorting everything. I don't have a better answer than that. I'd like to hear a better answer than that because I do believe I've, I've, I've had 2 postseasons of this now. I miss the buzzer beaters like I miss the shots at the end of games. God bless Halliburton.

I miss what a gift he gave us.

20 seconds left and everyone's watching the same game and everyone's a little bit scared.

I missed 5 lead changes in the fourth quarter. Right. You don't get any of that anymore.

Yeah, I, I miss the, the last minute of a game ticking 5 minutes in real time because there's so many timeouts because everything is so tense and, and teetering.

This has been going on for a few years though. This is not new. Like, this has been happening for, I'd say, closer to 8 or 9 years.

Oh, but I think it's with the advent of people shooting more and more threes, taking 50 threes a game, and if one team makes 20 of them and the other team makes 11 There's your discrepancy.

I have a couple of other questions, though, Chris.

I just— based on hearing the McCain sound, his voice sounds like sunshine. He sounds like a cartoon animal that I fell in love with.

It's the perfect way to handle— telling this story is the perfect way to handle the defusing of the bomb of Biombo and Plumlee are out there only to foul me.

That was crazy. I didn't— I didn't expect it. Obviously, we were at the free throw line, too, and I was like, why did you do that, man? I'm just asking a question. And he's like— he was like, I got another one for you, too.

I'm like, all right, yeah, let me get to the corner real quick.

Let's finish this game out. But, you know, it's all in competition, so gotta respect it. But definitely wasn't aware that my team told me after, like, just get to the corner at the end of the game.

Juju, I want to go back to a moment earlier. We were talking about him whispering to Biyombo, and then Chris Cody shouted, and Plumlee, and you thanked Chris Cody.

Exactly. Biyombo ain't even the culprit of this. We just see the brother and be like, oh, Biombo, what Biombo out there doing?

No, no, no. Plumlee's was way worse.

The foul was like an elbow in the back. And I'm grateful because I'm learning they're both in the league.

I think, though, to the, to the, the Thunder's credit, they got under Wemby's skin. I think last night is proof of that. In the first half, he shoulders bumped the hell out of Wemby, uh, Chet going back to the timeout. And a lot of his aggression throughout that game, it didn't seem as even-keeled as it always is. And I think it reflected in that first half. By him taking like 3 shots. Like, what are you doing? This is for the chip now. This boy is not aggressive. I think them boys got in his head. Hardenstein deserves credit for that.

Should De'Aaron Fox be out there? Clearly not the same kind of player. Like, he is stinky and he has reasons to be. That's a tough injury. But I think they navigated his absence fine. And I don't think he's helping.

No, Mike, he's got to be out there because Castle had 21 turnovers in 2 games. And that's how OKC beat you. Like, they go the other way and they go get the easy baskets. Is there nothing else?

Because Fox isn't giving them much.

I mean, he had 8 assists and only 1 turnover. So like, I think he's serving his purpose there. Uh, if, if he's struggling so much, he probably can't shoot about 15 times.

I'm gonna say though the number again: 21 turnovers in 2 games. You cannot play OKC without a point guard. That's not like— that's a recipe for disaster. You will not beat them in 7 games if you don't have somebody who, uh, just is careful with the basketball.

Look, tomorrow night is, is obviously awesome because it's a Game 6 and the Spurs, can they force a Game 7? But We're gonna watch Wemba Nyama, who has been out of this world 2 of the 5 games of this series, both of which were wins, and we're gonna see him in an elimination game for the very first time in his career, and it's coming off of a very poor game.

So, well, second time he did make it to the IST final.

It's for the season. The next game's for the season. I did mention at the beginning of this series that double overtime game, the depth of OKC, they will wear you down over the course of a series. That's more minutes than all of those guys had played to start that series. OKC makes these things difficult. They're a proud champion. They don't mind playing ugly basketball, and, uh, they don't mind sending Biombo and Plumlee out there, uh, to just, uh, to just retaliate to what, what was in game—

in game 2, Hardenstein was not playing basketball.

Plumlee and Biombo sounds like the worst accounting firm.

Put it on the poll at @LeBittardShow, uh, do you trust Plumlee and Biyombo with your accident needs.

I think the importance of, uh, De'Aaron Fox, it just comes in and shines through. Like last night, Dylan Harper had momentum-swinging turnovers, bro, in the backcourt one-on-one. You can't have those type of mistakes at this stage and not throw De'Aaron Fox out there.

But this is part of why it is, okay, that I believe, uh, the Knicks are really enjoying what's happening in this series, because Harper's not healthy either, right? Like, these— this series, if it cannot be covered enough, okay? I keep saying, uh, broken basketball is breaking its players. We've talked for 2 years now about the way the style of play, the pace, is affecting ligaments on people who are way too thin and long, and the way that they're playing affects injuries. It's so thin and long. And the Knicks are playing against two teams that might limp into the game against them, or into the finals against them. Who is the broadcaster these days though? I'm giving you all of sports, all of the people talking into microphones during games. I'm not talking about the opinion shows or the debate shows. I'm talking about during games. Who is the guy or woman doing games right now saying the dumbest shit? Because Reggie Miller, uh, has said something here, and I don't know what DraftKings is putting the odds at. Can you guys tell me, uh, what kind of underdog the Knicks are going to be against either OKC or the Spurs?

But here's Reggie Miller saying something that makes me think he doesn't have any idea what he's talking about. Whoever wins this series, I've seen enough from the Knicks. The Knicks are going to be favored in Finals to win it all.

I'm just telling you right now.

Okay. They're gonna be a massive underdog. Zero chance.

We have ways of looking this up, Reg. They are presently not favored right now, even though there's an active series going on. Massive underdog.

I happen to agree with Reggie though. I don't—

that's just an opinion though. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I, I mean, I don't think the, the sportsbook will reflect, but at the same time, if you look at the matchups right now with the turnovers from the Spurs and then the overall softness of the Thunder. Like, Chet got his chest went through yesterday 2 times, once by Keldon Johnson and once by Wemby for no reason, just because he wanted to. I think that that's going to shine through at the next level because OKC relies on, oh, feel for us. And New York is coming straight at you no matter what.

There's nothing wrong with anything you just said. It's your opinion. You may, you may end up being right, but you can't say that the Knicks are going to be favored. Because they're not. They're gonna be a massive underdog.

You can't— you cannot, Juju, agree with Reggie Miller when he is simply factually wrong. Like, he can have his opinion on whether he thinks the Knicks are going to win.

The difference here is Juju saying they should be favored.

I don't even think Juju's saying that.

Well, that's what he kind of just said.

They're gonna—

I think, yeah, I think they should be just because I'm the—

I think they're gonna win. And Reggie Miller's like, they will be, which they won't.

I've seen enough. They're favored. Well, DraftKings actually likes the Knicks a little bit more than other books. They're presently +205. They've only gone up a little a little bit since yesterday. It's a pretty big underdog. That, that is. And keep in mind, it'll go up once OKC— if OKC wins this. The only way it goes down is if it's the Spurs.

I mean, Reggie also a couple months ago said that Derrick Rose battled LeBron James for best player in the league for 8 years.

You've been holding it against him since he said it on the Dan Patrick Show. But answer my question: who's the broadcaster right now saying the dumbest shit? Like, just during, during games, the one—

anyone? I knew you were talking about Reggie when you started asking question. I'm like, this is a— ask everybody back here, this is a Reggie Miller question.

You're doing predictions on where it is that—

yeah, DK prediction market. I knew right away you were transitioning to Reggie Miller. I did appreciate Jamal Crawford when they were talking about the, the goaltend invoking the, uh, the Pacers-Pistons series, just to laugh at Reggie Miller because of Tayshaun Prince.

Uh, Trista, can you, uh, get people updated on what Draymond Green is doing? Because I wouldn't put him in the category because he's not doing games, he's doing studio show, but Draymond Green, uh, recently did something, or I guess last night did something, that I just simply haven't seen a whole lot of athletes do. And Draymond Green might be the king in sports of 'I don't give an F.' He is basically threatening the children. I, I— this is just not—

no, this is not normal behavior.

Draymond Green is on social media threatening the children of someone on Twitter who has children in his avatar.

What has he written? What is the direct quote from Draymond Green as he goes after not a fan but a fan's children?

He said, watch your mouth before I crush those dirty ass kids in your banner. And I was like, let me click on this person's— it's— it is—

as we all did, check out dirty.

We all clicked on it. Are they dirty? Do they— they just— I think he just thought they were. They were giving dirty. It was the aura of dirty. And crushing them is crazy.

I think somebody should Jackson Dart question him like, hey, what did you mean by crush?

What we doing, man? Yeah. Now the fan did write, come outside, B-word. Oh, is that— make— I'm not like— I don't go after the kids is my point. You can have a snarky response here. Just don't go after the kids, right?

I think this is once again working against Draymond in that he's not Shaq or Barkley, because Shaq could say that and I think we'd all laugh. Yeah. Yeah, right. In fact, I'm pretty sure Shaq says that regularly.

I think if Shaq stood in front of me right now and said that, I think it's hilarious.

But remember, like, this kind of reminds me of Dan Bernstein from 670 The Score, like, 12 months ago. He came after a fan on Twitter and he then, like, threatened his family, and he was, like, immediately fired from 670 The Score. Like, you just can't come after fans and physically threaten them, especially kids. Like, I saw that and I was like, oh, this is a Dan Bernstein situation, and then it It just happened and people went about their life and they were like, oh, that's, oh, Draymond just being Draymond.

87,000 likes, by the way, on that comment.

People liked it. Don Lebatard. This is the quickest it goes. Hey, this is the quickest it goes. Stugatz. Everybody, this is the quickest it goes. Yeah. This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

Give me the stat of the day music, please.

Star of the day! Star of the day! It's here— star of the day! Start of the day! Start up today it is your start of the day! Star of the day! Star of the day! That this year starts off the day!

Part of the days started me late that these years part of the day for the price of Knicks Finals ticket you can buy a 4-bedroom house in Oklahoma City.

Put it on the poll at @LevittardShow. Did you know that for the price of a Knicks Finals ticket, you can buy a 4-bedroom house in Oklahoma City? Juju just mentioned Jackson Darda again, and I wanted to circle back on that from yesterday. For those of you who do not know, and I don't know what Greg Cody's opinions are on this, he's leaning into the microphone, which makes me think he might be about to give me some of his opinions on this. I I have heard his nostrils, a bit of a canopy over his mouth, you know, breathing into the microphone when I don't want to hear from him, and I've heard him back away from the microphone when I do want to hear from him.

Yeah, I'll play it safe and just start talking like this the whole time.

Did you have any thoughts on Jaxon Dart at a rally for Donald Trump deciding to inform America that he was going to create headlines of distraction that the Giants don't need by aligning himself with a political allegiance that most of the country at this point, polling shows, is not on the side of the corrupt criminal entity presently running our country.

Right. Yeah, Jackson Dart takes a chance by coming out on that side of the political spectrum, and now he may have to pay the price for it, which will be, why, why do you support this guy when he's done this, this, and the other, and he's associated with this, this, and the other, and Epstein, and all this So whether or not the New York, New Jersey media approaches Dart with these questions, I don't know. I don't know. I'll be interested to find out.

You have to. You have to.

New York media, I am imploring you.

New York media, ask him specific questions. How do you feel about January 6th? How do you feel about the Epstein file? Keep asking him questions. He invited this. Ask him the difficult questions. New York media, don't go soft on me now. The only quarterback you got in town invited this. Ask him the questions and don't let him slip away. With, "Well, I respect the office." No, answer these specific questions, not with "no comment." You invited this.

Okay, I'm speaking as somebody who's maybe in the room listening to the questions or even asking the question. I think the question will be broader than that. I think the question will be, "Aren't you concerned about a distraction within your team?" That type of thing.

No, that's not the question I want.

I don't— yeah, well, the question you want might not be the question that's asked. I don't think—

No, it has to be asked. You're the New York media market. You ask tough questions. He decided to invite This New York media, he's challenging you. He invited this into his locker room. Put it there for him.

And that's all the time that we have for Jackson Dart. That concludes the end of this media availability.

Besides, you have anything to add on it? You were so good yesterday.

No, I don't like the way I represented myself yesterday.

I've chewed on this story a little bit more since yesterday because I'm really confused as to why Abdoul-Kader is getting so much shit for merely reacting. Like, everyone's like, how do you, how do you do this to your teammates? How do you draw this out in public? I'm like, wait a second, this is a Jackson Dart issue. If you're okay with Jackson Dart doing what he is doing, you have to be okay with Abdul-Kader doing what he is doing. It doesn't make any sense to just go at Abdul-Kader. And then I thought about it some more. I'm like, Abdul-Kader, right now, this week, with all the talking heads that have weighed in with their agendas, Abdul Carter has had a tougher weekend than Steve Tisch did, the chairman and co-owner of the New York Giants, for emailing directly with Jeffrey Epstein about working girls. Quote, working girls. Look it up, people. There is a lot. It was in the news for like 2 days and it went away. Not as long in the news as Abdul Carter's been.

I thought that was going to be a really big thing and that totally went away.

The NFL has to make it a big thing and doesn't and won't and didn't because Goodell works for the owners and his job is to protect the money and the owners.

So when you're asking questions of Jackson Dart and, hell, Abdul Carter, let's ask questions about the chairman of the New York Giants and why he's emailing Jeffrey Epstein about, quote, working girls.

You said you're confused though, and I'm not. He's Black and Muslim, and the way that people are aligned now politically, they will shape whatever they already think around the ways to protect the white guy or go after the black guy a little harder.

That's, that's not in any way new, but the, the reason I want Jackson Dart asked difficult questions like, what does Trump stand for, Jackson? Do— how do you feel about Trump leaning deeply into white supremacy? Ask him difficult questions, make him answer them.

Oh, by his appearance there, I think he invited direct questions about Steve Tisch. That's why it's a puzzling decision how the Giants allowed this, and I think I think, I think we all have an idea of where the political leanings are of that franchise is given Abdul Carter removing the post and the, and just Jackson Dart being allowed to do this. Why would you make the block hot if your owner and chairman is in the Epstein files? Just bad ball out of them.

Let me, let me backtrack though here, Greg. And Greg's sitting here saying, and I, I really do want to address this, the New York media market has always been notoriously tough.

The tabloids still somehow matter in that city even though newspapers are dying all over the place. Do you not believe that the New York media has a responsibility to ask difficult questions of Jackson Dart and let us hear what you believe? Right. Like, if you want to be the quarterback who introduces Trump during this time please expound on your thoughts. Tell us. I want him put in a position to sound educated or uneducated with the decision that he just made. He deserves to be made uncomfortable if he's going to support this particular presidency during a deeply uncomfortable time. Why not ask the quarterback of the New York Giants, hey, how do you feel about Donald Trump going after an attack on freedom and democracy? How do you feel about Iran? How do you feel about these things? Tell us, Jackson. You're a— you've made yourself a political person.

Just tell us what you think. I agree that he has exposed himself to these direct questions. I agree that he's volunteered these questions by stating who he believes in, etc. I would love the questions to be asked. I'm just taking the side that I don't know that they will be They definitely won't.

Trista hit the nail on the head. It'll be— it'll be a PR person. All right. That'll do it for Jackson.

Yeah, I do think the question will be asked in the broader context of, you know, clubhouse chemistry and all that bullshit. But I don't think they'll be asked as sharply and directly as you want them to be. That's just my prediction.

I think what Mike is saying is also important. Like, it's our duty as Americans, as the populace, to not fall for the distraction over here. They're trying to throw at us the Abdul Carter water distraction. It would be a disservice to us to fall for that. Keep the pressure on these people who made these decisions and hold them accountable. That's what we have gone too far in this country not doing.

I don't think asking Jackson Dart questions will go anywhere. My hopes aren't great for that, but at least let him suffer the indignity of an embarrassing situation where a PR person comes and rescues him, or a no comments the entire time. Again, this was He's not an Olympian. He wasn't at the White House. He can't say, well, it's a great honor anytime the president asks you. First off, why is the president still doing campaign stops? I don't understand that. That should be— add that to the list of questions. Why is the president having campaign stops? All right, he's a two-term president. But Jackson Dart went to a pep rally. He got people fired up. It was an endorsement of the president. It wasn't just like, this is my duty as an American because isn't this cool? The times in this country are different. Different. This is not normal politics anymore. Your owner is in the Epstein files. That president is actively covering it up. Let's, let's answer those questions if you're going to go ahead and do that.

Well, let me just place in front of the audience a handful of things here because I'm really surprised by Greg Cody's answer here because I expect more from the New York media market.

I've been told all my life that that's the most difficult media market to play in, and we have diluted all of this so much that you guys don't even feel that we're going to get the simple question of Jackson and how did this happen? What advice did you get from people in order for this to happen? So if you guys are telling me at every turn it's going to be no comments or just empty superficial, uh, oh, I respect the office, aren't you of the opinion that it is the responsibility of the New York media when this story is present to not trade the access for non-answers? The job of the media in this circumstance is to ask difficult questions, not the questions that simply keep getting you the access to a quarterback who's not going to say anything but platitudes and no comments, because telling you what he really thinks about some of these things is obviously going to expose him to something he doesn't want in his huddle because he's already invited it into his huddle.

Just in fairness to even the New York media, I know you guys are chewing on a, like, a hypothetical down the line, but they haven't had the opportunity yet. We're, we are not in season. They are not made available to the press, and that's what they're banking on right now, is hopefully he's not made available for normal press availability for a while. And maybe given the way that this country has gone over the last few months, there's always something new in the news stream that'll punch it out of the way.

And the way the NFL has gone, you see how they handled Mike Vrabel. He came in there, hey, I'm going to therapy, all right, y'all. It's like, we're not gonna hold him to the fire.

Oh, but he had to get in front of people, and I don't think that market is what New York is. But I'm really surprised that the journalists among us, that Cody is sitting here just resigned to, eh, New York media is probably not going to do it. Like, I think they have a responsibility.

It is literally their job.

Okay, I think their job is to ferret out how Jackson Dart's political stance might affect the team detrimentally or otherwise. I think that's their job. You know, I'm anti-Trump and I'm out front with that. I haven't voted for him, never would. Don't like him as a president. And you know it. And you do know it. But look, it's not against the law to be a Trump supporter.

You agreed with your own catchphrase there.

Yes, I did. And you know it. I wanted to underline that. It's not against the law to be a Trump supporter. I wish it were, but it isn't. And so I don't think you go into a press conference, uh, you know, putting Jackson Dart on the defensive as if what he is saying, what he believes in, is illegal. It isn't. That's my—

I didn't say it was illegal.

I say he deserves questions. How did we go from deserves questions to illegal? Okay, I didn't say jail Jackson Dart.

I mean, your tone is kind of like, we need to go after this guy.

Just ask him questions. Go after him. Ask him questions.

How do you feel about tiki torches?