Transcript of Does Portugal Have a Cristiano Ronaldo Problem? | Local Hour New

Football is back, Jack. The beautiful game is on a roll. And we'll have an eye on every goal, shouting, "Magisterial!" No need to back down. Just park the bus, stop the attack. Will the hand of God put your header back on track? Football is back, Jack. And Bape is flying through the air. Ronaldo's here for one last prayer. Will Messi come out to play? Or is it victory for the USA? It's corner kicks when the box is packed. That's how you know that football is back, Jack. Let me hear you say— Football is back. Football, football, football. Football is back, Jack. The time is here, open the gates. The long wait is over, so we'll yell— Let's go, States! No need to back down. Just strike the ball, start the attack. If you say this game's the best, I'll say it's a gag. Football is back, Jack. Football is back, Jack. Football is back! Football is back, Jack.

Let me tell you something. I've been wrapped up in this World Cup. I stayed up. I watched all the games yesterday. I can confirm. Colombia? Great fans.

I told you, I haven't been an expert on all things soccer. I mean, I can't believe that Jude Bellingham has returned to the pitch with the form of 2 years ago. But Harry Kane and the superstars being great at the most beautiful game and Ronaldo, like right off the bat.

And oh, you, you're a problem. Ronaldo, you star.

He stinks.

Well, but he stinks so much that you got to get him off the field. You might win it without him. But you sure aren't going to win it with him because he hasn't scored an important goal since 2021. And it wasn't that long ago, Zaz. Like when we talk about these GOAT conversations, it's amazing to look back and be like, yeah, about 7, 8 years ago we were saying Messi wasn't going to be it. Ronaldo was the best player in the world.

Is—

Mike, you'll have to help me here. Is Ronaldo— because Ronaldo has not scored in his last 5 World Cup matches, in his last 10 international appearances. Is Ronaldo's last international goal The one where it may have hit like a hair on his head and he tried to take credit for the goal. Remember that? Was that his last goal?

I have to look it up. You may be right.

He tried to take credit for a goal that was not his!

The Ronaldo storyline— this is a storyline that transcends. Obviously he's a huge personality, one of the biggest superstars in the history of sports on this planet, right? And he's 41 years old and he's always going to be tethered to the hip of Messi. I kind of felt like Messi put that debate to rest with his performance in the last World Cup.

But he was behind— Messi was behind before that, Mike. We spent a couple of years— it wasn't— it wasn't— we were not saying Messi was the best player in the world or ever. We weren't even saying he was certainly the best player of his time when next to the statuesque guy who's pretty and isn't frumpy and is somebody who looked more like what soccer wants to look like.

Well, it was a highly contested debate between the two of them, and now Messi's conversation is with Maradona and Pelé, and it's, you know, It's a little sad, I feel like, and look, I know I'm not trying to turn this into a Ronaldo-Messi thing. I like both. And I think that we should all feel privileged that we lived in the era where they're both doing this. And it should be noted, Ronaldo's older.

41.

Than Messi.

41, 3 years older.

It's tough. However, Ronaldo at that age was not, was already showing signs of falling off. And you know, he had the whole thing with Manchester United. I wanna talk about what his options are here for this World Cup because Portugal is absolutely loaded. And headed into the tournament, I liked them to win the championship provided that Ronaldo could fit in.

And Dan, he looked like a beer league player that was told, "You're playing for the national team, figure it out." Mike, I can't believe that one game into this thing you're getting the gold of Let's talk about storylines with the legend. You're gonna have to get him off the field if you want to win, as all the other stars, all the other worldwide guys—

Everyone came out swinging.

Harry Kane. Like, everyone comes out right at the start. No one's screwing around anymore. And also, the stakes are so high that your country might fire its manager if it loses one game and then bring in the most handsome devil that there has ever been in the history of soccer.

That's right. Hervé Renard is back in our lives. That should be the number one talking point from the World Cup here for us instead of Ronaldo.

I like that they fired him after one game. That means you're all in.

Yeah.

Your country's telling you, we're in this to win it.

Tunisia had one of the more puzzling performances of the opening round of matches because they don't concede. Now, you could pick apart the fact that they really got lucky in qualification, but they were supposed to be this stout defensive team. And they let in a billion goals against Sweden. And so a man who's a bit of a football vagabond, Dan, he's been coaching men's and women's teams. Saudi Arabia, French women's team.

And what's his nationality?

Hervé Renard?

Yeah.

I believe he's French.

Gorgeous.

Yeah, his nationality is gorgeous.

Put it on the poll @LebatardShow. Is Hervé's nationality gorgeous? Because I don't think— I question the video team in a number of different ways, and I don't want to exclude the audio audience here, but I don't believe that they went and chose the photos were handsome enough, okay? I don't believe that they're doing this man justice. When he was introduced to us, okay, he was—

It has been a couple years.

But don't show me modern photos of him, please. He still looks wonderful for his age. He's exactly the guy you get if you're gonna fire a coach after one game.

Whoa!

But I want the original. I saw photos of him—

This is the guy you're talking about, Dan?

No, I'm— the video team does not judge that very well, and attractive is very high on the list of what they don't judge well. Okay, because they've done this poorly. They've put in front of me a man, it may be because they're playing with that AI still, that is not as attractive as the most beautiful man I've ever seen. When this man came into my life, he did so with a jawline. I was hypnotized. I looked into his eyes and could not stop staring.

That guy looks like Sean Penn now.

Yeah, I mean, he's a smoker. Oh yeah, yeah. Most gorgeous people are.

Smoke show.

But yeah, Hervé Renard, who goes from tweeting about the World Cup back into our lives as Tunisia sacked their manager after one match and her—

They're all in!

Yeah, I mean, you gotta be, so hopefully they get back to their game, but let's go to the other handsome man in this conversation, Cristiano Ronaldo, for just a brief second more. Cristiano Ronaldo cost them the game. There was one moment in particular. First off, I thought Cristiano Ronaldo was gonna come out super aggressive, everybody did, because of what happened the night before with all the stars performing so well. You're like, man, Cristiano Ronaldo's gonna be bombing shots from 30 yards out.

Can I ask you something real quick? How has he performed like this past season in Saudi?

You know, it was— he definitely showed signs, but the league isn't ultra competitive. He did end up winning a trophy, largely a disappointment. I think there were— there was like a whole, like, rebellion against him by that supporter base briefly in Saudi Arabia.

We're doing the same thing here against Messi.

But like Messi too, people are quick to point to the level of competition in the, in the league. And Ronaldo, he was on the national team list, you'd imagine he would be since he's still active and still scoring goals at a reasonably high clip for his club. But Ronaldo is one of the fastest attackers in the history of the game, and his speed is totally gone.

So much so— That's a problem.

So much so that he's cherry-picking right now, and he's just constantly offside. And it's messing up the passing lanes for what is, I think, the best midfield in this tournament for Portugal. They have some really, really good players, and there was one— there was one really ugly moment late in that game. I know historically when we say, man, that's one of the worst striker performances ever, it's usually because a guy misses an opportunity right in front of the net, and you're like, oh, how do you miss that? Or he misses a pen. He didn't even put himself in the position to miss, Sitters. Like, he was just so out of position, so out of sorts. It looked like he had no knowledge of what the attacking plan was for Portugal.

This is a crazy conversation.

And late in that match, there's a dangerous cross played into the box. Cristiano Ronaldo is supposed to be going to the, the near post, and it's played beautifully for Bruno Fernandes. If that meets Bruno Fernandes' foot, it's a game-winning goal. Instead, Ronaldo drags his foot back to try to intercept the pass, and rather than have the team score the goal, Ronaldo was going to score the goal. So now the conversation is either Ronaldo looks himself in the mirror, which he does often, and says, you know, you're still super handsome, but we got to change our game up.

There's no way that happens.

I, I think he can be hugely impactful as a match-dependent sub, right? You have one of the greatest goal scorers in the history of the sport. You'll never convince me to do that. He's there. I think his legs aren't what they used to be. So if you bring him on in one of these knockout rounds as like an extra time sub, I think that there is a role where he can absolutely help his team, and I think his branding would really, uh, would really have a positive spin on it if he assumed this role-player, leader type of role for Portugal. But right now, his ego may be getting in the way because he is quite literally, physically getting in the way.

Okay, but what you're saying, and this is why this is fascinating, and I do want to get to the celebration of the people who are great, and we have a bunch of Giannis developments that everybody wants to get to. That is the beautiful Ronaldo, the statue for Ronaldo, one of the worst pieces of art ever made. But one of the reasons what you're saying is patently ridiculous on whatever it is you imagine sports ego to be, okay? Mello wasn't going to the bench. Whatever you think sports ego is, I heard a coach yesterday who understands Ronaldo's place in the world, a manager, scared to say the wrong thing about, "I'm going to bench this person." It would be his ego who would have to choose he's going to use it because no one's going to do it to him.

They understand what that resume is and they understand the insult in it. We're here still talking about Jalen Brown, should he be hurt or insulted? Yes, send Ronaldo to the bench during the World Cup. See if he's hurt or insulted with wherever ego is on soccer divas and not just soccer divas because the soccer divas can make the wide receivers look ridiculous when it comes to ego. The soccer divas? Go ahead and do it with this one, the one who's pretty too. Like, see how that goes for you? The one who's an international superstar, handsome, uh, hey, would you like to go to the bench and not take it as insult that you're literally getting in the way? Do you want to look in the mirror in a way that's self-aware as opposed to vain?

The place where I would go, and I guess this is— and look, maybe they've had these conversations and we're not privy to it, like, that's totally possible, but how did they not know, the manager, all the people who run the team, How was there not at least an idea that this may be a thing? Can we take care of this before the first match at the World Cup? Because can you imagine? You start the World Cup and Ronaldo, okay, he's— like, you can't do it now? Like, now it's a conversation the world is having. How did they not have any idea that this might be the case? 'Cause guess what? We're one game in and it's already an issue. Like, shouldn't they have known that maybe this is going to be a problem and let's, let's bring Ronaldo off the bench, let's have this conversation now before everyone else sees it.

As difficult of a conversation as that is to have at this moment, it's even more difficult to have without that result under your belt, right? Now you have, now you have the evidence of him literally getting in the way. Dan, I'd say he, he was invisible yesterday, but he would have been better if he were actually invisible. He was quite literally getting in the way. And I think that entire team— and it needs to come from Ronaldo. He needs to be the leader there and say, "Guys, I don't have it like that. I can help this team in different ways." I think it would be a great redemption arc for the guy. I think everybody would be pulling for him. I think the moment where Cristiano comes in off the bench in a tie game or a game that they're trailing is gonna be an all-time sports moment for him. Right. And I hope that he realizes that because he is hurting the team right now, Dan.

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Dan Lebatard.

My algorithm on Instagram is, damn, it's all boobs.

Stugatz.

It's a good algorithm. This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

It's funny that you say all of that. Plenty of time to talk about it. I wasn't listening though. The reason I say it's funny, because it didn't sound like anyone was laughing. I wasn't listening to you at all because I was gazing into the eyes of Renard on my phone. And it's different.

Your personal stash?

Like, well, I'm gonna— here's the thing, personal stash guy. I'm gonna make you come in here and look at the photo I'm looking at.

You're gonna come in there?

Yes, I'm gonna ask him to come right in here.

I'm coming. Yes. Come right in here.

Hey, yo.

Right here. And I want you to look at this and compare it to the video or the pictures that we have on the screen here of the video team's judgment on what I believe to be the most handsome man in the world and the real star of this World Cup. I do have to set up, though.

Wait for a second here, Chris.

The fact that the NYPD has now shut down the New York City parade route way early and we were going to go to Amine, and I'm not sure Amine's going to be able to get in because they're saying there's no more room.

At the Knicks parade.

They are now already hours early turning people away, and we've sent Ameen there, and I don't have any faith in his internet. I don't have any faith in Ameen in general. I worry that the party is gonna get to him, to his throat, and I don't trust his cell phone connection. But we're going to try to go to this parade, but we've already been locked out of that parade. So let's check in with Ameen. Get me Ameen from wherever it is he is, because I— were you guys expecting this thing to be shut down 2 hours early? No.

Uh, I don't know, I feel like I kind of would expect that, yeah. It's going to be an obscene amount of people there.

Okay, so the NYPD is saying that's it, it's closed. So we will find out shortly whether or not we can get in there, and we'll get to the Giannis stuff. Maybe we'll get some Giannis opinions from Amin at the parade if his internet works, which I do not trust.

I have no faith in everything that's about to happen here or not happen. But Chris, put up on the screen now, video team, the picture of the beautiful Renard by your judgment, because you guys have no judgment when it comes to—

that's actually a beautiful one. You've put— there weren't many ugly ones, but you guys—

We did it!

No, that's a— that is a beautiful one, but I— but the— yeah, like that, that where he looks like a scarecrow from Ukraine.

Like, I mean, they must have some hot-looking scarecrows in Ukraine.

Look, that Are you glad you brought me in here?

Yes, I'm gonna tell you why, even though your breath smells like breakfast. Are you ready? I'm gonna tell you why. You look at— the best moments in life are shared, okay? I want you to love this man with me.

Show me.

So you come right in here.

I'm coming.

You come here.

Okay.

Oh!

Oh!

Oh!

The dimples. Your breath.

Oh, come on. Performative.

His breath is not performative.

Oh, shush.

His breath is terrible. It's sausage links and eggs.

I did have an egg sandwich.

I could smell it. I could taste it. I could taste that egg sandwich. Look at Mike. Tony, you look.

I'm well versed in Irvine.

No, but this picture, the picture I'm looking at.

If you show me Sean Penn, I'm gonna be pissed.

The one I keep in my wallet. The one I keep in my wallet.

In your front pocket or your back pocket?

I'm gonna give this to the video team. Louis, I'm sending this to you right now, and I want you to just put it in picture in picture picture and tell me when it is that we're going to go to it so I can watch the whole team gaze at what it is I'm talking about. This is the world's most beautiful man. You cannot fire a manager after one game in the World Cup unless it's to hire this man.

The Giannis stuff. You heard yesterday it made Jeremy and Zazz insane, but Mike has not been here, and Mike, I believe, has claimed in the past to have invented Heat Twitter.

Mike Ryan has, uh, Been more critical of Pat Riley and the empire Miami Heat than I'm going to say anybody in local media during Pat Riley's time, past or present. I do not believe that there has been a voice in this market, written or spoken, that has gone after Pat Riley, because Pat Riley put the expectations in a place where, in 2010, Mike thinks, and Heat fans think, they deserve the greatest star every time, and they deserve to win all the time.

Pat Riley, you have to live with those expectations. You made them. You agree with my assessment? You are sure [MASKED] have not been as hard— No.

You, you, you, like, you reluctantly trade Bam in the middle of last season, and it causes you great pain. Who's second place to critical of the Heat in this town to Mike Ryan? And I'm dead serious. And how far away is second place?

Whoever is second place is going to be— it's going to be a distant second place. Like, I'm not sure who it is, but I think you're right about— I think Billy.

I'm going to say Peter Vessi in the history of Pat Riley is the second loudest critic of Pat Riley things. And you have been very aggressive. And yesterday—

I don't think I've been very aggressive. I think I'm aggressive compared to you guys. And one thing that you omitted, Dan, is like, yes, I've been critical, but I've also been the most right. About this team over the last few years. And another eye roll from Jeremy Tashay. Jeremy, you've been the most wrong.

Well, but they have made 2 finals, and I want to stop—

No, that's why I said the last few years. And yes, they were doubted, and that quite honestly might have been the worst thing that ever happened to this Colts.

No!

Because you guys—

I hate going to the finals.

All right, we said immediately after they got waxed in the Finals against Denver, the rest of the conference is elevated. So close. You just got told pretty, pretty resoundingly that you don't have enough. We all knew that we needed a player better than Jimmy Butler. That was the aim. Instead, we end up jettisoning Jimmy Butler. We don't get a player better than Jimmy Butler. Now Bam's your best player and you're constantly whiffing on getting a player to pair next to Bam. I think this is— there's an interesting conversation here about their standards. We all know how difficult it is for them to trade. They don't want to have a trade hurt. But I think you look at the lay of the land too, guys. It's not just the whales that they're striking out on because we know that they haven't had the assets compared to other people. And the Dame thing got screwy in part because of how Miami approached that. Really impactful acquisitions that aren't superstar acquisitions in the last few years from the Toronto Raptors purge of an incredible roster. In retrospect, everyone was saying like that championship team was, you know, 'Oh, it was Kawhi and a bunch of randos and Golden State got hurt.' Go ahead and look at that championship roster.

It was one of the most loaded championship teams ever.

Well, it's not that, but Siakam and Anunoby are a lot better than we thought they were.

Right, and Siakam last season proved it. He was a hugely valuable piece that got Indiana over the hump and into the Finals. And now O.G. Anunoby was a brilliant two-way player and a huge piece in a championship-winning team.

The Heat went and got a guy from that Toronto roster. He just happened to be my least favorite Miami Heat player of all time, Kyle Lowry.

And Miami did They kicked the tires on those players. It was reported out there that Miami was kind of interested, but then they ultimately decided to keep their powder dry for a superstar. I think you could accurately say that's a bit of a misread, especially for a franchise that is so great at developing talent. Or what are you worried about in acquiring an OG Anunoby? You're giving up a lot of pieces. What about developing OG Anunoby when he is on your roster? Because I guarantee you right now, OG Anunoby has more value today than he did when the Knicks acquired him.

Yeah, I mean, like you say that they've struck out on getting some of these guys. It's— there's a difference between them striking out and them choosing to go a different direction.

Prioritize a star.

Right, right.

Yeah, I'm saying that you could argue that's a misread. I don't want to stay there too much because I think that there's an interesting Giannis conversation.

Yeah.

You guys sounded like loons yesterday.

Okay, so I want to get into this and I want to see if we can get out to Amin and I want to continue to stare in the eyes of my beloved new coach. But before we get too far down the path on this, I don't believe if they had gotten—

if you had told me, even with the information we have now, hey, they got Anunoby and Siakam the last few years, but sorry, you can't get Giannis in 2026, I would have said, okay.

I would have taken that deal. I don't—

and I understand what you're saying. I also understand, as we've been talking about Jalen Brunson, when we say, hey, would we ever have found out how good he was if he had just stayed next year? Oh, look, we have found out how Kawhi actually had a couple of players who were good.

Right, but therein lies the fallacy. My point is, my contention is, you mentioned Siakam and OG, that's not an either-or. They viewed it as an either-or. Hey, let's prioritize the superstar. The Miami Heat could be in on Giannis and they could use a piece like Siakam or OG Anunoby in that package. These are valuable assets.

Fair enough.

And they just decided to go in a different route. So it's one thing that I'm kind of seizing on that, you know, that it was under the radar. We always discuss them whiffing at the, at the big names, right? But the internal misread on, no, no, OG is not worth it, let's hold firm, when OG could have been a piece that helped you get those stars down the line.

The thing is, the idea for them to develop guys they already had instead of giving away pieces for a guy that maybe would have been good, right? So they've developed so many guys.

I get the debate, I get the debate. I'm, I'm very clearly playing the result here, but I'm saying—

You're also playing the process though.

You are.

Look, it's easy to play the result right now. Everyone agrees with the result. Pat Riley agrees the result. You're also here criticizing the process because you're saying correctly, just collect assets. It doesn't have to be either or.

Dan and Jeremy, since the Finals loss to Denver, they have constantly misread their own talent level, the lay of the land inside their conference.

Since Dion Waiters and Hassan Whiteside were signed to extensions, they've been having more misreads than we're used to.

The thing that they did was believe in Tyler Herro. That was part of this, was they believed he was a better complementary piece to what was then Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo than OG Anunoby or Pascal Siakam would have been. Plus, he was younger. And so their belief was, if you were going to be in this position now, who would have not only been a more valuable asset but maybe turned himself into that third piece to a team that could have continued to compete for championships? And that was their read. He did become an All-Star last year. Yeah, well, this is— And now here's where we sit.

So this is where these things get interesting on both process and result.

Everybody's mad about the result. No one is satisfied with the result. Now, they did develop Tyler Herro into a one-time All-Star. That is correct. They did acquire Norman Powell, who became an All-Star.

But the team's not good enough. And any conversation after that starts there. There is no question they've fallen behind 9 teams in the conference, younger, better. And it doesn't even matter if it's process or result. It's what's happened. Like, so that's where we are. And we can make all sorts of assessments about that that would be accurate and fair as criticisms. But there is new information coming out all around this. And the Jaylen Brown conversation continues to be interesting to me. So before I get to that, though, can we go out to, because I need to know to set up the show today if, if Amin's going to get into this parade, because I thought Amin was going to be joining us from the parade, and I thought Jessica was going to join us from the parade, and I thought Unhappy Sam Morrill, who didn't seem like much of a parade guy, would join us from the parade, and Mero would join us from the parade. But now we got the spotty Wi-Fi—

spotty Wi-Fi issue, I would assume, right?

Like, we've had internet problems all week.

Yeah.

And now we're going to a really congested area. Do we have any confidence that if we go out to Amin, he's either zazz going to get into the parade or have good Wi-Fi?

Well, do we have any— like, the parade starts at 10, so is Amin, like, on his way there now?

He's standing here.

Okay, so he's there already.

Okay, so he's—

All right, so I don't know how it happened. We got through. I'll be honest with you, Sean's got a backpack that would get flagged anywhere, any security situation around the world. It looked like wires and timers and stuff. I was like, "Oh my God, I don't know him." She's just like, "Hey, just have him hold your backpack as you walk through." I was like, "Really?" And we're in. And so if you look right there, Champions Way, Broadway, this is the Canyon of Heroes. This is the whole parade route. We've got— We got about 3 hours before it starts, but you can see the crowd is already crazy. As I said earlier, there's a massive crowd waiting on the other side of that barricade. And when they get over here, I don't know how good of a shot we're gonna get. You can hear people cheering and loud clapping and everything.

Okay. Oh, he's in. Okay, he's in. It's pixelated, and that's gonna only get worse.

That was not terrible. Well, it was—

It was okay as sound. I'm worried about this because it's probably not going to be good video if we keep getting pixelations. It's not yet crowded. Like, it's crowded.

Maybe they're going to pump more Wi-Fi in as more people come. Yeah, for sure. Is that a real thing?

The plan now is just we're going to have him PNP when we have signal. He'll flag us down if we— we're going to try to go to him. We're going to see how it goes with internet.

Yeah, I heard you say as we marched in, like, man, ESPN's coverage looks good. They don't have any internet issues. And I'm like, Chris, they have a production truck that's on site with a satellite. We got Sean McGill in the backpack.

He's got Ron McGill's kid, yeah, with a giant backpack.

We just slungshot Sean McGill up to New York.

Tony's looking, he doesn't like slingshot being made as—

Slungshot, I would've gotten jumped all over for that.

Would it be slingshot?

Slingshotted.

Slingshotted?

Yeah, it's a difficult past tense, but you could've gone the period.

I think it's slingshot. Slangchat.

I've never heard it as Slangchat.

I don't think it's Slangchat.

It might be Slangchat. Yeah.

Sehr gut, sehr gut, sehr gut.

Sehr gut?

Wieso? Steuer ist sehr gut. Das sagen ganz viele.

Cool, wer sagt das?

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Die absolute Macht ist dir zum Greifen nah.

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Ein perfekter Frühlingstag.

Allergie!

Sonne.

Allergie! Park.

Allergie!

Picknick.

Und so viele Pollen.

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Dan Lebatard!

I'm just here to say one thing: The Knicks are fucking back!

Stugatz!

Kyrie Irving? 6 points?

Fraud!

Everybody was like, yo, he's better than Jalen Brunson, he's better than— the Knicks should have drafted him!

Fraud!

This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz!

Stop staring at Coach.

Oh, Ervono?

Let's put up on the screen, just so, and I'm sorry, audio audience. No, Lewis, please. The photo I sent you by text, 'cause you keep choosing ugly ones, is the one I want. I want to put in front of the group. Right, thank you. That's the one that's in my wallet.

Yeah, that looks like the Antichrist, straight up. And I'd follow.

Wow. Like, you're gonna— Zaslo, that is the mo— that is the most beautiful man there has been. I would follow him anywhere. A born leader. Look at that chin. An obvious ectomorph.

I mean, you act like you've never seen a good-looking guy before. He is right. We are a little breathy here. There's a lot to discuss. Messi hat-tricks, Ronaldo having the A tailor-made sports discussion for you and the Giannis thing because you guys again sounded loony.

Okay. Salt and pepper in the corners.

I mean, just beautiful. As, as we talk about Jaylen Brown, I want to give you the latest stuff. Okay. So Windhorst says on Get Up this morning, his information has been good. The word out of Boston is that Jaylen Brown has not been offered for anybody. That's the story the Celtics have and they're sticking to it. Have the Celtics and Bucks talked? I believe that they have. From what I am told, the Bucks are yet to receive an offer they're willing to accept.

Except for Giannis, which is somewhat what happened at the trade deadline. I'm told they intend to trade him by the draft. I think it's possible they don't find a deal they like. Miami has been, uh, the team that's been most aggressive in trying to get him, but they have 7 or 8 different pieces they can trade, and none of them I consider super premium. I think the Bucks probably want all of them. And then Sam Amick says, but he believes the Heat are still in the lead for Giannis, but he doesn't think a deal is going to be done in time for the draft. He says, I'm legitimately starting to wonder if a deal goes down today. I've already made some calls this morning. It's It's the same old story. I don't think the Bucks are happy with what is coming their way. And then Jake Fisher says about the Celtics getting frustrated with everything that's happening with Giannis, we must acknowledge the undeniable rumbles in circulation that the Celtics, weary of incessant speculation about a Giannis to Boston deal featuring Jaylen Brown, are getting frustrated with the process. One source familiar with the matter insisted that all the Jaylen Brown to third team talk is premature.

That's what credible people are reporting. Mike thinks Jaylen Brown is up for sale.

Yeah, I think he's on the table. And if he is indeed on the table, then I think Heat fans the world over need to concede that you don't have the nuts there. Boston has the nuts. Now, I will piece together something that I was hearing last week, which is the Miami Heat were talking to other teams about Tyler Herro. And I think the reason for that is I think Miami was told that Tyler Herro wasn't good enough. And so they started reaching out to teams to try to present something to Milwaukee that was more attractive than the hometown product. Tyler Herro. I have heard from well-placed people. This is secondhand information. I have not independently verified, but I trust these people that are plugged in.

Just tell us who it was.

That Jaylen Brown is absolutely on the table. And trust me, I know Brian said the opposite, but the very first thing Milwaukee says when Boston calls them is, how do we get Jaylen Brown in this package? It would be a third team, though. It would absolutely be a third team. There is no scenario here in which Jaylen Brown ends up going to Milwaukee given where they are. Both geographically and right now the lay of the land in the East. They're a team that's looking to rebuild. And Jaylen Brown, who's already told you he liked how last year felt, he wants to be the focal point of a team that is competing.

Zadzlo, given everything that we talked about yesterday about who you believe and don't believe, and given how much I just generally talk about journalism, information, and facts, okay, I just read to you 3 people who are credible basketball people giving information that is different than what Mike thinks is happening. It's the opposite of what Mike thinks is happening.

Mike's information all over the place on a number of different subjects has had a lot of happen to know in it, but on the verifying of sources, I'm gonna give you one example of like the stuff that journalists can have in the bag and not use because they haven't been able to get it verified solidly enough that they won't embarrass themselves. Okay. Themselves. So I have heard, and have no idea whether it's true because I don't have sources in Buffalo, so I would ask the people who, who are covering the Chargers right now and the Bills to ask this question because I don't have the sources to report as fact what is simply a rumor, and you don't want to get this stuff wrong inaccurately, that McDaniel, when he left here, wanted to go help McDermott McDermott help Josh Allen and be the offensive coordinator. But when they let go of McDermott, McDaniel was offered the Bills job and did not want the Bills job anymore because of what they'd done to his friend. It's a great story if it's true. I don't know if it's true, and I haven't been able to get a second source.

So everything I just said, I can't confirm and is merely rumor. Like, it's not— I have not been able to get the sourcing I need to report a story that I think would be pretty big in Buffalo if all of that that happened. So I'm telling you all of that as preface to say, please, Buffalo and Chargers reporters, go ask the questions to find out if that's true, because I don't know if it's true. But Mike's saying the opposite of what 3 credible people are saying, and what Mike's saying is true. If Jaylen Brown's available, they've got the better offer no matter what happens after that.

Yeah, but you need a third team to facilitate the trade, and that's the issue.

They would have it. They, they would have it.

And how would that be? Everybody— there's plenty of teams that would take Jaylen Brown.

There is, and you have to deny, given the, the star power of Jaylen Brown and the uncertainty they're like, the smart play here for all the people involved if they want this deal to go through is don't talk to anybody. Deny, deny, deny. I will provide a little bit more context to give this a little bit more juice. Remember when I was saying the Marcus Freeman stuff and that he was talking to the New York Giants? Very reputable people were swearing up and down that that meeting did not happen. Turns out I was right about that. I was hearing right. This came from the same person that was pretty plugged in there while everybody was saying that was inaccurate. Yeah. It. This person ended up being right. So I think that you guys have to open the door up to the possibility that Jaylen Brown is on the table. I guarantee you they have at least had conversations about Jaylen Brown, and Jaylen Brown and his team had been made aware of the teams that they are discussing. Other teams are in this mix as well. I don't know how long this can go. I imagine it'll develop quickly.

You mentioned Jake Fisher. Jake Fisher also reported recently recently that the Pistons have interest in Tyler Herro. Why? Why would Tyler Herro be on the table for Detroit? I think that gives credence to Miami being told something about their offer didn't quite sit right, news changed, and they started having conversations. I don't know who engaged who, but people are kicking the tires on Tyler Herro, and they were talking to other teams about maybe getting more for Tyler Herro to sweeten their offer.

In regards to the Heat, uh, offer and the Heat fans and stuff. You can't play— if you got the nuts, you can't play your hand underneath the table and be like, no, no, Jaylen Brown's not available except for a couple of teams that I'm trying to play under the table. When he gets put on the table is when everybody should stop.

No, the nuts are always under the table. They're always under the table. They're never on the table. Always under the table.

There is no foreseeable path for Miami to outbid whatever Boston machinations of that deal looks like with Jaylen Brown.

Not with their own pieces. Maybe if someone wants Khalil White, like maybe if someone else has something Boston or something else that Milwaukee wants, —but let me—

A little where?

Like, no one's as good as Jaylen Brown. I agree. Like, no one in this package. In fact, I think Boston is perhaps a little crazy here because if they're considering trading a superstar for Giannis, number one, I think I'd rather have Jaylen Brown than Giannis, but number two, like, I think you're picking the wrong guy. If you're willing to ship out Jaylen Brown because he's unhappy, I get that, but your other star—

Slow down, slow down.

Your other star is coming off an Achilles injury.

Slow down.

Jaylen Brown was the Finals MVP.

You didn't just do that.

—Did you do that?

I don't know why there isn't a Tatum conversation. You traded Tatum.

You didn't slow down. I asked you to slow down.

You didn't slow down. You didn't slow down. I sped up.

You sped up. I should have slowed down.

I sped right up. I think this whole thing is they get tickets. And it's clear that Jaylen Brown is unhappy because he's been acting like a diva wide receiver a little bit on social media. And look, you have the disgruntled superstar in the history of the NBA. That usually means it's the end of the road. So I get it. The fact that he's disgruntled muddled is a bit of a tiebreaker if you have it as a tie between Tatum and Brown. But maybe you're backing the wrong horse there.

Says he didn't slow down, he sped up.

Guys, can you help me rein him in? He's been off for 3 days.

And like, come on guys, help me.

Like, you got—

It was his local hour, Dan.

Guys, both of you, please.

It was her vernacular.

The World Cup is happening right now. I'm distracted by the beautiful coach.