Transcript of Greg Cote Thrusts In Dan Le Batard's Face | Hour 3 New

This is the Dan Levator Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Greg Cody just said— Homer Cody made an appearance in May— just muttered before the microphones went on, Dolphins are gonna be better than people think.

Yes, part of that is that the bar is so low. The over-under is 4.5 wins. I think they're going to beat that. They are— the early betting odds I've seen have them favored in 1 game out of 17. In Week 12 against the Jets at home, they're going to be— right now they're a 1.5, barely a favorite at home against the Jets. The bar is too low for the Dolphins. Malik Willis is good. They have 5 or 6 really good defenders.

Yeah, what's the line Week 1?

Talk to me.

Big game.

The Raiders.

I think Raiders are—

Tone setter.

I think Raiders are favored by 3. The home field advantage. Classic.

Why did you say 4.5 like that?

Well, because that, you know, the over-under on wins is always usually—

No, you said it like you had never said that out loud before. It's like 4.5 wins is the— it's not 4 point— no, and then you just said 1.5, like literally just 3 seconds later.

There's an inconsistency here.

Synonyms for each other. 4.5, 4.5, they're saying the same thing.

You're brain beating him.

Exactly. Thank you. Sorry, I was distracted.

I couldn't do the voice myself because I just saw this video of Malik Willis hitting Chris Bell deep, and I'm making sure it's not AI because that cannot be the same Chris Bell. It just can't. He tore his ACL in like November. There's no way.

He's great. You and I talked about this when he played against the University of Miami. The University of Miami could not cover him. Like, he's not— he's great if he's healthy. Like, he wasn't healthy the last part of the season. I didn't think he'd be healthy by now. Are you sure it's real?

I, I'm trying to make sure.

Maybe this person's— maybe there's another Chris Bell. I don't understand that. I mean, certainly the dude catching the deep ball looks a lot like Chris Bell because that's something he would do.

It's not Kristen Bell, is it?

It's Chris Bell. He's gonna be their number one receiver if he's healthy. It's a steal. I mean, if he's already at OTAs from an ACL, this cannot be real. He's like top 5 college football player I saw last season. Ponds, Mendoza, Indiana had some great players.

I thought he was a first-round pick before he got hurt.

He destroyed Miami. I mean, I mean, couldn't do anything against this guy, Dan.

I'm, I'm looking at this highlight that he's talking about. I mean, he burns whoever's guarding him and catches a deep ball for a touchdown.

Now, who tore his ACL in November?

The Dolphins do have a historically bad cornerback room.

Well, that's what it should say on the back of the jersey. Whoever's guarding him, instead of names, it should just be whoever's guarding him.

I, I think the The important thing here is we knew what Malik Willis was entering Miami. We knew he was mobile and we knew if he could do one thing with his arm, it's throw a deep ball. And we were all wondering who could be that deep ball threat now that Waddle is gone. Tutu Atwell, I guess he's caught some deep balls, but can you really count on Tutu Atwell to be a consistent threat? Now, another Louisville receiver, if he's right, Chris Bell could be good. But the reason why he was available when he was, was because he tore his ACL in November. If he's already at OTAs catching deep balls from Malik Willis, now you should be encouraged if you're a Miami Dolphin fan because you have some personnel around the quarterback that can flash his best traits.

4.5 wins.

Give me again, please, the stat of the day music so I can again give a New York Knicks stat.

Start of the day. Start of the day. It is the start of the day. Star of the day, star of the day, it is the star of the day. Star of the day, star of the day, it is the star of the day. Star of the day, star of the day, it is the star of the day.

This is from Tommy Beer. The Knicks are the 8th team in NBA history to outscore their opponents by more than 175 points through the first 14 games of a postseason. Each of the previous 7 teams went on to win the championship. They have real belief in New York. Uh, you have heard from Zazz that Adam Silver is a nothing. You have heard from our show that Adam Silver looks like the guy in the American Gothic, uh, painting. And now you can look at the screen during an NBA telecast of Adam Silver with his wife, and the only thing missing there is the pitchfork because it really does look like like the American Gothic, uh, painting that is famous.

Wait a second, this looks like Tua, and that looks like Tyreek Hill. God damn it, Dolphin Twitter, you got fooled again, Mike. They're so small on this video.

What's a lefty?

Is there a shark on the practice field swimming in shallow water?

I'll pay the fine.

Uh, I want to get to this story.

Is a lefty— Greg Cody would never get fooled by that. So disappointing.

Never get fooled by that. How gullible do you have to be? Sorry, Mike.

I want to get to this story involving the Milwaukee Brewers. You guys and we celebrated the World Baseball Classic for being a great deal more fun than regular baseball. We were making fun of the fact that the guys who were playing in the exceptionally Latin World Baseball Classic went with such flair during that playing that when they got sent to spring training, we were making the joke that they had been incarcerated. Sent back to prison after freedom, where they have to go back to the American repressions emotionally around baseball. So if you did not see this story involving the Milwaukee Brewers, their manager Pat Murphy is mad at the unusually named Hispanic reliever, Abner Uribe. And I honestly didn't know we were making Abners in my culture. Put it on the poll at Le Batard Show. Are there any Hispanic Abners? Because here he is. There is one. And his manager is mad at him because Did you guys see what it is that he did during this game against the Cardinals? The Brewers are very good. They're very athletic. They beat the Cardinals up 6 to nothing.

Abner Doubleday.

And he's not Hispanic.

Gotta wanna learn, gotta wanna earn.

That kinda thing.

Abner Uribe. You think it's Abner Dubledía.

Something Greg would do. Come on, give me a break.

Abner Uribe. I read about this, right? And I thought to myself, okay, Yeah, baseball manager getting mad at young guys showing emotion. And then I read the, the sentence. This is just a great paragraph. You ready? Uribe got Alec Burleson on a called third strike with two outs and runners on first and second in the eighth, the only inning he pitched. Uribe then made three WWE-style crotch chops while facing the Cardinals dugout. Three of them. Not one, not two, but 3, and his pitching motion made it so that when he did his follow-through, his back was to the Cardinals dugout, so he had to turn around and do the crotch chops. And here's what Murphy said after the game. I don't know what got over him. I mean, he's been an emotional guy, but that kind of thing, that's just not how we do things. I was embarrassed by it. Why are we doing it? It's a 6-nothing game. What are we doing there? I love the kid. Believe me, I love the kid. There's so much good in the kid. He's been so great for us in so many ways, but that's unacceptable. So whatever's going on, you can't tolerate that for his teammates and for everything.

It's not going to be tolerated. That's all there is to it. What are your thoughts there? Because I always want more of this. I always want more fun and games. If it's a— quit, quit treating it like it has to be something that's not entertainment and soaked in some sort of religious sacrament.

I am honored that a baseball manager in the major leagues would adopt one of my catchphrases and work that kind of thing into his diatribe.

He looked like Kenny Powers. This looked like something out of a spoof of sports from the Mexican League.

Yeah, it's bad.

I'm into the celebrating also, but like, you can't be okay with what he I did know.

It's vulgar.

It's ridiculous.

No, I am okay with it. I like entertainment with my entertainment.

He's telling the opposing team while doing the motions, he's telling them to suck it.

That's right.

He didn't actually do that. Didn't actually say the suck it.

No, that's what that means.

That's not what he said.

It has to go with it. That the DX, there was—

You love wrestling.

I do love wrestling. And I also understand in sports, if another opponent tells you to suck it, it's going to be a brawl.

Embiid did it all the time. I didn't hear you going on and on about it.

No, no.

But you know what? When Embiid was doing it, He's doing it like at the crowd, you know, he's like he wasn't doing it in an opponent's face. You can't do that.

That's very crass.

You can do it. He did do it.

Clutch my pearls. Don't ask me where they're hiding.

The WWE movement. I understand that it's not professional sports per se. You being against this, you're saying you cannot do it. He's not going to be fined for it, right? Like it's not. Is it against the rules?

He has to be.

It should be.

Yeah, he should be fined.

Vulgar thing.

That is not good sportsmanship. That is, that is crazy.

I understand that it's not good.

Are you mocking me?

I'm not.

No, no, dude, I'm right there with you. He's directly doing suck it to somebody else in the field of play. That's wild.

I'm not arguing that it's sportsmanship. I'm arguing that people need to be so— stop being so precious about their sportsmanship when it comes to fun and games. Raise your own kids. Don't ask Abner Uribe to do it for you.

Dan, I'm no prude. That's bad.

There is bad.

There is sportsmanship we teach in sports, and it's fine if that's the gambit. If the sport is trying to shock you, if this is the XFL in the '90s, I get it. Fine. It's ingrained in the fabric of what you're trying to do. That's not in the fabric of baseball. That's not what you teach your kids. I can't believe I sound like this.

Maybe that's the problem with baseball, is that it's puritanical and has too many unwritten rules and written rules.

There isn't one of the 4 majors.

You can't do that in any sport.

Where that's allowed.

Yeah.

Because if you start doing that, you're gonna get your ass kicked, and you cannot punish a dude for kicking someone else's ass when the other dude is telling him in the field of play to suck his dick.

Kickin' my ass, do you mind? He didn't say that.

Yes he did! What do you think DX was doing?

He didn't say it. It's not said. He did not say it.

A gesture counts.

Everyone knows, every child of the Attitude Era knows that the double X crotch chop is always when Shawn Michaels did the crotch chop. Suck it.

That's very obvious what he was telling you to do, Dan.

Every business right now is trying to figure out the same exact thing. How do you use AI without turning your company into a science experiment? Because everybody's talking about it, everybody's promising it. And meanwhile, half the people in meetings are just nodding and hoping nobody asks them A follow-up question. That's why companies are using NetSuite by Oracle. NetSuite is the number one AI cloud ERP trusted by over 43,000 businesses. It brings you financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM all into one system so your business talks to itself for once. And that connected data matters because AI is only useful if it knows what's happening. NetSuite helps automate routine tasks, gives you real insights, helps cut costs, and lets businesses make faster decisions with confidence instead of just vibes and panic From software and IT services to healthcare, equipment, manufacturing, financial services, and many other great American industries, NetSuite delivers a customized solution for your business. If your revenues are at least in the 7 figures, get a free business guide, Demystifying AI, at netsuite.com/dlb. The guide is free at netsuite.com/dlb. That's netsuite.com/dlb. The NBA playoffs are here, and DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, brings excitement to every game all postseason long.

When the lights are brightest, the best players in the world show you exactly who they are. Playoff stars turn it up round by round, and DraftKings turns it up with them from the first round through the finals. Bet player props, bet live, and stay in the action the entire time. New DraftKings customers bet just $5 and you'll get $100 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code DAN so you're ready for the moment. That's code DAN. Turn $5 into $100 in bonus bets instantly in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is Yours.

Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire 7 days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Limited time offer.

Dan Lebatard.

Is there Back in My Day?

There is, actually.

What?

Were you not going to tell anyone? Wait a minute, you guys, guys, it's a Tuesday. Stugatz. Here's your guy, Greg Cody, with Back in My Day.

Okay, here it is. Sorry.

Adultery.

That is— Oh yeah!

Wait a minute.

We've been waiting for this one. This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

Well, let's look at this for a second. Embiid was fined for doing it. I do want to get into the conversation of who gets to decide what sportsmanship is, because I'm not saying it is good sportsmanship. It's not good sportsmanship. Who did invent it though? Pete Webber, the bowler. Can you just play for me? A clip of Pete Webber, the bowler who used to do it. I think— I don't know if this is the right one or not.

A clip. Play the clip.

Okay, so that is—

Yeah, that's a crotch chop. That's a crotch chop. That's your conventional crotch chop, not with the X.

Not cross the arms.

It's the same thing. Same thing.

Doesn't make it right.

And he also did the RVD thing.

What do you think you are?

I am. Yeah, this is all, you know, birthed by the Attitude Era, both WWE and ECW. He's combining the things. Dan, you were asking who invented it. That was The Kliq, one fateful night in Madison Square Garden.

Yup.

Where they decided to break kayfabe. And after a match in Madison Square Garden, in a cage match, X-Pac, Diesel, Razor Ramon, and the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels all formed their Wolfpack sign and subsequently crushed it.

That's like this, you do this, Dan. You put the thumb against the middle and the ring finger.

Ow!

And you have the pinky and the first finger up. That right there, that's, that's too sweet.

Yeah, but you expect that out of WWE. You don't expect that out of Major League Baseball.

Well, you say national pastime.

Okay, I got my 8-year-old granddaughter at the game and she says, what's he doing? What am I supposed to say?

She loves wrestling. You just say it's a wrestling game.

Where is the line on you guys enjoyed the World Baseball Classic, you enjoyed the personality, you enjoyed the flair, you thought it was a lot more fun than the national pastime? Where is the line?

The line is telling someone else to suck it.

They didn't say Kabner did not say that.

All right, look, look behind my finger. I'm giving you the middle finger right now.

Yes.

What is that supposed to say to you?

You're not saying—

what is this saying to you?

Yes, that's right.

That is a—

you look at it.

Yeah.

Now, now we'll add a little slap into the elbow, right?

Yep.

And I'll do this, right?

That's exactly what he did.

All right.

Yes, there's a lot going on there.

That's me telling you F you 3 different ways, right? And if someone You know, when you're driving around in your convertible, someone on the sidewalk doing this to you, you might get out of your car.

Right.

I think we're on to something here. I think taunting should be mandatory moving forward and deal with it. Deal with your emotions. Yes. When the pitcher strikes you out, he's going to give you a little suck it and you have to watch it.

Well, let me, let me just go back a second because I remember Trista said that I was being precious about the way that Kevin Durant and Tyler Herro were actually saying these things to each other, and you guys were like, what, it's just trash talk, what's the bit, what's the big deal, it's just trash talk. Now this is the line. I just want to be clear, when I put it in the center of baseball, that's where the line is, even though in the mid— hey, we just talked about Draymond Green is threatening to kill people's dirty-ass kids.

And like, maybe some microphone might have picked it up somewhere on the internet, but when Tyler Herro and Kevin Durant are going at one another, they're covering their mouth or they're putting their hands on their knees and they're saying that off, like, okay, that's all right. But you're not just doing that to the other person, which might be cause for fighting. You're showing up the other person inside of a stadium in front of his teammates. That's a disgrace.

This is asinine. Like, truly, the line, uh, moving and the goalpost changing, I don't like it. I think there's something about baseball that makes people turn into the men that yell at Klout.

Can I just do a quick— Dan mentioned the Draymond Green issue. We do have a correction from that story. I need to insert here. It's not the lady's kids that were the dirty-ass kids. It's her and her sister as kids. Does that change anything when he mentions dirty-ass kids? It's not her kids.

Draymond doesn't know that.

How the hell would he know that?

Very important distinction.

It's an important distinction because the dirty-ass kids were referencing—

Your father's laughing at you and he couldn't get a thought out without coughing earlier and he's had an epically bad day and he's very annoyed. How does it change things? He's looking to go, how does it change things?

Nothing.

Draymond didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know that those weren't his dirty-ass kids.

That's true.

He didn't know.

Okay.

But now that we know, in this case though, Abner's gesture on the mound does not fly in any sport other than WWE and bowling. It does not fly in football. It does not fly in the NBA. Or in hockey or anywhere else. He should be fined and suspended.

We just saw it.

He should be fined and suspended, if not by his team, then by MLB.

If one of the Cyclones did that, I'd suspend them.

You guys have—

Correct. That's well said.

Some, some of you, some of you—

Hear that, Iñaki?

—have had kids fairly recently. Can you imagine?

That is Iñaki, who wears number 69.

And yes, he means it that way. Can you imagine a beautiful baby coming into the world and you decide, you know what, rest of his life you're going to go through it with the name Abner? That's what we're going to do around here. I'm going to be a loving parent to my child and I'm going to make him go through the rest of his life with Abner as the name. I suppose Adolf is worse, but Abner's pretty bad. Abner. Abner's like at the top of my list. Could be Thomas. You can't, man. You can't. Just a tragic mistake by Juju. Just an unbelievably funny, innocent mistake that's also terrible and he should be fined and suspended.

Quick parenthetical: the NBA has banned the number 69. You cannot wear that number in the NBA.

Is that right? Yes. There's certain— yeah, certain numbers you can't wear.

I've seen players in whether that's the NBA or the WNBA, that do the— what do I— if you can't do this, you can't do the—

you're gonna have those players for the audio audience.

You're gonna have to elaborate, uh, for the audio audience what it is that you're doing there.

I saw you and I still don't know.

You put your V's up.

Okay, there was a tongue in there. I got it. You can't order—

you can't like go to NBA store and order the custom. Like, you could pick whatever number, you could put a name there are certain names and numbers that they won't let you customize and you cannot use number 69.

What other numbers besides 69? I don't know.

I'm on it. The last player who requested number 69 and was denied? Rodman. Dennis Rodman.

And that's going back, what, 25 years? Someone's had to have asked since then.

That's not what I read.

Okay. Greg, I want to ask this question honestly, okay? Because I— Can I ask, Greg? I think there's a generational gulf here. We'll see. Good for the Vegas Knights.

Good for the Vegas Knights making 3 finals in 9 years. What's wrong with complimenting that?

Very good.

Damn right. I want to actually ask you guys to make the line for me on this. Okay. We all enjoyed the World Baseball Classic. Don't be sarcastic here. Just follow me down the line of— I understand why many people would say And I understand the majority of people would say, yes, that's over the line. I don't want my kids seeing a reliever turn around from where it is he was facing and go straight to the dugout with 3 crotch chops. But when you say sportsmanship, who gets to decide what that is? Because at the World Baseball Classic, I saw a whole bunch of Latin players playing a Latin style that wasn't sportsmanship. When you take it over to spring training and the way that Americans play baseball, which is different, So where is the line on a tipping point of what is the disrespect that you are willing to tolerate under the name of this is all supposed to be entertainment, this is all supposed to be fun and games, and trash talk you're good with when you're calling a player a bitch and everything else in trash talk in basketball or in football. You guys are totally good with that.

And I'm sitting there saying that's pretty disrespectful. If that happened in the street, a lot of people would fight. But it's okay in NBA for players to talk to each other this way.

I think the problem is showing someone up with vulgarity. I think I'm fine with the World Baseball Classic. Again, kind of like the XFL in the '90s, ingrained in the fiber of that competition is you can go a little extra and bat flips and looking at your own dugout and showing the pitcher up a little bit, that's fine. But a crotch chop and a middle finger, like, that's a little too far. Like, Frank, stand up. Stand up and do a crotch chop directly in Dan's face. Yeah, yeah, and really mean it. Like, I want you—

Dan, look at it. You got it.

Look at it. I want you to look at it, Dan.

How much fun are you having right now? Look at you. I need another angle of that.

Does that not make you feel some type of way?

I was around. So was I.

Well, that's a type of way.

Yes. Isn't vulgar. Like, that's what it was between Tyler Herro and Kevin Durant. Ass bitch is less vulgar than the crotch chop?

I mean, but the kids can't hear it, right?

They're saying it to each other.

They don't know what's happening.

They're saying it to each other. In this case, I am shocked that you don't think that's vulgar and should be penalized. And you ask who draws that line? Wait a minute. The team manager does? The commissioner of the league does?

Old people. Yes, I know. Okay, fine. Old people in power make it. Yes, I know. They're the ones who make the rules. Yes, I'm well aware of that.

And there should be no rules. It is vulgar.

I'm not saying it's not vulgar. But it's okay with you? I obviously have a more lenient line than most people on this. I want my entertainment. So if you want to find that disrespectful, find it disrespectful and retaliate. I want that. I want fun and games, and I want it to all be entertainment and content, and you guys can make the lines for yourself. But when you guys talk about some of this stuff, the bat flip is disrespectful. Like, this is— in that spot, it's not to me. It shouldn't be. No, but you— but wait a minute, where's the line?

You say if he takes a bat and starts cranking it, no, that's too much.

No, but wait a minute, we all have different lines here because Zaslo's sitting here saying it shouldn't be, and for my entire life, the bat bat flip is disrespectful. You don't show up the opponent that way. That's not how I think. I want that line moved. I want it to the extremes.

I want people— I'm with you. I'm moving the line too. And I stopped short at suck my bleep. Yeah, the bat flip is mild disrespect.

So is the slow home run trot. But that's mild disrespect. The— what you're— what we're speaking of is vulgar and obvious that it should not be allowed in sports. And, and Levitard, you're playing both sides here. Oh, sure, you're saying it's vulgar, but you're saying you're okay with it. Pick a side.

No, I— that's not both sides.

Whoa, Greg, you've never been into anything vulgar?

So you're fine with that? You're fine with every player being allowed to do that in any sport?

I'm not a prude about these things. I don't—

you're fine with it? So you're okay with anything and everything?

No, you're okay with that gesture being commonplace in sports?

Can you show us again the gesture? Because I wasn't sure.

I think once is enough. He's winded.

He's winded from doing the gesture.

This is how the Giants celebrate like every game.

Their outfield, they meet at the middle. They're doing it with each other.

That's two pumps. That's why there's the three-pump rule.

You guys, what happens here? Oh, oh, he knocked one down with the pump. Whoa!

Oh wow. See, I wouldn't allow that either.

You understand why they pivoted though. The last time I saw these guys, they were grinding their wieners on one another. Yeah, they did a three-way. And I think rightfully, like, okay, that's a little bit too much. Dry humping, like, all the outfield just dry humping each other's wieners. That's a little too crass.

Where's the leadership on that team? The manager should be going, hey guys, outfielders, never again.

Where's Bruce Bochy's big-ass head? The manager is 33 years old. He's younger than those players.

Here's the line. If my daughter turns to me and says, Papa, what is that? I don't want to be put in that position. Thank you. Papa! Don Lebatard.

Quiet man. Yes. I'm a married man. I don't cheat on my wife, despite that gratuitous line back in my day. You wrote Stugatz. I wish you were here, my wife. I really miss her. No, I don't. That's the thing about being married, you know, you're not allowed to say, I don't miss my wife. I've been gone 2 days. I haven't been gone long enough to miss my wife. I'm sorry. I call her, I'm on the phone with her for 30 seconds. You know, what am I— hello, all right, all right, we'll see ya. All right, and then, you know, I'm gonna see her in 2 days. How's Jumpin' Charlie? Good. This is the Don Levitar Show with the Stugatz.

Pads.

Do you hear yourself?

I think suck my lead is a mighty fine line to have. Uh-huh. Yes, it is.

Not what— what said— not again, Levitar defending that.

You okay with anything that isn't word If it's just motion, like, can he pull his pants down and do helicopter?

That's okay? No, Zazzlo. Okay, so we're finding your line.

No, no, no, we're feeling out the lines.

You know about that helicopter?

What if he bends down and pulls it between the legs and does like a little trombone gesture? Why did you ask Juju?

Why not?

So bad. It's just, it's fueling the Zazz's low-key like into racism.

Like, it just—

what?

That was a compliment. It's a great compliment.

It's not positive racism.

I know my voice is on the line. When I start having that barbecue voice, makes everybody feel a little awk. I've been doing it for 20 years.

It's my thing. I'm just waiting for the Zadzlowe monolog, the inner monolog face to make an appearance.

Do the "I love you long time" thing that we've been working on. That one's always popular.

Zazz, Zazz, I really seem to have checkmated you when you said to me, feeling like you were making a good point, "So you're okay with everything?" And I'm like, "No, no." I don't know where the line is.

You can make fun of an Italian, but you start doing an Asian voice, everyone starts losing their mind. Who making the salad? Okay with the West, but once we start traveling east, And you become Jamie Vardy.

It's as though your last couple of days where you were yesterday, you were like, I don't care about racism. That is not accurate.

That is not—

Maybe that's what he said, but—

Why did you ask Juju about helicoptering?

Juju, you know about that fried chicken? Oh no.

Why not? Oh no. Okay. Oh no. Oh no. That was not me. No, I'm sorry. You know what, Trista? I hate to do this to you. I don't even think we don't have an intentional racism, so.

Minor penalty, 2 minutes, accidental racism.

First the doctor, now my sister.

That's where the line is, right there, Trista. That's where my line is. That's where it is. It's unbelievable, Trista, a little too relaxed there. They have good chemistry, alley-oop, uh, after NBA playoff games, uh, Juju and Trista are doing an exceptional job of covering the NBA playoffs, uh, Your thoughts on what's going to happen here, because everyone seems to feel like the West is where the championship is being decided. And San Antonio obviously is in a very shaky spot last night. And I don't think Wembenyama is going to get any criticism for a game where they needed him to be great and he put up a playoff stinker that we have not seen from him like that. Was that— that I haven't seen that game from him very much in the regular season. I haven't in a huge spot, he shrunk.

I think it depends what happens tomorrow, you know, like if he's also— if he has the same performance tomorrow as he had last night, be a long offseason for him. If he's really great tomorrow night, then it's all right, you know, this is a, a 22-year-old, first time ever in the playoffs, who had a bad game on the road. Like, I think tomorrow depends.

I don't have the stats in front of me, but I'm— so I'm guessing here, I'm guessing Wembanyama has a pretty good track record of bouncing bounce back big from off games. I'm just—

he doesn't have very many off games. He's bigger than everybody else and he's better than most of the people he's playing against. Like, there, there aren't a lot of games you could point to where he's been that bad, right?

But I'm guessing, and I'm— I'd put money on it, that Wembenyama has a big bounce back game.

The last two games have had something that is wildly disorienting. Shea Gildress-Alexander and Wembenyama being that had in 2 games is being done to them, right? You have— people underestimate this. When you have one opponent for 7 games and all you're doing is drilling down on the preparation for that one opponent, and Game 2 had the escalation of just Hardenstein's going to start pulling hair and just playing rugby, it's not even going to be basketball anymore. That escalates over 7 games. They know what they're playing for, those two teams. You're going to have to take that away from OKC and they're going to go down with Lute Dort, back muscles on top of back muscles, being ultra physical with the thin guy, with the, with the guy. I mean, didn't Stephen A. Smith make the argument earlier in this series that OKC should be happy to have Wembenyama out there because he's so skinny and they can move him around?

I think that was last series against Minnesota, right? That was, Minnesota should be glad that he's playing. He's so easy to push around.

How'd that work out? I think the series is evidence that we're talking about two pretty great teams here. You know, Wemby and SGA get a disproportionate amount of credit and attention for obvious reasons, but these are good teams. Good enough to occasionally negate those two superstars.

He had 15 shots last night. Night. That's not how that works. That's not going to work. That's not the way it can be when you're bigger than everybody.

It is important to point out he was 12 for 12 from the line, so those are obviously not field goal attempts.

While Shea Gildress-Alexander was what from the line?

Something similar. Shot 17.

17 of 18. Wow. Yeah. So it's not— I mean, it's not similar. One guy is small and got 6 more free throws. One guy is bigger than everyone else on the court, and you're being asked in a hugely physical series to be more physical.

He was not good. He was not good. There's no way around it. He was not good. And I do wonder, I, I do wonder, and we'll be able to tell tomorrow night if we're at a point where it's his first time in the postseason, he's never played this many games, playing a super physical Thunder team. Are we tired? Because that was a conversation we're having going into Game 4 after Wembenyama had a serious drop-off from Game 1 and Games 2 and Game 3, and then Game 4 out of this world against, like, OKC. Well, so far in 5 games, he's only been really good in 2 of them. Is there some fatigue that is finally setting in? It's possible.

And in fairness, this is the first time in his career that he's gone against these type of grown man defenders back to back to back every night. So they have the chance to prepare for his skinny self.

I've gotten a lot wrong, but you just articulated what I told you about the double overtime game in Game 1. OKC runs 10 deep. Like, and those were career-high minutes for everyone who played on the Spurs, right? And they're playing every other night. Like, they're, they're playing a lot of basketball at the end of a long season. And, uh, you saw what happened to Concanipple at the end of the season. He was great all season, and then all of a sudden things get escalated to another place. And the ask being made of Wemby is a giant ask. It's what you ask of giants. It's what you ask of eternal giants. If you want to be a champion, you have to go through the team that has the championship and is known as a dirty team and is known as a style of play that will drag you into the quicksand. They've won the championship. We'll talk about Shaq, Gilgeous-Alexander. We'll talk about their offense because we love offense. They win because of what they do defensively that triggers their offense. They are a turnover machine. Team. Like, it's how they win. I, I don't think this is being deconstructed enough because we fall in love with offense and we love MVP.

They win because they turn you over. They win because they're really physical, borderline dirty. Lou Dort is out here making Jokic want to fight him on multiple occasions.

What's so fascinating about this series entering in was that this series seems unfair. Both teams have unfair advantages. One, genetically. The other one, because they constructed a roster that is sustainable, that has incredible contracts, and they are built for what feels like an eternity.

And they have the referees. That, that too.

They hack the game with their style of play, and they hack the, the way that you can build the roster because Sam Pressey appears to be a demigod at this. And we're finding out what's winning at this point in Wemby's career. I mean, yes, you're right, they're sending fresh bodies at Wemby. And Caruso was injured. Caruso's the guy that seems to give him the most trouble, oddly enough.

So I don't like playing the minutes police, but for context, Wembenyama in the first round averaged 28 minutes a game. In the second round, 29 minutes a game. This round, 39.

I wondered the other day, I gave you those stats, right, going into last night's game, uh, when Wemby's on the court, the Spurs are +50. When he's not on the court, OKC is +46. And I wonder to myself, can they play him the way that Jimmy Butler and LeBron were being played in the most important moments, where you get diminishing results because you can't go 45 minutes? But this is the time of year when— is the only time of year when we do demand that from the greatest of the greats, because it's winning time. And those numbers I just gave you are series-deciding Like, if he's on the court, generally last night was -8, but if he's on the court, the Spurs have been better.

Yeah, especially whenever the, the OKC Thunder have the option to try out the 2-big lineup, the Chet and, uh, Harden lineup. I think it should be considered by the Spurs to maybe try the 2-big lineup for them, maybe have Luke and Wimby so that Luke can absorb some of those blows that just are meant for Wimby.

I, uh, hate to say this, but I love Cornette. I do. It's— I hate to say it because nobody falls in love with a backup center.

Secret sauce.

Well, it's just, you give him the ball, he just dunks.

I like him too. He's white.

You know what? I'm here for racist inner monologs, Zazz. I'm not.

I asked Zazz in the pre-show meeting, who do you think the most likable Thunder player is? Wasn't a good look for Zazz.

And who did he just start rattling off? Anyone just started rattling off white? That is not true. He said Nick Kolesnikov.

He goes, Nick Kolesnikov still on the team? I did.

Oh yeah, yeah, we got a new toy. Let's see if we can get this one over. Standard white radio Jew being racist. This one's gonna play. This is how we evolve.

Yeah, he goes, Hartenstein. Oh, he's mixed, never mind.

Yeah, well, he's Not true.

After Juju's tragic poll question, you're going to use the phrase standard white radio Jew?

Well, technically you did. I repeated you. You were thinking it. I was not thinking it. That's the whole bit.

It was your inner voice that said it. And this one's mine.

I, Jonathan Zaslow, am a noted racist. Hate all minorities.

That's me. You know what? I got confused. I gotta be honest. I'm ashamed by this. I thought—

You notice how I sit on all the political conversations?

I got confused. I thought my inner monolog voice was you trying out your racist Zas inner monolog.