Transcript of Hank Azaria Might Hate Jonathan Zaslow? | Hour 3 (feat. Hank Azaria)

Has LeBron looked old to you so far this season? Because to me, the first time that I really felt that way was a couple of nights ago in the game against the Celtics. I thought LeBron looked old.

I think whenever we have this conversation, we have to clarify to people: he looks old compared to what we know LeBron to be. Not as in, "That's an old guy on the court, he has no business being out here with the Yanbucks," because he's still really good, just not quite what we remember.

Those three most important words. Compared to what?

Right. It's always tough to see my boy miss layups. I was like, "Damn, oof."

That happens, man. We don't have the same kind of pop. Because the whole thing is this.

When he lost the ball, bringing it up court. Sounds like jaw feel.

When you go up, you think you still have your body, like your mind is like, "Yeah, remember we used to do this and do this?" And then they just go up and duck it. And I was like, "Wait, why is the rim so far?" And I feel like we've reached the end of it.

But him and Joel, all they need to do is be healthy enough to make it to the playoffs. I think Joel might need to sit out every 3 games. You feel me? Come play with us every 4 games or so, rest your knees, rest them sketchers, and we'll be ready for the playoffs.

Rest them sketchers.

You see when LeBron was lying around, he was writhing in pain because he got, you know, like poked in the eye. And everybody knows when you get poked in the eye, your legs stop working. So you have to fall to the ground, you have to roll around. And you saw the video. It was fan video recording it, and you heard fans, Philly fans, you heard fans going, "Get up!" I feel like that's going to happen in Philly. Like, you can get away with that in Cleveland, in Miami, in Los Angeles. The Philly fans are like, "Get your ass up! You're faking it!"

I don't know, man. I think, I just think like, hey, he's got to figure out a way to preserve his energy, right? For him, it's really about getting through the regular season. Like Juju said, we get to the playoffs, there's another gear that he has. But in order to have another gear to go to, you have to kind of be at a lower gear right now. You can't be high gear the whole time. What'd you say, Ben? What's his name? Ben Johnson said the other day?

Oh my God, what a bar he had. It's like, you can afford to have an off night. You can afford to be mediocre.

No, the only people who can be at their best always are mediocre.

Mediocre people.

Yeah. He did it a lot better than I did.

Yeah.

He's good.

I'm mediocre, but I can be at my best all the time.

All the time, right? Because that's the maximum, right? So same thing with LeBron. It's like, yo, I'm not trying to be mediocre all the time. I'm trying to be great when it needs to happen. And it doesn't need to happen on a Tuesday or, yeah, on a Tuesday against the Celtics in November.

Our pal is Hank Azaria for the second week in a row. He is our celebrity prognosticator because last week, not only did he go 4-1, but he pummeled Colin Cowherd, who went just 2-3. On the season, our celebrities are a combined 27, 16, and 2, while Colin Cowherd this season is 22, 20, and 3. So we are kicking his ass. Hank is appearing in the new film Behemoth, which is also with Pedro Pascal and Olivia Wilde. That is coming out December 4th.

I just saw the trailer for that. Hank, you're in that?

I am, in fact, in that.

Nice.

Hank, good to see you again. We want to start by asking you here, I'm going to give you, we're going to give you an actor and the first movie you think of when I give you their name. You ready?

I'm all set.

Rodney Dangerfield.

Old School.

Dude!

No, back to school.

There it is! There it is!

Flag on the play.

That couldn't have went any better!

Vindicated.

Flag on the play! Good job, Hank! That's what I'm talking about!

I hate this show.

How about that?

Because you guys don't know how to have guests.

That is tremendous.

Without playing tricky.

Who prepped him?

That is my guy. Hank is my guy. That's right.

I hate this show.

That's right. Hank, I got to.

I'm bummed that I, I'm bummed that I backed you up here somehow.

No, you are not bummed.

I'm still, I'm still trying to figure out what happened between us last week. The weirdest thing ever.

I, Hank, I texted Dan after the show last week, all right? Because I only know Hank from speaking to him twice maybe on this show. I don't know Hank, and although I'm a fan. And I text Dan after the show, I go, "Yo, Hank, Hank wasn't mad at me, right?" Because I wasn't, I wasn't being condescending. I was legitimately.

You have a way about you, brother.

Hank likes Mark.

There's three, I've thought a lot about this because it's one of the weirdest exchanges I've ever had in the media, okay? I'm talking to Dan about movies. I'm asking him if he's seen this or that horror movie. You chime in and you say, "This is a great segment. Hey Dan, have you seen Obsession? Hey Dan, have you seen Barbarian?" And I said, "Wait, did you just give me for asking Dan if he's seen movies?"

No.

You said, "No, no, no. I just, I really like movies. I really like movies."

He doesn't, by the way.

So there was three, there's three options. You either were giving me for asking Dan about movies in the segment, which is kind of weird, or you really do love movies and that's the way you chimed in, but you just were repeating what I just said, which is also weird, or you were giving me and then when I called you on it, you immediately backpedaled and started gaslighting.

There we are.

There is a.

Which is also extremely weird.

Hank, there's a fourth option.

There's a fourth option.

The fourth option.

What's the fourth option?

Was that he wasn't listening to you at all and just happened to ask the same questions.

This is true.

Because he's an idiot.

Yes, there is a fourth option, Hank, which is, I wasn't asking Dan if he saw those movies. I was asking you, Hank. I was asking you if you'd seen those movies because you like horror movies and I also like horror movies. And also, Amina's right, I didn't hear that you already said Obsession.

So you weren't, you didn't hear that I just said those exact two movies right before.

That's me. That's on me for being a dope punk.

You can understand why that's a little hard to believe, but I'm.

It's the truth. That's on me for being a dope, Hank. And I apologize then if I gave you that impression. But I was being serious, all right? I was not, I was not messing around. I was being serious.

All right. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. I'm glad I cleared that up.

I am, I am excited to talk to you about this because last night, actually, and I told the guys this earlier in the show today, for the first time in like 20 years, I sat down and decided to watch in full the movie Heat, which of course is an all-time great movie, but it's a long movie. And I hadn't sat down and watched it in full in, like I said, probably 20 years. And so I watched it last night. It's obviously a masterpiece. And I was so excited. I was like, "Oh yeah, Hank is in this movie and he's coming on the show with us tomorrow."

Go for it. As long as you're being sincere.

Yes.

We'll see.

I'm very sincere.

All right. All right.

Okay. The scene with Pacino where he does, "She's got a great ass." Did he improvise that?

Well, yes and no. That the line was, "She got a great ass." The thing is, Michael Mann likes to do approximately 397 takes. So somewhere around take 194, I think Al got a little antsy. And all of a sudden, instead of saying, "Because she got a great ass," he went, "Because she got a great ass." To which I replied, "Jesus," which was genius acting because I was not acting.

I mean, obviously Michael Mann's a great director, but, and that's probably common enough where you do like so many takes like that. But that many takes, like, does it get obnoxious? Like, you're tired, right?

397 takes, I'm probably exaggerating a little bit. Certain directors like to do a lot of takes. You know, some do one. Like Robert Redford, you're lucky you got a second take, okay? James L. Brooks does a lot of takes. Warren Beatty famously does a lot of takes, as does Michael Mann. You know, it's just part of their meticulous process. But, you know, it can be a little, it can, it can, it can drive you a little crazy. I drove out nuts that night and made it in the movie.

Yeah, I would love to hear you talk about working for Michael Mann because there are set stories that are legendary. Like the whole article that was written about filming Miami Vice. He's a very demanding director. I think he puts people through combat training, even if they only have a speaking role where no combat is there in the script.

He did a romantic comedy where he put people through combat training.

Yeah. Was there anything that, I know you've worked with so many directors and you, from speaking to you a little bit, you appreciate getting to see everybody's MO and being challenged that way. What was most challenging about working for Michael Mann?

No, he was actually amazing. I mean, you could kind of tell a genius was at work. It's just that in the same way that, like, you know, if you're watching an astrophysicist or a rocket scientist do their thing, you're not, it's going to be, it's going to be hard to follow what they're doing sometimes. It was sort of similar. You know, it's like, I know you're going after it, but I'm just, but you know, I'm just a guy here who's Al Pacino screaming at. And there's stories that are attributed to Michael Mann that cannot be true. Like, supposedly on the set of Last of the Mohicans, they're shooting out on some lake and Michael Mann's going, "Goddamn it, turn that light off.

No.

Exactly. That, that, so I think his legend sort of has grown to ridiculous proportions.

When is the last time you watched the movie Heat?

Not in years. Not in years.

Do you want, like, do you like watching back movies that you're in or is that strange?

I prefer watching them if I haven't shot them in years. Like, I'm, I'm like insane. And so I can't, I can barely stand to watch my own work. Especially if I've just shot it. All I see is perceived mistakes or I know what I was trying to do and the scene doesn't match it. So I get all down on myself. At the premiere of The Birdcage, which was arguably the thing, you know, that I did best in movies, I like wanted to kill myself after that premiere.

Really?

I was like, yeah, I was like, "Oh no, I ruined the movie."

What was the, Hank, what was the biggest, maybe not from Birdcage, but from any movie that you were in and when you rewatched it, you're like, "I can't believe I didn't deliver this line this way."

Sounds like Birdcage.

Well, I mean, the specific scene is what I'm looking for.

Oh, I mean, Birdcage, not so much. I, yeah, it's a good question.

Thank you.

Because you know when I, like, in Ray Donovan, I did Ray Donovan for like three seasons with Leo Schreiber. And I really enjoyed working on that. And I actually even won an Emmy for it, which I only say that to brag, okay? But, but there are so many lines in that that was like, "Oh no, no, no, that wasn't the way to do that at all." I wish, but every actor will tell you that, that they always, they wish they could have like moments back and they, you're driving away from set and you're like, "Oh, that's how I should have done that."

Pacino was your hero, you said.

One of them, for sure.

Who else?

De Niro, Bob De Niro, you know. And comedians of that era, like I worshipped growing up, Peter Sellers and Steve Martin and.

Also.

You know, you can't talk about him anymore, but I loved Woody Allen, you know, I loved him before, you know.

Hank.

But there was a lot of trouble there.

Hank, we'll get to Pick and Games in a second, but I'm curious, which piece of work are you most proud to be attached to?

You know, when all said and done, probably The Simpsons because it sort of rewrote television comedy and, you know, it's, it's so iconic. And I'd probably have to go with that. I mean, I.

What about In Front of Camera?

I would say Brackmeier because that was an idea that I had from when I was like 15 years old and took me 10 years to get it made. And I was happy with how it came out.

Yeah.

How about this, Hank? Harder working with Michael Mann in a lot of scenes or Bruce Springsteen, being, becoming Bruce Springsteen?

Well, it's easier to Bruce thing because I control that. You know, I control how many times we do it. But it's hard. It's the hardest vocal thing I've ever had to do. Like I, it's two, I'm two and a half years into doing that and I'm still, I work every week to try to perfect what I'm doing there. Because singing, talking like Bruce, that's kind of easy for me. I'm like a human parrot, so I can do that. But singing like Bruce is a whole nother thing.

How does it not, I remember I had to do Doc Rivers for like a segment, just to do the Doc Rivers voice. And about three minutes in, I'm done. My voice is cracked. I can't talk anymore. How do you do it singing and doing whole sets and stuff?

Takes practice. It literally takes practice. I mean, Bruce himself describes, he describes doing a concert as running a marathon while screaming. And it's kind of like that, but it's like building muscles in a gym. The more you do it, the more tolerance you build up and you're able to do it better.

I haven't done enough.

Dan Le Batard. Jonathan Zaslow.

Thank you.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show.

Hank, how have you experienced, you're a huge Knicks fan, how have you experienced this season so far? Not that they're off to a slow start, but that they, like they won, you celebrated it. It's like, you know, one of your favorite moments ever. And now, okay, it's another season. Has it been weird? Is it different for you, this experience being a Knicks fan now?

I mean, slightly, but really, we're going to, I'll, I'm sure on my deathbed, I'm going to flash back to game four. It's like, it's just been making me happy for so long. I'll never not cherish it. And, you know, I have a lot of faith that these guys will figure it out this year. I think if any team has a decent chance of repeating, it's these guys. You know, with Jalen, he's not going to let up.

All right, Hank, we love having you on. Let's pick some winners here. You ready?

Yeah.

Here we go. All right.

But I got some voices, different voices ready this week.

The celebrity prognosticator. Let's win some money.

All right. First up, who is picking this one for us? This is the Patriots at the Lions. The Lions are a two and a half point favorite. Who's picking this?

This, well, the game is in Munich, so I'm going to pick it is Arnold. Because I know Munich. I worked in the gym in Munich as 19 years old. I couldn't afford a posing suit. So I competed in a pair of my brother's underwear. And I still want it. I want the whole thing. So the Patriots is not a defense. It's a hospitality tent. So give me the Lions. I want the Lions in this game.

The Bills are at the Jets. The Jets are an eight and a half point home dog. Who's picking this one?

Comic Book Guy. We'd like to try him in here. I am asked, I'm being asked to believe that the New York Jets will lose by fewer than nine points. I have believed in Stranger Things. In fact, I believe that the show Stranger Things is real. So this is not a tremendous leap. I would take the Jets in the eight and a half points. Thank you.

Okay. Vikings at Packers. The Vikings quarterback is now Kirk Cousins again. The Packers are a three-point home favorite. Who's picking this one?

Jim Brackmeier would try him in here. Minnesota scored six points on National Television Monday evening. That's six. Six. I have watched grown men, including myself, do many desperate things in my life, but I've never seen an offense apologize on the field in real time. Actually composing handwritten apology notes in the second half, which may explain why they had a tremendous difficulty scoring. So I will take Green Bay and I will lay the three.

The Dolphins are at the Colts. The Colts, the fire sale last week. They are a three and a half point home favorite. The Dolphins are starting Kyle McCord. Who's picking this game?

Yeah, I'm not a bartender. We'll go here, right? Look, I hate people from Miami, including you people, all right? A guy from Miami once came into my bar in 1994 and he ordered a beer and he smelled it first, like it's a fricking winery. But I also got a thing about Indianapolis, all right? Because a guy from Indianapolis came into my bar once, very nice fella, polite, and he tipped me good, but I didn't care for his face. So I hate Indianapolis, but slightly less.

All right. One more. It is Sunday night football. The Steelers are at the Bengals. The Bengals are a three and a half point home favorite. Who's picking this?

This will be, this is kind of a deep cut. Patches or Hoolahan.

Oh, yeah.

Ooh, dodgeball. Yes, Patches or Hoolahan. Now, football ain't complicated, says. It's the five T's: tackle, trample, terrify, tumble, and tackle. Cincinnati, Cincinnati could not stop my Aunt Dolores. Of course, to be fair, neither could my Uncle Arnold. So give me Pittsburgh. Such a stupid joke. That is a dumb joke. Give me Pittsburgh. And the points off a buyer. I will take Pittsburgh.

He was four and one last week. We hope to see him again next week. Hank Azaria, excellent job, Hank. We're friends now, right, Hank? We're good?

Yeah, we sorted it all out. And we did it, you know, I wish my wife and I could work things out as easily as you and I just did.

That's what I'm saying. Thanks, Hank. Hopefully we'll see you next week.

Take care, fellas.

There you go.

That's great. The way you pretended to know what dodgeball was. You've never seen that.

I was glad that you didn't say that when we still had Hank on.

He's still on. He heard me.

He heard you.

He heard me.

I heard my phone. I have famously not seen dodgeball. All right, whatever. I can't see it. Hank, I got to live my life. I can't see everything.

That's all right. Listen, you're kind of, your MO is to sort of do things and then deny it right after. That's kind of your thing.

All right. See you again, Hank.

Bye.

There you go.

Okay. It's got to be so difficult to receive like Zaz saying, "I'm being sincere." At that point, it's like really, look at me. I'm being super sincere right now.

You got to widen your eyes. He has this.

I'm being sincere.

I really did text Dan last week in the afternoon, like, "Hey, man, Hank is not mad, right?" And I could see now how he would really misinterpret because Hank clearly thought that I was then peppering Dan with, "Dan, have you seen this?" I was not, I was asking Hank. I was saying it to him.

I thought you were mocking him. You said, "Great segment. Hey, Dan, what's it?" I thought it was like that.

Yeah, me three. I was remote. So I was like, "Dan, I was asking."

No.

Like, I was asking if he, I love horror movies.

And yeah, anyway.

That's cap.

Okay. Anyways.

There. All right. There you go.

Tony, you, all right. Everybody calm down.

You want some more freaky news or not? You're going to ask him about Pochettino?

No, I'm not going to ask him about Pochettino.

Tony, your thoughts.

Actually, what I'm going to ask him.

What a guy.

What I'm going to ask him is this crazy video I saw yesterday. This brawl between these UFC fighters, right?

Yeah. Merab Dewalishvili versus Umar Nurmagomedov.

What the hell happened there?

We're going to play some of the video. It was insane. It was just like on site. The kids say on site, it means on site.

Yeah.

The moment I see you, I'm going to put.

That's on site.

I'm going to put hands on you.

Yeah.

So let's roll the video here. We'll kind of talk through it. As you can see, Umar walking in, Merab is on the other side doing an interview, and he's got a gang of people behind him, maybe 10, 15 people behind him. Boom. Slap right on it. And then we're going.

That's a lot.

Merab is getting knocked by his own fingers.

Smack.

Then he takes down three different guys at the same time. We got a trip. We got another kick to the groin.

You got like five guys now who are fighting in the lobby of a nice hotel.

Yeah, they're in Abu Dhabi. And dude, they are just going at it. People on the sides start fighting now. There's a fight behind the fight.

And you know, security is not trying to get involved.

Well, these are MMA fighters.

They'll pay me enough.

Yeah.

Everybody got hands.

This is still happening as we're talking.

Still happening.

Dude, it's the first thing I noticed because most times you see these brawls, it's just people like sloppily fighting. And this one, everyone's in a fighting center.

Trained assassins.

Wrestling around.

Spinning roundhouse.

Jumping, throwing. And we got to do the judo throw.

Can we replay the beginning again? Because I want to hear that slap.

The slap is the hardest slap I've ever heard in my life.

Here we go. So walking in, guy's got his back to him.

All right. Now be quiet. Now be quiet. Really good acoustics in that lobby.

All right.

By the way, he slapped him so hard that this dude, who is a trained fighter.

Was shook.

And messes up a bunch of people in the course of the fight. In the aftermath of the slap, he literally grabs his head like.

Like what happened?

What just happened?

Yeah, what world am I in? By the way, if we can roll back, if we can roll back to the.

Psychological effects of a slap too.

Slap, 100%. If we can roll back here in the beginning, Merab gets slapped, right? Watch his boy who's behind him and watch what he does. So watch his boy right now. All right, roll it. Keep rolling.

He throws a kick.

He grabs him. He tries to grab him and restrain him. And Merab's like, "No, hell no. I'm going at all three guys."

Yeah.

I need my boy to jump in there.

But it is.

Hold me back.

But it is funny that the guy with the ball.

Oh, he got into it.

He did.

And he delivered one hell of a shot. He charged up. Superman punch.

Like nobody on the staff is allowed to not be able to fight, right? Like that's a crazy thing. There ain't nobody who's just like, "I'm just a lame camera guy or whatever." Like, no.

And it's crazy to me that this is in Abu Dhabi. Dumb boys don't play over there. Future got locked up for having some weed for 56 nights. So it's like, it's crazy.

I'm telling you, dude, different laws for different things. When you talk about, for them, narcotics, even weed, that's like.

Narcotics is the words fighting they love.

Broke Down Palace. You remember that movie?

Oh, that movie's scary, man.

Yeah, with Claire Dante.

That's a scary movie.

It's like that. One of my homeboys had to like literally appeal to the highest powers to get him out.

Do you think she did it? Do you think she did it?

Of course she did it.

Yeah, I think so too.

Of course she did it.

We don't know for sure. It's ambiguous.

But you see Merab and Usman and you're like, "Oh, okay. All right. We'll give him a pass."

So what's the beef there? What happened? Are they fighting each other this Saturday night?

No, nobody, none of these guys are fighting on Saturday. Saturday, UFC 334. Check out the MMA Hangout starting at 9:00 p.m. That's going to be at Madison Square Garden's, as you said, your kid's going.

Yeah, my son's going.

What a fight.

Yeah.

Main event, Cyril Gone versus Josh Hoka.

Yeah.

I think Josh Hoka can win.

I think that Merab right there, because I was talking to my son about it yesterday, I think that Merab is my son's favorite. I see him wearing the shirt. I asked him yesterday.

The machine.

Yeah, I asked him yesterday, "You see about this fight?" He goes, "Yeah, I'm very angry about it."

It was kind of like a sucker punch. Like that slap is.

Yeah. Hold on.

Sucker slap.

But he turned him around and he looked him in the eye before like.

Yeah, but last thing you think and you're doing it in the middle of an interview, all of a sudden the guy's going to like pounce.

He's quicker than the Lofton catch.

Jesus.

I felt like someone just slapped me when I heard that noise.

Like that's, I'm trying to think of what that sounds like knowing that it's a slap. What does it sound like with no video?

Pootie Tang's belt.

Yeah, it sounds, it's like a whip.

Yeah.

Spot on.

It sounds like Pootie Tang's belt.

Bumpa dum pum, bumpa dum. Bumpa dum pum, bumpa dum, bumpa dum.

Throw me the ice or I throw you the whip.

And the guy who got smacked, like he's got his hands on it. He's like, "Watch what's happening."

Yeah, man.

The guy who got smacked is one of the best bantam weights of all time.

That's what I'm saying. You know how shocking that has to be for him to hold his head like that? And not because he's scared, he's punking out. He's ready to fight now, but that initial slap.

Surrender Cobra.

I wonder if he got him maybe a little bit in the ear. So he was ringing, which is why he took a step back like, "Holy shit, what just happened?"

I got to tell you, these guys, like obviously, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. These guys, it's a different level. Because normally, if there's a brawl like this, you know, you could see some dudes are like, you know, back away a little bit. These guys are all in.

Everybody's not ready.

Like no one's afraid. Everyone is ready.

My man right there kicked his shoes off. He said, "I got to have the grip."

Yeah.

I got to have a.

It turned into a Bruce Lee movie. Like just everybody fighting everybody at the same time. Like, all right, here's the first one. Boom.

Yeah.

All right, now we're in. All right, I'm throwing a kick here.

No more guys.

I'm going to go get everybody right now. Here we go. Punch, punch. Judo throw.

Hold on. Hold on.

Kick to the stomach.

My man, blue shirt, gray pants. Hold on. The college shirt, he disappeared around the corner. There he is. He doesn't fight. That's the guy. I'd be looking for him. If I win this brawl and my boys are getting into it and everyone's fighting, I'd be like, "Where's he at? Where's he at?" That guy.

Guy in the backwards hat is like offensive line and pass blocking. He's like trying to get people out of the way.

Clearly, the only guy who doesn't fight is the guy holding the phone.

Right. And brother with the hot ponytail. But I think Lofton is, this is incredibly lame for brother. You can't just walk up on somebody, slap them, especially when you're a professional fighter. Like this is totally lame and totally low brawl.

Yeah, I'm sorry if you've already addressed this. What's his problem?

We don't know. We don't know. That's not the kind of show we do here.

I've seen this.

We just played a video.

I've seen this. I've been like reacting to it. I'm like, "Yeah, wait, what's his problem?"

Yeah, we don't know. We just like to comment on what we see right here, man. That's the fun part. No, no, well, actually, this goes back to December of last year. No, no, I'm not doing all that research, man.

But we, I mean, Juju and Tony, they follow this more closely. What was the problem?

It's feuding between Merab and the Nurmagomedov camp.

Yeah.

Between Georgian and Dagestani fighters.

Yeah, it's always something.

There's a lot of trash talk back and forth.

It's always something.

Blue college shirt, guys.

In person, we're going to see. It's going to be on site.

My son told me Dagestan, eight months, become a machine.

That's true. But the machine is Merab Dewalishvili, who's from Georgia.

Also, bro, remember he ran into the ring whenever his homeboy got knocked out and he ran and almost threw a bow at the winner of the fight?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So yeah, he been having a rough go.

Dan Le Batard.

I don't know if strange for me, but like.

Mike Ryan.

Oh, boy.

This is the Dan Le Batard Show.

Tony, Pochettino, your thoughts?

What a guy, what a guy who can coach this team to great heights, even though he fell short. What an incredible guy.

You tried to help him.

Did you see the suit and the hair? I mean, what a beautiful man. I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful Italian man in my life.

He's got a great ass. What a suit, what a guy, what a hair.

What a hair.

What a hair. Just one of them.

So Pochettino is headed to Manchester United.

What?

For the US, I think this is a positive.

Really?

And also.

You.

We know the life cycles of managers, especially lately at Manchester United in a post-Cyralix world. They're not going to be long for this world. And you could see a scenario in which Pochettino comes right back.

Wait, I thought you told me that there was going to be another whale on the horizon.

Well, it's been reported by a friend of the show, Tom Bogart, that Pep Guardiola is among the pie-in-the-sky candidates that the US men's national team is going to pursue. Now, it's well documented that Pep loves the United States. This isn't a crazy mismatch by any stretch of the imagination, though people in Europe would be like, "Eh, it's a pretty crazy stretch of the imagination." But the US has shown that they're willing to aim for name brands at the manager position. Pochettino was that, although career loser.

What a loser. Mike, I want to ask though, because this is like before the Knicks won the championship, there was a perception of like that's the white whale job, right? Because you know they got money and you know if you win there, you're golden, right? And even LeBron said, "If the Knicks had not won the championship, I would have signed with the Knicks instead of the Sixers."

He's had so many opportunities to sign with the Knicks. Why didn't he sign with the Knicks before?

Is there anywhere in the soccer world, does anyone look at the US like that? It's like, "Look, man, they got money." It's like, "I can go in there. If I go in there and I make them a winner, I turn into the biggest GOAT of all time at coaching."

I think in terms of international appeal, yeah, Indiana in college football, perennially, one of the biggest losers, if not the biggest loser in big-time college football. But the bones were always there. Biggest alumni base in the nation. Big affluent boosters.

Jonesberry.

You just need the right guy to come in, establish a culture, and show you how to win.

Tom Boeseman.

And then all of a sudden, wait a second. This job is actually a pretty tremendous job.

Toms McCoy.

So I think, yeah, we're not a football school, we're a basketball school, right over here in the United States.

Boenseman.

But we pay highly competitive salaries. This is a really cushy job. Pochettino.

Tony James.

Had a very cushy job over here. There's good support. The facilities are going to continue to improve.

Improve.

And it's pretty low stakes. The Pochettino thing will be remembered for the World Cup.

Tom Boeseman.

I think he met expectations.

Baltics and Harvard.

Maybe in retrospect, when you consider that FIFA cheated to help him and he didn't really do anything with that. Ultimately, where it ended, they were favored against Belgium. That was a disappointment. But I guess you look back on it and you say, "That was expectation."

Bone crusher.

You had to get to there. Incapable of surpassing expectations.

Bone crusher.

That's basically what Pochettino does.

Bone crusher.

And it would not surprise me though, in the very least, if Pochettino was right back with the US men's national team in a couple of seasons.

Handball.

I want to get back to the NBA here for a few minutes with you guys.

Like what did Pochettino do well? Like what can you say like that's his lasting legacy? Because like even Klinsmann, like he surpassed expectations and he brought some international players into development. Like I guess what you say for Pochettino was like he threw a wider net when it came to the talent pool and he helped you evaluate some more talents. But I don't necessarily know if that was a good thing because he probably should have focused on the top-end talents that he was planning on taking to the World Cup, especially when he wasn't qualifying for the World Cup.

That's not the NBA.

I know, but my point is where you can point to Bruce Arena, positive contributions. Jürgen Klinsmann even, who wasn't a good manager, positive contributions in terms of building this program forward. Pochettino's biggest contribution to US soccer was merely getting hired because he was the biggest name they had ever hired for that position. So it basically was a message.

Is it bigger name than Klinsmann?

Yeah, yeah. In terms of reputation as a manager, Pochettino's had very good club seasons. It hasn't gone all the way, but.

Because he's a loser.

Yeah, I think he's a loser, but.

He's still not the NBA.

Ooh, did you hear Aman Shumpert call Allen Iverson a loser?

That's not true.

That's the NBA. There it is.

Because he didn't win a championship. What do you think about that, Zaz?

I think that's, I think Iverson's clearly a winning player. I think that's a ridiculous thing to say.

I think it's a difference between being a loser and not a champion.

Not every winning player wins a championship.

I'm going to ask this. Did Iman Shumpert say this on Gill's Arena?

Absolutely.

Okay.

It's like a competition to say crazy.

Feel like you got to put an asterisk anytime a quote comes out of that show.

Beating the witness there.

Yeah, because it's just like, because this is, without even having seen the clip, I didn't even hear about it till right now you said it. But I could already hear like Nick Young saying, "But I won a championship." Like something along the lines of like, "Oh, I'd rather have my career than Allen Iverson's career," or something like that.

There's no way he would ever say that, right?

I'm just saying like it's just, that's the kind of thing. I don't know, but that's the kind of thing on that show that goes, right? Because guys are trying to one-up each other. It's the reason why Kenya Martin wanted to kill Rashad Mackenzie at one time because Rashad Mackenzie said when he was playing in like Israel or Lebanon or whatever, he thinks that team had a chance to beat the Nuggets. The season the Nuggets won the championship. That show is designed literally just to talk and like get reactions.

And it's awesome. That team is awesome.

Again, tell everybody, if you think this is all accidental, Gill is a mad scientist and he has an incredible work ethic. It's insane how much work he does in planning and prepping that show, let alone what he was during his career.

We got three minutes left.

An infinite amount of respect for Gilbert Arenas for how he works, even if like the show is like, I'm like, I couldn't, I can't, I can't with y'all. Because how are you going to call Allen Iverson a loser, man?

Right.

I mean, like Allen Iverson, I tell people all the time, you know what Allen Iverson is? Allen Iverson is literally my size. Now put me on an NBA court. It's like.

He was like the toughest guy.

It doesn't make sense. None of it makes sense. I don't give a what his field goal percentage was. It doesn't make sense.

Right. Game was different back then too.

Game was different, sure.

You can put a talent like that in today's game and he dissimilate to this style.

But I tell people all the time, like this dude would put up like 25, 26 shots a game. And people say, "Oh, you jackass shots." I'm like, "Do you know how hard it is to get 25 legitimate shots?"

And playing every night.

Right. Like, but 25 legit, not like, "Oh, I just threw it over my head. Here's a shot," right? Like, "No, these are all shots that have a chance of going in." And oh, by the way, I'm outweighed by a hundred pounds at least every player on the floor. And often six to eight inches in height.

People have no idea what that size discrepancy does to your cardio, how much more tired you are with dudes just leaning on you when you don't have the frame to take it. You have to work twice as hard.

Or slap it out of you. Like that, that was him every time he went to lay in right. He got by a first defender. He goes up, it's three guys going all over his arms. It was amazing. And Ann is the coolest, most humble superstar in retirement. Always, always very complimentary of the current game. I remember the day he went into the Hall of Fame, because it was him, Shaq, and I want to say Yao was there, but I can't remember who the third was. They're sitting there and they're getting interviewed. My buddy Carrie Chow asked him this question.

What did he say?

He says, "How would you do in today's game?" And Iverson was like, "Probably the same, maybe a little less."

When would you ever hear a star player say that?

And Shaq went, Shaq was right there, like, "What are you talking about? You'd average 45." And he's like, "No." And then he starts literally describing why. It's not just like, "I'm being humble." It's not that fake, like the Monty Williams, you know, "Look at me, Louis humble."

Like you only asking for 50 million.

Yeah, like, well, that's real humble.

Oh, that's real humble.

No, he actually describes why like the game, what was so different about the game now that would make it harder for him to score that many points. And I'm like, "Damn, man, that's a cool dude right there." So Shump, I think Shump's a cool dude too, but come on, man. You got to take that one back. You got to apologize.

Unless it was on Gill's show.

Well, no, they apologized on Gill's show. They already have the precedent now. They apologize on their show now.

It was an I'm sorry, but. It's not a real apology.

If. It was an I'm sorry, if.

Yeah.

If I offended you.

Yeah.

No, people don't like that, huh? People really get upset when you say, "I'm sorry if I offended you, if I hurt your feelings." Like, "Oh, that's not an apology."