Transcript of Hour 1: The End Of The Golden State Warriors (feat. Amanda Demanda?) New

This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

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

I do want to get to the playoffs in both sports in a second, but how real or done is AJ Brown to the Patriots? Like, this is something that just gets whispered about and whispered about. And the, the stock response from the Eagles because I'm assuming that they're trying to keep AJ Brown till at least June 1st, has been AJ Brown's an Eagle, AJ Brown's an Eagle. But there's been so much talk about the fact that he's not going to be an Eagle. How done is him to the Patriots?

It's basically done. They're waiting for post-June 1st.

I mean, it was in big bright red letters on ESPN.com, and that usually signals imminent.

Oh, but all I saw on ESPN.com was WrestleMania.

Was that— was that this weekend?

It was Seth Rollins' report, actually.

Please credit him.

How did ESPN used to cover WrestleMania? I'm asking this sincerely. Before WrestleMania became a product for ESPN, and I imagine that this will be interesting to some people, we remember when baseball dominated ESPN and then ESPN lost hockey. And when they lost hockey, they stopped covering hockey in a way that was meaningful. And when they got it back, they covered it more meaningfully. But I've rarely seen in the history of ESPN what they're presently doing with WrestleMania, which is, this is ours. And so understandably, we're going to go well out of our way to cover this in a way that we have never come close to covering anything like this before. We can agree that ESPN's wrestling coverage throughout the history of ESPN has been poor. Yes, poor or nonexistent.

I wouldn't even say poor. I mean, it's, it's either been non-existent or like there was a WrestleMania maybe in the last 2, 3, 4 years where, you know, the night of WrestleMania after it ended on the 11 PM SportsCenter, they may show a highlight of what happened in the main event, but that would be it.

Yeah, I remember like 6 years ago or so, Jonathan Coachman hosted a SportsCenter live from a WrestleMania, but usually once a year they would pay some attention to it. But I I mean, it was every block of programming throughout the week.

Was it rejected? Was it accepted? Like, how did people feel about it? Because it's a straight— people don't like change. This isn't something ESPN has done before. And I also think it's fair to say, right, given the partnerships, that this is a bit bought, right?

This feels totally bought. Yeah. No, not, not a bit. Like, it's absolutely bought. Look, I like the WWE and I like ESPN. I hated the week run-up.

I didn't like it either.

It was just way too much. And I'm not gatekeeping. I'm not like, get the eyes away from my thing. I like more people in the tent, but it was just way too much.

Yeah, I didn't like it either. Again, I'm not gatekeeping either. I want people to watch and understand the thing that I love for my entire life. I feel like if you give it a chance, you may love it also. But the coverage— there was so much coverage that I don't— it's already like a taboo thing to be a pro wrestling fan, and now I felt like there's more people who are looking and pointing, going, "This shit's stupid," you know? It's like— and I didn't like that there are like more people hating on the thing that I love.

Well, I think that most people who are watching ESPN are used to quote-unquote "the real sports," the stuff that isn't scripted, interested. I also think that I've told you that Ari Emanuel, the agent for Pat McAfee, has said that he wants to make Pat McAfee Sylvester Stallone, and that behooves ESPN as well. So he's a central figure at the center of this. And I've told you guys before that Nick Khan, one of the real power brokers in America, not just sports, period, that Nick Khan was the agent for all of the people at ESPN. And many people said for years that Nick Khan was actually the one running ESPN because he was the one who was putting all of his people in power at ESPN. He saw it was falling apart. He saw everything that was happening there in terms of he had topped out the amount of money that he was going to make for himself and for his people. And then he went over there and graduated to the next portion of his career, which is working with Dana White in these circles where he can just provide streaming for people. Uh, you, you've— these things are powerhouse economic vehicles.

And I am simply curious the audience more than Mike. When you say you love wrestling and you love ESPN, this would seem to cause a recoil, I would think, when you're seeing that your entity, which for 20 years has at least in part, uh, trafficked in the credibility of being a journalistic entity, being this clearly bought. Where I'm softening it by saying it feels a bit bought, and you two are wrestling fans and you're saying, no, it's not a bit bought, they're doing infomercials for WrestleMania because they're trying to increase the the numbers for WrestleMania, and why wouldn't they? That's what television networks do.

They spent $325 million on this deal. It's already being reported and people are talking that there's already buyer's remorse on this.

Yeah, but who the hell knows?

I think we can kind of glean something from the amount of promotion. I do think that's a bit of a tell. The WWE fan right now is paying more than it ever has to get PLEs. Now, some of these people get ESPN Unlimited via uh, their, their cable packages, and it's— they make it difficult on purpose. You'll be subscribed to multiple things. It's, it's very difficult to tell, but I'm paying more than ever to get just 12, approximately 12 events a year. Usually you would get the entire catalog, and that's what was so valuable to Peacock. Here they're just getting 12, 10-pole events a year. I'm paying more than ever, and I'm on a streamer that is behind a paywall. I'm getting commercials. Okay. I've grown accustomed to that. Live events, even if I'm paying a price monthly, I get commercials. What was interesting to see is that this was kind of a big week for the, the narrative surrounding TKO's ownership. Like, they've really put their stamp on this product now and they're all over ESPN and it's a capitalist venture. Tickets were not nearly as good as the last time that they ran Las Vegas.

Running Las Vegas back-to-back years was a cash grab, and it showed. Last year they had over 75,000 people on each night. This year, night 1, 50,000. Night 2, 55,000.

Tickets are so expensive.

Damn, the commercials— like, they, they did the stats, like entrances, which I, I think wrestling fans to nitpick on that, it's WrestleMania. There's pageantry involved. The entrances are theatrical. That's part of it. You get longer entrances. But the in-ring action was the thing that was least represented on WrestleMania. Spots outnumbered— the amount of commercial breaks outnumbered the amount of in-ring action.

For context, Dan, like, Night 1, which was really the night on Saturday night, which was super polarizing, and I was really upset after Night 1. I was. And I never get upset with pro wrestling because I love it. It's like, I wouldn't watch it if I didn't love it. And I found myself like, I was upset, not because like I didn't think it was a good show, it's because I was really troubled at where I think the thing that I love, the direction it may be headed. That was very unsettling to me. It was a 4-hour show, and the total action was like an hour and a half of 4 hours, and there was almost a full hour of commercials. How could there be commercials on WrestleMania? I'm sitting there, and there are commercials?

Well, the same thing can be said about actual action compared to commercials about pro football. But pro football is still on network television.

Yeah, I'm not paying extra for pro football.

I think for me the biggest problem was the length of these commercial breaks, because streamers aren't beholden to your standard 2-minute break.

It was just— It was 4 minutes.

5, 10 minutes. I think between the space between the sub-headliner and the main event, there was like 40 minutes of spots and entrances, and you're just like totally sucked out of it.

Well, and you know where that comes from? That's like a very UFC thing, where They're going to stretch out. They're going to wait and wait and wait. And then here's the main event.

Juxtapose night 1 to night 2. I think night 2 was them saying, we got the feedback because the pacing was—

I hope so. Yeah, last night was much better.

Well, let me— but let me just— when you say you're worried about the direction this is headed, I could do it throughout sports, right? I've been really surprised at how well Amazon has covered the basketball playoffs because to have all of that go off without a hitch when you've never done it before, and whatever it costs just to get Blake Griffin, Dirk Nowitzki, Udonis Haslem to sit next to each other. And, and, and they're just spending an enormous amount of money to make sure that they get this right. But of course, whoever wins here is going to then become a NASCAR. Like the way that NASCAR— a lot of people objected to all the advertising on the cars. All this stuff exists for the advertising. Like It's— it is the reason that all of this is becoming, instead of the enjoyable customer experience that you might prefer at the ambiance of the ballpark, it's all programming now. Like, I've— you guys object when I say it doesn't matter that much whether fans go there. It still does for now, but when you're talking about the direction that this is headed, whoever the 4 or 5 winners are in sports are gonna need to get their money back because the Padres just went for $3.9 billion.

Right, well, I don't, I don't think ESPN's gonna get their money back from this ESPN deal, and I think we'll find out together what the next deal is. I think Nick Khan and TKO should send a huge fruit basket to CM Punk and Roman Reigns because they closed—

what a match, Dan—

they closed the entire event with what is considered a classic match that actually left— that's your last impression? Okay, this entire weekend isn't a disaster. But look, TKO has introduced plenty of things that were taboo for wrestling. There's ads all over the mat.

I don't care so much about that.

I don't really notice it, but you do have Brock Lesnar putting his boots and his gloves on top of a logo that says "The General." Every match is sponsored. Every match is sponsored.

Alright, they're allowed to make money.

Here's the interesting thing. In America, there are two fan bases that actually have power. That rival European soccer fans. It's SEC football fans with message board culture and wrestling fans. And the reason why wrestling fans have so much power is pretty much everybody in the business is a wrestling fan. So the criticisms actually do connect. And that is what you saw from night 1 to night 2.

I hope so.

We reached a critical mass on TKO injecting this TKO capitalism into this product. And people were rejecting it. In fact, even after yesterday's great main event, Roman Reigns joined the post-show and there were chants that came out over the broadcast.

Good.

FTKO.

Good.

Netflix ran into this when they dabbled with baseball. There's going to be upheaval, change that fans are not good with. It's anything that's not what you're used to is going to be something that the customer recoils on. But you guys do understand, right? If these people are paying this much for all of these things, for their television programming, they have to make their money back. Like, they, they can lose money for a little while. But when you talk about the direction all this is headed in, like, we're going to head back to commercials. Amazon and Netflix are already doing things with commercials and we're going to keep going. Like, you're— the part about this that is problematic for the sports fan is once you've given the sports fans no commercials, You can't go back and start giving them commercials. People were complaining all season that the red zone has commercials.

Right, but people are rejecting it, and at that point it does matter. These high ticket prices are in part to blame for fewer people there, but it's also the product and the atmosphere. Night 1, because of the commercial breaks and the pacing and the fact that Night 1 was just abysmal, you're pricing out your most passionate fans that add to the atmosphere, that add to this being a big event. And Dan, the attendance doesn't lie. The arrow is not pointing up anymore. Wrestling was on a heater 2 years ago with WrestleMania 40. They parlayed that into these big contracts, but the people that are there year over year are feeling priced out. They're feeling ostracized. They're being turned off by the product and they are raising their voice. And luckily, so far it seems as though even though Nick Khan went on a podcast—

So far, it's 24 hours.

Nick Khan went on a podcast and flatly said You can complain, but it doesn't change our direction. That's not typically the case with WWE. They usually— it may take a while, but eventually the customer does get to dictate the terms. And we're going to— this thing is going to continue. It's not going to go away with one successful main event between Roman Reigns and CM Punk. Sports fans, all the sports are coming together. It's a great time to just sit on your couch, text your friend, hey, come over. Let's watch the games. And when I do that to my friends, guess what they text me back? I got the Miller Lite. That's right. They pick up Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer and they come over to my place. We take that first sip and we realize, man, we just made a regular old-fashioned night into a special night. Thank you, Miller Lite. And shortly thereafter, we got multiple screens on. Everybody's dialed into something different and the whole night just keeps building and building and buildin'. That's why I reach for Miller Lite. It can take an ordinary night and take it to an extraordinary place.

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Dan Lebatard.

But it's just his titties are sitting on the shelf that is his belly.

Stugatz. He said titties. It just like shocked me a little bit. I wasn't quite prepared for titties.

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

The thing though that I keep bringing up to you guys because of the business model, okay, Unrivaled, the local league here brought in to compete against the WNBA, is basically just a soundstage. It might as well be a studio where television is made and they happen to play basketball. It's a soundstage. When you talk about UFC as a giant product that can be a model for everyone on how to build a sports franchise. All of their production is self-contained. They come over and they just sell you this thing and they get television money from it. So when you complain about the crowds at a UFC event being down or the gate being down, it doesn't really— they'll keep diluting all of that the more television money they get. And because the television money dwarfs the customer, What they're going to do with the television money is they're going to put NASCAR ads on all the cars, and they're going to test you right up until you've got ads right up to your nose, because of course they're going to be greedy about, about making sure they get all of their money back because they've got their guaranteed money.

And the dollars are crazy because you've got Amazon and Netflix with all the money in the world vying to be one of the 5 remaining companies in America that is making a giant amount of money and running a monopolistic America.

So we talk about TKO owning WWE and the UFC and how the differences are in the production of both and Dana's involvement with TKO and with UFC. They said he's not really into the matchmaking. That's Hunter. He's, he's taken his hands off a lot of things, but one thing he hasn't taken his hands on is the production of the fight night. Right. And that's been such a—

wait, they have a guy in UFC called Hunter also?

Hunter Campbell.

Huh.

He's the, he's the head matchmaker. He's like the second hand guy.

Yeah.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley is the head matchmaker in WWE.

Interesting.

But really, But I'm trying to help my teammate out.

That's not a common name, but also it's a kayfabe name. His name is not actually Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

Yeah, it's Triple H. Speaking of fake names, I saw an ad here the other day for an attorney. It just says accident in giant letters with a question mark. And then the attorney's name is Amanda Demanda.

She had to change her name legally.

Amanda Demanda. It's in Spanish.

I know. It's not a real name. Like, I don't know.

That's not true. It's now her real name.

Well, but anyway, so the point I was making before you came in with Amanda Amanda is that to Zazzle's point, they, they had these 40-minute stretches in WrestleMania where they had commercials and all this stuff. Like, UFC is militant about the times between fights, what they fill that, that time in with. They're putting a promo on, they're doing some sort of story. Like, they're very tight on the broadcast of not allowing 1,000 commercials and all these different things. Like, if there's a knockout in a fight, you're getting a 5-minute piece and then you're getting on to the next fight. Like, they're very quick on moving things over.

Roy, what is your video of the day today?

Uh, yeah, uh, you have more knowledge about this than I do, Dan.

All right, let's go ahead and put up Roy's video of the day. Just put it in a corner and just, uh, run it for a little while as we, uh, talk about other things and move on, uh, to other things. What are you like?

I told you Coachella's stupid, Mike. Look at that.

What are you laughing?

It looks very dangerous, a bunch of tents. Twisting in the wind. They gotta land somewhere. Wow, that's a nice video.

Yeah, good job, Roy.

Thanks.

Excellent effort by you. Can I talk a little bit here about what has happened over the last 4 days, where you go from the Clippers being eliminated and possibly ending Kawhi's time with the Clippers, with Draymond Green playing unbelievable defense on Kawhi Leonard, and Kawhi Leonard saying after the game, he's a Hall of Fame defender, what do you want me to do? So you go from that to they get blown out, their season is over. Steve Kerr says there's an expiration date on jobs like his, which feels like goodbye. And it ends with Draymond Green not surprisingly being ejected, uh, you know, down double digits. Their season, their disaster season, and really the end of a dynasty, right? Because Klay leaving there become the end of the dynasty. The, the dynasty was still holding on to, can Steph come back and resuscitate something over the last 3 years? But that's the official end of the dynasty when you lose, not getting into the playoffs. And not surprisingly, at the end of the game, Draymond Green just gets thrown out talking on what I imagine will be the punctuation of all of that being over there.

Uh, Golden State ending that franchise's run for a decade quietly with their furnace of fury, just sort of barking at the crowd and doing the professional wrestling stuff on the way off the court. What are your thoughts on that being over now when that was— they've been the Patriots for the last 10 years. Like what? What the basketball equivalent of what the Patriots were for 20 years is what the Warriors have been.

Yeah, uh, not, not, not too different from where the Heat sit right now, where there's no real direction and they have older players. Now look, Steph Curry is still a really, really good older player, but they have older players who make a ton of money. And I mean, the Heat have been in the playoffs 4 consecutive years, the Warriors 3 consecutive years. Like, it's kind of a similar spot, and it doesn't feel like they're going to trade anyone. They're kind of just stuck, but they still have Steph Curry. Yeah, they saw someone fun.

He's an alien. And while I do think that this is different, it should be noted we were having similar conversations about the whole Golden State thing being done in 2021 when they were eliminated from the play-in by the Memphis Grizzlies. And in 2022, they won the NBA championship. So they found themselves in this spot before and they rebounded to the very top of the sport.

4 years is a long time.

I understand. Yeah, but Steph Curry is going to continue to age well in that sport, even though I'll admit he's been more hurt this year than I think anybody anticipated.

They were able to make tweaks with that roster in a way that they might be unable to because of the Jimmy Butler money. They have $60 million wrapped up in him. Now, if you can get another team to bite on that being an expiring deal and maybe attaching more, it's just a matter of whether they're willing to sacrifice the future for one last run at it when the West looks the way that it does, or if they want to just kind of ride it out.

It's over. It's over. It's— it is over in Golden State.

Did you think it was over in 2021?

No, there's an organizational reset that's going to happen here. They're going to not be able to get an inexperienced coach because you can't have Jimmy Butler on your team. I would assume— I would assume that Steph Curry does not end his career with the Warriors.

Really? That's a big day.

Well, then, if you have one takeaway, the one take I was going to say is that Steph still has a lot in the tank. Obviously, he had 27 missed games because of a knee injury, but like, if he's healthy and ready to go, like, that's a guy that can help any team instantly.

Well, if the NBA thinks that the Warriors thing is over, then for those that are whale hunting, you're prioritizing the wrong guys.

So here is some sound, wired for sound. It ends unceremoniously, but this is the last of the dynasty here. These three guys, it's Draymond and Steph and Steve Kerr, and they're wired for sound. And you tell me if this doesn't sound like Steve Kerr saying goodbye.

I don't know what's going to happen next, but I love you guys to death. Thank you.

Appreciate you.

That, that might be him saying goodbye to Draymond.

Yeah.

Nah, he's tapping both of them. Yeah, yeah, it's a cool moment.

Yeah, I don't know, that, that could— yes, you could say that's him saying goodbye. It's definitely him saying goodbye to somebody.

Uh, you guys are of the belief that Steph plays his entire career with the Warriors?

He's one of those guys that is hard to Especially when you consider he's still like really good.

I saw Wade play for 2 more teams.

I know they have different—

they have to—

that was about money.

They have to restructure everything though. And now the coach that, that he's comfortable with and that he's used to, if you bring someone else in there, Steph, Steph must not recognize what is presently happening. The idea that Steph's team doesn't make the playoffs.

Yeah, but they're not. What happened with Dwyane Wade is the Miami Heat were projecting his style of play, the fact that his game might have tailed off a little bit, injuries catching up with him. And while you can maybe latch on to the injuries with Steph Curry and everybody's always been worried about his ankles, he is held up as the example of like, that guy— you want to talk about LeBron playing to 50? That guy is going to be lethal from the outside for as long as he wants. He could be a 65-year-old man and you cannot leave him open.

They only have $15 million on the books for '27-'28. So they have all this money wrapped up in next year. But after next year, when so many of those deals are expiring contracts, they haven't extended Podziemski, they haven't extended De'Anthony Melton or anybody like that. They have $15 million and 13 of those are Moses Moody. They'll have tremendous financial flexibility after next season if he's still playing on that level. He might stick around and watch them build one last thing around him.

He's got one year, $62 million left. That's '26, '27. '27, '20, he's a unrestricted free agent. So it's like you're looking at Steph and you're like, all right, is he on the timeline of maybe I go over and help another team try to get a championship? Because there's so many teams in the West that he can fit in perfectly.

And it's like, oh, he fits anywhere. He fits anywhere. He was asked, okay, how many years he has left on his career, and he said multiple for sure. He was asked if he was interested in extension, he said for sure, but none of those Conversations have happened, so it'll be a busy summer for the Warriors. Ramona Shelburne is reporting that if Kerr, uh, leaves, it could signal the start of a much deeper sweeping shift. That path has been described by several team sources as an organizational reset and could lead to further notable changes to the roster and coaching staff. Uh, those folks were very loud— Lacob loudest among them— of saying that they were light years We're light years ahead of everybody. And now they didn't make the playoffs in a league that you can make the argument after the first week of playoff games that there are 10 teams in that league that aren't trying and there are 10 more that aren't good enough. And then there are 10 more that are closer to having a championship chance and really 5 that have an actual championship chance unless you get flukery out of the 3-pointer.

But notable changes in Golden State. You've gone from your owner saying we're light years ahead of everybody to You didn't make the playoffs and you lost to the team that just lost by 100 to Oklahoma City and has no chance in that series. None. Zero. 0% chance the Phoenix Suns have of knocking out Oklahoma City. You didn't make the playoffs. Now, I understand that you were hurt this year. It's not an accurate assessment because Steph didn't play. But if you're light-years ahead of everybody, you don't keep Steph. You go and get whatever Steph demands now because Steph's not going to be worth in 2 or 3 years what he's worth Right now. Right now. He's still somebody who changes an entire franchise's hope and ticket prices right now. But he's 37. Like, Mike can say what he's saying. He's right. The jump shot's not going anywhere. He's going to be able to make jumpers. But he was hurt more. That's what happens when you age. You're going to sit there with him and Jimmy Butler. You're going to— you're going to see how that goes again with Jimmy Butler. You're not going to see how that goes again with Draymond, are you?

If, if Steph Curry, and we just heard him say it there, plans to play several more years, wants a contract extension. So it's going to be a busy summer for the Warriors. There's no way that you trade him if he doesn't want to play somewhere else.

There's no way.

There's no— and I'll tell you what else. The place where Golden State really screwed up, and yes, they ended up winning another championship in 2022, but the place where they really screwed up up, and especially for a franchise who's light years in front of everybody. They had the number 2 overall pick in the 2020 draft and they got nothing. Nothing.

That would have extended his career.

They got nothing.

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Die Luft in Schottland ist voller Geschichten, von Legenden, von verborgenen Seen, von mystischen Burgen im Morgenlicht. Doch das größte Geschenk Schottlands ist die Herzlichkeit seiner Menschen. Und seine wilde Schönheit abseits der üblichen Pfade. Schreibe deine eigene Schottland-Geschichte mit TripAdvisor und VisitScotland. Besuche tripadvisor.de/schottland, um mehr zu erfahren. Dan lebba tart!

To us residents?

Oh wow! It's pretty good!

You think I haven't been practicing?

Stugatz! I didn't realize we had a substitute complicated legacy translation!

Brought you by Headquarters Road, huh?

441 Powerline Road.

Second down and 9.

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

Can you guys explain to me though, uh, who else you're putting in this category with Steph as a guy who's gonna get exactly the ending that he wants with the team that he wants? That, like, I feel like this one goes bad all the time with the aging superstar. You'll get Okay, but the last thing we heard from somebody before he signed his recent extension, they brought up before one of his MVP ceremonies, they brought up, well, we don't know if we need to trade him in 4 or 5 years.

Yeah, Cronky just brought up when nobody was talking about it. It was weird. We could trade Jokic.

It was weird.

It's uncalled for.

So Jokic is fine now, but it's been like a 5-year run of Jokic. I'm saying in the class of of the ending is coming and no one gets the nice ending anymore. Giannis isn't getting it. Dame isn't getting it. There's the nice ending.

Dame is kind of getting it now, right?

That nobody is in the position that you're granting Steph, which is that he's such a warrior that you cannot, uh, imagine right now the Warriors, uh, without him. But you're not putting a lot of people in that class in basketball. It's become a transient sport for no matter how you are.

Dan, I'm a big fan of what you're doing right now. No one's talking about Steph Curry potentially being available, maybe with good reason, because why would you? But man, do I want this guy in the conversation.

The guy that gets the ending that everybody wants just because he's been a mercenary his whole life, James Harden, can kind of go out and everybody's like, hey, yeah, James Harden, that guy's hell of a career.

He's getting exactly the ending he wanted. Yeah, it just confuses the hell out of everybody, but he's doing what he wants.

I don't know if you guys saw though that James Harden is a 36% career 3-point shooter and he's shooting 40 54% in Cleveland. And not only that, Jared Allen wants to spend all his time with James Harden because all it is is Jared Allen at the rim with—

I wonder why—

with lobs from the weekends. As you were saying that you didn't like any of the games, the only interesting one— well, I did like the play-in games. The play-in games were fun. And I'm not going to just skip past the fact that the oldest player in the league is beating the Houston Rockets, whether they have Kevin Durant or not. I'm not going to become immune to the greatness of LeBron James by seeing the oldest player in the league win a playoff game when he doesn't have his, his two best players and he's out there with the greatest shooter anyone's ever seen, Kinnard, according to Stan Van Gundy. Old Luke Kinnard.

I owe him an apology. I have a top 5 guys that I shouldn't have doubted their game to start the first weekend of the NBA playoffs.

Uh, he made all of his shots. Uh, Stan Van Gundy has said he— hasn't he said he's a better shooter than Steph?

He just says he's the best pure shooter he's ever seen, but he, but he can't get a shot off the way Steph. And he hit the backboard that one time.

Well, maybe he's never seen I mean, Zazz definitely owes the Lakers an apology. I said Lakers weren't going to win a single game in the playoffs.

Ah, game is how he said it.

That was a no thank you, Tony.

I mean, I didn't know that Durant was not gonna—

we'll see a little bit.

I don't get like a mulligan for that, that Durant didn't play? Kind of a big thing.

Well, I would say which, which is a bigger thing? Just hypothetically, before that game is being played, if I tell you Doncic and Austin Reeves are out—

but I knew Doncic and Reeves were out.

I know, but if I simply say to to you which is— which harms which team the worst? Durant being out or Doncic?

Good question.

And Reaves both, both being out, and LeBron spending the game, uh, throwing the ball to DeAndre Ayton, who last time we heard from JJ Redick said he just has trouble catching the ball.

It's a question. It's a good question.

Yes, I understand that your prediction was before Durant was out, so you're, you're saying do you deserve a mulligan?

Oh my God, says, well, Panthers missed the playoffs.

I didn't know everybody's I mean, your prediction was before we knew what the matchup was, period. So it could have been literally against anyone, and you said they won't win.

I don't know about that. So now you're doing mental gymnastics.

You want to go back and find the first time?

I don't know about that. I'm just predicting they're not gonna— how did I know that they weren't gonna play, uh, Portland in the first round?

Could I have given you a better symbolic ending to the Warriors season than them losing by double digits and Draymond Green getting ejected with 17 seconds left for arguing with Devin Booker and then taunting the crowd on his way out.

Chef's kiss ending. I mean, if we were writing the movie, we'd be like, ah, come on, what are you doing?

I mean, he's just— but he's just— he won't shut up, okay? He's down double digits. You explain this to me because it's something I legitimately don't understand.

Loves not shutting up.

Yeah, but when you're down, your season's over.

Like, that's just the best time to do it. You got nothing left.

But all, all that's there though is crybaby frustration that's not in any way adult. It's just lashing out, right?

He's acting such a fool as he was walking off the court.

But it's not— when you think of, okay, we think of how many times do you see in hockey a playoff series ends and somebody's indignant because one person in the entire hockey playoffs didn't shake hands with the other guys. And look at how Draymond does it. And they must be so tired of him inside of that locker room. They, they just have to be. It, it has to be a daily kind of wearying that this person exists and won't shut up. No, you— we all know this person, right? That no matter what they're presented with, they just won't shut up.

I'm telling you, if we were to play the Steve Kerr thing again, I'm pretty sure when he says, I don't know what's going to happen next, I think he's looking right at Draymond.

All right, Draymond is the only one that responds.

Like, you hear Draymond say, "I love you too." Alright, well, let's see this for a second, 'cause I thought Steve Kerr was talking about himself. I didn't think he was talking— but let's see if he was looking at Draymond here. Let's look at this again.

I don't know what's gonna happen next, but I love you guys to death. Thank you.

Appreciate you.

Okay, when he was saying, "I don't know what's gonna happen next," he was looking at Draymond. When he said, "Thank you," he turned to Steph.

He's patting them both on the back.

I'm on to you, Steve Kerr.

I do think he said, "Thank you and I love you" to Steph and said, "I don't know what's gonna happen next" to Draymond.

On to you, man.

What else from the playoff weekend, hockey or basketball, got your attention? Because you checked out on the basketball playoffs.

I gave hockey a try this year.

And you were rewarded. I think there were some really good games on the hockey side.

Oh, the Canadiens. That's who I root for when the Panthers are out.

Dan, it was during COVID and people may have missed this, but it's rare when you get a first-round matchup that's a Stanley Cup rematch. And that's what we have with the 2021 Western Conference champion Montreal Canadiens taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning. That is going to be a great series. When they played during the regular season, these matchups were a little feisty. As you know, whenever you play in a Stanley Cup, those emotions never really go away. And it was really cool to see meaningful playoff hockey back in Buffalo for a crowd that was starved. I guess from a silver lining from this whole season is you kind of get some new crowds out, getting to taste playoff hockey, and they are not taking it for granted while the Panthers sit this one out.

Dan, the first playoff game of the weekend was the Canes and the Senators, and this never happens in playoff hockey. They dropped the puck on the opening faceoff, but you could see right before they dropped the puck, Jordan Staal, captain of the Canes, is taking the faceoff, he's a center, and Brady Kachuk, captain of the Senators, he's on the wing and Kachuk looks at Stahl, goes, 'You want to go?' and Stahl just shakes his head yes. And so they drop the— it's the opening faceoff of the entire playoffs.

Brayden Kachuk is fine.

They drop the puck, they both immediately drop the gloves, they're throwing haymakers. That shit was awesome.

Andersen was unbelievable in that game. We got Anaheim-Edmonton as a sneaky really fun one right now. The NHL playoffs always deliver. I'm so happy Zazz finally made it.

I'm giving it a try. Hi.

When you say you're a fan of the Canadiens, that's not something I was aware of when the hockey— when the hockey has eliminated the Panthers. Is it that you're a fan of the Canadiens or you hate Tampa?

No, both. Obviously hate Tampa. I'd be rooting hard for whoever they're playing, but no, I want the Canadiens to win it all. My family's from Montreal. Yeah, I lived there when I was little, so I've always liked the Canadiens.

Great American player that plays for Montreal too, Cole Caufield.

The basketball from the weekend, you tuned it out.

Terrible.

You're fearing that this is what it's going to be, right? No, no. Well, because this, this margin of victory is unusual, and this keeps happening with the three-pointers, right? Where the teams are separated in terms of who's good and who's great in a way that's fairly obvious, right? Like, don't you think I have it right when I say in that league where we are 10 of the teams aren't trying at all, and the next 10 up aren't good enough in a way that is going to distort many of the results. You didn't have any close games.

There was only—

and there was only one that was interesting, and it was because Orlando was ahead by like 9 the entire game against Detroit.

But that was the closest of all the games, I believe.

None of the games were in doubt in the fourth quarter.

Uh, that's not great. And it happens more than it used to, like, because, because numerically everyone has just— they've just distorted the game so much with all of these threes.

That, that's the part that, that has troubled me about the NBA playoffs over the last few years, where I think there's less and less moments in the late games because the game is played so much faster— slower in the playoffs than regular season— but because the game is played so much faster in the playoffs and it's just 3-pointer after 3-pointer after 3-pointer. There are less individual great huge moments than there used to be.

The average point difference in the games in basketball was— you want to take a guess? You guys want to take an average guess?

This weekend?

Yes, take a stab at the, the average number.

17?

18.1 was the number. There was one single-digit game, and that brought down the average because 18.1 is crazy. And, and, uh, you know, Denver started slow. I thought Jokic was interested in saying he didn't want the rest. They were, they were rolling and he didn't want to take 6 days off. Uh, Detroit gets clubbed at home because Orlando's been playing playoff games for a week.

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