Transcript of Hour 1: Tony's Kon Knueppel Take New

This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast.

Big media news yesterday in the NFL world. I like media news. I like that stuff. I don't know. It's a little bit niche. Yeah. Yeah, I like it. Yesterday, I saw, and this comes on the heels of the whole Belichick Hall of Fame fiasco, Tony Dungy out at Football Night of America.

How about that? I read that, and Tony Dungy seems like a nice man. I've never understood his role, what makes him a compelling broadcaster. It's odd.

He seems really nice and also really polarizing.

Yes.

Well, he's been doing it for a really long time where you're looking around like, How long has Tony Dungy been on TV? And does he add anything? I don't really remember anything that he said. In fact, his moment on TV was getting yelled at by Rodney Harrison. I'm like, All right, that's good. If his role is to be yelled at, I think I'm in on this. But usually these studio shows, they cycle through these talents. And he'd been doing it for close to 15 years. At a certain point, what makes you keep that job?

So, Dave, what Mike is referencing there, you remember this? The last time we saw Tony Dungey on television, this was ahead of the Super Bowl, and Rodney Harrison dressed him down over the Belichick situation.

Which is any list that doesn't include Bill Belichick at the top is absolutely wrong. And a lot of those players that we mentioned, they're great players. I played with Drew Brees. I played with Adam Denetari, but there's nobody more deserving to be in that Hall of Fame than Coach Belichick. I've seen his greatness. I've seen him design defenses to stop your offense. You just look at the players that he's impacted. He's been unbelievable. When I look out throughout the Hall of Fame and even a guy like Tom braided, Tom braided wouldn't be Tom braided without Bill Belichick. That's the disappointing part of it, Coach, and you guys got it wrong.

I don't think I'm speaking out of term when I say Rodney Harrison, I believe, is legitimately dressing down Tony Dungy there. Because if you were just talking about Belichick and the whole situation with Belichick not having made the Hall of Fame, I feel like he would have turned to the camera a couple of times where he's like, he's talking to America, he's talking to the audience here. He He is straight up telling him, You're wrong, player.

Yeah, he said two things. One is, shut down your offense. That's a direct one, not a generic. Oh, he shut down great offense. He shut down your offense. And two is, you guys got it wrong. I don't know.

And so that's-And Dunji refuses to admit which way he voted. He still has not admitted.

I don't like this part of it. The idea that if you didn't do it, that you should just say, I didn't do it. It wasn't me. It doesn't necessarily mean that he voted against me.

Right, but you know what it implies, though.

You got it wrong implies you and whoever it is that you voted like.

No, but Dunji not admitting it. I understand what you're saying where Dunji, look, he's trying to do the admirable thing where, No, even if I voted that way, I still I can tell you because I believe in not sharing the vote. But in this situation, we all know not sharing which way you vote means, Tony, you know all of us now believe you didn't vote for Belichick.

He could have corrected that. What is curious to me, first of all, did Rodney Harrison... Rodney Harrison, likely, the producer says to him, the pregame producer says, Hey, guys, we're going to talk about the Belichick thing. And obviously, Coach Dungy, you are a part of the committee, and Rodney, you're raw about this, so this should be a pretty good conversation. They're coached up for the conversation. Did Rodney Harrison say to the producer, Otherwise, I'm going to go at Dungy here. Is that okay with everybody? I bet you he did. Bet you he didn't just go in on his own like that. Big shocker, everybody. I'm going after my colleague. I bet you got signed off. If that's true, did they say to him, Go ahead, feel free, man. Go ahead, go at him, and knowing we feel like he's running his course for us anyway.

Dave, I got to say, as someone who did a live studio show for years at ESPN, yes, you are prepped on the conversation. Sometimes they'll tell you who the... So and so is going to take the other stance or whatever. But it's live TV, man. He could absolutely audible that.

That's called going into business for yourself.

Is that what it's called? Yeah, he could absolutely audible that and say, I'm going to go more pointed. I can be hot on it, but I'm going to be pointed because hot on it is just everything he said minus your offense and minus you got it wrong.

I agree. But I also think having done those pre-production meetings and everything else, they do get a hint of where you're going to take things. I would not be surprised if Rodney Harrison said, given the gravity of like, I'm going to go at this guy who's a Hall of Fame voter, and I want to get into the Hall of Fame myself, and I feel like I've been left on the outside as well. But I'm here to talk about Belichick. I could see them saying like, Yeah, go ahead, dude. Do that. Go after him there.

Because the other part of this is the people in the production meeting, those producers, they have no idea about contract negotiations. They have no idea like, Oh, Dungy is not coming back. That's not something that they know. I know this because the first time they tried to get my ass up out of ESPN, they gave me a deal that basically was like, You could be on TV 10 times a whole year. I'd blown through that in the first two months because the producers who produced the shows that I did were not privy to that contractual conversation.

I know, but that's your main... As though that's a universal rule. I mean, some producers know what's going on. They know this guy is running out the string here. He's not going to be back with us next season. There's some producers involved that would know that.

How quickly do they call Tomlin for that job?

I think Tomlin is not doing anything. And I think the biggest indicator is that he didn't even have this goodbye from Pittsburgh, no goodbye to the press and his chums. I think Mike Tomlin wants nothing to do with football for a little bit.

I'm inclined to agree with you. Who's your choice, Mike?

That's available right now? That's a good question. Now, I know that these broadcasters have been really hot on the idea of getting Mike Tomlin. They've reached out to him in previous years where his name wasn't in the mix. But I believe that Mike Tomlin, at least for the moment, wants to stay away from it.

If he decides to retire Travis, Kelsey?

Yeah, I would really make a run. I know he's coaching and he's really enjoying that. I would love Philip Rivers on these broadcasts.

Oh, yeah. That's a great call.

Yeah. Remember when Jay Cutler first retired, there was talks of him being in a Fox booth, and then he just never did that.

No, he wasn't in the booth at some point?

Did he do a call?

I feel like he did a couple of games.

He did, but they said, You can't smoke in here. And he was like, Why?

Maybe not in the booth is where I would just like to see his energy, his toxic energy around the game a little bit more.

Can I step in here on behalf of everyone who wasn't a former player who did a studio show? Can you not replace the coach with another player? Can we get another coach in there? Because I see this a lot where we're like, more players, more players, more players.

I went off the board because everyone's just going to naturally pick a head coach to replace him. I'm good. The coaches don't usually give me much.

They give you some. There's a guy who's really good. He's probably going to be playing maybe for Davy Stealers coming up. But Kirk Cousins on TV has been excellent. Yeah, he's been awesome. He breaks it down in a way that is super digestible. It's easy to understand what he's talking about from a quarterback's perspective. I think Kirk can do really well on TV.

If the goal is he, attention, and that is the game, as I've been told by a mean that that's what you want, then I don't think you could do any better than Aaron Rodgers.

He would never do it. Would he want to do it? He would never do it.

I'm floating out there. He need to be a huge.

I think he would, by the way. Massive hypocrite if he does it.

I think he would. I think he likes talking.

We've never seen that before, a massive hypocrite.

The hypocrites that turn around and end up being some of our most charming analysts that we watch on TV. John Madden, people cannot have them the idea that until he left the Raiders, most of football America hated him. He was a curmudgeon. He was not a delightful, heavyset fellow who just loves talking about our favorite pastime.

Has that movie come out yet?

No. Someone quit, right?

Well, because the- David O'Russell?

There was a slur that was- David O'Russell might have uttered a slur on set.

Casually on set. There were stories- Why did he do that? There's some stuff to him.

What do you say? David O'Russell is known to be a provocative- Did he do Silver Linings?

Isn't that him, too?

Yeah. He's been known to do provocative things to get the most out of his actors and cross lines at times. It's not clear whether this was, again, part of this master plan of him to, Let me get something out of these guys, or if it was just like Mike said, just casually dropped there. But he said something, and one of the main actress, not Nicolas Cage and not Christian Bale, but someone else quit, said, I'm not working on this.

There's this class of director in Hollywood, and David O'Russell seems like an old school, like a William Friedken type of director.

Frieden, absolutely.

Yeah, there was a great documentary on what a jerk he was on the set. Michael Mann has also driven people batty on the set.

I got a great freaking story on... Not basketball, I'm not batspolin, I assume on Cinephope. Cinephope is a podcast I do with Zack Harper. We watch movies that are poorly rated on Rotten Tomato and try to ascertain whether they're accurately rated or maybe they didn't get a fair shake. Cinephope, you get it wherever you get It's produced by Anthony Mays. This week, by the way, we've got the movie Senseless, the 1997 movie Senseless with David Spade and Marlon Wayne. Marlon Wayne. Yes.

But on Cinephope- Get out of here with that movie.

That movie wasn't that bad from what I remember. You may want to rewatch it. It was of the time.

You may want to rewatch it. Yeah, it was bad. Absolutely of the time. What was it about? I didn't catch that one. Senseless. I like that he takes an experimental drug and his senses are heightened, but he can't control them because he's Marlon Wayne. Got you. So he's falling in. But on Cinepho.

It's a riot.

We did Blue Chips, the great William Pregan movie with nick Nolte. What a movie. Shaquille O'Neill, Anthony Hardaway. It is absolutely an amazing movie. You know about Butch McRay? All about that Butch McRay.

You know about Leon Badeau?

Deon Bateau. Deon Bateau. No. Leon Badeau.

Leon Badeau.

That's not Leon.

Bobby Herb. Neon Bateau. It's Neon. We were both the one. Cream and crimson. Shame the devil.

The point is, Good friend and the guy who played Tony in Blue Chips, whose name is actually Tony in real life, tells the scene about when nick Nolte discovers that he was point-shaving, he rushes up into the- He was so hurt. And he grabs him and he says, Is it true? Is it true? He's like, Come on. He just goes, But we won the game anyway. The tears and all that stuff. Apparently, freaking right before that scene, smacked him. Not like a lap.

Who did Nolte?

No, he smacked Tony. Tony. Tony's thing was like, You know you could have just told me, I want you to really... You didn't have to do that. But it's a great scene. It comes out, but it goes back to what Mike is talking about. By the way, go back and listen to Cinephobe episode on Blue Chips. If you go into Spotify and just search Blue Chips on the Cinepho, you'll find it. We have all that conversation with Tony, who's incredible. But yeah, there's a class of director in Hollywood. It's from yesteryear where it's like, Hey, my job is to I get the performance out of you, and there are no lines. It's not how I feel for real. It's not how I would actually act. But in this scenario where the cameras are here and the lights are on, I will do whatever it takes to get that performance out of you. David O'Russell certainly fits that bill.

Yeah, and he's a filmmaker that is known to get these great performances out of actors. Michael Mann is really one of the lone holdovers along with David O'Russell. There is a new school way to do that. Aronowski is a director that is often thought of as a guy that if you work with him, You're going to have a good shot at an Oscar because you're going to deliver the performance of your career. But a lot of those guys land on the wrong side.

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Don Levatard. It doesn't matter anywhere. We could do it in Buffalo or Baltimore, either. He said you could do it where? Anywhere. Oh, whoa. No, that's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. He said he could do it anyway. That's crazy, murder. Tell him. Stugatz.

I had no idea if Mena had that in his locker.

That might be his best. I'm not kidding. That's crazy, killer. It's two America's dead. You don't get it?

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugats.

I've read a similar situation to that we're talking about from Blue Chips recently with the movie Whiplash, where the very famous scene where he is at a different tempo when J. K. Simmons smacks him while he's berating him, that the smacking was not in the script. He didn't tell Miles Teller that he was going to smack him, but he did it in the scene. Obviously, Miles Teller, being a good enough actor, just rolled with it.

Very similar scenario happened in the movie Starsky & Hutch. When Vince Vawn slapped Snoop Dog, Snoop said, That wasn't in the script. He smacked the shit out of me. I got upset. He said, Part of me was going to kill him, and part of me was like, You're an actor. Stay with it. They finished the scene and said, As soon as they finish the scene, Vince Vawn hugs him and says, Please don't kill me. That's awesome. I just felt it. I just went within the moment, so they had a good laugh. By the way, that's Cinephobe episode, 214, Blue Chips.

Amine, it is now time for a segment that is sweeping the nation. It's called, Do You Know About That?

I thought it was who he played for.

Is this Bal with taba?

Amine, I go over a few big stories in the NBA. Everybody learns a little bit, and we find out if you know about that. You ready for you to know about that?

Got to earn or got to learn.

All right, Amine. So Matt Ispia, he's the owner of the Phoenix Suns. He came out recently. What do you say? And he said, that's why I gave it. And he said, Next year, the All-Star Game, which is being hosted by Phoenix, you'll be there.

That's where you live. You live there. I do.

Matt Ispia, in order to ramp up the competition is offering a million dollars, his own money, to the winner of the three-point, to the winner of the slam dunk, and it will also be matched to charity. You know about that?

I did not know about that. I'm learning it right now. But I'll say a couple of things. Number one, I've gone on the record as saying next year is going to be the greatest All-Star Weekend ever, ever. Hands down. There's not a city in America that can touch us, maybe New Orleans, but no one else can touch us as far as hosting All-Star Weekend. Why? It's just a combination of our weather is awesome. Our building is brand new. We have no traffic. Our things are all located centrally. All the stuff is downtown or Old Town, Scottsdale. Even so, there's 20 minutes car ride apart, plenty of Ubers, super easy airport that's in the middle of town, a lot of direct flights. No one is going to touch us. We are the epitome of- Phoenix sounds nice, dude. It is awesome.

Yeah, I've never been.

That's awesome. The thing is, 25 minutes away, though. That's the one thing. But it's fine.

25 minutes? You live in Miami, bro.

No, I know. It's fine. 25 minutes to get to the car. No, but there's Glendale, Scottsdale. They're far away.

Glendale. Nobody's going out to Glendale. If you're all-star weekend and someone says, Let's go to Glendale for this? They're lying to you. They're trying to rob you. This is what's happening. But to the Matt Ishmael thing, this is what I like about Matt Ishmael. He's a guy that isn't afraid to throw money at problems. For whatever it takes. So this idea sounds great. It sounds amazing. It's in line with a lot of stuff he's done to really improve the fan experience in Phoenix, including dropping concession prices. There's a dollar waters, dollar hot dogs, dollar popcorn at Suns games every game. Having said that, an NBA owner offering a million dollars of his own cash to the winner of competitions who will be most likely playing for teams that are not his That's tampering. Unless it's a three-point contest because he's got a guy named Devon Booker who could win, that's Capser Convention.

Interesting. Can't he just get one of his companies to be the sponsor?

Yeah, no one would ever be able to trace that. No one. Well, maybe there's one guy in New York.

All right, so Santee, you know about that?

He's got a podcast, that one best sports podcast of the year. The Haunted episode? What's up? The Haunted episode? Not the Haunted episode. I think it's just overall. It's overall. But that's a piece of it. And by the way, we have a big episode dropping today about NBA gambling. We dug deeper with Pablo Tori finds out, and they're going to do a live watchalong today.

Zaz, that was a very long answer from Amin, and I know you're trying to- But he knows about that.

That's why.

Yeah, he does know about that. Can I very quickly just ask? Because you mentioned NBA gambling and point shaving earlier. Yes. I am one of these people. How does point shaving work? How do you successfully shave points and still win the game but make sure you maintain the margin needed? Doesn't it feel like you should miss a lot of the time with that? Got to land in between. You got to land right in the middle there. That's hard to do.

Dave, I'm so glad you asked that I'm sure there are millions of people listening. It's like, Yeah, I had the same question. Pablo Tori finds out on YouTube. About this? We have video evidence of what it looks like to point shade. Wow.

But how do you make sure? Okay, we're going to win. We're not going to score too many. We got to come in under five and a half there. It's got to be tough.

It's not easy. Must lose some games. It's got to look natural. And spoiler alert, this guy did not make it look natural.

Amin, the Los Los Angeles Lakers, they have hired Tony Bennett. That's right. The great Tony Bennett, former Virginia coach. That is not him at all that is on the video screen right now. I love my heart, San Francisco. Different Tony Bennett. They hired Tony Bennett as a draft advisor. Does JJ Reddick have to be worried? Do you know about that?

I do know about that because I had a great conversation with Mike Ryan this morning about people who annoy despite not having done much against you in their lives.

Tony Bennett gets under my skin, and he hasn't done anything outside of having a terrible style of play. Right.

Well, that's it.

He quit when NIL came around, and he was just like, This thing, so I'm going to go. There was a game over the weekend where Miami was at Virginia. It was a really great game, back and forth the entire time. Tough finish. Tony Bennett was in on the broadcast for 10 minutes. He got a picture and picture. I'm like, Get this guy off the screen. I hate him. And then news came out yesterday that he's helping the Lakers as a draft advisor. I'm like, I'm not happy for him.

Stop. So you know about that?

I do. I don't like him. I don't know why. He didn't do much, but he sets me off.

A national championship.

No, I mean, he didn't do much to bother me. He just said one thing about NIL that landed the wrong way on the wrong day.

I mean, you know about that, though?

I know about that, and I'm going to tell you guys this. First of all, JJ Redik couldn't give two shits about the draft. He's worried about his team. It's not like the NFL where the coaches are very involved with, Hey, what are we doing in this offseason thing? Nba coaches are very much focused on just coaching the team. Now, every once in a while, they'll come in and say, Hey, you know who's the hell of a player? I saw that guy on TV last weekend in between me getting lunch or whatever. And front offices, most of the time say, Yeah, Coach, good job. We've seen him go back to work because the scouts have watched these guys for years, and the coach may have caught the second half of a March Madness game, and he thinks he's got an opinion. But to bring in a college coach, this is nothing to see here behavior in the NBA. Almost every NBA front office has a former college coach, and it's not for them to tell you, You know who's really good? This guy. It's because of all the dirt. These guys recruited these guys. They scout against them.

They've got other friends, especially if it's a former coach. They got other friends who are actively coaching, and they'll tell you things about the player that you cannot see. It's all about intel. I would say it's a good hire because Tony Bennett probably knows a lot of current coaches.

All right, everybody settled down. Sounds like you know about that. Amin, the San Antonio Spurs last night. They won at the Toronto Raptors, 110, 107. They don't lose anymore. They won 10 in a row, the Spurs. Even when Victor Wembanyama doesn't have a big game, they had 12 points and eight rebounds last night. Whatever. They still get a real good road win at Toronto. Spurs never lose anymore. I mean, you know about that?

I know all about that. The Spurs are on fire, and Oklahoma City better watch its back. Everyone's talking about Detroit. You might not have homecoming advantage in the finals to Oklahoma City. Guess what? They might not have a home-court advantage in the conference finals, and it's even more steeped up when you think about, Okay, so what? We'll just go on the road. Yeah, go on the road against a team that whooped your ass four out of five times this year. Shout out to the NBA Cup for giving us a fifth matchup between the Spurs and the Thunder.

Not only that, when you look at a young team like that, it's so much better to play at home in those big-time scenarios than going to probably the best atmosphere. I'd say the best atmosphere in the NBA in Oklahoma City. It's great. Fully loaded. It's insane. To have those six, six, sevens at your place with a young core like they do is a super big deal.

Have Having said that, if Oklahoma City is healthy, I'm taking OKC over San Antonio.

Really? All right. Sounds like you know about that, Amine. Amine, tonight, you have what we could call a tank off. The New Orleans Pelicans are facing the Utah Jazz. But did you see DeJante DeJante Murray. Dejante Murray, he has been accused of requesting a trade before the deadline, and he fired back on Twitter about that, all right? Dejante Murray tweeted yesterday, Let's clear the air because F a source. Me or my agent never requested a trade out of New Orleans. The whole organization know I was locked in to come back better than ever to help make this play and push and whatever comes after that. This what? I mean, you know about that 17 and 42 play and push?

All right, You know, sometimes when you say, Hey, it's best to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. That's where Dejante Mary is. You shouldn't have said anything. You shouldn't have said anything. But shout out to Mirren Fader of The Athletic. She wrote a very nice feature on Dejante Mary the other day that came out on The Athletic/The New York Times. Go read it. It's not a tank-a-fond. Tank-a-fond? Tank-off? Tank-off. It's not a tank-off. I'm going to tell you why. New Orleans does not control its pick. It goes to Atlanta because of the Derry Queen deal. Believe it or not, when you look at the New Orleans Pelicans and you see 17 and 42, it's like, These tankers. Nope, they're actually God awful. Honest to God, they have every incentive to try to win, and they just can't do it. Not a tank off. Now, the Utah Jazz, on the other hand. Lauri marketing, you see this? Yeah.

Tell that story.

Lauri marketing got hurt at practice and needs an MRI. Oh, my God, I think Lauri might be shut down for the year. This goes back to my whole thing about tanking. You can't stop it. But what we can stop is the egregious tanking. The egregious tanking of like, Hey, we're up. Sit them. That's wild. But the, Oh, my back. It's done. You can't stop it. We had this a long a time ago in the NBA, they had this thing called the injured list. You only had a certain amount of active players, 12 active players, and you had three slots on the injured list, but you had to be injured in order to be on injured.

And didn't you have to miss three games?

Five games. You'd miss five games if you're on injured list. So what teams were doing where they would say, Chris Cody has tendinitis. And it's like, there's no scan for that. There's no imaging for that. You just have to take their word for it. And so they were carrying 15 healthy players under the auspices. They're like, But he's We can always create the lie for why a guy can't play. You can never legislate against that. You just got to live with it and legislate out the egregious tank.

It's amazing, though, Dave, because the players who are hurt on the bad teams, the teams that are taken, everyone's getting surgery. It's like somebody's opening the door to the locker room of these bad teams. Yo, free surgery. Who wants surgery? Everybody's getting surgery.

Me, my ankle hurts. I'm in, Coach.

Also, though, the other side it is it feels Big Brother. It's like sending in the feds to investigate this. Adam Silver, ultimately, as they always say, works for the owners. So what's the jazz owner's reaction to getting leaned on by the league? They want to tank. That ownership group is not going to be happy with Adam Silver, right?

Yeah, his reaction is going to be, I'm a jazz man.

Finally, I got one more for you here.

I mean, it sounds like you know about that. One more for you The Los Angeles Lakers the other night, well-documented. Luca, LeBron, they hate playing with each other. They lost the Orlando Magic, all right? But, but, apparently at halftime of that game, going into the halftime locker room, DeAndre Ayton. He stinks, by the way, DeAndre Aiden was heard yelling, They're trying to make me Clint Capella. You know about that?

I didn't know about that, but what I would say to DeAndre Aiden is, You wish you were Clint Capella. You win. And you know who else wishes you or Clint Capella?

The Lakers.

The Lakers. Luca, JJ Reddick, LeBron. But this is, again, Tony, we saw this come in the day they signed him. A mile away. This is who he is. This is a guy who got snowed into his own house and just said, I'm not showing up to the game. This is a guy that slept on a floor because his mattress wasn't delivered. He was like, Guess what? This is a guy who's notoriously unreliable and has a diluted sense of self. And so, yeah, this is what you get, Lakers. And one more time, because the tweet is out, Pablo Tori is walking around the seats of New York and it says, New investigation tonight, 5: 00 PM Eastern, YouTube. Live watchalong of the latest episode of Pablo Tori Finds Out. We're getting deep on the point shaving and the gambling. This one is a global conspiracy. It starts here in the NBA, it goes to college basketball, it goes internationally. You don't want to miss it. It's the globalist.

I cannot believe that quote from Aiton. I I can. To think it an insult to be compared to a player that I think of more favorably than DeAndre Aiton.

He was the player. Everybody does.

As if it were some insult.

Think about the weird delusional bubble you have to be in, where it's like, They're trying to make me... Let me think who's the most disrespectful name I can think of?

They didn't say, They're trying to make me Reggie Evans.

Reggie Evans, again, a more impactful player.

Champion, by the way.

Champion Reggie Evans. Big three.

Big three.

But that would make more sense than saying, They're trying to make me Clincapella.

What would be the name that would be appropriate? It would be like, They're trying to make me a Mino Hassan. That would be an inappropriate name. Can you imagine if you said that? Man, I would be so happy. You wish. You wish they'd try to make you Amina O'Hassan. Okay, Nikola. Quizfrage: Homeoffice bei Stado oder Fahrtkosten. Was bringt uns mehr? Moment, ich check das kurz. Oha, Homeoffice gewinnt. Bringt uns 150 Euro mehr im Jahr. Ja, richtig. Aber wieso weißt du so was? Weil, WISO Steuer die Erstattung live anzeigt. Das ist einfach die Steuer-App für alle Fälle. Ja, und Fragen beantwortet sie auch. 247 und ohne Beamtendeutsch. Das ist einfach die App, die uns versteht. Steuern erledigt? Safe. Mit WISO Steuer. Jetzt kostenlos ausprobieren. Dann libertor. Where's the mother fucker, Roeiz at? Bring his ass on here. Where's the mother fucker, Roeiz? It's a great question. Stugatz. Running, he running today. I'm ready. This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz.

I still can't believe that time in Portland where he wasiced in as if that were a reasonable- I can't. You could have just done it like a Penguin and slid on your stomach.

Well, what you're describing, I mean, that story right there and the mattress story, it sounds like when DeAndre Ayton, in any walk of his life, if he's presented with some roadblock or a problem, he doesn't have solutions.

Look, he's an immature guy. He's been an immature guy since the day he set foot in the league. Again, living in Phoenix, I saw and heard all of these things firsthand. It's like, look, how do you win with a guy like that? Now, a lot of people were like, I mean, they went to the finals. Yes, they did. They also had Chris Paul and Mikael Bridges and Devon. They had an incredible team, and all he had to do was basically just set screens, rebound, and catch these lobs. And must I remind you, he tried to do one of those in the finals, and Yana sent that shit back to Milwaukee or wherever. But the point is, it's like we have a saying in the NBA. I don't know if you guys have this in the NFL, Dave. You say, The Tiger doesn't change his stripes. He just changes jungles.

You know about that saying, Dave?

Yes.

Thank you. So meaning, guys are who they are. Yeah, there are some outliers where, Oh, man, he really changed from early in his career. But for the most part, guys are who they are, particularly if they've always been rewarded for who they are. So DeAndre Ayton comes in the league. He's the number one overall pick, right? Number one overall pick. Those first four years, we're looking at him and like-Was that the Donchich draft? Yes, absolutely. Luca Donchich, Trey Young, Jaron Jackson Jr, Marvin Backely. But anyways, he's there. Those four years, he's already rewarded a come in number one. Those four years, we see all of these signs of someone who doesn't quite get it, doesn't quite get it, doesn't quite get it, gets to restrictive free agency, gets a offer sheet from the Indiana Pacers. So clearly, you're telling me I'm doing stuff wrong. I just got the maximum allowable salary. And guess what the sons did? They matched. So clearly, they agree. So there's at least two people who think I'm awesome. So then he gets traded to Portland for Yusuf Nerkich, which is crazy when you think... And by the way, Toumanin Kamara, who's a really good player for the Blazers, was part of that deal as well.

So he gets to Portland, and in Portland, he says, My new nickname is dominating, and they were holding me back, and I had to do all these things, but I'm going to get here, and I'm going to do everything. And he doesn't do anything. He does the same stuff that he did. And what does he get? And now he's a free agent. It's like, what's his reward? The Lakers, one of the most glamorous teams, want me to come from Portland to Los Angeles to play next to LeBron and to play next to Luka. I'm sure they told him-They're trying to win a championship, and they need me. And we need you. They probably told him that we need you here. And guess what? Minimum? No. We're going to give you way more than minimum. So again, in his mind, I'm awesome. I've done nothing. You guys are saying, I'm doing it wrong. I went from one of the worst teams in the worst markets to the best team to the best markets.

But this happens all the time in that league, right?

And that's why we say the Tiger doesn't change his stripes. He just changes jungles. He's just the same person going from place to place to place.

Is that your worldview for real, though, that nobody can change their stripes?

Not that nobody can change their stripes. It's that the vast majority of people are who they are.

I generally agree with that, but I also then look at guys like the name that always comes to mind with that is the Honey Badger. Tyron Matthew was undraftable. He burns tree, don't you know? He's in college and he burns some tree. He'll never change. I mean, he really did become one of the great teammates of the last couple of decades, right?

Of course, like I said, it's not a universal truth. Zack Randolph was radioactive at one point in the day. Oh, yeah.

He's like the best guy, it seems.

Radioactive. Burnt his way out of Portland, burnt his way out of New York, burnt his way out of the Clippers. It was like, when the Clippers are like, I can't do it, dog, that's pretty much the end of the road. He gets to Memphis and it's not just dominates, but it's like you're around people that understand you. And also part of it is, and this is why I always say a lot of this- It's a beloved grizzly. And beloved guy. Everyone loves Zeebo now, right? But I remember when it was like, toxic, don't touch him. But again, it also comes back down to what I like to call basketball mortality. Sometimes you see guys and they're going through stuff, and then they realize, oh, shit, my career is about to be over? And that sometimes inspires the change. I'm not saying that happened at Zack Randolph, but I see it a lot around the league where guys are on the customer being out of the league, and then they realize, Man, I got to get my shit together, and they figure it out. Then you mature, you grow, whatever. But if you're always rewarded, you're always rewarded, Dave, then there's no impulse or incentive to change.

One quick example, my bad, Tony. One quick example. Stefan Marbury, I'll never forget this. He gets traded from the Suns to the Knicks. This is in 2004, right? 2003, 2004. The very next season, so that year, the Suns had one of the worst records in the league. He gets traded to New York. The very next offseason, the Suns sign Steve Nash. It's like Steve Nash with the same four dudes that you played with, you played with Leander Barboza, you played with Amari Sadamire. You played with Sean Marion. You guys were awful a year ago, and now they've got the best record in the league. This is midway through that season. He would end up winning MVP. The New York media, Frank I Solos and those guys. They love to start shit. Hey, Steph, you always talk about you're the best point guard in the league. But Steve Nash took the same squad you had. He's got the best record in the league. And meanwhile, you guys weren't that good. What do you have to say about that? And Steph Marbury said, Last I checked, I got Max, and he didn't. So clearly, he's doing something wrong, and I'm doing something right.

And that's the impediment to growth. And Steph on Marbury, I think, has changed and grown since then. But again, it just highlights the mindset.

He's like Chinese Michael Jordan now, right?

Absolutely. He is the greatest player in basketball history. But the idea that if I'm always rewarded for the way I do things, I'm not even going to say behavior, just the way I do things, then why would I ever change?

I want to go back to the Zeebo point really quick. We're not making Zibos anymore. We're not making Zack Randolph anymore. The 6'8 guy back to the basket.

I saw a highlight reel on Twitter the other day. Me too. I saw the same one. I'm like, I would love to watch this player today. I love the back to the Let's just pound that rock.

A bit of a small big.

He's a tweener.

He should be faster. I'm going to punish you.

He got a shoulder with a little lefty fade away.

We saw the same video of Zack Randolph.

It's funny, but also it's like we saw that Memphis Grizzly style and that team die right before our R-Rs, in the playoffs. They were playing against the Warriors. They were up 2-1, and everyone said, Oh, that pretty boy three-point shooting thing is going out the way. And then the Warriors did one move, and it was checkmate. It's like, Harrison Barnes is going to Zeebo. We're going to put Draymon on Gasol, and we're going to put Andrew Bogut on Tony Allen, who was all-world defense but couldn't shoot. And that one move, checkmate. They never won another game. And it's like their whole thing fell apart. It's a style of basketball that cannot be played anymore because people, if you cannot make the defense be honest with shooting, we're all just going to collapse.

Tony has a funny concanipal take.

My concanipal take is actually great. But I told you, what was it? A couple of- If you do say so yourself. No, I do. The day we did Bet the Castle, and I said, Con-conimple deserves Rooky of the Year over Cooper Flag. That night, Cooper Flag went on and had 50 points. So again, it was off to a rocky start, but I think my take is solidified. And the take I have versus the take I gave a mean earlier. How many compliments can you give your take?

Solid, apparently.

This is a solid opinion. So I want to read you some stats, okay? Concanipal is one of three players-Now, are you reading this because you are making a case for Concanipal to be Rooky of the year that he won't Yes, because they're going to give it to Cooper Flag because of the media pressure. But Concanipal is one of three players ever with 1,000 points, 300 rebounds, and 200 assists in his rookie year. Larry Bird, Steph Kerr were the only other two to do it. 50, 40, 90 games. He's on pace. He's got 17 right now. He is almost on pace to beat Steph Kerr.

That's not a thing. What do you mean? 50, 40, 90 games? Yeah. You had a 50, 40, 90 season.

He's also on pace for a 50, 40, 90 season. No rookie ever has done that. Okay. He's got 200 threes in 58 games, fastest ever. And he's on pace for 284 three-partners. And that's where the take started shaping with Amin, where I think if Konka Nippo can stay healthy and continue to be an elite shooter, he at one day may be take over Steph Curry's three-point record.

So watch this. So then we looked up what Steph Curry has for his career.

Which is still going up, by the way, because he's still playing.

Because he's still playing at a high level. He's like a thousand more threes in the next close to Scott.

He's at 42-33. That's exactly what he did.

So then we said, Tony put in Chad ChatGPT and said, How much would Concanipal have to average in order to overtake Steph Curry?

That's a good use of ChatGPT.

Yes, it is. It's excellent. Chatgpt came back with, Concanipal would have to have 15 straight years of hitting 284 threes this season. Then I was like, Oh, let me see how many times that's happened. It's happened eight times in the history of the NBA. Someone hit 284 threes. Six of them are Steph Curry.

He also had a 403 season, which boosts the average there.

Is Clay another one of those?

Actually, it's more than six times. It's like 12 times, but six times with Steph Curry, the only person who's done it twice other than Steph, is James Harden, who's done it twice.

Who's number two on the list of all time threes made also. It's like you have to be in legendary territory, but he's having one of the most incredible rookie seasons that we've ever seen. Like 50, 40, 90 as a rookie, I mean, that's great. That's never happened before.

Cooper flags better.

Lyons. Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right?

Don't place parlays on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero.

Always drink your Jägermeister ice cold. That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion. Everything else? Everything else.

Wearing clean underwear every day?

Well, that's just a personal decision.

Brushing your teeth?

Obviously smart, but not a rule.

Never PP on an electric fence.

Okay, maybe there are two rules, but the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Jägermeister must be drunk ice cold. Or don't drink it at all.

Damn, that's cold.

Exactly. You're finally starting to get it.

Drink responsibly. Jägermeister L'Core, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mass Jägermeister US, White Plains, New York.