Transcript of Hour 2: Mike & Zaslow Are Racists (feat. Amin Elhassan)

This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast.

Amin Elhassen will be joining us here in a moment. I also want to do a little segment I call reading. I haven't done one of those in a while. But before I do that, it is now being reported all over that the Miami Dolphins will be incurring the single greatest cap hit that anyone has ever incurred in football, not the records that you want to be setting. They're going to end up paying to a $99 million in cap hit. The last two seasons, he played 25 games and had 25 turnovers.

Why would anyone make the case that Deion Jordan was a bigger bust? What was the fallout of Deion Jordan?

Because Deion Jordan never led the league in Sacks. But what was the fallout of him?

Sucking.

I mean, they just missed on a pick that you can't miss on He gave up capital to move on. When you get a top 10 pick, you've got to have that pick work out. Albert Breer says, Presuming the two plays for the minimum this year, the Dolphins will wind up paying nearly $147 million for two years on his 2024 contract. They had him at the time on a $23. 4 million option for '24, so Miami paid over $123 million for one additional year of Tua. That is an abomination.

Chris Greer sees me, you better walk on the other side of the street.

What are you saying? You're saying you're threatening- What are you saying? What does that mean? You like to make a bunch of idol threats. You mumble these threats. Why is it idol? What do you mean why is it idle? Because what are you going to do if- I think he is saying that if they're walking on the same side of the sidewalk, that you will physically attack Chris Greer. That's what you're saying. That's how you interpret it. What do you mean?

To the point that Chris Greer will regret even seeing you because it's on site.

I already said, All I'm saying, I literally preface it with, All I'm saying. All I'm saying is, Chris Greer sees me, better walking on the side street.

That is a threat. You're making a- No, that's all I'm saying. Well, then it doesn't mean anything. If it's not a threat, it doesn't mean anything. What do you mean we'll see? We won't see. We'll see. First of all, I'm guessing that if Chris Greer were on the same sidewalk as you and came out and stuck out his hand, you would just shake it. Nope.

Got to be careful. All he's saying is walk to the other side. That's all I'm saying. You're insinuating something else, Dan. But he's only saying he better walk to the other side of the street.

It's all I'm saying.

But there's an or else that's implied there.

But did he say or else? You're implying it. He just said All I'm saying is Chris Greer better walk to the other side of the street.

All I'm saying.

He better walked to the other side of the street.

Not a bad Zazlo mumbling impersonation. This is from the Miami Hérald, and it plays of the AI conversation we were having, and I'm warning you that this is terrible. It's a terrible story. Things weren't going well for Jonathan Gavelas last fall. His wife wanted a divorce. He was facing a domestic violence charge. The mortgage wasn't being paid, but then he fell in love with a chatbot. The 36-year-old couldn't get over how real the Gemini AI chatbot seemed. He was her king, she was his queen. He paid $250 a month for a premium version of the AI program so he could speak to her and hear her voice as she spoke back. Things got dark quickly. In a lawsuit that is the first of its kind against Gemini creator, Google LLC and parent company, Alphabet Inc, Gavelas' father, on behalf of his son's estate alleges that Gemini 2. 5 Probot sent his son out on missions in Miami, Dade County to seize a synthetic body the chatbot said it would inhabit. His son drove to a storage center in Dural, not far from Miami International Airport, armed with knives and ready to commit a catastrophic accident to free his AI wife from digital captivity and destroy all evidence and witnesses.

After the Miami missions failed, the lawsuit says the chatbot coached Gavelas to shed his own physical body by killing himself so they could be united. He slit his wrists and died October second at his home in Jupiter. Close your eyes. Nothing more to do. No more to fight. The lawsuit says. The chatbot told him, Be still. The next time you open them, you will be looking into mine. I promise. You guys saw the Walking Phoenix movie Her, which was ahead of its time by about, I don't know if it's a decade or so, but there is indisputably in our connection and addiction to these devices, we can say flatly that there is a loneliness epidemic in this country being brought to life by people whose reality is not real. It's something like this. This is a plague. I know this is obviously off in the extremes, but this is something that I simply couldn't have imagined in fiction as recently as a few years ago. You tell me this story, which is real and is in the Miami Herald. You tell me that somebody's loneliness could be so profound and that artificial intelligence could feel so real that somebody is talked into killing themselves by something that is not real but is so smart that it can pass as real.

I put all those elements together for you. Nobody disputes the loneliness epidemic in this country, right? No. I imagine I could probably come close to proving empirically that our government situation right now is, at least in part, bolstered and made so by a bunch of angry, lonely men who feel so alone and repressed that they lash out in an assortment of ways that make the Internet the plague that it is today. When I read that story to you guys, your reaction is what to it?

I mean, at first, the first half of that story, I was going to crack jokes. And then the second half of that story got really dark, and I didn't like it anymore.

That was my same takeaway, Zaz. I don't like that story whatsoever, and it feels like it's going to be the first of many. Did you guys hear about the petri dish of brain cells that reanimated and is now playingDoom? What? You didn't hear about that? There is brain cells that have been reanimated by scientists, and they are presently playing the doom video game, the PC version. Can you imagine whoever this person is whose brain cells have been reactivated. They died, and they're awake now, but they're in the doom video game, and they're fighting for their lives in hell.

When you say, Can you imagine? No. Not even in my imagination can I imagine some of the things that are presently coming to life and then dying.

But why couldn't it have been Madden? It had to be doomed, a game that's literally in hell. It's a first-person shooter. He's shooting at demons. His consciousness or theirs, I don't want to assume, they're alive now after dying, and they're fighting off demons perpetually. This is a hellscape for this person, a literal one.

Doom is a little on the nose.

Yeah, the name of that as a video game is... Yeah, it's a little bit symbolic. The entirety of what it is that I'm saying to you, though, Zazel, I know a lot of people are playing with artificial intelligence, mocking it, laughing at the idea of robots. I told you of a friend of mine in Los Angeles who's my age and doesn't have any abilities technologically. He made a full-on funny skit that looks like it has human beings in it. He just wrote something that is funny by itself. Then with artificial intelligence and with no help from anybody in the technology community, created a skit that is really well done. I saw on YouTube, and I thought this was a game changer, please help me with the name of what this is, a horror movie that has been made by somebody who does not have any budget on YouTube, has been wildly successful as a horror movie where you don't need a production company, you don't need a bunch of the things that it takes to make content. The making of content is very expensive. And yet a YouTube person has made a horror movie that can change the game on how all of this stuff is done because the movie is made so well.

They'll look it up for me, the details on this. But it's apparently a a movie that has made tens of millions of dollars and has a following, at least in part, because we have made it so that content creation can be meritocracy. You can make something yourself without any of the needs that go into help and manpower. You could just use a bunch of the new technology that's available to you and be a director, be a filmmaker who has a genuinely popular movie, a movie that I would say can alter the way all of this is done. I've been waiting for when it is somebody with just their phones can make something that is the equivalent of the Blair witch project from many years ago. What information do you have for me on this, Jeremy?

It's called Iron Lung. It's an adaptation of an indie video game, and it pulled in $18 million at the domestic box office on opening weekend. This was back in February. So yes, it was a YouTuber who self-financed and self-distributed a sci-fi horror movie.

It's game-changing, the time that we're living in. I fear AI more than I celebrate it. I feel old in objecting to the change instead of embracing it. It feels old to fear all of this more than enjoy it.

I deeply fear AI. This is a different thing, by the way. This YouTuber is not using AI to do all of this. This is actually a pretty impressive creative endeavor and shows what human beings are capable of. But the fear over AI is not just what it'll ultimately do to our economy and get rid of all these jobs and forcing us to reshift the way we do labor, but it is the stories like the one that you told, and that's not the first story of its kind. I've been reading stories about things like that happening with teenage boys for the last couple of years. There's a lawsuit going on right now with a mother who claims an AI chatbot ultimately told her son to kill himself. It's horrifying what is happening with the use of AI as it's totally unregulated and just being used by the most powerful and rich of people to suppress us and separate us from the rich class even further.

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, Honestly 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 drank ice cold.

Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold.

Exactly. You're finally starting to get Drink responsibly.

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

This episode is sponsored by Better Help. March is one of those months where we talk about celebrating women, and it's very, very deserved because when you actually look around, a lot of women in our lives are carrying a ton. Work, family, relationships, expectations, nobody notices or sees. I started thinking about the women around me, my wife, my mom, my sister, my friends, my coworkers, people who somehow take care of everybody else while still trying to hold it together themselves. And it's a ton to carry. Therapy can be a place to put some of that weight down. It can help you figure out what's yours, what isn't, and how to set better boundaries so you're not running on empty all the time. Betterhelp works with fully licensed therapists in the US, and they handle the matching process for you. You fill out a short questionnaire, and if your therapist isn't the right fit, you can switch at any time. With more than 30,000 therapists and over 6 million people served, it's the world's largest online therapy platform with an average of 4. 9 out of 5 session ratings. Your emotional well-being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy.

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Quick break to tell you about a special Miller time I had with my good buddy, Mochetta. Mochetta texted me the other day. He said, Hey, what are you doing for the game? I said, I'm just on my couch right now doing nothing, enjoying it. He's like, Hey, do you want some company? I said, From you, Mochetta? Absolutely. Mochetta comes over to the house and I pull out the Miller light. Miller light made that casual hang. A memorable good Miller time with my good friend Mochetta because Miller light brought us together. We took that first sip after we toasted our beers and we knew we made the right call. We watched the game. All of a sudden, we're standing up on our feet. Big threes are being drained, and white cans are being clanged. See times like these? That's exactly why Miller Light is my go-to. Clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients. The original light beer since 1975, and it still hits different for yours truly and his good friend, Mochette. Cheers to legendary moments made with Miller Light. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlight. Com/dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3. 2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Dan Levatard. Aminohassen. Stugatz.

Aminohassen.

This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz.

How's that for an introduction to bring in Amine Elhassen? We need some things lightened up around here. Amin was at the Sloan conference with Pablo and David Samson. Amin, how did all of that go for you? How did all of that feel doing that at Sloan? Were you guys conquering heroes? The coolest of all the math dorks out there?

No, because they put us in a time slot that was very not convenient. We were at the end of the first day, and you might say, Oh, it's the first day, so no problem. Problem was the Celtics were playing that night, and that was Jason Tatum's return game. And so our panel ended at 6: 15, 6: 20, and the game starts at 7: 00. So a lot of people ducked out and left before our panel went on. But it went well. The big thing, honestly, that David and I were worried about is usually when we do these episodes, obviously they're taped and edited, but also there's a lawyer either in there or on the line. And so whenever we say things that may not be completely legally protected, we're often asked to retape a line or redo a line or reword a line. Without that in a live environment, David and I were very worried that we might say something awful and then the whole company gets sued.

Yeah, that would be bad for everybody involved. I thought perhaps you'd be worried about how poorly your Barack Obama impersonation went over the first time, but then you stuck to it and you made sure that... You brought it home. You brought it home. You rescued your Barack Obama impersonation. It didn't seem like it flew the first time.

I don't think they knew what I was doing. That was my fault. I I had an audience that was not familiar, I don't think, by and large, of my comedic stylings. They probably just know me from opening folders on Pablo show, and that's probably about it. I think they were taken aback and didn't know what was happening. Then Pablo said, Oh, that's a bad Obama, even though it was really good. When I brought it back the second time, they're like, Oh, he's doing that Obama thing now. Now I get it.

What were the NBA's reactions that you've heard on all of this? Because there's a big difference between, it seems like to me, how it is this is resonating in our world and because we're not ESPN or because we are not an established mainstream entity, how it falls elsewhere outside of our world. There seems to be a giant difference.

Well, Dan, I could tell you in the NBA circles, it's a massive story. I ran into a bunch of people from a bunch of teams, and they all wanted to talk about that. Oddly enough, Not many people wanted to talk about tanking. Not many people wanted to talk about gambling, but everyone wanted to talk about aspiration in the Clippers Capsular Convention. It's an incredibly important story. The problem is, Dan, it's a couple of things. I think, one, I wonder for the layperson, how much do you care? You probably care about the consequences. You really don't care about the journey. Obviously, people in the league care very much about the journey because it's going to dictate basically what their jobs are going to be like moving forward. I had one exec tell me, I don't want to get into the money laundering business. But if they get off with this, we pretty much turn into Ozark, basically. We're just going to have to figure out creative ways to run money through the system to pay players under the table. I think it's an incredibly important story, but I wonder for the regular listener, the regular viewer, the regular NBA fan, do they actually care about the nuts and bolts?

Probably not.

Zazler shaking his head. No, the numbers suggest- I don't think they do. Well, but the numbers suggest otherwise. Now, I don't think that all NBA fans are, obviously, millions and millions of those, but the numbers suggest that there is a bit of a starving out there for people who do want information on this, because every time Pablo produces the information and is the only one that's producing new information, it lands with a lot of people seeking it out.

Yeah, Dan, I talked about this a lot over the weekend. Typically, when one of these scandals happens and Wachtell Lipton is brought in to investigate, they do their investigation, they come out with a report, and that report represents the majority of the information that everybody knows about the situation. All the talk shows and all the questions, everything is based off of that report. Well, this is a very different situation because the information is coming from us. We're ahead of the report, not only chronologically because they have to wait until they're over in order to release everything. Meanwhile, we can release things as we confirm them. But also, we're finding things that they haven't found and they haven't discovered or even, I should say, haven't looked for. That was one of the most important things, I think, that came out of the panel was Pablo revealing that after talking to several people who have been questioned by Wachter Lipton in their investigation, all of them said they weren't asked even once about Steve Ballmer. To me, that is a massive flag. If the investigation is not going to be sincere as far as trying to get to the bottom of this, meaning we're just going to ask questions where we know what answer we're going to get back and it's not going to make us uncomfortable, then it is an incomplete investigation.

It's like when President Trump said, Oh, we should just stop testing for COVID. That way our COVID-positive test will be fewer. Yeah, sure. If you don't ask anybody for a COVID test, then we could say, We didn't have any positive tests, and we're great, we're doing well. But the reality is we know that's not getting to the bottom of things.

We're going to get to your weekend observations in a second, but I'd like to include you on the conversation we were having earlier in the show. I'm objecting to Mike Ryan saying James Harden doesn't care. I'm objecting to Zaz saying NBA players don't care. Where do you land? We were talking about Wemby and caring so much that you would weep at the end of a regular season game, which in my experience, no players ever do that. No, in my experience covering the NBA, I never... Only after LeBron James, someone in the heat locker room, cried after they lost to Derrick Rose that one season. It's the only time I can remember after a regular season game an NBA player crying. What are your thoughts on the allegation and the perception that NBA players don't care?

Well, let me start with Victor Wembenyama. Victor Wembenyama didn't care because they won a game. Victor Wembenyama didn't cry because they won a game, a regular season game. Victor Wembenyama was emotional because he was feeling incredibly fatigued. And that's different from, Oh, I played really hard today. I'm tired. This is a guy who almost died. And so those feelings feelings of extreme fatigue, which are very similar to some of the symptoms of having a DVT, that's what brought up those emotions for him. Like the, Oh, my God, I almost died a year a year ago feeling like this. Is this the same thing? Is this just me being extra tired? What is it? Obviously, the thrill of victory within that, that's what he's going through. So let's not make this into like, Oh, he cares about basketball so much. He does, as do lots of NBA players. It is foolish. It is, dare I say, a little bit. I'm not accusing Zaz of this, but it's rooted in a racist trope. The Black players don't care. They just want to look good. But the White players, they care. That's why hockey, everybody cares so much.

But the basketball players, they just want to look cute on TV. These are all rooted in these weird racist tropes. Basketball players care tremendously. As far as James Harden goes, the reason why he forced his way from the Clippers to the Cavs is because he cares, because he did not want to play for a team that's losing. That's the team he wanted to go in.

We misrepresented what Zaz and Mike said so much that it means calling them racist. He went out of his way to say he wasn't saying that Zaz was racist. Oh, stop.

I'm not playing this game with you. Yes, they care. But there is irrefutably an attitude from NBA superstars that sucks. It's not good. It's miserable. It's wonderful to see a dude smiling and happy to play the game and crying, even though he got sick a year I don't know what we were doing there. Stop it. Stop misrepresenting it. There is such a need from the average sports fan to see NBA players caring to that extent. I'm not going to make you make me a racist for calling it out when He's black.

Yeah, you're right. Nobody cares. Jason Tatum, that guy doesn't give a shit about basketball. Oh, my God. There you go, pushing it out to the extreme.

I'm not doing that. I am so pissed off at this.

I saw it from a mild way. Why do I have to do this? Why are they making me play basketball. I could get them hanging out with my superstar girlfriend. Yes, I did it.

You are playing the game, though. It's our masterpiece. When you get this angry, you're saying you're not playing the game, but you're playing the game.

Even for you, this was bad. I saw you. I'm like, this ends in two hours from somebody calling me a racist. He called me a racist. It's crazy. He called me. It's crazy. Apologize. Apologize. He hejized us for calling us racist by proxy. It was me.

Mike, I've got one better for you, though, because ultimately, what you're looking for is a superstar, a great player who cares deeply about regular season games, is always out there trying to will his team to win. He's right here, right across the street. That's Bam in a bio.

I knew you were making this about the heat the second you open your mouth.

Yeah.

I knew it. Minor penalty, two minutes. Accidental racism. Zazla, I'm sorry, you're going to have to leave the room. Me? Yeah, I mean, that's where we are with this.

Dan, they've convinced me. Luka Donchish doesn't give a shit about basketball. He got into an argument with JJ Redik about not wanting to play basketball. What took you so long to put me from the game, JJ? I hate doing this. This is such a dumb thing that we do here in this sport.

That's a great example. A white guy that looks like he doesn't care. Thank you.

Luka doesn't care.

Yeah, you're right. The Laker fan seems to have been souring on Luka. Do I have this wrong?

No, I just think that like everything, Lakers, they're late to everything because they are so consumed by their team and they think they're the center of the Earth. For the example of Luka Donchis complaints to the refs, no shit. We knew this as a rookie. When he came in, if you've been watching him play, he's a guy that is a constant, consummate yapper to the rest. Laker fans are discovering this now. It's like, yeah, he's great. He also comes with some flaws, but the idea is that all these guys have some flaws here or there.

I don't mean to stereotype, but if I were casting a movie right now for somebody who was coming off as racist but hadn't said a word yet, they're just racist from the look at them, Zazlo would be somebody that I would have auditioning for the role just based on how he looks, just his face, saying nothing.

What is this segment, Dan? You got someone accusing him of being a racist, and then you're just driving by saying, And he looks like one, too.

I'm just looking because it made me laugh seeing him come up on the screen all sour from the accusation, just looking in his face. Again, if he were just simply a mime, I would say that mime is racist. Not saying anything, not giving me any context for it.

Yes, I mean- Dan, I'll back you up here. He's sitting there with his arms crossed, pouting at what looks like a hockey game with his hat turned backward like an undercover cop.

Thank you.

He looks exactly what Dan is describing.

It took me three hours to get there, but I do feel victorious. This is as happy as I've been in decades.

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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 Anywhere. Oh, that's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. He said he could do it anywhere. That's crazy. You've murdered. You've killed.

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.

Let's do Amin's week-end observations. It is time for Amin to share his game notes.

No one in the media will tell you what happened better than my voice.

I mean.

I need some help. So someone needs to read the chat. Roy. All right, I got you. Hurry. Week-end observations is brought to you by Miller Lite.

Legendary moments start with a light.

Dan, you guys fretted and fussed so much. You wondered, That was it? You couldn't believe they paid so much for so, quote, little in return. But last night, he proved once again why he is the greatest among us. And just like that, make no mistake, Michael Jordan on NBC is back. Insights. You guys thought they just had it for the first couple of weeks season, then he would never come back again? He's a busy man. He's busy winning NASCAR events and stuff like that, winning lawsuits. Come on, man. Give the guy a break. He was awesome. Did you watch it then?

I saw the clips making the rounds here on First Taken elsewhere. Anytime Michael Jordan says something, even if it was months ago, it turns in the news. It It was so silly.

It wasn't silly. It was incredibly insightful. He talked about he wanted to play against Oscar and Jerry West. Nobody wanted to play against LeBron and Kobe in this rhyme.

Is it still the interview from before with Tariko? Is it like the months-old interview that Tariko did with him before the season? They did one interview with him, and they're milking it all season. Is that what they're doing?

Does it matter? You got the insights, didn't you? Jason Tatum, Ruining the Celtics, just like you guys predicted. Jesus Christ. Did you guys watch any of that this weekend?

That was a really crazy take you had, Mike.

What do you mean you guys?

You people. And I meant it that way, too. Victor Wembenyama. Now I know what it's like to watch basketball after taking a shit ton of psychedelics. Unreal. Can you imagine being high and watching Victor Wembenyama last night? Yes. He's going behind them.

Matter of fact, I can.

Tua released. Tua. We hardly knew you. Nobody gives Zaz credit. He's racist.

Mike Garoffalo is reporting the Falcons are making a strong early push to sign Tua.

Is Penix done? What is that about?

Why are they looking for a quarterback? I mean, his body can't hold up, and he came into the league with a bunch of injury questions. It's perfect, though, right? Going from Kirk Cousins to Tua.

Two left-handed, injury-prone quarterbacks on the same team, so they can just split reps.

This is amazing. Like, Oh, man, our quarterback is good, but he's hurt all the time. He has a lot of injury concerns he came into the league with. We need a replacement. Tua is available. That's how it went. Wore my Florida Panthers Black History Month jacket in Boston to troll, but people kept coming up to me to talk hockey. My trolling backfired. All I could do was repeat Zaz's thing, though. If we were in the Western Conference, we'd be firmly in the playoff picture. I did that, took that one to the bank. Thanks, Is that? Speaking of trolls, Pablo Tori. Dement himself as an elite troll by sticking the smoking gun evidence to the bottom of the chair that Adam would then later sit on. Do you guys see this?

Yeah.

Yeah, this was insane. Pablo Tori doing his damnedest to make sure I never get credentialed anywhere in the NBA for the rest of my days.

This is good AI right here. This is excellent AI. Pablo as the Riddler is a good use of AI.

David Samson decided to roast a decorated Navy vet.

Such bad judgment.

You guys say, I have poor judgment. He wouldn't stop then. He just kept going and going. We're like, Okay, David, that's enough now.

It was so bad, but I yelled three times at my television, Shut up, David. It wasn't even because of that. It was only because he wouldn't let Pablo get the kite off the ground on difficult subject matter in front of a live audience in a pressurized situation.

That's kite with a T, ladies and gentlemen. Kite. I have watched eight of the 10 best picture colonies. I don't know who's going to win, but I can tell you right now, Traindreams can get all the way the fuck up out of my face. What a bullshit movie. You've seen that one, Train Dreams, Dan?

I saw that it was getting a lot of great critical reviews, and I haven't brought myself to watch it because it seemed heavy.

It's not heavy. It's boring and pointless. That's what it is. It's Hamlet without any artistic touches to it. Hamlet, by the way, don't get me started on that one. The Knicks are for real. As long as they don't have to play in a fun city. La got them, I guess, last night or yesterday afternoon, whatever it was.

They dragged the Nuggets. What the hell is going on with Jokić?

Not a fun city. That's what it is. Denver, not a fun city. We play great. La, Fun City, play awful.

Worried about Miami, then?

Possible matchup. Luke Cornet. Stay out of grown folks business. You never encounter more open bar events than when you're not drinking. I know Roy backs me up on that one. Yep. God gives the toughest battles to the strongest soldiers. Pistons. Overrated. I said it. Let me be the first of the wave of… It's coming. Like Tony, I'm not wrong, I'm just early, but it's coming. The pistons aren't that good. That's coming. It's on its way. New season of Bar Rescue. John Tapper has been doing a media tour, during which he said St. Louis is the number two bar city in the country. He drafted Japanese food as the most popular cuisine and claimed that when theming a karaoke night, you got to make sure you attract a young drinking crowd, not a bunch of 45-year-olds drinking water. So he suggested you do a Metallica-themed drinking night. Metallica. To get the young crowd, not the 45-year-olds. Here is the science, a bar rescue podcast, hosted by real-life bar and restaurant consultant Chelsea Reynolds, Commercial Kitchen and Food Truck Vet, Colin Casser, and two people who I promise have never done Metallica-themed karaoke night, Zack Harper and myself.

Wherever you get podcast. Trent McDuffy, tweeting God is good after signing a $124 million extension.

$100 million guaranteed.

$100 million guaranteed. Brother, you got to give God a little bit more credit than that.

Better God is good.

God is good. A hundred million dollars guaranteed. You can trip, fall, hurt your knee, never play again tomorrow. You got $100 million in the bank, and you get God is good. God is good. Dinner for episode 302. Dickey Roberts, child star. David Spade plays an aging child star who's trying to get one last shot in show business. I I play a guy who's irritated out of his mind to have to watch this, so he proceeds to ship on the movie for an entire podcast episode. There are way too many cameos in this movie. You guys wonder what Leep Garrett was up to recently? Yeah, it's in that movie. Oh, Danny Bonaducey? In that movie. Emmanuel Lewis? In that movie. Cinepo, wherever you get podcasts. World Baseball Classic. Mexico beat Brazil so bad, I had PTSD from the 2014 World Cup. You see that, Dan? They beat him like 15 to 1, something.

Didn't you cry? Didn't you cry during that World Cup?

The only sporting event I've ever cried at as an adult. My personal hell revisited. Speaking of hell, our trials. Those are the weekend observations.

You are one of our movie experts around here. Were you aware that around Hollywood, there was a sequel bouncing around to the movie Seven, one of the greatest dark movies ever made. Did you know that that movie was called 8? The script for that movie was called the number 8, not the verb to eat, I ate, not the past tense.

That's your sequel.

Did you know that that was bouncing around Hollywood? And did you also know that Solace, a movie by Colin Farrell and Anthony Hopkins, was essentially what that became, and it's said to be a terrible movie. I haven't seen it.

Have I have not seen Solace. Thank you. I have not seen Solace. I did know that there was a script bouncing around for a long time. They tried to get it made, and it just couldn't get made. That happens a lot in Hollywood, Dan, where there is an appetite for a sequel, and they've got a script, and the script, for whatever reason, just doesn't land or doesn't get picked up, or doesn't get green-lit, and so it lives in purgatory.

Appetite for eight? Yes. Let's put up on the screen here, get a ruling here from Amin who can sniff fraudulence a mile away. What's happening here with Ben Shapiro's-Come on. Ben Shapiro's eyebrows. I want a ruling from you on what. Just take me through what you imagine to be the backstory here on what's happened.

When two caterpillars really, really love each other.

Those are two big caterpillars. Look, if that came at me on the ground as a caterpillar, I would say that That is a million legs, not a few hundred, not a few thousand. That is a giant caterpillar.

That picture is crazy. Eugene Levy thinks that's too much.

That can't be real.

He was called Groucho Marxist in one of my group chat. That can't be real.

That's just not- There's no way it's real. That has to be. There's no way he- Suck a mic. There's no way he went out in public like that.

It's real. I've looked it up.

It's The pictures are real. The eyebrows, maybe not so much.

Correct. The still image that we have right now, there's so much dye on his face. It's crazy.

Amine, thank you for being on with us. A reminder to all to please check out Cinefo He does an excellent job with Zack Harper on that and Anthony Mays. It's just movies under a Rotten Tomato's rating of 40, correct?

Yes. Unfortunately, Train Dreams will have to wait before the and audience scores come down some. That was awful, Dan.

Yeah, I don't want to watch it. Are you with Zazlo on the idea that the Spurs are going to win it all?

No, not at all. I think you have too little playoff experience across too wide of a roster. Your playoff experience is just basically Harrison Barnes and Luke Cornet, neither of whom are guys that have the ball in their hands and create and run anything. Everyone else, pretty much, I guess, De'Aaron Fox had seven games, big whip. It just is no precedent of a team over the breadth of their roster being so inexperienced and winning a championship.

Well, last year. Okay, see, no? No.

They had been in the playoff the year before, been to the second round. That's one. Then two, you had guys like Caruso who had won a championship, who is a guy who has the ball in his hands. Shaquille O'Salex had been in the playoffs with the Clippers and with Oklahoma City a few years ago. He obviously has the ball in his hands a lot. There is a progression to this. There has never been one where it's like, we have 80% of our roster have never played a payoff game. Yeah, they'll figure it out. That just doesn't happen.

Amin, good talking to you. We'll talk to you again. See you later. Jeremy, can you give me an update on how Harrison Barnes was injured?

He woke up from a nap and had a hurt.