Transcript of Hour 3: Amin Elhassan Is A Media Titan (feat. Amin Elhassan) New

This is the Dan Levatorre Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Speaking of the time travel genre, Al Horford going back in the Wayback Machine to, uh, it was 4 days ago, but I still think it's worth celebrating when Al Horford pulls out a game against Kawhi and the Clippers late because he won't stop making threes. But that's it. You got nothing, Zazz.

You're just not interested.

The season's over. Who cares?

But Al Horford went— you said you're always interested in time machine movies and prison movies. You said you're always interested. That was going back in the time machine.

No, no, I'm not interested.

Okay.

No, I appreciate all the help with that.

My wife was like, who's that guy? And I was like, oh, babe, that's Al Horford.

She's like, really?

I was like, yeah.

She's like, I remember him somewhere else. I was like, yeah, he's a Warrior now.

Our Dominican Prince.

It was dumb that he left Boston.

Agreed.

Why'd he leave? He's home doing nothing. Unless he wanted to be home doing nothing at, you know, the end of April. Why leave Boston?

I'd like to be home doing nothing.

Dumb decision.

Then why take 4 jobs, Jeremy? Like, I mean, whose fault is that?

I have to pay bills.

Okay, but you don't need to have 4 jobs if you want to be home doing nothing. You can just be home doing nothing.

Yeah, live in poverty, Jeremy.

I could have 1 job if the 1 job paid me enough to not have 4 jobs.

Oh, you gotta be shitting me.

Alright, go talk to the boss.

Bad in arbitration. I didn't like that.

That's why I started arbitration. It's not Okay, Jeremy, you want to be full-time?

You'd have to give up some of your other jobs.

No more Emmys. Congrats, you're a back row guy now.

All right, if you, if you want to be full-time, you're gonna have to give up all your other gigs because you can't be working for everybody while wanting to be home alone, uh, not doing anything. Well, anybody ever feels the effect of the other ones, it just brings something to this show. But, uh, what did you bring last segment to our show?

We couldn't even hear you.

And were you stretching there? What happened there?

Just, you know, just stretching out. The draft— the draft on Thursday is something that we're doing a live show for, and I don't know if you guys saw this. I think it was Kevin Clark that Ryan Day said this to. He wants a college draft. Anytime that these guys can't fix their costs, they want to get the costs under control by creating a draft, because a draft is, uh, you know, hugely unfair to the participants.

How would that be good for Ryan Day, who's usually in the top of wins throughout every single year? He's going to pick 22nd in the draft, 232nd in the draft. Like, what are we doing?

I don't know that he has necessarily thought it through, but as a solution, uh, when it comes to business, fixed costs is always something that people are looking for, and it's what the draft offers you. I don't know what you guys took from the, uh, DeMaurice Smith interview that we did when he was in studio, but one of the things that he said that I thought was interesting— I'm saying to him, how would all of the would sports business be different if there weren't a salary cap? And his response was the owners would collude and they wouldn't have either a floor or a ceiling. They would just collude. I don't think that's what would happen. I think one owner would get carried away and have to get the quarterback. But in the case of Lamar Jackson, no one bit. Like, that— it is surprising to me that no one cares that that was obvious collusion, that the MVP of the league was available at the most important position and nobody signed up to want him.

Like, why aren't more teams mad with— more fans mad with their teams that they didn't go get Lamar Jackson?

Well, the Dolphins would be a good example. Why, right?

Like, why, why, why weren't we mad?

I mean, at the time— no, Tua was there. You had Tua.

Yeah, I guess that plays, that plays a part.

Yeah, you had collusion and Tua's ascension happening at the same time.

Okay, but like every other team that didn't have a quarterback— it's gotta be half the league— why aren't their fan bases like so mad they didn't go get Lamar Jackson?

Do you agree with Damar Smith's contention though? Because it's not something I had actually considered, right?

He was—

he's saying No, we collectively bargained a salary cap because we wanted to force the owners to spend a ceiling of money that they would not have spent if we didn't force them into a revenue share that made it a salary cap. The draft— the reason I object to the draft, right, it's, it's an impingement on freedoms that allows owners to govern themselves without governing themselves because the whole system is fixed so they can only spend so much. But now more than ever, right, you guys just saw, right, I don't think it's a small trade, Dexter Lawrence being traded because the Giants believe they've gotten the best out of him. And whatever a number 10 pick will be, instead of a 3-time Pro Bowler, they want to fix the cost. They've got to start over. So you're not going to do a lot better than Dexter Lawrence with your 10th pick. You're just going to fix the costs.

You're just going to make it someone who's more affordable than Dexter Lawrence.

You're not, you're not likely to do much better than Dexter Lawrence with the 10th pick.

Well, unless they're— he came off his worst year of his career. And unless they're right about these 7 years that he's played, that those are the best. And that's their job, is to, is to, is to have the foresight to say, I don't want to pay for past production. So if you're going to get a player in return, number 10 overall, who could be their next Dexter Lawrence at a fixed cost, and that's a pretty good move.

Okay, but do you believe, just off the top of your head, like you're guessing you're running a franchise, you've got the number 10 pick in this year's draft, which might be Reuben Bain?

Yeah, keep in mind New York also has the number 5, so they can get the next Dexter Lawrence number 5 and then get a little window dressing with number 10.

But you're not likely to do a whole lot better than what that guy is. Like, the only good thing about the Giants before Jaxson Dart and Skadaboo, the only good thing is they had pass rush. They did.

They have a great defensive line and they still probably have Malik Nabers too. Yeah, they have one of the most desirable defensive lines even with Lawrence no longer being there.

I thought it was a great trade for the Giants coming off a, coming off a very down year. He's been in the league for a long time now. And no one would have said you would get a top 10 pick in return because it's not just like, okay, fine, you're not only giving up the number 10 overall pick if you're Cincinnati, but you, you also have to pay the player. I'm like, if I'm Cincinnati, I'd rather have paid Trey Hendrickson and have the number 10 overall pick. And they went this route.

I thought it was a very strange move from Cincinnati, but they're also weirdly notoriously cheap also.

But, but, but they're not going to be cheap here. They are going to pay him. And if I'm one of those players in the Bengals locker room, I certainly don't like the idea of paying a guy who's never been here before, overpaying us.

Okay. I think you guys are undervaluing what Dexter Lawrence does because in my history watching this in Miami, the kinds of players that I've seen have that kind of dominance from inside pass rush position are just Warren Sapp and Cortez Kennedy, the best of what it is you see. Since 2022, these are the numbers: pressures from nose tackles since 2022. Uh, Dexter Lawrence has 108. The next closest is Vita Vea with 32. So 3 times— like, there's— I think you guys are underestimating what that is. Pressure right up the middle. There's one guy in the league who's done it since 2022. You might say that that'll take it out of the body and he's not going to be as good because they've gotten his best years out of him. But Vita Vea is still very good, and he's got 3 times— more than 3 times as many, uh, pressures from up the middle. I thought that the reason— like, Thibodeaux's good, but I thought the reason their pass rush was good was right there. It was right in the center of their defense, lined up at nose tackle.

Don't you think it's a reasonably smart move, though, to not pay a player new money coming off a down year?

Oh, I'm not even disputing whether good trade or bad trade. I'm more interested in the Ryan Day conversation of fixed costs and the idea of when you can't control yourself. He's saying, let's make it a draft so we can get some order to this, because what's happening right now in college football is This is probably the purest form of free agency that we've seen since free agency started, like where it's just— there are no rules. The coaches are exasperated because there are no rules, and they're like, can we just get these costs in a place where I know what I have to pay somebody so that it can just be decided for me and I don't have to compete with everyone else who's just going to make the cost whatever it is that they want to make it, and I've got no control? He's got it. What is the Ohio State payroll? Is it $21 million?

Is it $22 million?

Don't believe what you read. It's way higher.

Okay, I would imagine, but that's what, what's been reported is that Ryan Day is running— that all these guys are running roughly a $20 to $25 million payroll. That's the way it's being reported. But because there's so little governance, so little transparency, Ryan Day is in a fight every day for the guy that he wants, and he can't get control of the costs because the cost is just going to keep going up. If you make it total free agency, if you make it total capital—

capitalism.

All that's going to do is the price is going to keep going up.

It's just so crazy because Ryan Day has a program with one of the highest budgets that exists, right? So it's like— this is like Google being mad that there's free agency in the tech field. Like, they can just go get almost anyone because they have a great reputation and they have the most money. I don't know why he of all people would be the most upset by this.

Well, I've told you, I don't think he's the most upset by it, but this is something that he was proposing. It did surprise me, like it surprised Tony, that He's proposing it even though he doesn't have, you know, a lot of details on what the system of this would work. But the answer to your question, Jeremy, is almost everyone who is in power in sports is at least a little bit of a control freak. And there is an absence of control in what they're doing in college football that if you listen to the last South Beach session with Jeff Haffley, you will find out why somebody who thought he was getting into his dream job at Boston College, being a head coach of a major program immediately realized my job is no longer coaching. It has nothing to do with, uh, helping young people. It's all sales. It doesn't even have to do with the X's and O's of can I win this game anymore. It's just sales. It's how do I generate revenue so that I can keep up with the other people who have more revenue.

Please think of the coaches. Please, in big-time college football, please consider how this might be a little hard for Ryan Day.

Amin El-Hassan is there. I don't know what he feels about the first little bit of playoff basketball so far. I was hoping that he would join us as a drunk Kash Patel, because if you read the article in The Atlantic—

allegedly he just sued. I didn't read The Atlantic.

Who does? Well, the details that were reported by The Atlantic on Kash Patel is that he has to be woken up from his drinking and it's hard to wake him up. Missing meetings. Uh, he is drinking in a way that seems excessive, excessive, uh, near the buffets, uh, the dead buffets in Las Vegas at the Poodle Room in Vegas.

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Don Lebatard.

Chris Cody does an impression. Just be careful.

Dangerous game here.

This is a dangerous game.

I don't want to play this game.

No, he was saying, man, I could do such a great Kendrick Lamar.

No, I don't want to play this game.

He's like, man, I could talk just like him.

This is who we're going to trust with this.

I mean, you do it.

Let's let Amin do it, I think.

Stugatz.

I think you could do it, Chris, because you did a great Charles Barkley. You're 1 for 1 there.

Did no one just hear the segment we just did with Amin? We cannot be taking judgment from the local drunk on whether or not you should do the impersonation of a Black man stumbling over his words. Like, you don't see the bad judgment in that?

There was.

Mose and Moody?

Moody Mose?

Moses Moody? It sounds worse. Be careful, man.

We gotta— like, we cannot do this. It's too close to the line. This is where the line is. Something legitimately funny can't be funny because we're scared our ginger's gonna do something racist by accident.

Carry the hell on, Dave. Dan, Rachel.

Dan, the line is where we feel alive though.

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

You are not as Kash Patel today. You're joining us as just Amin with his weekend observations.

I was worried that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference, Dan, but yes, just Amin as his weekend observations.

All right, give me the music for Amin then.

It is time for Amin to share his game notes. No one in the media will tell you what happened better than my boy Amin.

Weekend Observations is brought to you by Miller Lite. Legendary moments start with a Lite. Dan, I've been waiting damn near a week to say this. Last week you repeatedly kept talking about Doc Rivers going to the Hall of Fame as though he were going in as a player. Talking about what a good player he was, talking about the Hall of Fame being an opportunity to go back and relive his youth. Then he's going in as a coach. There will be no reliving of his playing career any more than we wax poetic about Greg Popovich's step back or Red Auerbach's killer crossover. Now that that's out of the way, Doc Rivers is an actual NBA player.

Those guys—

Dan, he's not going in as a player. I don't care what his playing resume was. He's not being honored as a player. So they're not gonna be like, remember that time when you played for the Hawks and you guys— no, none of that. It'll be a lot of, I remember the time I told Kevin Garnett this, or I remember when Grant Hill was hurt and I told him that. That's what it's gonna be about. It has nothing to do with his playing career. Just because you're in the Hall of Fame doesn't mean you're a Hall of Famer for everything you did. It's for something specific.

You don't know that. Someone might bring up one game he played in It's possible.

Nobody's bringing that up. Nobody. What an opening weekend of NBA playoff basketball. Wemby lived up to the hype. KD's surprise injury gave hope and life to the Lakers. And the Raptors and Cavs in the honorary NBA TV Game slot, even though that doesn't exist anymore. It'll always be the NBA TV Game. How many people are complaining about the games being on Prime are also impaired at using high-tech sophisticated solutions like Google? It's not hard. Where's the game? Google Raptors— oh, it's on Prime. Done. Don't blame it on streaming or technology, or it's literally just on a different channel than you've been accustomed to for the last 20 years. That's all it is. It could be on CBS Sports. You wouldn't know. Because you didn't know it was on CBS Sports. You got to just look up where the game is, guys. It's not hard.

Don't you find that interesting, though, I mean, that it's such a complaint?

I find it interesting in the same way that I find a lot of these NBA complaints to be just purely PR things, right? When the, the wildcard starts NFL weekend, do you know instantly, oh, this one's on CBS, this one's on Fox? No, you don't. You don't. You look it up.

Oh, depending on the conference, it could be Fox, could be CBS.

You don't know just off the top of your head. You gotta figure that thing out.

It's quick. I put Channel 4. Okay, it's not there. All right, must be on 7. I put 7. Boom, found it.

You know what's quicker than that? Googling it. Raptors— oh, there it is. Before I got Cavs out, it was—

I don't know, all my search engines are contaminated. I'm getting a bunch— this is not what it used to be.

It's not as easy for me to find.

This is easy to find, but just in general, it's— I, I— my sources are less credible than they used to be.

This, this one's not one of the areas of concern. What channel is the game on? Boom, it's instant. Warriors getting knocked out in the play-in robbed us of a few more opportunities to revel in the greatness of Steph Curry. That 3-pointer he hit against the Clippers, we had to— he looks in the crowd and he says, did that go in? Because it's the Clippers, so you don't know, are they cheering because I missed Are they cheering because I made it? Spoiler alert, they cheered because he made it. Instead, we got a funeral. Years from now, I'll be able to say I was there when Steve Kerr and Steph Curry and Draymond Green addressed the media for the final time as a trio. Also at that game, I was in a photo on media row with Tim Kawakami, Wright Thompson, J.E. Adande, and Marcus Thompson. This is like when the Warriors have tried out a lineup made up of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and Ian Clark. I'm Ian Clark.

Oh no.

Yeah, I do those, Dan. Those names, these are titans of the industry.

So are you.

No, no, come on, man.

What do you mean?

Kawakami was— Tim Kawakami was in, was in a great white hype, man, in '96.

What are you talking about? On the poll, Juju, bigger name. This is— he's gonna lose this because Kawakami's a longer name, but bigger name, Tim Kawakami or Amin El-Hassan?

You could do it with any of those names. Wright Thompson, J. Adande, Marcus Thompson. These are, like I said, Titans.

I think that's your class. Do I have this wrong?

Am I overinflating? I mean, these are your peers.

They're not my peers.

You're not Ian Clark.

You're not Ian Clark.

I'm Ian Clark, man. Not, not with those names. Now, if you put some of the other— we put Mike Ryan and Jeremy Tashae and Chris Cody and And then it's like, okay, Zaslo, then yeah, maybe I'm a Titan, but not with those names. Perhaps my favorite part on Friday night, Draymond Green walking into the postgame with a beer in hand. Totally unrelated, did you guys catch that piece in The Atlantic on Kash Patel? No wonder I'm able to nail that impression so easily. And you can bet on that.

It's always funny.

Death, taxes, and the Celtics whooping that Sixer ass in the playoffs. Dan, it's been 44 years since the Sixers beat the Celtics in the playoffs.

'82.

It's crazy.

Yeah, but I feel different.

Played a lot.

Is that like Mo Cheeks and Andrew Toney and Moses Malone team?

Like, Moses wasn't there yet. That's how long ago it was. Moses wasn't there yet.

Yet.

It was before they won the title.

He's talking about the original Moses, the biblical Moses.

He's like, I don't know about that Red Sea, folks, uh, but I feel different about this time. Psych! At one point, Celtics fans started chanting, we want Boston. That's cold, dog. That's cold as hell. We like, oh, you wanted this? We'll chant it for you.

Celtics hit a 3. 10.

Portland Trail Blazers new owner Tom Condon with the rare strategy of trying to make a splash by instantly being a cheap bastard. Sorry, I mean exhibiting the behavior of a cheap bastard.

Splash.

They didn't travel the two-way guys on the road trip, which is insane. How much are you saving? The flight's already going, it's two more hotel rooms. What are we doing with per diem? Is that what we're saving on? And according to Jake Fisher, they are allegedly looking to pay the next head coach about the same amount you'd pay the head coach at the University of South Florida.

Wow.

I know Portland must be thrilled about what comes next— death, taxes, and Knicks fans overreacting on 7th Ave to a Game 1 victory. They're still saying F Trey Young, by the way. I love that. Got traded, he's long gone, he's still—

he's a wizard.

Yep. The Detroit Pistons started their Twitter account in October of 2008. They haven't won a home playoff game since then. Shout out to Law Murray for that one. Stephen A. Smith going to WrestleMania in the middle of the playoffs is not going to help him beat the allegations. You know who goes to WrestleMania during the playoffs? Zazz, probably. But you know who else would go to WrestleMania during the playoffs? Type of guy who plays solitaire during the finals. Prediction: Thunder in 3.

What do you have? The Suns quitting? You have the Suns doing like what they did before Game 7 with DeAndre Ayton, where they just don't even— they don't come out for Game for?

I, I got, I got the Thunder being so overwhelming that the league steps in and says, oh wow, okay, throw the towel.

Really, man? That 5-0 start, that 5-0 run to start game 1. No, a couple little guys in Phoenix are like nudging each other's elbows. You see this?

We got a shot.

Darth Amin's rule of 2 is back. We're reviewing new episodes of Maul: Shadow Lord every Wednesday at 3 PM Eastern, noon Pacific. Live on YouTube. I say check your local listings, but basically just check my threads or Instagram and I'll post the link. Zachariah Branch arrested for blocking a sidewalk. That's gonna be the reason why some dumb team legitimizes not drafting him. He also got arrested for prowling. Never heard that one before. You guys ever heard that someone got arrested for prowling?

Uh, that is a legitimate crime. That is something you can— you can, you can be accused of being a foul owl on the prowl.

Yeah, I feel like if you're, you're being charged with prowling, it's like, we didn't like the way he walked, a little too ominous the way he was walking.

So prowl— prowling is that— what kind of, uh, that's a misdemeanor, prowling? What kind of, what kind of charge is prowling?

Well, it is Athens, Georgia, so they might knock it up to a felony. Tony the Tiger, you've been warned, no prowling. Tiger Woods, not so much. Low blow, okay. The finalists for NBA awards have been released, including 3 black men for Coach of the Year. Excuse me, it's 2 black men and a Christian. Hey, I wonder if a Christian has ever won Coach of the Year. You guys remember that?

Oh yeah, nobody remembers that.

Never forget it.

Yeah, no, you, you've held it against Missoula all along.

He should win, to be honest.

Hey, I wonder the last time a Christian was in the finals. So, oh, I don't know, every effing year. New season of Bar Rescue, and we've got you covered right here at Here's the Science of Bar Rescue podcast, hosted by real-life bar and restaurant consultant Chell Kelsey Reynolds, commercial kitchen and food truck vet Colin Cassard, and two guys who would totally identify with being Christians if it meant getting some free brews. Subscribe, rate, review wherever you get podcasts. Let's round out this commercial portion of our proceedings. Yeah, episode 307. Oh, come on, Devin, go to high school.

Weekend observations cannot just be you promoting your things.

I mean, that's not your observations. You got to do better than You've become what it is we were lamenting earlier about WrestleMania being all spots and ads. Weekend Observations have become all spots and ads for meme vehicles.

Do you guys like the free Weekend Observations? Then here you go, here comes some— some minute commercial interruption.

Arbitration for him too, Dan.

Cinéphile episode 307, Mac and Devin Go to High School, starring Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa.

Good movie.

I cannot in good conscience call this a movie. It's not a movie, Tony. It's 65 minutes long, of which approximately 40% is music video.

I saw it in college. It was a good movie.

They play that one song about 1,000 times. They even use it as the basis of dialog. So what, we get drunk? So what, we smoke weed?

We're just trying to have fun and we don't care who sees.

Yes, that was real dialog. I was not singing a song. Snoop drops that line sincerely in that thing. What the hell? Speaking of hell, Art Bryles, those are the weekend observations.

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Don Lebatard.

Amino acid.

Stugatz.

The amino acid.

This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

Let's include Amin on some of what it is that we were talking about. The Warriors go where from here?

Well, I mean, look, you got to start with Steve Kerr. Steve Kerr talked like someone who wasn't coming back. He's like, I'm gonna take some time and I gotta talk it out with Joe Lacob and Mike Dunleavy. And like, I'm like, man, that doesn't sound like someone who's raring to come back. It sounds like someone who's coming to grips with the reality that this thing is over, the end of the game. You guys saw him and Draymond and Steph kind of huddle and And Steph told us later, he said, he was like, yeah, well, I don't know what happens after this, but it's been a hell of a run. And I'm like, Jesus, what are you— like, Steph was like shocked by it. Draymond gave one of the most introspective postgame press conferences I've ever heard anyone give, including— he said the penalty for failure isn't us. He said, we're going to get paid, and maybe we get traded, but we're going to be fine. He said, "What I feel bad about losing is all the people who depend on us, because when we're successful, no one talks about anyone's job." And he's talking about the coaches, he's talking about the video coordinators, he's talking about ushers in the arena.

He said, "When we're winning and we're successful, everyone gets to keep working. When we lose, everyone else has to worry about their jobs and their livelihood." And I've never— I worked in this business for almost 25 years now, Dan. I've never, I've never heard a player speak like that.

That's why you're a Titan.

That level.

That's why you're a Titan. 25 years. 25. I don't understand why you're not making yourself a Titan. Why are you and J.A. Adande not allowed to be peers?

Well, hold on, because J.A. Adande is a Hall of Famer. Because J.A. Adande covered like the '96 Bulls, right? Because J.A. Adande covered the Shaq and Kobe Lakers up close and personal. I mean, he was one the most plugged-in people on that beat for one of the great teams of all time. Jay Adande is literally a Hall of Famer. He's in the Naismith Hall of Fame.

You ran into the bowels of an arena when Tim Duncan screamed after making a shot because you were scared of him.

Nah, see, that's, you know what the problem is, Dan? I have two careers. I have a basketball career and I have a media career, and neither of them separately rise to the level of what Jay Adande or Marcus Thompson or Tim Kawakami or Wright Thompson accomplished and achieved in the one industry.

Do you believe Steph Curry ends his career Warrior?

You can't promise anything. I think yes. I think there's a desire for him to stay. I think the Warriors, obviously they make a ton of money having him around, and I don't think he'll ever ask to leave. But when you have billionaires who think they know better, like the guy in Portland who's off to a tremendous start there, you can get some wacky decisions. Things happen. Dan, I could have asked you in 2015, could you ever imagine Dwyane Wade playing anywhere else? And we all said no, come on now. It's 3. It's Miami, Wade County and all that stuff. But he left. It happens. It could happen to anybody. So I would say never say never, but my inclination would be no, he'll be there.

Any surprise to you that Lawrence Frank, the president of the Clippers, said they intend to build around Kawhi, that they intend to win around Kawhi?

Yeah. I actually got to talk with Marcus Thompson and Tim Kawakami. Titans. Titans, yeah. They are the ones that came out with the report that the Warriors thought they had a deal for Kawhi Leonard at the trade deadline, and then the Clippers pulled out. And I was thinking to myself, what could possibly make them double and triple down? And this is where I come back to billionaires thinking that they're just better than us and they're smarter than us, right? Because the smart money, Dan, is, hey, we traded Zubac and we got two first-round picks there. We traded away James Harden and we got a young guy in return, in Garland. So capitalize now. Build your asset list now, because when the league comes to garnish wages and garnish picks and suspend people, you want this organization to be healthy enough to withstand it. Unless your owner's convinced that there's no chance that we're gonna get found guilty of anything. Anything. And in which case, why would we evacuate now in our moment of triumph? Let's double down and triple down. And that's— when you got a billionaire who's richer than everybody, that happens sometimes.

All right, Amin, it's time to get serious. You know what time it is. Let's play another edition of You Know About That. You ready for this, Amin?

I'm ready.

All right, first up, the Detroit Pistons were the only home team this weekend and the number 1 seed, of course, to lose Game 1 of the NBA playoffs. You know about Detroit being in trouble?

Uh, I do. Uh, not only did I mention in the weekend observations, but months ago, remember when everyone was fawning over them? I said, I'm not sure. I'm not sure about the Pistons because there's certain key indicators you need to be good at to succeed in the playoffs, and they aren't good at any of them. Now, it's only Game 1. It's a long series. And by the way, if I'm to put my money on anybody, it won't be the Orlando Magic, who 4 or 5 days ago we thought were going to be an open revolt and overthrow their head coach. Now here they are, up 1-0 in their series, but there's a lot of questions that they have as well. So I'm not as confident in Orlando, but it does expose a little bit of the stuff that I was worried about in Detroit.

All right, sounds like you know about that. I mean, the San Antonio Spurs, they win Game 1, 111-98, in his playoff debut, Victor Wembanyama, 35 points. He was 5-of-6 from 3. You know about that Wembanyama big playoff debut?

Yeah, I also know about the ridiculous number of stats that came out of that game. Like, oh, he's the most points in a debut by a Spur in their first playoff date. I'm like, look, if it's not something like, like, yo, he did it more than Wilt, or like he broke some sort of record, don't mention it to me. I'm just gonna assume, yeah, I mean, that's a pretty good debut.

Well, you know, I don't need—

I don't need—

what I'll mention to you, Amin, is that, uh, I have never seen a player that size be able in a sequence to bring the ball up the court, go behind his back, go to the rim after going behind his back and taking it the length of the court, and then the next time down he shoots it from 30 feet and also makes that.

Like, that's—

it's just lunacy.

Phenomenal. Phenomenal, lunacy, all these words, fine. Don't give me Victor Dueminama had the most points in the first half of a playoff debut in the history. No, this is dumb. This is not a real stat that we should care about, right? That what you just described, him doing that, that's way more impressive to me than he did this more than any Spur who's been drafted in the last 25. Oh, go shut up.

All right, sounds like you know about that even though you want me to Amin, you know about LeBron and Bronny being on the court together for the first time ever in the playoffs?

You know about that? Boy, let me tell you something, man. Shout out to the basketball gods because we sat here and we wrote the eulogy for the Lakers. No Luka, no Austin Reeves, it's done. By the time they get back, the series will already be over and all that stuff. And then the basketball gods said, here's a gift. Kevin Durant, the day before, will get hurt and miss Game 1. And all of a sudden, all that negativity, it goes away, it opens up. And now you've got a Lakers team led by LeBron, savvy veteran, right? Going up against a Rockets team that has basically last year's playoffs worth of experience. And they win Game 1. And now you have Luka might be back sooner rather than later, it infiltrates hope into the situation, and as a result, you get a blowout win and Bronny gets to play.

All right, sounds like you know about that. I mean, you know about Luka Dončić now being eligible for NBA Awards?

You know about that, dude? This is the dumbest thing ever. Get rid of this dumb rule and just accept that the voters know best. There's no voter who's gonna vote a guy who played 40 games or 50 games to be All-NBA in the same way that everyone would have looked at Luka's body of work and Cade Cunningham's and Anthony Edwards' and said, no, we've seen enough, we know these are one of the best players in the league right now. It's a dumb rule, and the idea that we have to have some sort of arbitration in order to make him eligible is ridiculous.

All right, sounds like you know about that dumb award rule. Finally, I mean, 8 games this weekend, only one of them was single digits. It was a 9-point Laker win. You know about there being no close games this weekend?

I do, but like, that happens. It's the playoffs, and, and we've talked about the 3-point shot doing that a lot. In a lot of these instances, you make some threes, the other team misses some threes, all of a sudden a little turns into a lot. I expect the games are going to be competitive Moving forward, I expect a lot of these series are going to be tied after we're done with the first 2-game slate.

Uh, we're about to talk about Woj. Do you want to be a part of that conversation, or would you like to leave?

Let's talk. What do we got?

Nice.

Well, did you see the report? Did you see there? Uh, I was, uh, surprised to, uh—

I don't keep up with St. Bonaventure.

Uh, St. Bonaventure. It's being reported that Woj is clashing with donors, that Woj is getting involved in recruiting, that Wojcik, who left the $7 million a year job for a $75,000 a year job, isn't getting along with others.

What?

But his bedside manner is so, is so well-renowned. He gets along and he's so collaborative, Dan. He's really a guy who brings people under the tent and brings them together in an inspirational kind of way. I cannot believe that this is happening. Huh.

Uh, the other thing that's being reported is that the people of St. Bonaventure, the donors, feel like they are being looked down on by Woj because they're Trump voters?

That one I'm going to sit out. As much as I'd love to— as much as I'd like to pile on, I'm like, yep, yep.

Well, but you were sarcastic there, and I don't think a lot of people know that Woj created fiefdoms at ESPN, that he created a place where he and his people had power, but there were others around him that felt like he was hungry about how competitive he was in a way that trampled teamwork. I don't believe that I don't believe that's a known thing. It's known to you. I don't believe that that's a generally known thing.

There's a general animosity around him about how he gets his news stories, right, and how he handles breaking news internally. So we're talking about internal dynamics. How he gets his stories, who his sources are, whether the sources are compelled to work with him or desire to work with him, forget about that for a second. But when you talk about the internal operation of people who are working to be newsbreakers as well being told You have to run it through him first before you can go public with it so that he gets the credit. And if the story is written, you'll get a little byline in there, but it is going to be posted as reported by Adrian Wojnarowski first and foremost at top billing. This is something that he did constantly, not to mention backstabbing and trying to go around behind people's backs within the power structure, trying to get them in trouble. I'm one of those people. Rachel Nichols is one of those people. I'm not guessing, I know for a fact he called people and said, "Amin's doing this!" And then when they talked to me about it, I said, "What did I do?" And then we watched the tape and they're like, "Yeah, you didn't do anything." Yeah, I'm like, "I know, I know, but that's who you guys hired.

You guys hired a guy who feels it's necessary to pick up the phone and complain about how other people are doing their jobs despite them not doing any of the dirty tactics that he did when he was working here." But guess what? He's back home where he belongs in Olean or Binghamton or wherever the hell that place is. It's not the end of the world, Dan, but you can see it from there.

I, I—

He happens to know?

Great Scott, he happens to know!

He happens to know.

Gather everyone!

Get the children!

He happens to know!

So wise.

Apparently they're recruiting, uh, tensions with, uh, the way that he's been recruiting. With the coach. The coach is not happy as well. I screwed up the timing there. I saw, like, I started to talk and then, and then Roy put up the wrap sign, and then I, I looked at the clock.

Now you're 11 seconds over, just droning.

You don't have the conclusion of the segment. Yeah, Mike is disappointed.

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