Transcript of How Many NBA Titles Will Victor Wembanyama Win? | Hour 3 (feat. Michelle Beadle) New

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Can I just say, and we haven't brought this up yet, the Lakers play tonight. Lakers and Thunder is Game 1 tonight, and I'll just raise my hand, I'll be the first one to say it. The idea that LeBron, of all players, alright, and I'll sit here and I'll be anti-LeBron all day, alright, but I gotta be fair, alright. If there's two things about me, Greg, everybody knows I'm not a cuck, I'll never be a cuck, okay, and I'm also very fair, everybody knows that. I gotta be fair here. All right. To assume that LeBron James, of all players, was going to be the first player ever to be on a team that blew a 3-games-to-none lead. I mean, how stupid was I? How stupid were we?

Shame on you.

But how stupid was I?

You're a man of honor, like Jerry Orbach at the end of Dirty Dancing. When you're wrong, you say you're wrong. All right.

But he was trying to protect Baby. She was like, put it on the pole.

Was that like Jerry Orbach at the end of Dirty Dancing?

Yeah.

2 Dirty Dancing references.

The laugh you hear there, host of the NBA show Run It Back with Chandler Parsons and Lou Williams, is Michelle Beadle. Michelle, when's the last time you saw Dirty Dancing?

Oh God, it's been a— I'm gonna say 15 years, probably. Not my favorite of that genre, by the way. Never rule out being a cook. I can't believe you're just deciding that now. You have a lot of life left, baby.

Might have been 15 when, uh, Swayze took her down. Inappropriate.

Yeah, well, as we know, the '80s The '80s didn't really think about that very often in their music and movies. Now, hyper alert.

That's what I'm saying, man. I couldn't tell you last time I saw Dirty Dancing. I mean, we're talking 25, 30 years. I can't believe you've seen it within 15. Sounds like it's in the rotation.

I think it was on, like it's one of those things that were like, you walk through the living room and it's on and you just sort of sit for whatever's left of it. But it's like, she was a different person. He was, yeah, it's a weird movie when you really think back.

How dumb was that though? Like this idea that LeBron James, LeBron James, is gonna blow a 3-nothing lead. It's never happened in the history of the NBA. We were talking, it was so exciting. Oh my God, are the Lakers gonna be the first team to blow it? And the fact is it wasn't even close.

No, no, it's just with LeBron James, he's so polarizing. You love him or you hate him. And I really don't think there's an in-between. And so the idea that, oh my God, and look, the longevity of what he's doing, that means that you're gonna break a lot of positive records, but you're also gonna break some negative records just 'cause you've been around so long. So I, you know, I could see getting kind of excited about a possible moment, but no, it wasn't. It wasn't close.

I thought you were about to say, Zaz, don't you think it was weird? I thought you're gonna say, don't you think it's weird for a family to go to dance camp for like a month? It seems like they were there. At what period in our society was that a normal thing for families to do with their summertime?

Was it dance camp? It wasn't dance camp. Wasn't it like one of those like East Coast resorts that had a dance thing.

I think so.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Oh, I thought everybody was there specifically to learn to dance.

No, no, guys, I lied. I saw it yesterday. I watched, I watched Dirty Dancing every day. It's my favorite movie.

You're thinking about the movie Step Up, Dave.

All right, okay, my, my brain's fuzzy. Here's another question for you that you just said, Beetle. Why in a world of so many actually atrocious people Is there so much hate for LeBron James? Sincerely, can you answer this question for me? I get it, he's a little bit phony with some of the things he says sometimes. That's worthy of the white-hot hate he gets?

Mm-hmm. I think, okay, so for me, in my old age, I've now started to sort of define and put borders around my personal hate lists. I think sports hate, and look, my thing with LeBron is a little more personal, but like as a sports fan, I think the phoniness does rub people the wrong way. As he's gotten older, however, he cares less, which is what we all do as we get older. So I do respect that, that I see that in him now. So sports hate is just a different type of hate, right? Like, I don't actually hate the person. I don't think about the person. They don't affect my day-to-day life. And then there's hate hate that we save for like, you know, our Aria list that some of us may be keeping daily. So I just think he's a polarizing dude. You know, MJ people, feel like they're constantly on the defense because you have to defend MJ against LeBron, 'cause it's one or the other, which again is a tired, really tired discussion. And his personality traits, like it's just, he's had moments of sort of holier-than-thou righteousness and then been quiet on other things.

Like he's, there's enough there to sort of find a reason to dislike the guy if you're not wanting to be a fan of his basketball. I get it, I do get it.

Are you shook after the Spurs loss last night?

I am, actually. And I almost canceled. I'll be honest. Like, I really am kind of sad. And what makes me even sadder is that Anthony Edwards is my third favorite active player in the league. And I found myself yesterday upon the knowledge that he'd be available, like, oh, and then went, no, this is bad. So it was— I'm torn as a sports fan. I love what the Timberwolves have done. I loved the smack talk. Against Denver. I thought that was just something that basketball needs more of. And now they're facing my team, and I'm just— I'm a little stuck. It's a little quagmire. Um, I still think the Spurs will win, but that's why I don't talk a lot of trash come playoffs. Also, we haven't done this in 7 years, so I'm not coming into this thing like, yeah, we're beating everybody. There's a lot of growing that needs to be done, and this very well could be a round where growing happens and they don't win. And, and I'm ready for that. I think mentally.

Michelle Pulitzer Prize winner. Oh God. Quick question.

Shut up. Okay. You know what? This Pulitzer Prize thing is already out of control. It's out of control. I mean, I'm never going to refer to you as this. I refuse it and I rebuke it.

Disrespectful.

I don't understand what you're refusing. Are you refusing facts? Are you refusing gravity? Are you refusing?

It's crazy that you are a Pulitzer Prize winner. In my days, That's right. I would have lost that bet 1,000 times out of 1,000.

Does the award make the man or does the man make the award?

That's a great question. Great question. I think the award is now cheap and means nothing, is what I think. But that's just one person's opinion.

Sorry, I mean, speaking of cheap and meaning nothing, that loss by the Spurs last night, um, what do you say about my theory that Rudy Gobert has a psychological advantage on Victor Wembanyama as big brother, and he can get in his head and kind of bother him in a way that if Rudy Gobert were German, he would have gotten his lunch taken.

Like, wow. Okay. Like Kylo Ren, maybe like something like that.

Yeah. You're a day late with that reference video.

He's—

shut up. Yeah. There's something to the sort of the teacher and the student. Although I do think Wemby is mentally ahead of his years. Like, he's shown a little bit wisdom, a little more wisdom than I expect from a kid that age. Honestly, I also don't want to live in a world where Rudy Gobert beats Wemby. I think that is bad for society in general. I was fine with Rudy Gobert having a big moment against Denver, even though he took out my second favorite current active player. But it was just kind of fun for him to sort of, you know, reintroduce himself as a 4-time Defensive Player of the Year. We know he feels disrespected, yada yada. But I really need for that to stop now.

Okay.

Now, how long— moment.

All right. You've referred to it twice now, Michele. How long is this list of favorite players?

It's 3. It's just— it's only 3. It's 3, but I also reserve the right to add 4 and 5 at any given moment.

Wait a second. Wemby won, right?

Yeah.

Wemby won.

Ant is 3. Jokic?

No. Yeah. And Jokic is 2.

That's a shocker.

Who are 4 and 5 if you had to name them right now?

If I had to name 4 and 5 right now, I don't even have— you know, I love Cade Cunningham. I think he's interesting and fun to watch. Not necessarily exciting, however, like the personality is not there like my other 3. I know people are like, a lot of front running on Beetle's list here.

I didn't hear any Ham and Egg. The Lakers listed there.

Give me some players on terrible teams that you love.

Oh, I'm sorry. No, why would I love a player on a terrible team? What? That's— you never see those guys. I wouldn't even be familiar with them. Yeah, no, there's probably a good, like, bench dude that's kind of fun. You know, you want Mike Conley? Fine, I'll give you Mike Conley. Who doesn't love Mike Conley?

Beetle, um, another important issue from these NBA playoffs that's emerged is some national voices have disparaged the uniforms, and in fact, the fans in the stands for wearing the Spurs. Always, you know, to me, black and silver, but then always that, like, I don't know, it's not rainbow colors exactly. It's like powder blue and like an off orange, right?

Oh no, why don't you wait right there?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, please, to show what I'm talking— I'm still talking. Well, she's gone.

What do you want to do?

Should we just— should we sit in silence? Is that better? I mean, I can hear her. Silence? Oh, she's still talking.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Look at that. It's offensive.

You're talking about these?

That's too much.

Yeah. Talking about Fiesta?

Okay, explain this and where you come down on it. Do you like it? Because they're, you know, silver and black, black and silver. Now all of a sudden they're every color in the rainbow.

Well, Fiesta is a longstanding tradition in San Antonio. It's like a 2-week affair of parties and events and fairs and parades and all of that kind of stuff. My dog's just dying over here. And so we've had those colors since like Hemisphere Arena, the turquoise with the hot pink and the orange and the— and honestly, turquoise is probably my signature color, as you can tell when I hold it up like that. Uh, so of course I love it. And I love the— I honestly think for color, for colorways, and we have some of the best. I think the fact that we get this fun little party and then we get to go black and silver, it's the best of both worlds. So yeah, people that aren't familiar with it have not been paying attention.

I kind of like it. Are you— does that make you a summer if you're a turquoise? You know what that is?

I don't know. I see those things on my Instagram and I always guess the wrong color. So I don't think I understand what looks good and what doesn't.

What's Sazlo? What is he? Is he a spring?

He might be a spring or maybe an autumn, actually. He could be an autumn.

I already told you about that, Amin. Michelle, why were they allowing Wembanyama to goaltend last night?

Okay, I know you're like the fourth person. It's not even 8 a.m. No, those weren't goaltends. I didn't hear whistles. I saw 12 blocks. Is what I saw. Uh, I'm not really sure what you're referring to. Look, let the man live. He had a bad offensive night, so we're gonna let him just prosper on the defense. I hope he figures this out by game 2 though. I, I like that you can shoot a 3. I need you to stop shooting when you miss 8 of them. That's— we're gonna need to figure out a new plan. You're 7/12. Like, dude, go, just go. There's the one thing that sort of irks me a little bit, and it's also because we lost. Like, had we not lost, I would have loved it, but We did. And so I'm angry today.

Wemba Nyama, I'm sure, is incredibly fun to watch if he's on your— well, fun for everybody, but especially when it's your favorite team. He's incredibly fun to watch. But like, was Tim Duncan fun to watch? Like, obviously amazing. Everybody wants him on our team. But did you tune in like, oh, I can't wait to see what Duncan does next?

No, he was— well, he's the Big Fundamental. I mean, I could get up and get another jersey that says Big Fundamental on the back if you'd like. But he was— he was just— fundamentally sound. So no, there's no splash. He doesn't have the benefit of being 6'7"5", which again is not— we're not accustomed to seeing that. And so that by itself makes anything Wemby does just vibrant and exciting. Timmy didn't have that. He was quiet. He was dry, under-the-breath sort of sarcasm that most people never ever got to even really see or hear. So the personality for most is not there in Tim Duncan, but we know better. And so no, I don't think he was exciting. I mean, look, for those years that that little dynasty run, they were always called boring, which as a Spurs fan and then eventually like talking about them on national television, I always was just like, I don't find them boring, but I'm a fan of the team. And so I get it. I get why some people sort of turn that off, but that's fine. I mean, it's not for everyone. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm grateful he played on my team, splashy or not.

Don Lebatard, he called me on my own podcast. He called me full of shit. Claiming that I'm faking interest in the solar eclipse.

Well, you do do this. You love to just get excited about everything.

Okay, Junior.

Stugatz.

I had to school you and explain to you.

He was gonna take you to Augusta.

When I was 17 years old, Alan Cherry and I used to haunt the Buehler Planetarium.

This is the Don Levitar Show with the Stugatz.

Legitimate over-under total now on Victor Wembanyama Defensive Player of the Year awards? I mean, like, what would be a number that is not laughable for his career?

Uh, I would put the number at 4.

Oh, I said 7. My bad, I went too far.

I, I think, I think, well, I think the thing is 4.

Yeah, is it 3.5 or what's the over-under stat? I don't even know what I'm gonna have.

It could be like a Michael Jordan fatigue thing.

Yeah, that's what I wonder about, right? Because like, can he? And also, I think the one thing about Defensive Player of the Year is if your team defense wanes for any reason, like they're good defensively because they have a lot of great defensive players, but over the, over the years that might change and they might be on a team that's still good but like has to outscore everybody and he's great defensively, but they're like 15th in defense. Voters will use that as an excuse to not vote for him because like, well, if you're so great, why is your defense so trash?

Well, no one cares about, uh, except for the people who perpetuate it endlessly, face of the, face of the league. Ant Edwards was it, but now Wemby has taken it from him for the next decade at least. Defensive Player of the Year, interesting. More interesting to me is to apply the Miami Heat with LeBron introductory conference. How many titles will Wemby get? What is satisfying to a Spurs fan right now as you sit here? You will feel underwhelmed If in 15 years from now we reconvene and Wemby has won, let's say, 2 titles, is Michelle Beadle underwhelmed?

I think you would be.

Yeah, I am underwhelmed. Um, yeah, I mean, we had a, we had a 5-championship run there that spoiled a lot of Spurs fans. And, and I really understand that the teams were a little different, but although the, the base was there for, you know, Timmy D was there. So you got to have— I want to say a satisfactory Wembley Championship run tally would be 4.

4 titles. That's a lot of pressure to be a fan, bitch, isn't it?

Hey, I am a greedy bitch. You only live once. Let me live. Um, I think 4 is— but again, God, what a show. There's so many factors, like what if the team— what if the team squabbles things away? What— I don't know what pieces will be around him 6 years from now. I have no idea. But 4 seems good. And also If Gobert has 4 Defensive Players of the Year, then he better have at least 5.

I also say that, Michelle, isn't SGA and OKC— I love the letters— SGA and OKC is standing in the way, right? Like, how do you expect a dynasty out of San Antonio when this year and maybe now in the immediate future they're going to be second best?

Yeah. By the way, all those boring labels that were thrown on the Spurs for all those years, I better start hearing that about OKC because that's how I feel. I now get it. Watching another team and being like, I don't want to watch this. I get it. But yeah, they're there. I think— I do think the Spurs can beat them. I'm not going to bring up the regular season because I'm very aware that that's not the same as a 7-game series and things completely changed. But I do think they know that they can beat them whether or not they're a player away or maybe 2 players away from sort of tweaking that San Antonio roster. The hard part about saying that out loud is I don't— I don't know what I'd want to change. I really genuinely like this team. I like the pieces of this team. I like the people that are on this team. And so the idea of getting rid of anybody bums me out a little bit. But I also understand that that might be— that might be the reality here, is that San Antonio might be a player or two away from being able to beat OKC in a 7-game series.

But somebody better damn it, because I don't— I don't think I want to live in a world where OKC is a dynasty. That's just— that's not it. That's not what we're doing here. Michelle, I can say that I lived in the state for like 2 and a half years. I'm allowed to say that negative thing.

Thanks, Michelle. If the Spurs and the Thunder do meet in the playoffs, will you be present and will you be drunk waving down the commissioner of the league as you were at the NBA Cup when the Spurs—

I was not drunk. That was like my first drink. And I'm— and I had texted Adam before, so how do you think he knew where I was sitting? You think that was just fate? He's just wandering around the upper level?

No, you stood up and just waved like just like a, like a wacky inflatable thing outside of a dealership because I had texted him what section we were in.

And I was like, here, we're right here. But you know what, dude, it's not my fault you weren't texting Adam Silver to come over and say hi. That's on you, bro. Pulitzer Prize winner. How much is that getting you? No, I won't be the president 'cause I gotta do my job out here in LA, which is a bit of a bummer. Although you know what, Chandler Parsons takes off days whenever he feels like it. So I might actually play hooky and go check out a game.

Is it inappropriate if you just like, just randomly like now, would it be inappropriate if you text Adam Silver?

I don't think so. Look, I went many years thinking Adam Silver hated me because I, you know, for dumb stuff in media. So I was just happy to, like, reconnect with the man because I always liked him. I always thought he was a very accessible dude, which is not, I don't think, normal for a commissioner of a league this big.

What do you think Adam Silver's reaction was when he found out that Pablo Torre finds out?

Yeah, text him that.

And I don't think— I don't think he's excited to see where this thing goes.

We're looking for a quote. Text him that.

Yeah. By the way, where does that end? Because I feel like it's like, is this offseason for the Clippers going to be a hot mess? Like, where is this going?

Part 10 comes out today.

I mean, part 10 comes out today. Get it wherever you get podcasts.

And I know, but what, like, is Kawhi— what's going to happen? Is Kawhi going to not be a Clipper? Like, is he up for grabs?

Are you sour on Kawhi? How do Spurs fans feel about Kawhi?

Funny you should ask. Like, it was a very— it was a long mourning period of sort of disdain and boo. I mean, we got scolded by Pop for booing Kawhi at one of his return games. I'm personally— I've moved on. He's gone on to win another championship as a mercenary up in Toronto, which was hella impressive. And he's sort of gone on with his life. I'm okay now. But I can say that there are many Spurs fans that have not and probably will never forgive Kawhi Leonard for how things played out. That is a fact.

Michelle, I want to play this clip for you from Jaylen Brown, because most players, when they have championship aspirations and their season ends, the next day they play video video games and just talk about how they feel. Uh, so here is Jaylen Brown, uh, and, and you may notice if you're watching video-wise, I thought these like his bodyguards, like who is there with him? Uh, and, and Jaylen Brown will tell you here that this year where they lost in the first round of the playoffs and blew a 3-1 series lead, uh, this was, uh, the most fun he's ever had.

And this group was a special group. So proud of this group and the way we played. I wish we trusted that style of play a little bit more. But I know playoffs kind of shifted our rotations and what we wanted to do. But I'm so proud. And it was my favorite year of the— of my basketball career. One, streaming with you guys, chat.

Favorite year? They won the title 2 years ago.

I love that guy to his right.

Quite the crew.

The guy to his right and the Travis Kelce standing behind him is— it's just a—

it looks like the gang that Spider-Man beats up when they're trying to rob a bank. This multicultural gang. Like, how do you guys know each other?

Guys, get on your sunglasses.

By the way, are those— are those— are those those like— I'm too old, so are those like the Meta glasses? Like, why do they all have the same sunglasses on?

No, they're just big fans of Oakleys. I think Zach Harper might have sold them to them.

Oh, God bless Zach Harper and his Oakleys. Um, yeah, you know what, I, I had the same reaction everybody else did as far as saying it's his favorite year, and then I was sort of Lou Williams made it make a little more sense to me because we think championship would be your favorite year. And then I started thinking about it personally, too. Lou said, you know, just because you win a championship doesn't mean it's your favorite year, right? Like, the stress is different. Your life might be different. Who knows what's going on off the court? And that this particular year, because there were no expectations on the team, he got to come out and just play free basketball. And that made it make a little more sense to me without reading into, hey, I liked playing without Tatum. I mean, so I kind of get it.

I think— I don't think anyone's happier about the nonsense that Jaylen Brown said on this Twitch stream, uh, yesterday than Joe Mazzulla. No one's paying attention to Mazzulla. Everybody's talking about Jaylen Brown.

He's crazy. That man is crazy. I don't— I think it's good crazy. I think it's good.

I can't tell.

He started 3 scrubs in a Game 7.

Michelle, he's a bad coach.

He's not good.

What, you don't want 0 points from 3 of your 5 starters? That's not the goal.

And I love, like, I love in the press conference he's like Yeah, our guys really fought back from that hole. I'm like, the hole that you dug?

Yeah, he's going to be Coach of the Year and get fired. A longstanding tradition. It's going to be great.

Michelle, are there teams remaining in the NBA postseason that it would bother you if they won the title? And if so, rank them.

Yes. Yeah. New York Knicks first. Lakers, too. 3, OKC.

Oh, you— she has a whole list. All right.

Uh, oh, did you know what's everybody but the Spurs?

Who do you think she's gonna list?

I mean, for me, there's like one team that would bother me. Anyone else, like, all right, whatever, you know, it's not the Heat.

So, well, yeah, but here, Zazz, here's the deal. My heart is full of hate, so if you're asking me for a negative list, I've got 20.

That was impressive.

Yeah, no, I think New York Knicks fans, while it would be amazing for them, this— it will be the most obnoxious last year of championship celebration. So I'm not, I'm not mentally prepared for it.

Well, you like the puck as well. Which NHL team do you not want to see win the Stanley Cup?

Well, the only— the one that I didn't want to see was the Florida Panthers, and I don't have to worry about that.

All right, enough. I'm going.

We can let her go now.

I appreciate that.

Why'd you ask that question, Dave?

It was an unpleasant stretch for all of us. No one wanted to watch the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup, let alone 2 in a row. And now we've moved past that, that ugly era. What's happening here for the sport?

It's the kachuck factor. If you get rid of that, that made it awesome. Reconvene.

What if they add the other one this year? That's going to be awesome.

I mean, oh, the other one that looks even smarter. Yeah, no, I'll pass.

Beetle, I have a quick question for you there. Those paintings behind you, you're clearly an esthete. Um, by the way, speaking back, back, back to this, to the Spurs color scheme, it'd be bad if they ended up playing OKC because those are the exact same colors that they wear. Which, by the way, is out of bounds.

You've interrupted yourself twice.

I know I have. Well, the question I have about this is she has paintings behind her head. Don't answer this yet, Beetle. Let's take a show of hands here. Did Beetle paint those pictures herself? No way. I mean, okay, paint those herself? Very expensive. Or are those fancy art house purchases?

I mean, I don't know where she got it, but she definitely didn't paint it herself.

Why do you know?

Why not?

How do I know? I don't know. She doesn't have enough talent to paint.

Paint those.

Look how pretty they are.

That's very nice. I say she did paint them.

I think so too.

Yeah, of course. I can't do this remote. Uh, you know what, let's cut— let's edit this out.

Um, wait a second, so everybody's in with their answer on this?

Those are purchased.

Yeah.

Beetle?

No, I— no, I rent this place and I needed a background, so I painted something really quick. Yeah, because at home I have like a whole thing where I have like little sportsy things and yada This is a rental when I'm here for the NBA season. And I just thought, I'm literally in a bedroom that's serving as a second closet. And so behind me.

What a committed podcaster and broadcaster she is. She paints pictures to paint the scene. Let me do that for the audio listener. It's a bunch of, I mean, I don't even know how to describe it. It's like a mess of stripes and such. Yeah, just a bunch of yellow and blue and green stripes.

I tried to make it— shut up, Amin.

My name is Pulitzer Prize winner Amin.

How much are you really part of this, or is it Pablo and you just coattailed it? I, I— we need to get to the bottom of this.

What do you need to get the bottom of?

How much you really contributed to any of this.

Uh, go watch the episodes.

Oh, so much. You know I don't watch any of my friends' stuff.

I talked about this, Michelle. Uh, how bad of a look is it for, uh, Supposed huge New York Knicks fan Ben Stiller last night, instead of being at Game 1 at MSG, is at the Met Gala.

First of all, the Met Gala, il gros, who still goes to that? And secondly, it's a horrible look like Chalamet. Chalamet skipped it. His girlfriend was there, but he, for the second season, decided I'm going to— I'm going to go ahead and go to the Knicks game. So I'm going to go ahead and say it now. Stiller. Fraud.

Relationship. Beadle, is that what you hypothesize? This was pressure from the missus. We're both going to the Met Gala. You're not doing—

but why?

You'll go to the Knicks tomorrow night, not tonight.

I don't know. I just feel like I also just from a purely like, hey guys, let's answer this question as ourselves. What would you rather do? Get dressed up? And I mean, what are we doing? Like, what is this? It's a weird costume party for the elite, and I don't get it. And it's some of the most absurd stuff my eyes have ever seen. I don't know if you've seen something like Lena Dunham for— yeah, you know what, this isn't awful. Paige Becker, this is not awful as far as theme.

Um, she looks great there.

Yeah, that's good.

She actually— yeah, she's really cool.

That's awful right there.

Heidi Klum. And I, um, she loves costumes, man. It's actually terrifying. Do you spend the whole night like that?

That's her now.

She's like, eat dinner that way.

Okay, Bad Bunny's funny to me. I just, I think, you know what my problem was? I just don't like Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, like, for a variety of reasons. And I'm a hypocrite because I use Amazon on a daily, but I just don't like them. And I feel like going to their party just sort of validates them. And that bums me out a little bit. What is happening right now?

I don't know.

That's a wonderful tribute to the execution.

All right.

I don't like when people like Heidi Klum get credit for her courage. She's a beautiful person who makes herself ugly on purpose, and people say, so brave of her to do that, to put herself out there like that.

So true. She hosts the NBA show Run It Back with Chandler Parsons and Lou Williams. Michelle Beadle, excellent job, Michelle. Enjoy the rest of the playoffs.

Oh God, I hope so. You too. Thanks, guys.

She's so courageous.

You're so— you're so right.

Courageous.

Don Lebatard.

This is the quickest it goes. Hey, this is the quickest it goes, Stugatz! Everybody, this is the quickest it goes!

Yeah!

This is the Don Levitar Show with the Stugatz!

I like when people also do the thing of like, I'm gonna see what it's like to live as a normal person. I'm gonna put on a fat suit and go out and see how different it is, how I get treated when I'm not as beautiful as I normally am. And then they get— they get heaps of credit. That was so courageous of her to do that. Why was it courageous? She was— she put on a costume, then went back to being beautiful. She made herself feel good. That's what she did.

There's a whole run of Academy Award winners, right? That, like, what— how'd she win? With Charlize Theron, right? Like, oh, I just made myself look ugly. Like, there you go. All you got to do is just like, oh my God, you played an ugly person. I didn't know you had the chops.

She lost herself in the role.

Yeah.

Wasn't there an actor who actually gained like 40 pounds for a role?

There are hundreds. Brendan Fraser.

Well, more than that.

Pretty common thing with acting.

That's who I'm thinking of.

The Whale?

Yeah, whatever his name was.

Brendan Fraser.

And he gained like what, 60 pounds?

De Niro in Raging Bull. And I mean, there are a million examples of people fattening themselves up or losing a ton of weight.

That much though, right?

Let's get a little further from the mic. Just back up a little bit more and address people as a whole. Don't even identify a single person. Just aimlessly ask a question far from the mic.

I don't know movies.

And demand an answer.

I just knew there was a guy who paid like a thousand pounds for a role.

And just say something like, "Zagac." That kind of thing.

And then cash the checks, homie.

Funny, man. You look great today. What are we doing differently? A little something with the hair?

A little mousse?

Yeah?

A little cream pomade? Feel free to answer me, whatever. I'll just keep—

It's my inner voice. I'm not gonna answer my own internal meandering.

Alright, we like to have fun.

It probably has to be boring to be as hot as some of these people are, right? That's what it is. So it's like, perfect example, um, myself. Like sometimes I'll give myself a mustache and it's just because I'm sick of being so hot all the time. Chris Pine's a good example. That guy walks around like a crazy person, right? Like that's a very good looking man.

That's right.

But he'll grow out his hair like crazy and a ridiculous beard and wear these outfits where you're like, what the f—

Alright, Tashé, you're on to something here.

Here.

You're, you're on the suffering to be that hot.

I don't like Johnny Depp, and I don't like the guy who sings, uh, uh, uh, about watermelon, uh, Harry Styles, whatever. Yeah, they go out, they, they, they, they know what they're doing. Johnny Depp, with all the scars and, and bejeweling himself, he makes himself as unattractive as he possibly can. Why? Because he wants to stick it to his fellow man, and I mean males. He wants to say 'Look at how unappealing I can make myself, and I could still have any woman I wanted, including yours.' Greg, you know about that Watermelon Sugar?

I've heard of it. I didn't know it enough to join the sing-alongs.

But you know what that song's about?

Uh, I do.

It's about, uh, that pink cocaine.

Ah, never mind.

He just took his— you see, he stole, uh, he took, um, the, the, the stripper movie guy, the star stripper movie.

I love that movie.

Magic Mike.

Yeah, so when he said—

He took his lady.

That's right. Zoë Kravitz.

Yes.

Is where he was going with that. The stripper movie guy, that's Channing Tatum, once with Zoë Kravitz. I speak Damashek.

He's— this Harry Styles is out of control. He can have anyone, he just chooses to take other people's instead.

Oh, didn't he do that also with Sudeikis?

Yeah, that's—

made him a cuck. Just like you, Zazz.

Hey, I told you about that.

Stiles taking everybody's ladies.

Mike, what's going on with the Pussycat Dolls?

They have decided in today's climate that the timing is not right for a reunion tour, and that's not at all surprising because when you consider—

did they decide or did we decide?

The Marketplace decided.

Yeah, an update on a story from a couple weeks ago.

Yeah, and all we're doing is using the earliest excuse possible to play how they launched this whole reunion tour in the first place. Take it away.

Um, after they found out that you guys were coming back as a trio, not as the original group, um, how, how did you arrive at that decision?

Well, I mean, listen, we are just—

we are like—

we are so— as women today, I mean, it has been an ever-changing lineup. And, you know, this is what it looks like now in 2026. You never know what comes next. And I think ultimately we've got to protect our peace. And when, when something like the Pussycat Dolls has so much history, we have ruptured in the past.

Oh wow, Nicole Scherzinger was still frozen late in that clip.

That was actually the reason that they gave for why the tour was canceled. Nicole Scherzinger is still on the Today Show couch. They just tweeted out that video, just frozen in time.

Yeah, the guys are cleaning up around her like janitors.

Could we go back in a world of, uh, that includes someone like that? Can we go back? Can someone articulate for me The disdain for LeBron James. I mean, why? Okay, he's a little, he's a little fake, uh, you know, he's a little hypocritical about stuff. I mean, Mike, Zazz, Greg, anyone weigh in. Why, why such disdain? You, you named the things you did, but there are people that are who do way worse things. We're talking about, uh, you know, uh, human misdemeanors, not felonies. There's definitely, there's definitely some politics going on in here. I know some of my right-side friends are anti-LeBron people.

I think it all starts with the, the decision and then people just layer on additional things that bother them about him. You know, you'll hear China and LeBron more than you'll hear about Daryl Morey, which is just people cherry-picking things that just boost their argument. But ultimately, most of the people that didn't like that he teamed up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, formed a super team because it felt unfair. And then Miami's people's problems with him are because he left. We lost him the way that we got him.

Isn't the irony of that— and I said this literally the day or day after LeBron went down there— it was poorly handled, the production around it, and I'm taking my talents too and all of that, and the fireworks and everything else. Not one, not two. But underneath it all, it was the proletariat striking a blow against the bourgeoisie. It was the, it was the working class saying, we don't need you executives, we're going to do it at our level and we're going to play, we're going to organize ourselves. It was basically like unionizing, these 3 guys unionizing to build a championship-level team without the help of the executives. They eschewed any of their involvement and did it on their own. I think this is something that we should really celebrate, but except we get caught up in like, not one, not two, all that.

But Miami had a part of it.

It did.

Oh, that's right. That's right. Because people didn't think that Miami—

and we talked about it—

deserved it.

You know, sports fans, I'm a better fan than you. Miami was not deemed worthy of having such a cool thing to the point that this wasn't really a discussion when, you know, the Celtics got together and McHale did a favor for his friend. It wasn't a discussion, became unfair when it was LeBron, Wade, and Bosh in Miami.

There's another element that's at play as well, which is the whole, if I accept this guy, then that means I must rebuke my prior allegiances. So if you grew up knowing in your heart of hearts Michael Jordan's the greatest basketball player ever, to accept and acknowledge LeBron's greatness would mean, oh, that means I've turned my back on the GOAT himself, Michael Jordan. And so I can't do that. So clearly this guy's a fraud and undeserving of any attention.

That's a tremendous point. And he also played in the era of Kobe, where Kobe was also this cult of personality type guy, where it's you're either a Kobe guy or you're against Kobe guys.

People wanted him to save the Knicks or the Bulls too. Like, that was when the decision happened. Most people outside of the specific areas where there were teams in the running, whether it was Cleveland, us, or anybody else—

Utah—

they were rooting for him to go to Chicago or to New York. And so when he didn't do that and teamed up with other superstars to do a thing for Pat Riley with the Miami Heat, like, there was real reason to dislike it, especially when people viewed Michael Jordan as not playing for super teams.

I also think Dan Gilbert's reaction to it stoked a lot of flames, right? And I think that's a big thing from Dan Gilbert.

Comic Sans.

God, I love Dan Gilbert. I, I it's not talked about enough. He really— we normalize that behavior and people took their directive from him.

But I can relate to that as somebody from a provincial sports town. Yes, I would cast it that way too. Look at this elitist, he's bailing on our Rust Belt town. And really, LeBron, that really is what it comes down to, is it was the esthetics around it that damned him. Right? It was, it was a completely justifiable thing to do except for the production that happened.

Whatever, I don't like him. Why would I explain myself?