Shadow in it. Shadow in it.
What the hell happened yesterday? Because we started the Shadow Show, and I'm whispering a little bit louder because clearly it didn't get heard by the only person that matters, which is Dan. Yesterday, we started the show saying, Hey, let's all lock in. Let's downplay the trade packages from elsewhere, Golden State, Minnesota. Hype up that heat pack. Yeah, that was a good idea. Explain that Tyler Hero and Kaló Ware are really good pieces to get for Milwaukee.
Don't forget the part where we were trying to trick Milwaukee into thinking wear was good. Yeah. By playing him some more. We want to trick them.
Yeah, tricking them is the key.
Honestly, it's the spine of the whole device.
But where did we fail yesterday? Where we failed?
By not doing the thing that we said we were going to do.
We set up the entire show. What happened? We set up the entire show.
Scream. To be...
To be about...
This is funny. Stop laughing.
Using our voice as a collective It's a good show.
Jeremy, we don't have the juice.
No, we do have the juice.
We do not have the juice.
This group of people don't. You know who has the juice? Dan Lepetard. Dan Lepetard. And Dan Lepetard did not walk in here and even address Yannis onto T'Cuba. That was Dan's fault. We did great. We talked about James Harden for 45 minutes before he was even traded. So what needs to happen, what needs to happen now is we need to use our voice in office to get Dan to properly use his voice in the national media landscape. You know when Dan says stuff, provocative. It gets aggregated. Voice in it. It goes everywhere. Voice in it. You're damn right, Greg. Dan needs to be voice in it. Voice in it. On behalf of the city of Miami.
Does he have to wear a costume?
That's up to him. That would help. It'd be a plus. It would probably help. I don't know if we have time between the Shadow Show and the regular show to get him in a costume. But we need Dan to be voicing it the way that Mike Ryan foiced it when it came to the Miami Hurricanes, and we got them into the playoff, the way that the Boston media foiced it, and made sure Damian Lillard wasn't traded here that ultimately led to them getting a title. Dan Lebitard needs to speak on behalf of the city of Miami and go get that wheel. Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right?
Don't place parlays on multiple long shots. Don't say game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero.
Always drink your Jägermeister ice cold. That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion.
Everything else?
Everything else.
Wearing clean underwear every day?
Well, that's just a personal decision.
Brushing your teeth?
Obviously smart, but not a rule.
Never PP on an electric fence.
Okay, maybe there are two rules, but the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Jägermeister must be drunk ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it.
Drink responsibly. Jägermeister L'Core, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mass Jägermeister US, White Plains, New York.
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It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3. 2 carbs per 12 ounces. This is the Dan Levatore show with the Stugats podcast.
I'm not doing what you guys want me to do. I'm a journalist. I'm not bought and paid for. I'm starting with iguanas because as much as you guys complain that I say things are uniquely Miami that aren't uniquely Miami, I got to think this plague of iguanas getting frozen and then people thinking they're dead, but they're not dead. I don't think that that happens anywhere in the United States outside of Miami. I told you guys once the story. Pat Reilly learned it the hard way when he came out and his lawn was filled with iguanas he thought were dead. They It was just frozen. It was too cold. This is what their bodies do because they're not supposed to be here. He buried them all, and he killed them. They weren't dead when he got them. They were just frozen, and then he killed them. Have you guys experienced this? Because it makes me sad the number of people wandering around. Some of them are making tacos out of the iguanas saying that they're the chicken of the tree.
Yeah, they're edible. Stop trying to shame Pat Reilly for doing Florida service. Whenever the temperature dips, Florida Fish and Wildlife Association deputizes all the residents of Florida to kill this invasive species.
Yeah, we're encouraged to kill iguanas. It doesn't seem right to me. I have an iguana living in my black olive tree in the front of my house. I see it occasionally. I love that thing. It's like not counting the tail, it's like two feet long.
Why wouldn't you count the tail?
Well, because the tail is just an appendix.
No, the tail is part of how it is you would measure the size of an iguana. That's just an odd thing to say. Why would you not count the tail? Chris is right about this. Why wouldn't you count the tail? The tail deserves to be counted in the measurement of the size of the iguana.
Not counting his legs, he's about four feet.
Not counting his head.
It goes without saying that the tail is pretty much the same length as the body. So it's a 4-foot iguana. You just doubled it.
You took half the iguana size for no reason. It's not enough that we're killing an iguana right and left. Now you're taking away their tails, too?
Look, if I had a tail, okay, picture me with a tail like a dog tail.
If Closing my eyes, I'm picturing it.
Okay, if I had a tail-I have it more as a dragon tail.
What are you guys doing with the tail? What tail? A horse tail?
I think it's like a tub.
Oh, just like a little bulldog-Oh, really? Just like that big.
Like a little bulldog, stubborn tail? I'm picturing otter tail. I don't know why.
A couple of dogs ago, Sandy had a stub of a tail because it was a Puerto Rican dog. And apparently, our friends in Puerto Rico have a habit of cutting tails when the animal is very young. A Puerto Rican dog?
Dogs have races?
This was a Puerto Rican dog.
A lot of Puerto Rican rescues. Willow.
It barked in Spanish.
Jess's dog is Puerto Rican.
There you go. But anyway, getting back to that, if I had a tail, I'm still 5'9. You're not going to increase my height because I have a tail.
It has nothing to do with your height. The iguana is not measured standing up on its hind legs. It's measured by length, not height.
If the tail pointed up, then you wouldn't measure the tail as part of the iguana's length. But it doesn't. The tail, it's horizontal.
Okay, the point is the iguana that lives in my black olive tree, I love him like a pet. I would never kill him. Okay, he's cold-blooded. If he falls out of my tree frozen once every three years, I'm going to nurture him back to health and let him live.
Jump Charlie would not like that.
Jumping Charlie would kill that thing.
Put it on the poll at Lebitard show, Would Jumping Charlie Kill That Thing? And, Jeremy, please look it up for me whether this is something that happens outside of Miami. It probably happens other places outside of the United States. I just I can't imagine it happens anywhere else in the United States that you have this grand proliferation of iguanas that seem like they're dead, but they're not dead, and they don't belong here, and symbolically, by the way, in terms of what's going on in America. A lot of people are being cruel to the iguanas, and the saying is some form of, If you don't like ice, get out of here.
Look, I don't think the iguanas needed a famous ally the way that you're keeping up for them. These are an invasive species. Do you know what that means? They're not supposed to be They have a negative effect on our environment.
Just like ice and what they're doing.
Talk about living on stolen land. You should not be shaming anybody that is carrying out what is recommended. 99.
6% of the sightings in the United States are in South Florida, particularly in Miami Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. They're also present in the Florida Keys. The other 0. 4% are made up of Texas and Hawaii.
You know why that is? Because all the other places get much colder, and so they freeze with great regularity there and probably get prayed upon.
Prayed upon by Pat Reilly and all of these people in these videos who are deputized, like you're saying, that we're all deputized to kill Iguana, even though it's terrible.
This is like a nap, though, right? They wake up from this.
That's correct. They're napping and then they're dead. That's right. They're napping and then they're dead.
Oh, I'm napping.
Oh, I'm dead.
I don't like iguanas. I don't like them either. They're creepy. They're everywhere. I don't like them.
They look like modern day dinosaurs. I love them.
I I love them, too, Greg. I have so many iguanas in my backyard, and they climb up the trees, and sometimes it's the smaller green iguanas. Have you ever seen the giant orange ones? They're incredible.
They're scary. They're dinosaurs.
It's the coolest thing. How lucky are we that we live In a plane where these iguanas exist, we're lucky to live in nature.
Yeah, I totally agree. I'm against killing them. I see Mike's point. Everything he says is true. We're encouraged to kill them. It doesn't mean it feels right.
The Miami Heat are in this building with us. The Elser Hotel is a luxury hotel across from the arena. They take care, very good care of us, and they take very good care of the luxury, the assortment of people who need luxury living in the area. And so because the Miami Heat are doing their 20th anniversary, a great many of the players are in the building. I ran in the gym, I just ran into Michael Doliak. And it was a bit awkward because I don't I didn't know how Michael Doliak feels about us. I didn't know beforehand. And I still don't know because he was thanking me for making people care. But he also wouldn't come in when I just said, Hey, the guys would be happy to see you if you came around. And he's like, Yeah, I don't want to do that. I got to get back to Montana and take care of the cows, take care of the cattle.
Was he wearing the cowboy hat in the wait room? Because he wore it all week so far.
No, he was not.
Did he say it like that, I don't want to do that?
Yes, just like that. In fact, no, in fact, In fact, this is how the conversation went. He's thanking me for what we do, making people care.
It feels pretty generic. Did he know what show he was talking about?
No, he does because one day, he got a flurry of phone calls and he goes to his phone and he thought someone had died because he's like, What's going on? And it's like, No, the Leventar show is just playing Doleak songs. And I don't know whether he finds any of this stuff funny. And I'm like, Hey, well, thank you for thanking me. And the guys would love to see you. They'd be really excited if I brought you down there to see everybody. That would be exciting. Yeah. I said, If you wanted to do that, that would be wonderful. And he's like, I don't want to do that. And so he didn't do it, and he's not doing it. But it allows us the opportunity before we talk about some of the Yana stuff, because Windhorse on Get Up is saying, I am seeing action from the Miami Heat and Timberwolves to improve their offer. The best offer I'm aware of belongs to the Warriors, but I'm not seeing a lot of momentum towards Milwaukee making a Yana's move.
How is that the best offer, the Warriors? How is that the best offer? The only player of any substance that they're offering is a guy who Steve Kerr refused to play for 17 consecutive games.
How do the Miami Heats still have better offers to make? Why are we holding back here. We're going to be stingy on the Giannis front.
Right. Are teams out there playing hard to get on Giannis? You can't have that. It makes no sense.
We've whift on all the superstars, and here comes one that maybe if Miami Heat fans had their pick of any superstar in the league, he'd be up there.
This is what I'm talking about.
What are we holding back for?
They're not holding back. That's the point. No one knows anything. Teams are increasing their offer. What are you talking about increasing their offers? We all know what every team has to offer.
How can we increase? Take whatever you want.
There's no increasing.
It's a good point.
Except Bam.
Well, that's not going to happen because the way that this really works is to pair the two of them together. That's That's not the offer, and that's not what Yannis would want.
Right. They're friends. They have the same agent. Part of the reason Yannis wants this, it wants Miami, is to play with Bam.
That's exactly right.
How are the Warriors increasing their offer? Are you telling me that they're not offering all of their pics? No, they are. Are you telling me they weren't offering Komingo? How are they increasing their offer?
Here's the reality is- Can I stop you for just a second, Jeremy?
What I'd like to do is I'd like to do this Yannis talk, but I'd like to interrupt it occasionally just with Doliak songs without warnings. So go ahead and do the Yannis talk because people do want the Yannis talk. And Zazlo is going officially crazy because Zazlo's son yesterday fired Pat Reilly. He did. And Mike, you were on that text string with me when a panicked Zazlo saw Minnesota make a small trade and just started shouting into the phone, We're losing him. We're losing him. Minnesota is going to get him. I know it.
They either made the move before the move, which is terrifying, or they did the thing that Miami Heat fans celebrated for 15 years, which is, Make sure our owner pays less money, please.
Well, I was also shouting it into ESPN because it happened while I was doing Afternoon Drive on ESPN radio yesterday. And then I also text you guys, I think Minnesota just made the move before the move, and my 17-year-old son just fired Pat Reilly. Because my son doesn't know that... My son isn't old enough. He's 17. So he's not old enough to understand every Everything that Pat Reilly did for this organization. All he knows is the last 10 years where they eat, try, and do stuff, and they don't get it done. So my son wants Pat Reilly fired, not step down. He wants him to be fired.
Return a doliac. You know that he's not wax. It's Michael Doliac, and he's taking it to the rack. Return a doliac. I think he played with Shaq. That's Michael Doliac, and he never smokes a crack.
Such a strange fan base, this heat fan base. You have high tops at Flanigan's high-fiving each other because we moved Bino Udre to get us under the apron.
Zazlo's son firing Pat Reilly with a lack of respect is something he should not allow in his household. But Zaslow is having a little bit of difficulty teaching respect to his kids in the household. This is a place where it should be taught easily. But Mike also is pretty down on Pat Reilly and has been for years, and now he's also down on Yannis, because it's very clear, very clear in all of this, that Yannis, and this happened to Lillard, too, and the heat caught a break that they didn't actually get Lillard because then he broke. But Yannis clearly does not want to be seen publicly as the bad guy. This one is super interesting to me as a guy who is a foreigner and has been of the few foreigners who's allowed to actually cross over and be an American superstar. Like, Jokić doesn't even get to be this. Yannis has learned the language and done so much to ingratiate himself to both America and Milwaukee that he's become a transcendent superstar, even though English isn't his first language. That's hard to do. Baseball players have a ton of difficulty doing it. So the quote attributed to Yannis is, What do you mean?
My father's buried in Milwaukee. My kids have Milwaukee on their passport. I don't want ever leave Milwaukee. He does not want to look like the bad guy, and you can't do something like this if you're not okay with looking like the bad guy.
I totally agree. The lone exception to what you say is that there was an incident where he booed the home crowd and gave it a thumbs down. But other than that, Milwaukee loves him, and he loves Milwaukee, but he wants to leave, and there's no way to hide that. He wants out. Milwaukee is willing to trade him. Reality comes in. Bucs fans, deal with it. When he comes back in a heat uniform or what have you, you're going to decide the reaction you give to him. I suspect you're going to cheer him like the hero he was for you, like the champion he was for you. But that's up to the fans. Yannis makes his move. He's entitled to do what he wants for himself, for his family, for his bank account. He's entitled to do it all.
One, two, three, one, two, three, swish, one, two, three, one, two, three, swish, one, two, three, one, two, three, swish, throw him up till I lose count. I'm going to pass to Michael Doliak. Michael Doliak, he's going to shoot like the defense doesn't exist, like it doesn't exist.
I do agree with Greg. He is entitled to do what he wants. Sports fans are entitled to judge how he's going about this. The guy would rather spend a summer of his prime in Greece than chasing another title with a contender.
What does that mean? What do you mean?
I mean, he'd rather be in Greece than do what is necessary to get himself off of this roster because the move that the Timberwolves made was with June in mind, not to make a move for him right now. He does not want to be the bad guy, and I think he's overthinking this. He brought a title was the sole reason Milwaukee got an NBA title. He's going to be a good guy in six months It's time.
I think he should be a good guy the moment he's traded. I don't get the impression that anyone in Milwaukee is upset with him.
He has given everything to that town. He has been the greatest Milwaukee buck of all time. Let him move. Let him do the thing that every superstar needs to do on the way out because he's not doing those things right now.
Kareem would like a word. I think Kareem would like a word. Laker. He gets forgotten in a lot of these situations.
It's because you're not calling him by the name that he played with.
I believe that Kareem also gets looked past in the conversations about who's the best player ever because we insist on doing this to someone who's a human size. It's why we like Michael Jordan and Kobe better. If you're seven feet, we disqualify you from the conversation of whether you can be the best basketball player ever because we want it to be about will, not physical size.
I thought we don't say that he's the best ever because he's not.
It's cool that we're going to do the same thing with Wemby, with him, right? He's going to be the greatest ever on and off court like Kareem, and then we're just going to- Jeremy. Kind of ignore it. Eyes on the ball. Okay, so the Yannis thing. Golden State, you were talking about, Can they increase their offer? No, they can't. The conversation around increasing their offer has been Minnesota and Miami, because Minnesota more likely than not, has just been offering salary and is trying. I mean, the reports are they're trying to get four or five teams involved so that they can spread Nas Reid and Julius Randall and Jaden McDaniels all over the league to acquire and salary filler to be able to make this move. They will have to do a ton. With the heat, it's a matter of what... We've been talking about it. What salary do you want? Do you want to be able to take guys and make those first-round pick trades on your own? And what started this is Golden State, and this has been forever, Golden State's front office talks to the national media more than anyone in basketball. They're constantly talking.
They are constantly putting narratives out there. They want you to know what they're doing. And so we've known for a while, they're going to offer all their pics, they're going to offer pick swaps, they're going to offer Pajemski and Kaminga. It was Butler, now it's Green. We know what that is. Now, what do the heat in Minnesota do to match that? Because you don't negotiate against yourself.
What would you do if I took it to the hook? Would you stand up and try to block me?
Play some defense and I'll back it out. I will try to hit it from the top of the key.
Oh, doly, I could fight with a little help for raise 'na friend. Yes.
Oh, that was good. Don Levatard.
This is largely performative, but we need to establish at least some reasonable doubt. Yes, exactly.
Everyone will be joining the next pre-story. It's still fun. It's still fun. It's still fun. It's still fun to top everyone with this pre-story. It's still outside to top everyone with this pre-story. It's still outside to top everyone with this pre-story. I do.
Stugatz. I always like leaving Dan on high. I hate the chicken. Because he's so vulnerable, I just unfairly fade down the chicken. So just leave him by himself. This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz. Zaslow has a running feud with Brian Windhorst.
Zaslow has been saying none of these reporters know anything. I do believe that Windy is connected, and I do believe that Windhorst knows things. Windhorse was your first ballot into the Tool Hall of Fame. Why are you doing this, man? Is it true or not? He is the inaugural member of Tool Week Hall of Fame.
He was hanging in the rafters. We had a whole ceremony and a banner and everything. Why are you doing this, though?
I didn't do it. You're the one who hung the banner in the rafters. You're the one who did that, and then you worked for ESPN. That's not my fault. You did that.
You're bringing something back up that I had a a lot of anxiety and agita over when I got a job at ESPN Radio and I had to smooth things over. Because of my past actions, there are consequences, and I had to deal with those consequences, and now we've moved on. I'm in a place with some employees there like Brian Windors, who have been able to get past my past transgressions. Now you're bringing it up again.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, than yours. Damn right.
It's better than yours.
He will teach you how to take good charge. Wendy says on Get Up, the Miami Heat are out there talking to other teams, trying to assemble three-team packages where they can improve the amount of draft picks and young pieces they could offer to Milwaukee. Same for Minnesota, but I think it's a long shot they can come up with that package. I believe that while Mike Ryan wants what he wants and will aggressively call Yannis names or tell him that he's doing the wrong thing, I think Mike Ryan and the rest of us underestimate his connection to that city's fan base and how much that audience and that relationship means to him. Here is Yannis talking to the Milwaukee Journal, Sentinel. I already told you, he's saying, My father's buried here. My kids have this on their passport. This is a man who is thankful for the American dream. This is a man who has gotten something very few foreigners ever get. Jokić is not the star he should be based on his excellence. The reason? He doesn't speak English and give you the personality the way Yannis does. The things have worked out for Yannis better than they do with most foreigners.
And so when he says a Milwaukee, specifically, not even America. He says, If you ask me what I really want deep down in my heart, I want to be a Milwaukee buck until I retire and win a championship here. End of sentence. If that is not possible to happen, if then you realize maybe Maybe that's not the case and maybe they're looking elsewhere and that's not what they're trying to do, then automatically you have to be in the plans of what they're trying to do or weigh the other options. It's normal. I've created more memories in this city than in my country. That sentence right there is easy to dismiss when you want Yannis to come to your city. It's super easy to say, What a coward. Doesn't want to look like the bad guy. Doesn't want to torch the relationship with his city. But I think he's being honest there. I think he wants out and doesn't want it to look like he wants out.
I agree. He does not want it to look like he wants out, but he wants out. And he's been in the league long enough as a superstar to know how these things go. And I'm getting a little frustrated with the Miami Heat targeting these really loyal superstars. They got to make a bigger mess. First, Damian Lillard with Portland, Portland, and now Milwaukee. Come on, get some dirt bag. Tuck a James Harden once in a while.
They already did with Rozier.
He played with Leighton there and back to Shaq.
Was great with rebounds and putbacks.
At times, the widest down the floor.
She don't play back here, bar no more.
Don't talk, bar.
He's in his 30s. He's 31. He's got an incredible body that has aided his play. This is not a small thing, him punting on a postseason. It's not. In terms of his legacy, in terms of the achievements, yes, he's made spectacular memories in Milwaukee. That's not to say he can't make memories elsewhere. And he's deciding I think I'd rather just not make memories this summer and spend my summer at home. Come on. You're being graded against the greats. Dan's comparing you to Kareem Abdul Jafar. Come on.
You did that. You said he was the best player in the history of the Bucs.
Yeah, because you mentioned the wrong name. Youal Cinder was a Milwaukee boy. Damn right.
Yeah, that's a fine.
L-a-w.
Michael, thank you. We'll do it again with you tomorrow? Yes. To tomorrow?
These superstars have egos. They want to be talked about as the greatest. Giannis wants to leave a legacy in which he is remembered as one of the goats of all time. And to opt out of a postseason because you don't want to make a divorce look uglier. A divorce that you will be forgiven for literally six months from now. Like, your next time in Milwaukee, you're going to get cheered. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. We know how this goes. The NBA fan and the American sports fan is conditioned for this. Just do the thing.
I know the heat like to keep everything in-house. They don't have leaks. They don't want the media to know what they have going on, negotiations and all that. But see other teams. Like, Minnesota potentially made the move before the move. Golden State has Draymon Green last night talking about how he's about to be traded.
Let's get that sound before you continue with this point. You continue the point after we play the Draymon sound of him being a little bit wounded by the business of this because he's a champion and he wants the deal LeBron has where LeBron is saying he doesn't expect to be traded traded. When LeBron says that, it means because he knows it, because they can't trade him unless he says they can trade him because there are so few no trade clauses. But if anyone's earned one, it would be someone like Draymon. But that's not the way this business works, because when Mike Ryan says, Sports fans are conditioned to guys doing the thing, you guys all killed James Harden yesterday with a real amount of poison because you don't like it when these guys do the thing. So let's listen to Draymond here saying, I've done some things for this city. I'd like to stay here.
Steve said he had a chat with you about it.
That's when it got real for me. Yeah. I was like, Oh, maybe I should be a little more worried about this than I am. I didn't get worried about it, but I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah, it's interesting. He was like, How are you doing?
I'm good, Coach.
I know all these trade rooms and stuff.
It's weird.
I was like, Yeah, It was crazy. Then he's like, How is Hazel handling it? That's when it got real to me. I was like, I haven't spoke to her about it. It's not something we spoke about. That's when it got real to me. So today on the way to the game, I spoke to my son about it. I was like, What if I get traded? Why would they trade you? It's just a business. I have never been traded, but it can happen to anybody. He was like, Oh, I just don't understand why they would do that. What are your thoughts when we talk about the just the business here, Cody? Because I thought yesterday, as Zaz and Mike Ryan and a whole lot of people are killing James Harden before the Trade. What I thought was most interesting in the middle of that is Kawhi Leonard, who never says anything about anything, says, That guy's forever my boy. Even if that guy leaves his side and he can't do it anymore with the Clippers, he's not hurt by it. He understands more than most how it's a business. You know why? Because Kawhi, I'm positive, is hurt by everything that happened in San Antonio.
And then he goes to Toronto, another country, wins the Championship, and he knows these people don't care about you. You have to get yours. When I say these people, I mean the fans, I mean ownership. I mean, they only care about you in direct proportion to how much you help them. It's not a real relationship that is loving and unconditional. It's the most conditional relationship there can possibly be. And Kawhi is sitting here saying, as the knower of the business, because I'm positive he was hurt by everything that happened in San Antonio. My guess is he would love to still be in San Antonio. Everything would be fine if playing with Wemby, if there hadn't been a mess with the doctors. And so Kawhi loses his running mate, loses it. I mean, he doesn't want Darius Garland, loses the guy that he can actually play well with, and then he says, No problem. It's business. He understands it. We don't. He gets it. He forgives James Harden. This is a business partner of his. He's like, That's always going to be my boy. He's got no problem with James Harden leaving. We do.
I mean, if you don't get it by now with James Harden, when are you going to get it? He does this every time. He knows who he married. I don't understand caping up for James Harden at all. He He knows this life. I don't get it.
I'm just telling you, Kawhi did. You don't- Because Kawhi knows exactly what we got on the road. But Kawhi's got more involved in that investment than you do, and he seems to be less hurt by it than you are.
I'm not hurt at all by it. James Harden picked this, and the consequences of James Harden picking this type of career is that we get to highlight the lowlights.
And I would say he doesn't care as much as we do about it because he has been resigned to the fact for a while now that the business part of it, the money part of it, is a lot more important to him than the actual winning part of it. It's not like James Harden decided to leave at the end of the season. He literally quit on them. They'd won 15 out of 18 games. Said, I'm out. And Kawhi is okay with it.
Evidently. It does come from jealousy. If anybody had that talent, I think we'd care more.
Well, so here's the thing, though. Here's the thing about caring that I find funny. Jeremy, can you look this up for me? Because I know James Harden was an MVP, but I don't know how many times he finished like runner up or top five. Can you give me just how close James Harden has come various times to winning the MVP of the league. The reputation James Harden has is he doesn't care enough. It's not human It's genuinely possible for any athlete who has ever played to be that good and not care enough about basketball. There's nobody who rolls out of the crib, doesn't care and is just supernaturally gifted at basketball. Kevin Durant, you can say he doesn't care. He cares. He cares more than you. James Harden, you can say he doesn't care. He cares. You can't be that excellent. It's not possible, not humanly possible, to be runner up for MVP. No one's ever done it. No one ever will unless you take care of your body and do all the things that you have to do. That he won MVP because they had the best record in the league and they He averaged 30 points a game.
But how many times did he finish runner up or top five?
So he finished for eight straight seasons in the top 10. That was every single year that he was in Houston. So he won sixth man of the year in his third season. That was his final year in OKC. Then he finished eighth, fifth, second, ninth, second, won the MVP, second, third, and in the year he was traded from Houston to Brooklyn, he finished 13th. So he finished top 13 in straight seasons. Oh, and by the way, top 10 last year.
That's the damage to the legacy of what it is that he's done. People think he doesn't care when it's not possible that he doesn't care.
No, I think it's entirely possible that he doesn't care enough. Like, okay, you want to make the easy argument that he cares? Yeah, he's excellent at his job. He's made a half a billion dollars. He clearly cares about putting the ball through the hoop. But there are other factors. He very clearly, on the spectrum of caring, he is on the low end. And it's pretty evident to everybody. This was a year ago, and this went viral a year ago. It was a We have studio host talking about James Harding now going to the Clippers, and he calls the future in this one clip. It nails his career note for note.
Ask the producer to pipe this into the Clippers locker room. If I can talk to you, James, I hope you're taking notes. I'm telling you in advance, you're welcome for the wisdom I'm about to spew. Because, listen, I get on my knees every night and pray for someone to believe in me like Darryl Borey believed in you. You wanted a certain coach. They brought in Mike D'Antoni. You wanted to play a certain style. They played it. You wanted Dwight Howard. They brought him in and got rid of him when you were tired of him. You wanted Chris Paul. They brought him in and got rid of him when you were tired of him. They brought in your old friend Russell Westbrook. You wanted to go to Vegas on off days? They looked away. You wanted the team to stay over so you could go out at night? They changed the schedule, and it didn't work. You know what? You said, I'm going to break up with my Whooby. Not good enough. I see the bright lights in New York. I want to go there. My old pal Kevin Durant. It's going to work, the big three.
And all after one year, you wanted out. You realized, Oh, my gosh, I took this guy for granted. The guy that believed in me. I went back with Darryl Morey. They traded Ben Simmons for you. How did they pull that off? And you know what? You went there and you got a partner who got the MVP. He won the MVP. And what did you say afterwards? You said, They didn't hand me the reins. You're the point guard. You were holding the reins. And what did you do when you had the reins? You scored nine points in game seven against Boston. You blew a 3-2 series lead. So they fired their coach. Not good enough. You broke up with your guy, believing you again. You said, The Bright Lights of LA, That's where I want to go. Let's see if that works. Listen, James, have you ever had those friends who had bad roommates? Over and over, they complained about their bad roommates. This guy's terrible. The bad roommate here. They never thought, being self-aware enough that they're the bad roommate. They're the problem. Hey, James, you're the problem. If this doesn't work this year in this system with this team, then you're going to go and point fingers at everybody else, and you're going to go back home, and you're going to start swiping right for another team, and there's not going to be anybody left.
Because, James, you're not the beard, you're not the system, you're the problem.
Heard that mic drop there.
It was great. And he keeps swiping right, and he's going to get his money. And he always does. And it's because he's excellent. He's excellent.
The one thing he's wrong is that he said there wouldn't be another team waiting, and there was.
It's Cleveland.
I think that clip's embarrassing. I really do. That guy's doing an editorial on a player to place for another team. It's a Mavericks broadcast. He's right about everything he said. I think it's embarrassing.
It's just the most negative angle, though. When I look at James Harden, I see an all-time great whose legacy is bulletproof at this point. Oh, no, no, no.
His legacy is not bulletproof.
All-time great score. It came off Teflon there, where an unprecedented studio host is doing an editorial just to take them out.
Greg, the part about this that's fascinating to me is the fact that you really have to work through all of the places where fans and media get most upset at athletes to undermine what should be this excellent of a legacy. Top 13 MVP, 13 straight years. Change the entirety of the game. If Trevor Ariza makes five threes in a game, he'd be a champion. I mean, you really have... It's hard.
He wouldn't be a champion. He'd make it to the NBA Finals and probably lose there because that's what he does. He doesn't win a championship. I have no idea what that dude's is, and neither does the majority of our audience. I'd say 99% of our audience was nodding in agreement, this dude is cooking. I don't care enough to look up his name, but he is dead on about James Harden. It is not a Teflon reputation whatsoever. He is a cautionary tale of, yeah, you can chase the money. Yeah, you can be like it's everybody else's fault. You can demand the trades. You can make it an ugly scene. But at the end of the day, that is going to be your legacy. He didn't win a single title to erase that from his legacy. And I guess if he's even just a rotational player and wins a title, people won't even remember that because they'll remember the 15 years in which he did this every two and a half seasons.
Well, this is the curse of every great athlete who didn't win a championship. If James Harden won one championship along the way, eight years ago or what have you, we're all talking about him and looking at him in a whole different light. I don't obsess over the lack of a championship with any great athlete. I look at them for what they are. He's a guy who chases money, who's never satisfied with a team. That's him. Respectfully. He's still a great player, an all-time great, in my opinion.
Greg, respectfully, though, there are plenty of great players that don't have a ring. Charles Barkley doesn't get hit with. You didn't care enough. You didn't maximize your talent. You made a mess.
And he didn't come up smallest in the biggest moments.
There are so many famous players in that league that didn't win a championship that it's not held against them the way that it is with James Harden because the The talent is there. The resume is there. Clearly, the professionalism was lacking.
I know. Please forgive me because I tend to mix up teams sometimes when I'm looking back. But the James Harden team that lost at home in game seven to Golden State because they went 7 of 44 from three, that was the Kevin Durant Warriors, correct? Was that not the- I thought it was the 73 Win Warriors. Oh, was it really?
I think so.
Okay. So it was the 73 Win Warriors?
Okay, Nikola. Quizfrage: Homeoffice bei Stade oder Fahrtkosten. Was bringt uns mehr?
Moment. Ich check das kurz. Oha, Homeoffice gewinnt. Bringt uns 150 Euro mehr im Jahr.
Ja, richtig.
Aber wieso weißt du so was?
Weil, wieso Steuer die Erstattung live anzeigt.
Das ist einfach die Steuer-App für alle Fälle.
Ja, und Fragen beantwortet sie auch. 247 und ohne Beamtendeutsch. Das ist einfach die App, die uns versteht.
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"You guys hate when I say things are uniquely Miami..."
The crew set up at the start of yesterday's show that they were going to try to will Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat, but since they forgot to do so, Dan starts the show with his fascination with frozen iguanas. Plus, James Harden's trade to the Cavaliers sends the show into a tizzy.
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