Transcript of NFL Schedule Release + Top 5 Games To Look Forward To | Local Hour New

Jetzt nur du, dein Podcast und eine leckere Auszeit. Ab zu Aldi Nord. Für 2,99 bringst du deine Mittagspause mit Sushi ins Rollen. Mmh, lecker! Und für 1,99 gönnst du dir danach noch eine kleine Eiszeit. Bei Aldi Nord findest du immer das Passende. Klingt gut? Dann probier die Snacktime Sushi Box ab 205 g für nur 2,99 Oder Mookie Sandwich Eis je 8 Stück für nur 1,99 Das ist Gutes für alle zum Aldi-Preis. Jetzt in deiner Filiale. Aldi. Gutes für alle.

This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz Podcast. 5 months. In 5 months, that's when football starts. But it's back. It's back now. Football. That's right. Schedule released yesterday. Everybody, we did it. We made it to Friday. Let's give it up for Friday. Yeah. Give it up for Friday.

Yeah.

Missed you, football. Missed you. There you go. Dave Dameshek, of course, joining us. From out on the West Coast. Hello, Dave, how are you today?

Zaslo, first of all, congratulations. A nice little write-up on you in Awful Announcing. Good to see you get some flowers there. And yes, like the football season 2026, I'm born anew. I gave myself a new haircut for this occasion, and now I'm ready to launch into 2026 football in 5 months. And in between, That's— I hate to start off on a sour note, everybody, but I looked up this morning and realized it's just about all over. Yes, we can make snarky remarks about the schedule release of the NFL, but after a few more NHL and NBA games, we got nothing but baseball.

Okay, but baseball— hold that thought for a second.

Ryan's going to jump in.

Hold that thought for a second, Dave. You gave yourself a haircut.

I did. Yeah, I— since COVID two major events. I haven't worn denim jeans since, since COVID and I've been cutting my own hair since, since that event.

All right. Now I want to ask about that. Why have you not worn denim jeans since COVID What is the correlation there?

It wasn't really an act of choice. It just is something that happened. And I looked up a couple of years after the fact and realized, you know what, then denim jeans have been sitting on the shelf for quite some time. And I went back in my brain and realized it was during COVID You know, you remember all rules were off. You know, as we get a half decade away from COVID Zaslav, can you look the man in the mirror and say that there weren't some benefits to it? I'm not trying to diminish the real life consequences, the heavy consequences, but for your life, did you gain something from the experience? I kind of did. I didn't mind sitting around a lot in the house. People lamented like, I can't go out. It's like, I can't go out. Terrific.

I gained weight. That's it. That's the only thing I did. How much? I don't know. I'm not one that steps on the scale on a daily basis, but I know that that is certainly what I gained during COVID Now, let's start hitting the bottle. Oh, of course. We did so much drinking. Are you kidding me?

Yeah.

So much alcohol. I got to have a rule.

Did you have a rule? No, I don't start until 5 or anything like that.

Oh, you know what? That's an interesting question, actually.

Okay.

There have certainly been times where I'm, "Okay, I'm only gonna drink on the weekends," all right? And then the weekend quickly turned into, "Okay, well the weekend's obviously also Friday, so now we're doing Friday, Saturday, Sunday." But then it's like, "Hey, you know what? When I was in college, Thursday night was our big drinking night," all right? You go out on Thursday. So now we're doing most of the week we're drinking. And then it just turned into, "You know what?

If I feel like drinking, I'm gonna drink." Well, it's funny because I've been saying for about 20 years now that I have— future Dave isn't going to be living for much. I'll live vicariously through my kids. That's why I had them, because I'm vain. I want to get something from it. And I suspect that when I'm old, I'll just live through them financially and otherwise. But also, I used to say when I turn 80, all bets are off. That's when the heroin starts. Um, but then I moved it up to 75 a few years ago. I'm thinking now, 65 years of age, 75— 65 years of age, I start taking the spike. How say you?

Okay, I thought I was the only one. Well, me and my friend. And now Dave is doing the same thing. I have a pact with a friend that if we both live until 90, we're gonna do heroin. Like, I didn't know that that's something that other people have Did you make that pact with Dan?

Because he has this take too. But no, yeah, really wants to become a huge heroin guy.

I mean, Dave has the take also. I did not know this.

William S. Burroughs, Zaslow and Damashek, and Levitard's welcome to the party too, to our heroin den.

Me and my buddy have a plan that when we get in our 70s, we're gonna go to the horse track every day.

So you're just gonna be normal?

You're just gonna become your dad?

Okay, now, now, Dave, Back to the hair. How are you cutting your own? Like, you got scissors in the back of your head?

That's how. Well, I'm doing it well is the answer, as you can plainly see. Okay, the wife gets very upset. She's always got a little— I don't know who she thinks appointed her to be the Negative Nancy about everything, but she's always like, she's like, ugh, you guys, you're going to Miami? Oh no, you have to go to a professional barber and get that fixed. 'Look at what you did to your hair.' And I say, 'I can't see what I did. I can only see the front, and that's all anybody sees anyway. Who cares? I'm not a three-dimensional person anymore. All you're seeing is this punim staring at you. Who cares what's in the back there?' Um, it's an afterthought to me, literally and figuratively. Apparently I don't do a great job on the back.

It's hard.

I think, I think the results are in. This looks pretty good, right?

It looks like shit.

I do my own hair.

Oh, please.

I do my own. I do it myself. Does that surprise you?

That I believe.

Yeah, I do it myself.

How would we know with that hat?

Uh, well, you could just imagine. Alright, so yesterday the Dolphins schedule came out. That's right, a very big to-do at 8 o'clock last night. The Miami Dolphins and the rest of the NFL, they released their schedule, and I mean, I look at this and I'm You know what? I got 3 wins here.

Oh man, it's brutal.

I got 3. I'm looking at 3. You should have heard, Dave, you should have heard Chris Cody's rationale as we're looking at the Dolphins schedule before the show starts. He, he, he thinks that Week 1 game at Vegas—

it's big—

huge tone setter. Because if they don't— if the Dolphins lose that game, that one, if they lose that game at Vegas You're staring at a 2-win season. And I piped up, I said, if they win that game, then you're staring at a 3-win season. I'm like, what's the difference here?

If they win that game, they're looking at a standard bad 4 or 5-win season. If you come out of the gates 1-0 against Las Vegas, even though Las Vegas is not good, you lose that game against a bad Las Vegas team, it's just like, this is going to be awful. They're not going to win a single game against anyone that's decent. They have 2 games against the Jets. They're like, alright, they gotta win those, and like, you know they're just gonna split those. This is a 2-win team. Big game week 1, Dave.

I mean, in the copycat league, and what have you most recently seen, you know that the team that represented the AFC in the most recent Super Bowl in week 1 lost to the Raiders. And I don't know, I'm trying to think what happened with the Raiders the rest of the way. I don't think it went real well. Except that it yielded them Fernando Mendoza, who the last time we saw him was beating Miami in a big game. And now in Week 1, who is Fernando playing?

Chris, can you say that the Raiders are bad when the Dolphins are worse? Can you look at a team that you're— that the team is better than the team that you root for and be like, they're bad?

But I'm just—

if you're the Dolphins, you look at that Raiders game, I get it. The Raiders are looking at it like, this is a great Week 1 game. I'm not saying, you know, that both teams think this is a winnable game, and I'm just saying you gotta This is just a tone setter for the season.

The Raiders and Dolphins are 2 of 5 teams in the entire NFL— I think the other ones are Arizona, Tennessee, and the Jets— those 5 teams right there, no national TV games. Good. None. No national TV. And see, the schedule release is stupid to me. We've known all the teams they're gonna play. We know if they're home or away. We just haven't known exactly what week they're playing, okay? Fine, whatever, I don't care. The one thing that I did like when I was a kid that I liked about the schedule coming out was, okay, how many games are the Dolphins playing on Monday Night Football? Like, that was such a big deal to me because that meant the rest of the country is gonna get to see how good my team is, you know? And, you know, my father would be able to buy us maybe one— tickets for one game a season. I want to go to Monday Night Football. That's the game I want to go to. But now? Eh, who cares about this schedule release?

I can't remember zero. Like, even the Dolphins who have been bad forever, they have one Sunday night game. And then even now they don't have Thurs— you know they've gone away from every team gets Thursday. Dolphins don't even have a Thursday night game, which is kind of good, I guess.

Good, good. You know, I didn't remember until moments before— I was on ESPN last night, so I happened to be thinking about this— and I didn't remember until moments before the schedule came out Oh yeah, this is when all the teams, their social media departments, they make the videos and they put the videos out on Twitter. And it's like, all right, somebody's gonna have to do an apology because they're gonna be the ones that had Tyreek Hill in handcuffs, you know. And all right, then there's gonna be another team, it's like the big winner, oh my God, you were so funny and so creative. I— so that I do like a little bit, but I didn't see the Dolphins. Like, what are the Chris, you know what the Dolphins did? I did not see that.

The Dolphins did a thing where the players were pulling up to the facility and it was just like, oh no, this is intense. And the front desk person's like, Mr. Ross is expecting you. So players were like, oh, I need to see the owner, Mr. Ross. Oh no, this is scary.

What players did they—

it was just— they should—

I mean, Dan told us yesterday, there's a bunch of no names on this.

To that point, there weren't a lot of recognizable players, but just random players. Mr. Ross wants to see you. Mr. Ross wants to see you. Oh, I'm so nervous. They walk into the big reveal. Chair spins around and it's Rick Ross. You know, I don't want to be the guy that I saw it coming, but I guess soon as the first joke of Mr. Ross wants to see you, I was like, okay, clearly Rick Ross is going to appear. Like, I saw it from a mile away, so it didn't do much for me, but it was trending. It was one of the more popular ones views-wise.

So what was there— anyone that came out as like the clear winner, the, the most viral social media team?

Detroit.

What'd they do?

All business, zaz. It was Dan Campbell at a computer. He printed out a sheet of paper. He put a thumbtack to it on a board, and it was a static image of a schedule. And I'm sure Dave Dameshek loved that.

Listen, I, I'm not such a cynic that I get down on this. It does have, to Zaslo's point, a little bit of a sort of a school project kind of effect that all the students go off into, into the 32 different directions and they come back to present to the class their cute little, uh, their little project for the year. Look at what Timmy did, look at what he came up with this year. And then we all have to gather around and applaud and tell them how cute it was. It was fun. Listen, those videos are cute. They now pay top dollar. They pay— they, they go out and hire comedy writers and obviously big-time celebrities.

Well, the Colts use The Simpsons. They must have to spend a lot of money to do that, right?

I was wondering about that partnership because clearly they had to flash the, um, what was it, Disney+ at the back end of it and hold on that, um, at the end of the video. So that must have been a big part of the deal, but they still had to pay out, right, for The Simpsons?

I would think so, yeah. Chris, can we play a— you have a fun one that maybe we could play?

One of my favorite ones was the Raiders one. It was, you know, they have the two quarterbacks that you would call maybe nerdy with Kirk Cousins and Mendoza, so they recreated the Step Brothers.

Hey.

Hey. I'm Kirk.

I'm Fernando.

You're gonna have to call me Kirk O'Chains.

Cool.

You're gonna have to call me the Nandalorian.

So this is the locker room, and rule number 1 is do not step on the shield.

What happens if I sneeze around it?

Don't do it!

What if I—

Don't do it! So what's the best Star Wars movie? Empire Strikes Back or Rogue One?

Ha!

Trick question.

Star Wars: A New Hope, which was originally titled just Star Wars in 1977, but then they changed it to Star Wars: A New Hope in 1981.

Say your favorite football play on 3.

1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. Turbo right, 63 wide shallow. Jinx! Did we just become best friends? Yup! Uh, number 1, Fernando Mendoza, a little bit stiff. Number 2, that's really funny. That's a great video, Dave. That's really good.

I like that one a lot. That's very strong. I think that is your winner. I thought the Titans was good.

That's good.

I thought the Colts was fun in parts. I think that would be my winner stand there. 1, 2, 3.

Chris Cody, when you come over to my house and we put on the games, I got basketball, I got baseball going on. But what do I lay out for you and the boys for entertainment and drinking?

Miller Lite!

Uh-huh. Those beautiful white cans or on draft or the bottle if you prefer.

Oh, when you open that with the can though, and you—

one of the best sounds on the planet. You pair that with the right game. You take that first sip, we both look around. It's not a bit.

I have goosebumps thinking about the first sip.

We take that first sip, we open it up, and we're looking around. Oh, there's just that 5 seconds of almost eerie silence where you're just soaking it all in. Oh, like, man, did we make the right call or what? That's why we reach for Miller Lite. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients.

Ah, that golden color.

Oh, just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs. The original light beer since 1975, and it still hits different.

I love you, Miller Lite.

Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlite.com/dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Oh, celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs. Per 12 ounces. Tony, you know that moment at a party or a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks?

I know it well.

It's usually when I show up, everybody goes crazy.

Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, but it's because Tony usually walks in with Cuervo.

I walk in like this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night.

It has that effect on people.

It does. You usually take the credit for it, but again, It's the Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering, keep it Cuervo!

Keep it Cuervo, baby!

The NBA playoffs are here, and DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, brings excitement to every game all postseason long. When the lights get brightest, the best players in the world show you exactly who they are. Playoff stars turn it up round by round, and DraftKings turns it up with them from the first round through the finals. Bet player props, bet live, and stay in the action the entire time. New DraftKings customers bet just $5 and you'll get $100 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code DAN so you're ready for the moment. That's with code DAN. Turn $5 into $100 in bonus bets instantly. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. New York, call 877-8-HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire 7 days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Limited time offer.

Dan Lebatard. My algorithm on Instagram is, Dan, it's all boobs. Stugatz. It's a good algorithm. This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz. Dave, let's throw it over here to Tony, who was all over— let's, let's not acknowledge what just happened, okay?

Okay.

I meant to say Please acknowledge it.

I meant to say Tony. I accidentally said Dave, so I tried to do a quick cover there.

Quick?

As if I was telling Dave what I was gonna do. But there's no reason for me to tell Dave what I'm gonna do next. I can just do it.

Yeah.

It's like a waste of time.

But you're okay.

Yeah, I'm alright. Everybody calm down. Tony, NFL schedule release last night. You got a top 5 for us?

I've got a top 5 NFL games I'm looking forward to now with all the schedules set in stone. Top 5 NFL games of 2026. Do we get music or no?

Give him some music.

Let's give him music at least.

Music means we're serious.

First day of NFL season. Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Pick and choose when you want the music.

Pick and choose. It's the NFL. You know that my music hits in the NFL season.

Now you gotta get some heavy.

You pick and choose when he has the music.

All right. Number 5, the first game of the 2026 season, Super Bowl rematch, Game 1, Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots. Big game.

Hey, huge game.

Not for on the field, but for things off the field. I want to see how Mike Grebel comes out to that one.

I mean, everybody's like, oh my God, amazing Patriots-Seahawks opening. Like, whatever, I'mma watch it. Like, it does— whoever's playing, I'mma watch it.

Number 2, all Thanksgiving games. Have you, have you seen the slate for Thanksgiving?

Wouldn't it be number 4?

Number 4. My bad.

5 Thanksgiving games.

There is. So they have a Thanksgiving Eve, which I don't remember Thanksgiving Eve being a thing. It's like the day you go to Boogie's and hang out with all your friends, correct? That's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Oh my God, you go to Boogie's? Zazz, you know Boogie's?

No, too far south for him.

Okay, me and you, we'll see, we'll see each other at Boogie's. But we'll also see Packers-Rams on Thanksgiving Eve. So I'm gonna read you the slate: Packers-Rams on Thanksgiving Eve, then Thanksgiving we got of course the Bears and Lions, We've got the Cowboys versus the Eagles, and then the nightcap, we've got Chiefs and Bills in a massive game. Plus Black Friday, we got Davey Steelers against the Broncos. So a loaded slate for Thanksgiving Eve, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday.

Dave, you know about that Black Friday?

I know about Black and Gold Friday, friend. Come on, Broncos. We'll see you on the banks of the Three Rivers, bo.

Maybe Drew Aller be starting by then. Number 3, all Christmas games. Another just absolutely crazy slate for a Christmas day.

Well, what day of the week is Christmas?

I mean, I—

Christmas is always number 2 on these lists. You miss a golden opportunity.

So Christmas is a Friday, so you're telling me it's like a full slate of games on Friday?

We've got Thursday night Christmas Eve, we've got Texans and Eagles Christmas Today we got a tripleheader. Packers-Bears, Bills-Broncos, Rams and Seahawks.

The NBA must be so mad.

More on that in a little bit. The Grinch stole Christmas. Number 2, the entire Bills schedule.

Well, why?

Have you seen it? Have you seen who the Bills play?

No, why would I be— why would there be a point where I say, you know what, let me go see the Bills schedule?

Okay, well, I want to read you some of the Bills schedule outside of their division.

It's almost unavoidable. They have so many primetime games.

Dude, they are— The schedule's insane.

All right.

They start the season at Houston. They play Detroit, they play the Chargers, the Patriots, the Rams. Then they play Baltimore, Minnesota. Then they play Kansas City, New England again, Green Bay, Chicago, Denver. They play 19 games of straight bangers. The entire Bills schedule is on my list of much watched— must watch games.

Like, other than you just read every game except Dolphins, Jets, like, do they have an easy game outside of Dolphins and Jets? Is there like a game that's like that could be considered Vegas?

I just think it's interesting that Tony has them playing 19 games when the rest of the league is playing 17.

That kind of thing. Number 1, Week 18, Seattle versus LA in the battle for everything. I love how the NFL pits their two best teams against each other in the division late in the season. You could have had one game early, one game late. You had— could have had one game in the middle, one game late. No, let's go Week 16, Week 18 for all the marbles. Rams-Seahawks, Week 18, the most must-watch game of the 2026 season.

All right, there you go. Excellent job, Tony. Top 5 from last night's schedule release. So, Zazz, breaking news.

Tony just laid it out for us there. I don't know if everybody heard, but the Bills have a tough schedule this year. Also, we knew that 5 months ago. This thing about reacting to the schedule, even though everybody already had this information. Is so wild to me. I do think though, to Tony's point, and I— because I'm a, I'm a dip and didn't put two and two together— did the NFL schedule makers really cynically choose the Patriots because of Mike Vrabel? Is that why they're in the, the debut game of the whole season?

I mean, they're gonna get a lot of attention.

You don't usually get the Super Bowl rematch as the first game.

I know, I don't think it's a piece of paper that you're running. I mean, by the way, as a reminder for everybody who's like, oh, it's the Super Bowl. Why would you? It's the lamest idea creatively. Like, yeah, just what we just saw. Just do that again. Everybody will take that. But also, does everybody remember that that game sucked? That's the start to this season. Weird.

So I want to show you a podcast that I discovered yesterday. I want to show you a clip from it. If I were to tell you, if we were doing real or fake podcast and I told you there's a podcast that is featuring Brianna Stewart and Miles Turner, they're the co-hosts, would that be real or fake? Fake podcast.

What's it called?

I don't remember, actually.

That'd be a big thing because the whole thing is Mike really gives like witty names for the ones that are fake. So it could draw you.

This one's ringing a bell. I think it was actually featured.

So it's real. Brianna Stewart, Miles Turner. All right. And yesterday on this podcast, they got into a conversation about— so I guess WNBA just started last weekend and WNBA teams, coaches are starting to fine players for more and more things, which I guess makes sense because now they actually make good salaries. So in order to keep everybody in line, coaches fine you for whatever, any number of reasons. So listen here to Breanna Stewart as she then asks Miles Turner what it was like as far as the fine system in Milwaukee and what the conversation then evolves into.

We get fined for all types of stuff now. You guys get fined a lot?

It depends on the coach. So Doc Rivers, he didn't fine anybody. Guys were late all the time. Guys were, you know, showing up to film whenever they want to show up. Guys were missing meetings like It was one of the craziest things I personally ever experienced. We literally— if the plane took off at 2 o'clock, we weren't leaving until 4:30. I'm being so serious, bro. It was crazy, though. Guys were an hour late to the plane. It got to the point where I just— I knew not to show up until, like, an hour after they said the plane was taking off. It was crazy.

So who's the teammate that's most likely to be late? Well, all of yours, obviously, because nobody gets fined.

Giannis. Giannis is gonna show up whenever he wants.

Okay. So let's start with the first part. And that's Doc Rivers, who apparently is letting the team run wild. All right, he's being asked this stuff because it was his first year in Milwaukee, played the rest of his career in Indiana. Doc Rivers is now fired. Uh, anyone surprised, I guess, that Doc Rivers allowed the inmates to run the asylum? Like, like, I don't think anyone finds that to be any kind of revelation. But the second part, which is certainly what is garnering attention, is that Giannis would show up hours late. Hours— several hours late. Now, this is the kind of stuff that we heard about Jimmy Butler in his last year with the Heat when he was clearly very unhappy, that Jimmy Butler was routinely hours late for the plane. But Miles Turner straight up offering up the information that Giannis behaves that way, the first thing I want to ask you, Dave, what is Miles Turner thinking in offering up that information? Like, why would Miles Turner offer that up unless, unless he believes there's no way Giannis is on Milwaukee next year, or there's no way that he is going to be on Milwaukee next year?

Because that's a weird thing to offer up for the franchise's greatest player.

I agree with you, but is it calculated to the extent that he is trying to call out Giannis to send a message, or to your point, that it is understood that Giannis is out of there despite the fact— that's the element, and we kind of have talked about this over the preceding few weeks here where Giannis is concerned— is that it's a troubling trend that he's a pain in the ass. And it's starting to— I mean, he requires— LeBron catches a lot of crap in Los Angeles for more or less insisting that his son get drafted in the second round. Giannis doesn't get, it seems to me from a distance, anywhere close to the heat that LeBron catches for requiring not one but two siblings be on the—

Oh, you're totally right. Like, you know, I sit here and tell you LeBron's son is on the team and he does not belong in the NBA. Giannis is not brother, brother-zuh. Plural, don't belong in the NBA. And, you know, part of the, uh, the, the, the schism between Giannis and the team late in the season— he wanted to play, he wanted to get back out on the court at the end of the season— where he ended up filing a grievance against the Buccaneers— the Bucks— was because he wanted to play. Take a deep breath. He wanted to play with his brothers. All right, that was part of what was going on there. You got that, Don Lebatard? John, can you rate my Al Pacino from that billiard scene in Carlito's Way if I do it for you? I think it's pretty good.

Yeah, okay.

Stugatz, you think you're big time? Well, you're gonna die big time.

That is On my infamous scale of 1 to 10, that's a, that's a 7.6.

Solid.

Good job.

Good job.

That's a Sui nominee right there.

Good. This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

Again, you know, I'm a broken record from a week ago or two weeks ago, Dave, but are you guys sure? Really meditate on this. By the way, I saw a list of the three preferred destinations of Giannis, and the Miami Heat were not one of them. And it makes me think, because it always hurts my feelings. Well, when there's a big-time recruit in the region of football America that I come from, And I see that one of the 3 final schools for, you know, a blue-chip prospect is not Pitt. I get it hurts my feelings. Does it hurt your feelings that Giannis has not circled Miami as one of his preferred destinations? Or I'm not sure if it's even Giannis putting this list out, but they're floating all these names of appealing destinations for him and Miami isn't one of them. I mean, look, it does make sense to me, except that I don't think if you're the team receiving Giannis, I feel like you get about a year, a year for a Magic season with Giannis, not an Orlando Magic one, but a Magic run to a title. And then that's going to be about the extent of what you get out of Giannis because he's old now.

He's not going to be dynamic for much longer.

Okay.

So even still counts as consistently dynamic.

Okay. So the first part, you know, my— does it upset me that the Heat's name was apparently not on the list? No, because while I don't expect you to remember, at the start of this past season, sitting in that chair right over there. Okay, Dan was here that day, so Dan was in this chair and I was sitting in that chair, and I specifically said Giannis's people have reached out to the Heat, that they are interested in Miami if things go awry in Milwaukee. So I know this, all right? So no, I don't care what that list says, I don't care what that report is. But I think the bigger thing here is because It doesn't even matter if Giannis is the star, if he's the best player on the team. When you're showing up hours late for the plane— I understand star players get treated differently, as they should, but it doesn't mean that they should be disrespectful to the rest of the guys, to your teammates. And that kind of stuff is disrespectful. And looking at things like filing a grievance against his team, all the stuff behind the scenes. The bigger question for me is, is Giannis a pain in the ass?

Because Giannis has had a great reputation for pretty much his entire career, and I'm wondering, are we learning now maybe Giannis is a huge pain in the ass behind the scenes?

I think that he's been at the perfect organization that is so grateful to have such a transformative player. I mean, he said in interviews he wants to be buried in Milwaukee. That is such an insular town and franchise. Not a lot of leaks. I mean, expectations aren't as high. They're not this great legacy franchise, even though they recently won an NBA title. He can do things like miss the playoffs and you don't hear like, what a failure. Really, the, the narrative is whatever Giannis wants it to be. He's been in control of the message. He's even had people in that franchise do his bidding to try to protect him here. I think he's going to realize very quickly wherever he goes next, because it seems very unlikely that he's going to stay there, how good he had it.

And we talk about Giannis and we look at other superstars and other just like bigger than life personalities in the NBA, and everybody kind of goes to the beat of their own drum. Like, you think that Jimmy Butler, you think that other LeBron guys are making the team bend to their will? Like, yeah, I'm going to be late, an hour and a half late to the plane.

Like, what's up?

You going to do something about it?

I don't think that's normal. I don't think that's a common thing. Like, yeah, stars get catered to differently. But they— it doesn't mean that they put out their teammates. It doesn't mean that they're disrespectful to their teammates' time. I don't think that that's a very common thing, that you have the star player behaving that way. Like, that's, that's not— that's bad what we're hearing there, the same way it was bad how Jimmy Butler was being disrespectful like that in his final year. And it just like— and so Miles Turner made those comments, which I think is odd. All right. And then kind of a subtweet here, you tell me, alright, a little bit of a subtweet from Giannis Antetokounmpo where he put out now, uh, it's on Instagram it looks like, where he was playing basketball, he's in the gym with his son, and the caption underneath it is he just writes, "Getting better every day and minding your business." And he put that out shortly after that podcast dropped with Miles Turner. Kind of feels like he might be, uh, referencing what Miles Turner said there. I think it's a little bit of a subtweet going on there from Giannis.

But this, like, I think this is a guy who might be a little bit of a pain in the ass.

Yeah. Are you souring on him? Totally. Since, like, the whole midseason trade drama, striking out. I'm of the mind that kind of behavior doesn't work here in Miami. No, I'm— well, it has. You do make some concessions. I mean, to, to a degree. They both bent, right? LeBron and the Miami Heat when LeBron came here a little bit, but they were rigid at first, famously with Shaq, like, no, you're going to talk to the media. But, you know, as the times have changed, players have been a little bit more empowered. I'm curious, though, where are you on Giannis?

So the behavior stuff doesn't bother me as much as he's 32 years old. He's 32 years old and he's coming off of, you know, a season that he hardly played because of injury. And I'm not 100% sure if adding Giannis— forget just, you know, does it make them a contender? You see what Oklahoma City and San Antonio are doing, and it's almost like, all right, does adding Giannis get us close to those teams? All right, if it doesn't, Do we trade everything? Do we trade all of our assets right now when it might not even matter? Like, overall, I think the Heat are going to be all in on Giannis, and certainly they'll be better if they acquire Giannis. But my hesitation comes from his age and his injury more so than this.

I mean, you're used to this franchise acquiring players that you didn't like, right? I've had to— I always hated Kyle Lowry, and I didn't really keep it secret. And I just had to like roll with the punches, but I held him to a very high standard.

I didn't dislike Kyle Lowry before he got here. I disliked him very much when he was here, and I was also very loud about it. I've never disliked a Miami Heat player more than Kyle Lowry.

Even Jimmy Butler. I didn't like Jimmy Butler when he got here.

No, I was fine with that. Yeah, I don't think the Heat have ever actually— like, the closest I was to the Heat acquiring a player who I've been very openly against was Kevin Durant. Like, that'd have been interesting, all the things that I've said about Kevin Durant.

You were a Terry Rozier guy?

I just— it wasn't really on my radar. Like what? Like I didn't actively dislike Terry Rozier. Like, who cares?

When you talk about OKC and the Spurs on the other side of the bracket, I feel like that's aiming a little bit too high. And I don't want to say that it's like it's NBA championship or bust, and I get that. But we've seen so many teams get injured on the way to an NBA title. Like, Lucas Mavs were just a shell of a team that were getting there. And obviously Boston ran through them. So when you look at Giannis acquiring him and getting him to the East, obviously you're taking from Milwaukee and adding to your team. But you're trying to beat the, the likes of Detroit, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, like those, Boston. Those are the teams that you need to make sure that you're better than, because you can always have the puncher's chance in the finals. Wemby gets hurt, Shay gets hurt, Check gets hurt, like something happens on that other side, uh, uh, you know, a dark horse comes through, like you have an opportunity to win a title.

This kind of stuff doesn't bother me as far as Giannis's behavior, you know, if the Heat were to acquire him. The part that I just, I find interesting is like like, maybe is Giannis a little bit of a phony? That's the part that kind of—

maybe.

Yeah, like, I didn't think that really.

I think this season kind of— he's Dwight Howard redux. Like, he's— it feels a little bit like the same kind of corny humor, the same kind of half measures.

He might be a little phony.

Everybody likes him. He gives off Dwight—

also LeBron vibes, right? Of just like, I want to say the thing, whatever I think the people want to hear that will make them be into me.

I don't like that.

It doesn't— it exact— money exaggerates what you're predisposed to do, so they say. They say that about Larry David specifically, that money hasn't changed him, it just is, um, intensified.

Is that, is that what they say?

I've heard— I remember seeing Jerry Seinfeld say that before I really knew about Larry David or had experienced him on camera himself, that Larry David is exactly— proves that point that money doesn't change you. It just exaggerates what you are. And maybe that's what's happened with Giannis. And I am intrigued to hear your thoughts on who there in that studio with you would be most likely to spin off if you started throwing a lot of money and say, oh, like, who would change the most? Who the most? Yeah. Who the most? Who would— who would get out of bounds the quickest?

Probably Roy. What?

Here are the keys. Here are the keys to the organization. Basically, that's what happened with Giannis. And all right, he got corrupted. This happens all the time to people. It shouldn't be surprising, I guess. But you know, Zazz, you're right too. Well, Tony, by the way, made a good point too, that I think you do have to consider if you want to contend this next season, robbing Peter to pay yourself is the plan, right? If you take If Giannis goes to the Knicks or Boston or Philly or whatever, that really puts you out of contention, period. Right. If you're the Heat. But if you get him, you can at least indulge the fantasy that maybe this will be your year.

It would be a huge blow. Look, the Heat fans upset as it is. It'd be a major blow if not only do they not get Giannis, but he goes to Boston. That would be also a blow.

But, you know, we're in an interesting inflection point in, you know, spectator sports. Russell Westbrook, I float his name for the last 5 years because I remember saying 5 years ago, how much meat does he have left on the bone? His entire game is dependent on attacking the rims and rim, and given his, given his, his physique, he's breaking down already. He's not gonna make it much longer, and here we are, he's kind of, kind of sort of still relevant. And then there's Tom Brady winning a Super Bowl in his 40s, and Sidney Crosby playing well. Deep into his 30s and so on and so forth. So are we optimistic that Giannis is going to remain dynamic into his mid-30s? Or is he about to go the, the path of most athletes that we've watched in history, which is they start to break down and slow down as they get into their 30s?

I think ultimately everything we've seen over the last few months and Miles Turner's comments yesterday, there's no way Giannis is on this team past the draft. There's no way.

Zero shot.

There's no way.

The Haslam comments were pretty damning. But to echo Dave's point a little bit—

Jimmy Haslam, by the way, not Udonis.

Yeah, not UD. But I do think, while I agree with you, and there are holes in his game, right? He's not a consistent shooter from mid-range or certainly outside or the free-throw line. And he has this frame where you put a body to him, you're rewarded to get him to the line. I still think as he gets older, he's the Greek Freak for a reason. Defensively, he's going to be a force as long as he's able to step out onto the court. He's going to be able to be dangerous around the cup like he is going to be a big-time factor. And next season, provided that he's healthy, I don't think he's going to fall all the way off. But there are questions about his game.