Transcript of Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, and Relationships In The Public Eye | Hour 3 New

This is the Dan Levator Show with the Stugatz Podcast. Have some Eric DaCosta sound, the Ravens general manager awkwardly making a phone call to a draft pick that we'll get to. But before we do that, I wanted to go back in time a little bit, and I didn't want to address this story until at least, uh, some of the participants had addressed this story, as opposed to having, uh, the Dallas Wings speak on behalf of Paige Beckers and, uh, Azie Fudd and the their relationship. Uh, so I want to get into this, uh, but let's first hear from Paige Bueckers basically telling us all to mind our own business after the first overall pick in the draft, uh, is somebody that she's in a relationship with. And that's not something that the media has had put in front of them before this way. And so it became, uh, you know, a, a talk conversation point for a whole lot of people who don't generally cover the WNBA.

There is something that I wanted to address, and I only plan on addressing it once. So if we continue to get asked about it, we will refer to this moment in time, or we will use this time to deflect and talk about our teammates. Quite frankly, I believe me and Azzi's personal relationship is nobody's business but our own, and what we choose to share is completely up to us. But as media members, I understand you guys have a job to do and you guys have to ask questions about the basketball aspect of it. So that's what I will be addressing today. Me and Azzi have always been the most professional. We've always conducted ourselves as such, and we've never let anything that happens off the court carry onto the court. And that's what we continue to do. And I'm not entirely sure if this is new to media members, to social media, to new people who are watching the WNBA or women's basketball in general, but me and Azzi are not new to this. We've been doing this for a long time. We have countless reps at it. We have a lot of experience with it, so we will continue to use that experience to show up and be Professionals, great teammates, great leaders, great leaders, the hardest workers, and continue to show up and do our job and help the Dallas Wings win basketball games.

Well handled by her, but nobody's business but our own. Not in this business. That's— fame isn't a restaurant menu item. You don't get to choose how you get it. But that's one way to try and dictate the terms early on, because I suspect anybody now asking them questions about this is going to do so with trepidation because of where it is that she is starting the bidding.

Well, first of all, I want to appreciate her for her direct response and discussing of it over the strategy that they did with Aziz.

Well, no, no question, they dropped the ball early on.

Yeah, that's how they should have done it the first time around. Yes, it's an elephant in the room, we're gonna have to discuss it, but I don't want it to be a dominant thing. So Dan, you say why are people uncomfortable about this? There's a couple reasons. Number one, the obviously the same-sex, uh, relationship aspect of it is very uncharted territory in traditional male sports.

Well, it could be a different sex relationship, but they don't play sports together. It has to be—

that's what it has to be, same sex. But again, that part is— I don't want to use the word taboo, but like uncharted territory in terms of day-to-day conversations, right? Number one. But then specifically, the reason why it is and should be discussed despite her request is because it is a workplace relationship. In the same way that we discuss Bronny and LeBron, they have a relationship that supersedes the workplace relationship. In the same way that we discussed Doc and Austin Rivers, they had a relationship that superseded the workplace relationship. And here we have two players who are in a relationship together, obviously not parent-child, but partners. It supersedes the workplace relationship. That's why it's relevant, because how do we separate— despite her protestations to say, hey, we're professionals, we've been through this before— how do we separate workplace from personal relationship in that scenario? So if Paige Beckers doesn't pass the ball to Izzy Fudd in an end-of-game situation, whatever, how are we supposed to surmise whether that is indicative of something that had happened outside the purview of the workplace, but in the personal. Because one thing I know about relationships, same sex, different sex, whatever, people get in arguments.

And that's the reason why in any workplace, we always say don't shit where you eat or whatever. That's this old saying, right? Now, does that stop people from dating in the workplace? Absolutely not. How many relationships—

You don't feel good about the don't shit where you eat there. You don't feel great about it. I can tell it was leaking confidence when it came out.

True.

All right, I don't see what I—

let him cook here a little bit. It's a complicated matter.

So the— I appreciate it though.

I saw it coming on your face, but complicated, so complicated that it shouldn't have a "don't shit where you eat" as a flippant throwaway.

Is that true, Meade?

Yeah, I don't shit where I eat.

Also, I have pooped at a restaurant.

Definitely not me.

This is why the eye should have stayed on the ball.

So the point being is, despite the prevalence of workplace relationships across America across industries, sports or otherwise, it is generally kind of considered not the greatest, like, tact. Because why? Because what happens when the personal relationship has friction, but you still have to show up to work? If I'm dating a woman that works as a nurse, for instance, if we have an argument, we break up, I don't have to worry about walking into the studio, like, there she is again, oh, this is gonna be awkward.

00:05:48

Oh, but wait a minute though, there are a couple of things that complicate this. One is they're enormously valuable, the two of them, enormously important to what's happening here. The number 1 overall pick and Paige Beckers, that's, that's one thing. The other thing is we talk about AJ Brown's relationship with his teammates all the time. All of this stuff is wildly complicated when you're building your foundation on it.

And the third aspect of this is that she wasn't a consensus number 1. There were people scrutinizing this pick the same way they did with, as you mentioned, which were great points, Bronny and Austin Rivers getting his big contract. There's a, there's a favorable opinion already in that locker room of this player.

So I've tended to avoid that part because everyone has— I know the part about whether she shouldn't have been, whether she was consensus or not, because yeah, what I find, Mike, is when we— if you bring that up, the loyalists will say, you don't even follow our sport, you don't know, which is fair. Now they have a basketball argument again.

No, no, I got it. I'm piggybacking on a, on a national topic.

I don't know, which is, which is why I try to keep it just in the purview of something I think that we can all agree. And so you talk about AJ Brown, you're right, but guess what? That is a typical workplace dynamic of I work with people, maybe we're cool, someday we're not, but it— life goes on. Whereas romantic relationships, we all agree there's a higher level of— when it's great, the connectivity is higher than my best friends or my great co-workers that I like. But when it's bad, it is incredibly negative. It can affect your mood and even your decision-making in a way that it surpasses logic. Like, hey, this isn't logical the way I'm going to behave, but guess what? I'm feeling this way because of the strife in my personal relationship.

Look, the way, the way the Dallas Wings hired it at AZ FUD's media availability originally, it was total amateur hour. Like, there's no other way to put it. Because Paige Becker's handled herself perfectly fine. Like, there was nothing wrong with what she said. We'll see where it goes from here. But Paige Becker saying that we've been in this situation before, we know how to handle it. No, you haven't. All right.

They were together.

But no, what I'm saying is they're really young. Like, are they going to get married one day? Odds are some— the person you're dating at 21, 22 years old, you don't necessarily get married to that person. So when you say that you've been through this before, you have not been through some huge breakup and then you're working side by side. I'm not trying to be funny when I say this, but like, if Dan and I were in a romantic relationship, everything's fine right now. I'm not trying to be funny. Everything's fine right now. But if we broke up, there's no way I would be able to work next to him.

But that is not uncharted territory in women's sports. We just don't know about it all that much because it's not reported on as much over here, especially in Europe. This is commonplace in, in women's soccer.

Let's also add back-to-back number one picks, like franchise corners.

No, I know it would be different if Max Crosby was dating Arvel Reese and Arvel Reese went number one. We'd be having different discussions, right? We would. We're just not used to having these surrounding the number one pick in the direction of a, of a pro franchise in which people pay money to see these players.

I wasn't trying to be funny, Dan.

I'm sorry.

I think the tough Part 2 is you have the relationship at home, and then you go to work, and you also have the relationship there, so it's like, there's no way to get out of— if you're having some sort of situation, like, you're kind of cornered in every step of the way.

And by the way, I want to also point out, I'm not predicting strife. They might be madly in love forever. That doesn't mean that the specter of it could happen isn't still with us. And so that's why it's a conversation. If she were dating Rihanna, I would agree 100%. That has nothing to do— that's my personal relationship. Even though we're famous, even though Dan could say, "Hey, you don't get to choose off the menu," I can respect that sentiment because that is not a workplace relationship. In the same way that Asia and Bam dating one another, even though they work in the same industry, quote unquote, they're not coworkers. So I can respect, "Hey, yeah, like, this has nothing to do with how I'm playing. Why are you asking me these questions?" They're teammates. And you know, Mike, you say it's commonplace. I worked in the WNBA and I'm not going to name names. I know they're like, oh no, name the names. I'm not going to because it is personal relationships. But I know of cases where teams literally could not make a transaction that was unequivocally blockbuster deal.

Why?

Because they used to date and now they're broken up. And they broke up because this one cheated on her with the one that she's with now. And like, it's this weird love triangle stuff and it's like we can't do that deal. That's happened multiple times in the WNBA, and that's something that you can't say about a lot of sports leagues across the world.

I know a coach who coaches over in Europe that has coached on the men's side and on the women's side, and I asked him what's the biggest difference between the sports. I asked him via proxy, and what got back to me was, well, in women's sports you run into these interpersonal dynamics that don't really exist in men's because there are personal relationships that can get pretty complicated, and that was something that I had to learn coming over from the men's game.

So in summation, as a front office guy, I'm always— there's nothing that eliminates a person, like, oh, I can't take them, or whatever. But I have to know, I have to know, there are some players that like to be coached hard, right? Like Draymond Green, he wants you to yell at him, he wants you to cuss at him, he doesn't want you to be a soft players coach kind of guy. There are other guys You yell at them, they tap out. That doesn't make one guy better than the other on that level. It just means I gotta know how I address this one versus this one, right? I gotta know my personnel. Thank you. So respectfully to Paige Beckers and AZ Fudd, it is relevant because you do work together, and that part has an impact in the same way that all those other interpersonal relationships that aren't best friends or coworkers.

You realize that what she's doing in setting the parameters now, and now's not the time, okay, that it matters, because once they go through some— I'm not even talking about relationship turbulence, I'm talking about team turbulence. It's fairly normal to ask two star players about what their relationship is. She's saying that's off limits now. AJ Brown just spent the whole season answering questions about where his relationship was with Jalen Hurts. Like, they're the stars of the team in a league that— and in a sport that traffics on star power. We were just talking about you can't get an OKC conversation going because we're obsessed with the personalities. Now put the personalities in a relationship, they're the centerpiece of your team, they're the foundation of your team. And when she says we've been through this before, UConn ain't this. UConn isn't losing like this is going to lose. UConn's not going to be in a bunch of close games that they lose, and the relationships are going to be something that are asked about.

I'm picking up what you're putting down, Dan. Shay needs to start dating Jalen Williams, and then we'll start talking about the Thunder.

We would.

Hey, it's Mike Ryan, and I want to talk to you about the random midweek hang that you have with your friends. Maybe it's an NBA game, you get a text, hey, come over, you want to watch the game? And maybe you're like, ah, I don't know, I kind of just wanted to stay home. And then you think about it after your buddy hits you up, and you know just the thing that'll make that regular hang, that regular midweek hang around the basketball game into a special time, into a Miller Time. That's right, this happened to me just last week. I grabbed a 6-pack of Miller Lite, said I was on my way, and next thing you know, we're arguing about rotations like we're on the coaching staff, yelling about a missed call, and the game's coming down to the final possession. It was one of those nights that you look around, you take a sip, and you think, yeah, this was the right call, and my friendship's stronger for it. 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! Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Going for 2 when you're up by 5. Switching the zone when man isn't working. Oh, and building your new stadium in the state your team actually plays in. In sports, some things just make sense. You know what else makes sense? Drinking Jägermeister shots ice cold. Drinking it any other way would be like punting on first down or letting your worst hitter bat first or like going for two when you're down three with a second to go. It wouldn't make any sense. So don't let the team down. When it comes to Jägermeister, drink it cold or don't drink it at all. Jägermeister, damn, that's cold. Drink responsibly. Jägermeister Likör, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mast Jägermeister US. White Plains, New York.

Don Lebatard.

Whitty, we have a photo right here. If you can see in this photo with my daughter there, I am pointing exactly to the point on the Stanley Cup where it says, "You suck ass." Stugatz!

Wow.

Right there. They engraved it?

Really?

They got it engraved? Yeah, they got it engraved right there.

It says, "Chris Whittingham sucks ass." This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

It's one of the things that I've learned about that league over the last couple years where they don't— like, they don't want to be covered like the other big leagues. They want to be covered the way they want to be covered. And there's a major difference.

And there are some gatekeepers attached to the sport that, you know, rise up against people applying that kind of standard. I'm with you. There are certain times in sports where the inequality can shield you. This might be one of them.

I will say it's not like the NBA players haven't been incredibly vocally critical of the media and the way that they get covered. I think that that's a disingenuous argument to say that the WNBA is the one league where they have said we want to be covered a certain way. It's just because we're now paying attention to them for the first time and want to cover them the way we want to cover them. And now we're hearing from them, no, don't cover us this way. And when it comes to this, like, I actually do think that that Paige and Azzi are in a situation where like, sure, talk about the relationship. But I think the point trying to be made yesterday is more like, hey, I'd prefer if after every game or after every practice we're not asked about our relationship because it may not be relevant. When the time comes down to it and things are falling apart and they've lost 7 in a row and you need to ask that question, that question does need to be asked.

Look at us, man. Bunch of dudes. We figured out women's sports for them. Hell yeah. You're welcome, ladies. Way to go, dude.

High five.

Proud of us?

No one can poke any holes in anything that we said!

We men know way—

How about us, man?

Man! Men!

This totally isn't gay!

One way that men should be in women's sports: I'm an ally.

Let's check in here with the NFL Draft for a second. Greg Cody will be in here tomorrow to explain why he's already apologizing for his initial reaction to draft day. I really am excited. I am interested.

What he did, he saw some tape. Is that what he didn't see tape before? And then he saw tape or he read somebody that said, yeah, no, it's actually pretty good.

He saw tape of people saying that Proctor was a fine pick. And because he was surrounded by us and we were yelling about it, he got disoriented the way old people do when there's a lot of noise and commotion. And he had an instant reaction that he's ashamed of. So now he's apologized for it. So now he is secure in the knowledge that he can be wrong two different ways because he's had both opinions and he's I'm not gonna not be right about anything, but a number of things happened in the draft that were interesting. Some dude from Nigeria who doesn't play football was drafted.

Have you seen that guy, by the way?

Yeah, that guy is stacked.

Yeah, yes, that's, that's how—

6'4", 300 pounds, and he runs like a 4.5.

Tony, look, my God, you say, have you seen that guy? There was a guy drafted by the NFL who doesn't play football. I know he's stacked. You don't need to tell me.

Chris didn't know.

Chris has no idea.

I don't need to see him. I don't need to know anything. I just need to know the fact that he doesn't play football and he was drafted to play football.

So you're telling me that he didn't look like Zazz, is what you're saying? You knew that immediately. Can you imagine if Zazz was the guy they drafted who had never played football?

Rude thing to say about your boyfriend.

I like the idea of drafting guys who've never played football.

They're all going to be athletically stacked.

That's like what round 8 should be. They added an 8th round.

That is a good 8th round.

And you just draft guys who've never played.

Some of them are Hall of Fame tight ends.

That, uh, that would be a huge draft in Australia where they're watching Australian rules football and all their guys are getting drafted.

Look at this guy.

Wouldn't you watch that 8th round? It could be anybody. I could be sitting around watching.

Go, holy shit, athletes in other sports would not be you.

Athletes in other sports, uh, just— they might pick me. Just to check the draft tally: Florida State, 1 player drafted. Guys who never played football from Africa, 1 player drafted.

Can I get accurate stats on Mike Norvell? Because I saw some things making the rounds on Twitter saying that he hasn't had players drafted in the last 6 years in the first 3 rounds. But Keon Coleman was drafted in the first round, so that's not accurate.

Was a transfer, but yes.

How bad, how bad are the Norvell numbers when it comes to FSU getting people drafted?

Believe this was the 4th time in 7 years they've only had a player drafted in the NFL Draft. That player Darryl Jackson, who spent some time down here at the University of Miami. There were two Florida Gator kickers selected in this draft. There was one Florida State Seminole, period, drafted.

Who is Eric DaCosta talking to? The Ravens general manager.

He's talking to Zion Young. They drafted him, and it was just— these are all over the internet the last few days of these calls. You know, how are you with your family? They're pretty standard. and this one was definitely one of the funnier ones.

Hey, it's Eric DaCosta. Let's get it, let's get it. I know you fired up. You excited? Let's get it, let's get it, let's get it. You're going to the team you wanted to go to, right? I know that. Let's get it, let's get it. Well, we're gonna get it, we're gonna get it. I know you want to get it, man. We're gonna get it, we're gonna get it. Ain't no secret what I'm gonna do. Let's get— you won't regret this, I promise Oh, I know that. I know that. I know that.

Um, the phone cord is not helping him at all here. DaCosta is having trouble with just, uh, handling the entirety of the situation. I want to play all of it again so that you can just see DaCosta's just general discomfort with—

we're gonna get it— how much younger the getting is, uh, than where he gets Hey, it's Eric the Costa. Let's get it, let's get it. I know you fired up. You excited? Let's get it, let's get it, let's get it. You're going to the team you wanted to go to, right? I know that. Let's get it, let's get it. Well, we're gonna get it, we're gonna get it. I know you want to get it, man. We're gonna get it, we're gonna get it. Ain't no secret what I'm gonna do. Let's get— you won't regret this. I promise. Oh, I know that. I know that. I know that.

I know that.

I have secondhand embarrassment.

Yo, man.

You know what my favorite part is? My favorite part is after like the 5th "let's get it," he looks off to someone off camera and he gives that fake smile like, "I got this under control." Look at that.

There it is.

Yeah. This is great.

DaCosta got bullied off of his power position. He started that call being the employer and he left that call being demoted to somebody who works for Young.

Zion Young is skating a little bit here.

What do you mean skating pipes? He didn't give him much. He didn't give him much.

Not a lot to work with.

I'm going to count them.

Let's get it.

Let's count them together. Play it one more time and let's just count just from him. Not both. Let's get it. Just from— and try to ignore the way that the cord on the phone makes a distracting sound.

I'm sorry, I can't.

Hey, it's Eric the costume. Let's get it. Let's get it. I know. Let's fire it up. You excited? Let's get it. Let's get it, let's get it, let's get it. You're going to the team you want to go to, right? Let's get it, I know that. Let's get it, let's get it. Well, we're gonna get it, we're gonna get it. I know you want to get it, man. We're gonna get it, we're gonna get it. Ain't no secret what I'm gonna do. Let's get— you won't regret this, I promise you. Oh, I know that, I know that, I know that.

He already regrets it.

9.

No, 10 let's get it's, 1 let's do it, and then there was one where he was about to say let's get it one more time and he stopped.

He checked it on let's get it.

He said it 9 and a half times.

No, he said it 10 times.

10 full times and then there was a let's do it and then there's a half let's get it. 10 and a half let's get it's, 1 let's do it.

9 and a half, there was not 10.

Cut it back, cut it back. We all count together, let's go.

We all gotta count together.

Hey, it's Eric DaCosta. Sir, let's get it.

1.

Let's get it. I know you fired up. You excited? Let's get it.

3.

Let's get it.

4.

Let's get it.

5.

You going to the team you wanted to go to, right? Let's get it.

6.

I know that. Let's get it.

7.

Let's get it.

8.

Let's get it.

9.

We're gonna get it. I know you want it.

10.

You want to get it, man. We're gonna get it.

Let's do it.

1. Ain't no secret what I'm finna do. You won't regret this.

Let's get it.

You won't regret this.

That's your half.

That's the half.

I know that.

I know that.

I think it means right. I know that. It was over 10. I know that.

I know that.

The over-under was 9.5. He hit the over.

Because I missed the original ain't no secret, let's get it. That was 10.

Yeah, I thought he was still going to say some form of you're not going to regret this decision. But DaCosta was in the middle. His body language just went to hell. Like the—

At the start, it's I'm the boss here.

Let me talk about draft pick.

He got mugged.

He really did.

You know about that, Morgan?

He was get it, Maxin.

The idea that Greg Cody would go from not liking the pick to apologizing for not liking the pick when nothing has changed over the last couple of days except for who he was surrounded by and what he was reading. Nothing has changed. And yet, because our reaction here when we did the Thursday Night Live livestream was to recoil because they took what can be seen as a guard instead of Reuben Bain. Greg Cody put his finger up, licked his finger, put it up in the air, and it blew a different way. And we were the ones objecting, but he wasn't reading other objections to people saying, yeah, that's a solid pick if you want somebody who's 350 pounds and might be very physically strong.

I opened the door for him yesterday when I started the show. Asking, have we all calmed down with our reactions from the Dolphins' first round? I was expecting, yeah, yeah, like we're not screaming about it anymore. But he took that as, yeah, I've actually apologized for my reaction.

Yes, he was issuing a formal apology. He said he was going to put it in print.

That's crazy.

An apology.

I was just asking, are we still yelling about it? He's like, no, no, I'm completely on the other side.

Maybe Cody's are going to homer because I I'm with my dad that I left that draft Thursday like my— my— I have softened on how terrible that pick was. Clearly not like— I, I know we're gonna act like we know he could turn out to be a good guard if he's a good offensive line.

That sentence is offensive.

No, if then it's not. If he's— if he's a perennial pro bowler, listen to me.

No, I'll give her right back to you. If he's a perennial pro bowler with the number 11 pick, I don't want a guard. I don't want a guard ever. I don't want a guard with 11 10th pick overall. I never want a guard. That's it. Don Lebatard.

All right, we got to go back out there. That was big. Wake him up.

Uh-oh, he doesn't want— he doesn't want to be bothered anymore. Now it's getting tense because he didn't need that. As a result, he needs something that happens.

You can see him mother-effing out.

Can we bother—

are we bothering you right now?

Turn on your microphone, Greg. My microphone's on. Stugatz, paint the scene. The paint the scene is I gotta go to work. Good night. This is the Don Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

You guys are not paying attention to what the story is. The story isn't should they have taken this kid or that kid. The story is Greg Cody is apologizing in print. The man who never apologizes is going to write a column apologizing.

What has happened here is the Cody and this is how they can be pushed around, not unlike Eric DaCosta. The Cody's just heard the Dolphins talk for a while and their hope springs so eternal that anyone can give them fuel for it. And now they doubt their original conviction on these people who have run this franchise into the ground for the last 25 years, get it wrong all the time with all of the offensive linemen that they draft that never can block anybody.

I don't want to get defensive, but this isn't the Dolphins I'm listening talk about this. This is other people who have like more knowledge about this kind of stuff.

He's a big, giant, strong man who, if he can get his food intake under control— Nick Saban doesn't know if he can.

He said it's manageable. He said that exactly.

The Saban thing is— forget, like, what I'm doing is a Florida State thing and how we look there, but what Saban did—

Saban had him for 1 year when he was 18 years old as a freshman.

All right, but you say that like Saban is not still living in Tuscaloosa and totally knows what goes on in that program. It's not like removed. He knows.

He's there.

Uh, Pat Riley also gave you what our draft expert Brooks Austin told you, that when you're watching the film, what you see is this. Mamba, yeah.

Does happen a lot.

That's what he said. Said, said he's big and strong, but if he doesn't get his hands on you, he's just gonna miss.

I just think when you got the full draft, like the— you even said it, the full draft, the Dolphins did a good job.

I think so.

I don't think like we're gonna do this thing where we know what Proctor is. We we don't know.

And yeah, Chris, that has no bearing on the first pick going from, from, you know, potentially getting a hometown guy like Reuben Bain who looks like an absolute dog, and then you get Caden Proctor who's got so many—

that's the thing. But that's the thing that shouldn't have bearing on the evaluation of the pick. And unfortunately, the reaction is outsized because of who specifically was available.

That is fair.

The man who never apologizes—

that is crazy—

is writing an apology column. You guys are focused on the wrong things.

Chris Cody is sitting here saying we don't know what he is, and I do know what he is. He's a guard.

What he is is not Reuben.

It could be our right tackle, dude. Austin Jackson is hurt every other day.

If Reuben Bain was picked before, I do think the reaction to it would be different.

It would be very different.

Like, he was projected to go like 2 picks later. It wasn't like it was this guy was going to go second round.

Brooks' opinion would remain. Nick Saban, what he said would remain. The memories of what happened in that Florida State game would remain. But we'd remove the Reuben Bain element from this, and it is viewed differently.

But when you get to call the left side of that offensive line the law firm of Proctor and Paul, that's going to feel real good.

I don't want a law firm protecting my quarterback anyway outside of court.

And Brewer, a few different franchises might.

Let me hear, uh, the live reaction. This is why it is that Greg Cody was influenced by us. This was during our live stream, and this is how it went down.

After the trade with the Dallas Cowboys, the Miami Dolphins select Caden Proctor.

Oh my God, the guy that Brooks identified as the The bust.

354-pound bust.

You had Reuben Bain on the board.

Let's go to the Giants.

The only guy, the injury fella said, I don't want to watch any more tape. I'm disgusted by it.

I gotta hear.

I can't watch any more of this.

I gotta hear Greg Cody's take on this because they had Reuben Bain available there for them and they take Cade.

You gotta be shitting me. Let's go out to look at Nick Wright laughing at us. You gotta be shitting me. We've got the Dolphin legendary columnist.

It's very interesting.

Yeah, we've got the injury fella here.

So sad.

He's disgusted by his team. Damashek is laughing at us. Nick Wright is laughing at us. You felt the feeling of being laughed at because of your draft pick, and you thought it was echoing throughout the nation, but it was just a regional sound. It was just a little regional sound because we have an affection for a pass rusher, someone who makes plays, someone who, if I'm picking in the top 11, touches the football once in a while.

I'm with you.

Give me a player—

Proctor, I think, caught a couple screens for Alabama.

You're right, he did. Yeah, it's one of those.

You seem dumb.

Gadget lineman Zion Young did get it less against Proctor.

It's a gadget lineman. That's exactly right. They did. They threw him a bubble screen, and it was amazing. That all of college football laughed because a fat guy was running with the football. The biggest guy. He's about as big as anyone who was playing in Division I-A. And again, the fact that Saban said— this is not the phrase you want to hear on a national program. It's not in private. He's at a microphone talking publicly. And what does he say of your number 11 pick? Not a self-starter.

And then he said it's manageable.

All right. Yes. But it's like, it's Nick.

We're helping, by the way. He's going to be super motivated.

That's not manageable. Not a self-starter doesn't self-start. Like, it needs itself.

But you're helping.

You're starting it right now.

No, no, you're starting him.

You need to spark inspiration.

No, not a self-starter doesn't get help on self-starting.

The man who never apologizes is penning an apology column.

We're going to talk to him, uh, tomorrow about this. Cade Cunningham should pen one of those for the Detroit Free Press.

Poor guy, poor guy. He's doing everything himself.

Poor guy.

He passed—

he passed the ball to Jenkins and Jenkins like, I don't know, I don't know what to do with it. Duran, where's Duran been all week?

It's bad.

That's terrible.

That's tough for Duran though, man. He's— you want to talk about interpersonal relationships, man? When your ex is posting video of you getting dunked on That's—

that's— get fired up! How about that? How about that?

Wendell Carter, please, of all people.

Give me a break. Wendell Carter. This sounds—

we're dominating them. Jalen Duren, come on.

People voted for you for most improved.

Okay, an All-Star.

I mean, what do you make of— I mean, before this happened, it was Warriors against Dallas. You would never see these kind of upsets. And before then, it was 5-game series. I know COVID was certainly it certainly had an impact on these things, and you can't remove that from the equation when you talk about the other upsets. But is this the new norm in this sport where you can't be guaranteed out of the first round if you're the number one seed?

The 3-point shooting has absolutely flattened what used to be an insurmountable gap. All I got to do is get hot from 3 and I've— I'm in it, I've got a shot. That's Number 2, and I've talked about this a lot, the 1 and 2 seeds are the least advantaged teams in the entire sport, uh, entering the playoffs, because everyone else has a week to prepare.

That's what I've been saying.

You ain't never said that.

Yeah, it says several times.

I never heard you say that, man.

Don't say that about me.

But yeah, so, so you have to wait basically until Friday or Thursday or Friday to find out who you're gonna play. And the wild thing is the 2 seed actually knows who they get to play before the 1 seed does. The 1 seed is the least prepared team in terms of knowing. Now what ends up happening is they just watch tape of all the teams. The poor video coordinators are making these books that are never going to get seen or watched for teams that they won't play. But everyone else— your 3 seed knows there's a 6 seed the Sunday before, right? The 4 seed knows who's the 5 seed the Sunday before. The 2 seed finds out on Tuesday Tuesday or Wednesday who they're gonna play.

But it shouldn't matter. It should look like what OKC just did to the Suns. It wouldn't have mattered who was in the first round for OKC. They would have dusted anybody among that, right?

And we, we— look, Miami stole a game from Boston early on because they seized on that, but now we're 4 games in to this series. So like, this goes beyond prep.

I'm not answering the question about the Pistons specifically. You asked me a question, these upsets are happening more, and I'm trying give you some of the factors. This one specifically, I told y'all months ago, they don't shoot free— they don't shoot threes. They're not a good free throw shooting team. They turn it over a lot, and all of their offense comes from one guy creating for everybody. If you give a good coaching staff and a reasonably talented team enough time to just watch and plot, they can have all these trigger points. It's like the Death Star having that one exhaust except give them 4 or 5 exhaust ports where we could throw a bomb down there and blow it up.

Orlando's defense presents a certain set of problems, but also what Detroit was trying to do in the modern age isn't being really tried by anybody else, which is we're gonna beat you by being more physical than you are. Like, that's our whole thing is gonna be physical. It's not gonna be shooting well. It's not gonna be defense with offense. It's gonna be we're gonna get beaten by a team that's shooting 30% because we can't make anything. Thing.

Zazz fired Jamal Mosley the Wednesday between the play-in games.

I did.

I'm also not watching All-82, but you're counting on Tobias Harris and Duncan Robinson in the playoffs, and I, and I do know that that's flawed.

But they were counting on Isaiah Stewart during the playoffs. Like, they're counting on physical.

Dan, you say they're trying to do it a different way. I think they're just trying to do it the way that they have. They— if they could shoot better, of course they'd want to shoot better. Of course they want that. They went and got Kevin Huerter at the trade LeBron because they wanted to add shooting. It's not like a conscious decision, like, shooting, pshaw. It's just like, this is the collection of talent that we have, let's try and win the best way we can. But of course they want shooting, of course they want to be able to take care of the ball, of course they'd love another playmaker outside of Kate Cunningham. The reality is they don't have those things, and that's good in the regular season where I play today and then tomorrow I'm playing Milwaukee, and that day after that I'm playing Indiana. But in a situation where I I have days upon days and there's limited travel and no back-to-backs and all I do is watch film of you and all your weaknesses and say, I can exploit that. It's a lot tougher to overcome.

Reality is the Pistons got a rocket ship in Cade Cunningham this year, followed him with a ton of flaws, ended up being the number one seed in the kind of down Eastern Conference. Everybody's like, all right, I guess this team is good. And it's like, nah, Cade is really good. The problem is he's surrounded by a lot of guys that don't really help him.

I gotta give them credit. When Cade was out, everyone thought it was gonna collapse. They stepped up, they played out. So it's again, part of this also is the thing that Dan hates when I bring it up, but it's real. These guys, it's not their first time at the rodeo, but it's like their second time at the rodeo.

But you're—

6 strong games against the Knicks does not equal I got this playoff thing figured out.

But if I had to make you guess though and say, is this about Cade Cunningham not having experience, or is this a lung collapse that has 24 turnovers in 3 games? Like, you had to choose one. You had to choose one and be right. Which one do you think you'd go with?

The former. I think it's a former.

A lack of experience.

23 turnovers in 3 games.

Uh, yeah, I— lung collapsed, coming back fast from a lung collapsing. I don't—

I don't make you pass the ball back.

They turn over the ball. They turn over the ball a lot. They don't turn it over the way he's turning it over on 3-on-1 breaks. On 3-on-1 breaks, where he's throwing it at the knees of his, of his teammates.

It absolutely must play a role. He's not 100%. Having said that, it ain't the reason.

Let's get it.

Hey, it's Mike Ryan, and I want to talk to you about the random midweek hang that you have with your friends. Maybe it's an NBA game, you get a text, hey, come over, you want to watch the game. And maybe you're like, ah, I don't know, I kind of just wanted to stay home. And then you think about it after your buddy hits you up, and you know just the thing that'll make that regular hang, that regular midweek hang around the basketball game game into a special time, into a Miller Time. That's right, this happened to me just last week. I grabbed a 6-pack of Miller Lite, said I was on my way, and next thing you know, we're arguing about rotations like we're on the coaching staff, yelling about a missed call, and the game's coming down to the final possession. It was one of those nights that you look around, you take a sip, and you think, yeah, this was the right call, and my friendship's stronger for it. 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.

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