Transcript of Tony Says In Five Years From Now There Will Be No Humans Driving | Hour 3 New

This is the Dan Levator Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Amin Elhassan will be here shortly. I wanna ask him if there are more Waymos in Phoenix and in Arizona than there are anywhere else, because I've been told that it's a little jarring when you go to Phoenix and see the number of driverless cars. And it made me wonder if Waymo is indeed trying to compete with Uber or be the future. How long do you guys think it's going to be before this is so normal, if Waymo is indeed successful, that the future will arrive with just driverless cars? Where there, there's so much being spent here with Jaguars and these expensive cars that I can't even imagine the amount of investment that goes into just getting these things licensed now that they're allowed on the highways of Miami and elsewhere. Getting insurance and licensing for driverless cars seems to me such a big task that I would assume Waymo is trying to take over cars the way Netflix is trying to take over television. How soon do you guys think it's going to be before the future arrives in the form of all the cars are going to be cars that are essentially fancy taxis that don't have drivers?

5 to 10 years, I think that there will be less humans on the road than ever.

No.

Oh, okay, that's a completely different—

humans, humans, humans, than, than a robot car.

No, no, no, than ever. I think that we're heading, we're heading into a situation now, especially— you were ready to pounce on him though.

I saw what— well, you heard the way he said—

he saw Zazz was ready to pounce and he softened it before he got to the dismount. He, he was gonna come with a stronger take and then he got scared.

The stronger take is coming. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not even done.

I mean, he said in 5 to 10 years I do think they're gonna be less humans than ever.

Yeah, well, that's—

driving than ever.

Well, it won't be than ever because there was a time before cars when nobody was driving, so it won't be than ever. But I am genuinely curious at how fast you guys think this is coming because it's— look, 2 or 3 trips to Los Angeles ago, I saw for the first time in my life one of those to-go cart robots that wanders around. I saw them on the side of the street. When you see one for the first time It stays with you. And I came back and I told you guys, have you seen this? And you're like, yeah, they're over there in Miami now as well. But now they're everywhere. And I just—

at one point on last Friday, I saw like 10 of them in one eyeshot. It was insane.

Yeah, they run into each other. There are some stalled out on the side of the road. But there's something dystopian about this, right? Like whatever it is that you guys— I don't even know what was the futuristic show of your childhood.

The Jetsons.

In mine, it was The Jetsons. But I don't know for for the generations since that don't even know what the Jetsons are, if I were to have imagined a scenario of driverless cars, I guess Bruce Willis in The Fifth Element, there was some of that flying driverless cars, which I assume is next. No, cars that aren't even on.

I, Robot.

No, it had a driver. He was famously a taxi driver.

No.

They were flying cars, but he was a taxi driver. That was his occupation.

But I did think that there were some that were driverless. Regardless, that's—

I have less interest in flying than like who had the wizard's stake.

I still want to ask you guys, what does the future of this look like? How many of these are going to be out there if Waymo has the success it's craving?

All of them, Dan. Like, I don't think there's going to be humans driving in the next 5 to 10 years. I think that's what we're looking at, especially with— I don't know if you guys have been watching what Congress is doing, where they're passing bills that are going to be monitoring every driver in every single car to see if they're impaired.

You just said, Tony, let's recap.

You're not listening to what I'm saying.

Oh, I'm listening. That's the problem.

He's going to recap.

You just said in 5 years from now.

To 10.

Oh, okay. In 5 years from now, there's gonna be no humans driving. That's a real thought that came in your brain and you let come out for everyone else to know you were thinking it. In 5 years from now, no humans driving.

And to support your theory, you invoked what the government is doing to be able to track all of these autonomous vehicles and include kill switches, and I'm sure the American people are definitely not going to hold on to their gas-powered cars that don't have those things whatsoever.

Is there any part of you, Tony, that wants to take back— no, that you believe in 5 years—

I'd like to take back our Fourth Amendment right, if that's okay with you.

Humans driving.

I, I completely understand where you're going and what you're saying, but yes, I stand on that take. 5 to 10 years, they want us to be all driverless. They want it to all be no humans in the cars. That's what they want, okay? That's why they're adding the kill switches in the cars. That's why they're at 20— from 2027 forward, you're going to be watched and listened to in your car 24/7 while you're there. You okay with that? Because I'm not.

Are you?

I stopped listening after you said, okay, so you're okay with supporting the other side of the argument I'm trying to make?

I'm not. I'm not supporting it. That's what's going to happen. You think we're— you think we have the power?

I've got the power.

So Tony basically thinks it's going to look like Minority Report.

It sounds like Tony is making this more aggressive than I would make it, but I am still surprised at how quickly they've already proliferated and, and the amount of expense involved with this kind of investment. If what you're trying to do is either take out cars, take out Uber, I did not know that there would be a, um, a, a moneyed evolution of this that would extend beyond the Uber and involve no drivers at all. So you don't have to have employees there, although I assume you have to have employees to basically help you with whatever bugs there are in the initial parts of the system. I just don't think that this portion of the experiment is as obviously safe as it's going to be a few years from now when we perfect some of the technology.

Look, you're letting in a bit of a devil here with autonomous vehicles, but you can make a strong argument that autonomous self-driving cars are a health issue. In this country and worldwide, considering how many people text on their phone while driving. Distracted driving is a real thing. We don't even know how many people it kills annually. We only have rough estimates, but it is a really bad problem, and you can make a strong argument for that being the new norm— autonomous vehicles. I think it will get to eventually. I don't know the timeline, but having people— people like to drive, especially in America. It is such a part of the culture, horsepower and gas-powered vehicles and just going out on the road and driving. I think it'll be looked at like a luxury. A lot of the older vehicles that you see on the car, on the road right now, these older luxury vehicles, I think that lane will always be around.

Dan, did you hear the part today where Tony said in 5 years from now there are going to be no humans driving anymore?

That's what they would want, Zazz. That's my whole point. They're going to be able to tax us more with insurance. Gas is going to be expensive.

Did you hear when he said that?

Why should they be able to tax us more with insurance if I'm not doing the driving?

Because you're more of a liability because you're a human driver.

No, I'm not the liability.

Yes, you are.

No, I'm not the liability if I'm not driving.

No, if you are driving, that's my point. If you're driving your car, they'll tax you more.

Oh, okay, so to be able to—

all right.

Exactly.

Yeah, again, it's going to be a luxury item.

So rich people are only going to be the ones that drive. Is that where we're going?

I also think that you're going to— well, down here, insurance, not so much of a biggie for a lot of the people on the road. I think there are ways to skirt it.

The point that you're bringing up about people texting and driving, it is a problem. Insurance companies will tell you it's an enormous problem. Obviously, more accidents than ever because of the number of people willing to drive a vehicle that can kill people while being distracted in their phones because of what our phone addiction is, the number of times I'm driving on the highway and I will look at the car next to me or see someone weaving because they're texting while driving at 70 miles an hour. It's legitimately maddening to me the number of times that I see it because of the level of irresponsible that it is.

I was driving home on the highway yesterday from Orlando and a car that I was coming, you know, to pass on the right of me, their entire bumper was held together by, by duct tape. And like the whole thing. And when I pulled up to the side as I was passing by, buddy's just got his phone in his face like this, just right in front of his face.

Put it on the poll at LeBittard Show: are you bothered that the person driving 70 miles an hour is texting?

Soon the, the camera that's watching you with whatever person's watching that camera will shut off your car and you won't be able to drive, so it doesn't matter.

I take public transportation to save me from myself.

And traffic's bad.

It's really hard to not pick up the phone while driving the entire time, like message, music app, GPS. Like, it's going to happen, and then who knows what wormhole I'll get stuck in there. I don't trust myself, and I feel way better about it. I'm productive. I can be on my phone guilt-free taking public transportation.

I've had the thought of going back to a flip phone where I'm like, you know what, to stop me from driving and from looking at Instagram or whatever, you should get the Razr. I'm going to get a flip phone, and then you can only call me, then I can hang up.

I would just be playing Snake Whole time.

Are you that mentally subservient to your phone, Chris? You have to be playing Snake?

Put it on the poll at Le Batard Show. Are you mentally subservient to your phone? I will throw mine in the trunk of the car in order to just not be tempted.

You're an XM guy too, so you got it right on the—

Buy it. But I have to put it someplace. You can't help but marvel at how normalized the addiction is that we all have a little bit of. In fact, I don't know anybody who's disciplined about it. I legitimately do not know a human being who is disciplined about their phone and electronics use because of how pervasive the addiction is. We're going to go to Amin in a second to get his weekend observations, but I want to play for you a couple of Dana White sounds, one of them off of our Victor Hedman conversation and how it is that some people have evolved as it regards mental health, and some people haven't.

I hate this whole men's mental health bullsh— that they talk about. Um, unfortunately, when you're a man, you are the provider. You are the one that, that takes care of your family. Uh, you know, you, you are the example for your kids when they grow up, and your sons, you know, and your daughters. And, and you, unfortunately, you, you, you can't be that guy that's— I see these guys posting on, on social media, oh, I had a bad day and I'm so sad, and all this other crazy shit.

So unattractive.

Oh, it's just, it's unattractive to other males, let alone women. I can't even imagine. Uh, yeah, I'm, I'm really against all that shit.

Happy Mental Health Awareness Month. Uh, here's Dana White not knowing how to, uh, answer a question on The Breakfast Club.

But when your friend has a disapproval rating of 62%, right, record high, people say they don't like his handling of the Iran War, the economy, cost of living for people is fucked up, why can't you tell your friend he's failing the people as a friend?

Well, he's the president of the United States.

Still your friend though.

And yeah, I know, but that, you know, for me to get involved in— it's like if your friend had about— I'm sure people disagree with you that are friends with you and Everybody has friends that you just— doesn't mean you're not friends with them anymore. It doesn't mean that you—

oh, now I didn't say you shouldn't be friends with him. I just said, why can't you tell your friend he's failing the people?

Because these are the same people who make UFC a success.

Yeah, I don't, I don't know if I agree that he's failing the people. Um, I, I think that when the, when the president is done in 3 years, people will look back on and, and realize a lot of the good things. See, I'm closer to him too, and I see all the good things that he does. Can you tell your friend when he's—

yeah, we talk about a lot of things, but I try to get into. You like everything he's doing?

Like I just said, you're never going to agree with everything, but you know, as a friend, I'm not going out there and—

don't be a glazer though, Dana.

Don't be what?

A glazer.

Like just somebody that just tells him he's great.

A yes man, basically.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think anybody's ever accused me of being a yes man. Um, and, and I think that's, um—

are you part of the MAGA movement culturally? Do you align with their ideologies and their values?

You know, I consider myself right down the middle or leaning a little liberal, to be honest with you. Everybody thinks I'm some far-right guy because of our relationship.

I mean, you have to be shit, man.

Some of us are down the middle. Am I right, Roy?

That is what a flabbergasting lack of self-awareness. You don't consider yourself a yes man when it comes to this presidency. You absolutely are. You're sitting here considering yourself in the middle?

Left-leaning.

Leans left.

He's leaning one way, Dan.

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?

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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 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 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.

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Dan Lebatard. My algorithm on Instagram is dance all boobs.

Stugatz.

It's a good algorithm. This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

I mean, what are your thoughts here before we get to your weekend observation on both of the sounds from Dana White we just played?

Yeah, I mean, the first sound is, I guess, just emblematic of the era or the generation he's from. There are a lot of people who feel that way, right? Like, oh, you can't show weakness and your family's depending on you and all that. So I don't, I don't think anyone— guys find it shocking. I wasn't shocked to hear that. It's, I think, again, men of a certain age, that's the prevailing notion. The second sound is, uh, is funny because Charlamagne's asking him a pretty simple question. Have you ever told your friend, hey man, you're kind of messing up on this one? And Dana is trying to take every single exit ramp into, I don't tell, I don't— he's trying to say, I don't get involved. But we know he does get involved. We know there are other issues that he has been not afraid to voice his opinion about. Those opinions happen to be the ones that he agrees with the president on. So the reality is he's basically painted the picture where that's exactly what you are, Dana White. You are a yes man.

We're going to talk to Luke Thomas tomorrow because I want to get into how it is that Joe Rogan has specifically taken the access to power and swallowed some stuff because he too has become a yes man because he's so enamored—

Dan Lebatard is back—

is so enamored with the access that they have to finally being popular and mainstream in UFC that they'll trade anything in order to get that power, including just some basic American core principles. We were talking before you came on here about the Phoenix area having more Waymos, I think, than just about any area where I have been, or I I've known in the United States. What do you think the future of that looks like? I mean, like, do you believe that Waymo, if it's successful in achieving whatever it is that it's achieving, do you believe like Tony that in 5 or 10 years there will be no drivers?

Well, I think that there's a positive and a negative to all this stuff. The positive is despite all the high-profile Waymo messing up examples, we know that humans are awful drivers.

Right?

And if we reach a point where the majority of the cars on the road are automated, we will eliminate a lot of accidents, a lot of needless deaths, drunk driving deaths, texting while driving deaths, uh, of people just being people and being irresponsible. The flip side is you are eliminating a massive, massive population of people who work as drivers, whether it's, you know, limousines, cab drivers, Uber drivers, DoorDash, like all of these jobs that, especially in a time when the economy isn't doing great, people are finding ways to either supplement their income or wholly just survive on driving a car, driving their car, driving someone else's car. And if we get to a place where that entire industry is eliminated, think about all the different types of drivers, or delivery trucks, all that We eliminate all of that, man, you got to tell me what those people are going to have to end up doing to make a living.

Oh, but everything that I've read about AI and technological advancement says that America is in no way ready for what's going to happen to the labor force the moment that this stuff ends up catching the way that it inevitably is going to catch. This is late here, Tony, but—

Yo, chicken thigh! What?

Dan wasn't here last week when Tony said we didn't lock down enough.

Oh yeah. We should have taken COVID more seriously.

See, Dan, look at that. Trust the science, right?

What else did I miss last week? What else?

Not much.

What are the things that I heard you had? I heard you had an admission that goes for all time. I heard we'll get back to what it is that I missed in the postgame.

Zazzas was It was good though.

Yeah.

And Dave Damashek's favorite letter. You can catch that on Mystery Crate though. Letter tears. Electric.

Time now for Amin's Weekend Observations.

It is time for Amin to share his game notes.

No one in the media will tell you what happened better than my boy Amin.

Weekend Observations is brought to you by Miller Lite. Legendary moments start with a light. Weekend Observations is also brought to you by my Pulitzer Prize. Suck it. Dan! I've been working in this industry a long time. Seen a lot of strange shit. I have never seen a team have 4 consecutive home games in the first 4 games of a series. Dave D'Amato still thinks the Knicks are in trouble, by the way. NBA Draft Lottery. So much for that whole conspiracy about the league rewarding the non-tankers. Nice job, Zaslo. Dumb theory. Can't believe I co-signed that. That's what I get for yes-anding. Wizards get the number 1 pick. Can't wait to see how they fuck this one up. Clippers get the Pacers pick. The call came from inside the house. You guys connecting dots, keeping your third eye open on that one. Guess what they can't do? They can't garnish a pick that you got from somewhere else. Nets and Kings win a combined 9-47 after the All-Star break. Make to end up with picks outside the top 5. Maybe they were punishing the tankers, who knows. Sixers fans actually tried to boo the Sixers, but there weren't enough of them to be heard over the overwhelming noise of the Knicks fans.

It's the craziest thing. Like, you know how the whole— sometimes like, oh, there's the road crowd is too loud, and so let's crowd— we'll get louder than them. In this case, it was like the Sixers had just turned it over the 100th time, and, and the Sixers fans started to boo, and the Knicks were like, no, no, you're not gonna ruin our day. They just started chanting and drowned out all the boos. Will history remember when James Harden saved the Cavs season? Tune in at 11. Paul George, who the hell were you passing it to? I don't know how many of you guys were still tuned in in that blowout, but there was a play where he just—

he had—

it was an inbound ass. He just threw it to the Knicks. He just threw it to like 2 Knicks. I'm like, what are you doing? There's something adorable about Wemby needing Harrison Barnes to explain what a flagrant foul 2 is, right? Like, so what does this mean? So it is a higher flagrant? Oh la la, I have to leave? Okay, okay. Salut. Let me say goodbye to all my friends. Okay, goodbye, Daron. Goodbye, Jeremy. Goodbye, Goodbye, uh, Vassell. Goodbye, uh, Johnson. Goodbye, Harrison Barnes. So goodbye, Luke Cornett. Goodbye, uh, Lindy Waters herself. I really like your name. It is a very fun name. Goodbye, Cutter Bryan. Don't mess up anymore. Goodbye. I'm like, guys, get the fuck off the court, man. We're trying to finish this game.

So performative.

You might be on to something. Thank you. Quinn Grimes. James and Taylor Fritz in a national ad for an energy drink. Anything is possible, I guess. Even me winning a Pulitzer Prize. Uh, let's see what we got here. Sixers didn't show up in 3 out of 4 games. Somehow it's still James Harden's fault. What's happening here? Why are my notes— oh, there they are. Skip Bayless, like he never left. Dan, did you watch Skip Bayless? You see that?

I did not.

They talked about LeBron.

Machuoso performance derailed our whole show. We were doing the show and then me and Mike were just like marveling. It was like watching Michael Jordan score 63 on the Celtics. At one point, it was incredible.

At one point I told people to leave our show and just watch that one. Because I did.

Cinephobe episode 310, Navy SEALs, starring Charlie Sheen, Michael Biehn, Dennis Haysbert, Bill Paxton, and S. Epatha Merkerson. Last week I told you guys that Michael Biehn is the worst actor in Cinephobe history. We named our worst actor award after him. Today I ask the question, why SEALS is an acronym for Sea, Air, and Land. Couldn't it be SALS? What does the E stand for?

Do we know? Anybody? There, there must— the acronym must be— they're not Navy SALS. They would be far less— put it on the poll at Levitard Show. Would they be far less admired if they were Navy SALS?

Send in the SALS!

It's just Palantona.

Salvo, Salvo, Salvo Cano. Yeah, from Impractical Jokers doing the, the dance.

Sal Fasano's got one last gig in him.

Sal Palantonio out of nowhere from Eagles camp, still at Philly.

Yeah, exactly. They send in the Sals, but he's still in Philly. The only way to describe the Oklahoma City Thunder: you're at the beach It's a gorgeous sunny day. The kids are building sandcastles. The water is warm and clear and crisp. And you got a delicious tropical cocktail that uses a pineapple as the vessel. Maybe a little paper umbrella in there too. And then the third quarter happens. You look out the horizon and you see something massive. And your kids say, Daddy, what's that? And the last thing you think to yourself is, where'd all the seagulls go? And next thing you know, you're down 25.

The Lakers have never lost 3 in a row by 15+ in the playoffs. This is the first time.

They're about to lose 4 in a row by 15+.

They're better without—

it's all gonna happen in that— it's gonna happen in that third quarter.

They're better without Luka according to Skip Bayless.

Oh damn, that— damn. For LeBron. He said, he said they're better without Luka in order to further magnify LeBron's failure when he inevitably loses to the best team in basketball. Virtuoso performance. Matter of fact, Dan, get up, get out of here, go to the penalty box, go watch all of First Take from last Friday, the entire thing. Come back when you're ready. For me, it's not a penalty.

For me, it is.

Hey, Zazz, what up? How was Rolling Loud?

Pain in the ass, what it was.

Did you— did your oldest stay in a hotel by himself with his— with his boys?

No, no, we— we drove. My son and I, my younger one, we— we drove to Tampa one of the nights and then drove back.

And you drove back? Wow, yeah, crazy. Yeah.

All right, I'm a good dad.

New season of Bar Rescue, and we've got you covered at Here's the Science, a Bar Rescue podcast. Podcast hosted by real-life bar and restaurant consultant Chelsea Reynolds, commercial kitchen and food truck vet Colin Cassard, and Pulitzer Prize winner Amin Elhassan. Yeah, that's not a joke, that's real. Oh, and Zach Harper too, I guess. Subscribe, rate, review wherever you get podcasts. Dan, did this happen to you? Because it happened to me a lot where I got a lot of people reaching out asking Wait, are you serious?

Well, I wasn't running around telling everybody that I was a Pulitzer winner the way that you were, so I— well, they just weren't reacting that way because I wasn't doing what you were doing.

You did LA wrong because let me tell you something, I went to that Hasan Minhaj, Ronny Chieng show on Saturday night and man, VIP treatment the whole way. I was like, wow, this is what it's like. Damn, I don't even have the ribbon yet. Imagine when I have one of those and I just walk in the restaurant. Craig's, table for 6, got it. You guys hear that? Yeah, the Celtics just missed another 3. The hell has Bazula skated on that? Speaking of hell, what the hell was Sedano doing here? I don't know if you missed this one, Dan. Roll the clip.

I've already done the experience, and trust me when I tell you, you're going to love it. He's gone so LA, it's staggering.

I spared you the whole 2-minute thing. Hands folded, wearing a bathrobe. Dan, I thought it was a yacht. I'm never letting this go. I'm never letting this go. Remember when we thought Sedano sold out because he was drinking green juice?

Look at what he's got on that table.

The table.

I didn't even notice that there was a table.

I didn't even see that he had a head. All I see there is the ridiculousness of that robe. Speaking of hell, Art Briles, those are the weekend observations.

Don Lebatard.

If Daniel Day-Lewis did it, you'd be jerking off all over yourself.

Oh, come on.

Yeah, I would be.

Aggressive description.

I mean, what is it? What is that?

I'm just saying. No, that's me.

You're just saying what?

That's me. Daniel Day-Lewis does something. I see that photo of Daniel Day-Lewis looking like Lincoln before he's about to start filming Lincoln, and you know what I do, Amin? Stugatz! I jerk off all over myself. That's what I do.

Lincoln, who you outed the other day.

Don't make this a rejoin.

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

I've got a number of basketball things that I want to ask Amin. So first things first, uh, the Knicks, and some of this stuff that I'm giving you is from Tommy Beer, some of these stats, uh, but, uh, Karl-Anthony Towns last postseason, 1.4 assists per 36 minutes, uh, this postseason, 8.3 assists per 36 minutes. What's happening there?

Okay, so the first thing that needs to happen is a round of apologies, not just from the people on this show, but people nationwide, specifically Knicks fans who were calling for Mike Brown's head. This is what Mike Brown envisioned from the beginning of the season. They started out a little rough and everyone was crying like, oh my God, we're not gonna make it back, but where's Tibbs? And so he eventually kind of transitioned back to the offense that they were accustomed to running, uh, under Tom Thibodeau, which is a very iso-heavy, you know, ball in Brunson's hand. Offense. They get to the playoffs and they start to have a little bit of problems against the Hawks, of course, because a very versatile defensive team. And so Mike Brown is like, hey, you know what, I got here that might work as an adjustment. It's the offense I was trying to run all along, which is a Golden State offense. They're running Warriors sets there where Towns is in the high post, right, like Draymond Green, and they're running split cuts for Bridges and Brunson, and they're curling and popping off and all that stuff. And Towns gets look and survey, and if they're helping, he can hit that far corner.

And if they're not paying attention over here, he can hit this guy, hit a guy on a handoff. And then, as we saw the other night, sometimes the, the defense forgets about all these things, and all of a sudden, oh yeah, Carl Anthony Towns is wide open for a jumper. And that's the difference between him and Draymond Green, where it's like, you can live with that with Draymond Green. With Towns, it's insane. But he has that opportunity now, and so because of that, the offense has opened up, and we're seeing a Knicks offense that much— has a much higher ceiling. And that is directly attributed to Mike Brown and his adjustment and his playbook, but also Karl-Anthony Towns accepting that, hey, I can take 12 shots in a game and I can be one of the most important, if not the most important, reason why we won.

Tim Alberta of The Atlantic had an interesting 4,000-word piece on Adam Silver, quote, going to war. Uh, that whole thing And Dominique said today it does feel like Adam Silver doesn't have a single guiding principle other than increase profit, which he has done extraordinarily well. Did you happen to see the piece?

I mean, I did. I found it like it's in The Atlantic, so it's designed for people who are not like day to day on this stuff. So if you are a casual person who's maybe not into sports and not into basketball on that level, it's an excellent read. If you're like me and you're consuming basketball content voraciously, then it was a lot of kind of trodden ground. As far as Adam Silver's entire thing being profit maximization. Yeah. Like Roger Goodell, like Paul Tagliabue, like Gary Bettman, like whatever the guy— whatever the guy in baseball's name is. Manfred. Manfred. Manfred. There you go. Like, that's all of their jobs. That's all they're doing. Right. And so that doesn't surprise me. I think the bigger thing is sometimes the league tends to take a shorter-term view on certain aspects as opposed to a bigger picture of, hey, this could be bad news for us down the line.

Wemby, uh, you believe like we do that there's a 0.0% chance that he's suspended for Game 5?

No, he'll get suspended again. Wow. I think so, because I think when you look at the video, it is clearly intentional. And then his coach backs it up in the press conference by saying he had to protect himself because no one— the people charged with protecting him weren't, weren't doing their job. And so he—

look, you think that made it worse, what Mitch Johnson said?

Yeah, absolutely. Because up until that, you could— again, part of this, again, we're talking about the resume, right? And so he's built himself a reputation so that we can watch that video and see the, the menace in his eyes and look at that play and also say, yeah, well, he's trying to clear out space, but he didn't know that Nasri's head was there. I, I could make that argument, right, and, and actually delude myself. But when Mitch Johnson says that, it's pretty clear. Yeah, no, he knew what he was doing. He meant it. And he— even his reaction on the bench wasn't one of like, what did I do? Like, it was like Oh, so I got to go. All right. Okay. Thank you, everybody. And he just did that thing and was kind of not remorseful in the least. In a weird way, I think this is an awesome development for his career because you can't be the Boy Scout. Sometimes you got to be the bad guy. And maybe in 27 or 26 other NBA arenas, people are always going to flock and be like, oh my God, Victor Wembanyama, he's awesome. He's the best.

I love him. He's my favorite player, even though I root for the home team. He'll never ever be able to set foot in Minnesota again and get anything but boos and derision. And I think that's great for basketball. It's great that we're going to have this rivalry. I think the best thing that can happen is this series goes 7 and that the Wolves and the Spurs meet one another multiple times in the next few years to establish this is the battle of the NBA. Victor Wembenyama's polish, who some people might say, oh, it's all an act. And Anthony Edwards, very like casual. Oh, I don't give a damn about any of this stuff. And some people might say, no, he does care. I love these guys as yin and yang for one another. The next Magic and Bird.

I mean, I love that. And I think that the Wolves are the perfect team for this NBA stretch, right? Like this generation of NBA where you got the OKC Thunder that everybody loves to hate because they get all the calls. They have the, you know, the 2-time MVP. They have all the stockpile of assets and picks and they get Jeremy Cade for nothing and he's shooting 95% from 3. You have the other side of Wemby and what they're doing in San Antonio. But then you got the Wolves who only turn it on in the playoffs, and like, they are so playoff, um, experienced. They got a guy in Rudy Gobert, multiple Defensive Player of the Year. You've got Ant, who's probably one of the best 6, 7 players on the planet, right? Maybe higher. Top 5.

Top 5.

Okay, top 5. Still hasn't made an All-NBA team, which is crazy. But the point being that they're the perfect team— underdogs, villains. They're the bad guys, they're the bad boys of this Western Conference that nobody really cares about until it's time to see them in the playoffs. And then he looks around goes, oh shit, we got to play the Wolves.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, Tim Connelly and his staff have built something remarkable. Chris Finch has done a great job, and kudos to the players, obviously, that they're playing so cohesively and together. Uh, I talked to Jim Pederson yesterday, and he was just talking about kind of the, the development of guys like, uh, Jade McDaniels, from a guy who was just supposed to be a defensive guy to now we're seeing them become a real-life offensive threat. Yeah, I know we're up against the clock, but I just want to say real quick quick. I was listening to the conversation you guys had about funny people in sports. Can't believe you guys didn't include Michelle Beatle. Like, that MF-er is one of the funniest people naturally, uh, in sports media anywhere.

I mean, what did you make of Joel Embiid calling this a success after the game?

I think I understand what he's talking about. He's like, I didn't even know I was gonna play this much. Like, for him to end his season the way he did, and I'm talking about like the last few weeks of the regular season, and then obviously the first round, and then whatever little he played in the Knicks series, I, I can understand what he's talking about. It's like, yo, I, I thought like this knee thing was gonna really bother me and kind of bring me down, and instead I found that I still had that elite level in me. And so I like, I understand what he's talking about. Obviously he's not saying, oh, I'm glad we got swept in the second round, but in terms of where his expectations were and when, where he ended I can see that being a successful one.

Chris, we have less than a minute left, but can I get some of Amin's fake wemby, please?

Oh la la, I have to leave? Goodbye!

I'm surprised to hear you say you expect him to be suspended for another game.

I just don't know that you can— the video of him clearly looking at where he's swinging and then follow that up by his coach. Well, I know he's trying to defend his guy, but like, he basically confirmed Yeah, he did that on purpose. Like, there's no— you can't.

Uh, Wemby, uh, before that game had 35 blocks in 7 playoff games.

Unbelievable.

I mean, it's crazy. Uh, thank you, Amin. Good talking to you. Good seeing you again. Be careful out there, Pulitzer winner. Be careful.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Say thank you, Pulitzer Prize winner Amin. Oh la la, I have to leave? I have to leave.