Transcript of Top 10 Things Dan Le Batard Did To Piss Off ESPN | Hour 3 (feat. Amin Elhassan) New

This is the Dan Levator Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Amin El-Hassan will join us shortly. Hopefully we have time in this hour to get to Shaq's, uh, graduation stage theatrics as he trolls Barkley and graduates from LSU. And also, uh, we will get to a soccer player chugging a beer in a second as well. But Mike Ryan has been hard at work and has indeed put together a top 10 list of what he believes to be— what, what is this list, uh, uh, the angriest ESPN was personally at me the time that we were at ESPN. And you think our lists are going to be different because you often were shielding me from some of those things, so you probably have some information I don't in terms of what they were mad about. But I think my, uh, my top 10 list is going to be better than your top 10 list.

Yeah, it's the top 10 times our, our show stepped into it collectively.

All right, so it's the show entirely, not just me, right?

Yeah, some of these times are a little bit more pronounced. I kept a lot stuff away from you, but there were certain things that went right to the top of the line.

All right, well, let's see how different our lists are here. Amin, are you interested in any of this, or should we, uh, do you think that this, that you know most of this? Like, what if you had to guess here, the, the times that I or we got in trouble at ESPN, what do you think would be at the top of the list?

Dan, I'm going to echo what Mike said earlier. Our list is going to be fine. I'm interested to hear what your list is because I think you're going to have a completely different take from what all the rest of us think.

All right, let's see what we've got here. Uh, number 10, Mike, any OLI, or you going straight to number 10?

I'm going to number 10, straight to number 10.

Uh, it'd be funny if our lists are completely different. We both have top 10 lists and our lists are completely different.

Yeah, number 10 was the rare occasion where it was kept completely away from me because it was a negotiated deal point. They went right to Dan to complain about Ron McGill, and he had to fight that fight. So number 10 is Ron McGill.

Didn't make my top 10.

And they just— they didn't approve of— they didn't—

they kept fighting it. They fought it like 7 different times. They tried to get him off of our show.

And then he went on with SVP a bunch. Yeah, right.

Then everybody said—

then SportsCenter started doing mascot fights with him. Yeah.

Number 9, this one might surprise some listeners. The Looks Like Game gave us a lot of problems, particularly with the talent office over there, because the ESPN talent did not enjoy being part of the Looks Like Game. Famously, Matthew Barry, although we fixed that one, and Buster Olney never fixed that.

Never fixed it with Chris Berman either, who objected to what we said, which was he looks like a Ben Franklin wax figurine that is melting in a car that's too hot.

Number 8. This was one that was kind of kept away from Dan, and it was— it wasn't like one singular moment. I had to go to Bristol and, and talk to the NFL people over there because the NFL talent office really disliked our show. But it was a lack of education. You didn't really have anybody fighting for us on behalf of the radio division. The NFL is the straw that stirs the drink over there, and people just bowed to them. And I was able to smooth that one over, but it was hostile. Mark Brunell just made stuff up.

Really?

Just made stuff up. Yeah, I was like, did anybody care to ask if this were true or where we stood on it? He just made stuff up.

None of the things so far— hold on a second— none of the things so far are on my list, but what I remember about that story is we were calling him Baghdad Brewski because he was just doing propaganda for the Patriots, and when we got up there to ask them why they were objecting to that, they didn't understand the reference.

They didn't get the Baghdad Bob part. So a lot of departments just needed to talk and get some background information, but the thing is, the people that you would count on to explain and provide the context, they weren't listening to us either. Number 7.

Wait, what did Mark Brunell say?

Mark Brunell took exception to the questioning on our show and claimed that I didn't clear it with him ahead of time when I absolutely did. And when I found out about this and went to bat for myself, he later capitulated and said that was right. And I had this whole big thing that probably ended up contributing to our NFL Talent Office issue because they just had a lot of people say that they didn't like our show.

I mean, we— what the issue that we had is that we were asking him questions about money he had lost because it was reported in a number of places that he had lost money. And so we were just asking him about that and ran it by him.

Ran it by him. So like the NFL problems that we had over there is just one catch-all. Number 7, WEI. We were openly brawling with an important affiliate. And quite honestly, like ESPN kind of failed us here because some racist shit was being said and it felt like everyone was like, I don't know, glossing over the racism part and just trying to mend fences with the affiliate.

They wanted to deport my father.

Yeah, not ESPN's strongest moment over there. I thought that they should have came to our defense.

Not on my list either.

Wow, your list. Well, then you were never in the affiliate meetings, and like, I always had to like, you know, listen to the feedback that, uh, our main representative got from all the, uh, the affiliates. And that was one of those things that was largely—

it's not because I didn't know any of these. I know all of them. They don't make my list.

Yeah, like, you and I have different experiences. Mine, uh, like, there were certain top-line ones Number 6 is, uh, I'm not gonna name the mortgage company, but Dan got us in some trouble with a big-time sponsor, jeopardized the entirety of ESPN Radio's deal with this mortgage company. And he would tend to do that. There was a lot of sales stuff. It doesn't even like crack the top 10, but this one was really bad.

How do you jeopardize? How the hell do you do that?

Predatory loans! Oh, okay.

That's what Dan— Dan called them predators while like we were coming out of an ad read.

Not on my list.

Ah, coming out of the ad read?

Yeah, out of an ad read. He's like, you know, they do predatory loans.

And they were like, what's my— dude.

There was a— so like this chronologically, I probably— this is probably too low. This one Dan probably heard about, but it didn't feature Dan. This chronologically happened after what ended up being my number 1. But this is when I knew the goose was cooked. We had like a department meeting that was over Skype or whatever. And the guy that was in charge that was a big supporter of our fan until the political climate changed. And then everything that I was doing on the air that he once celebrated became examples of what to do that was wrong. So like he was going at— and clearly in retrospect, he was trying to reverse engineer arguments for letting us go. And, um, no, I called him out in front of everybody and I was pretty disrespectful because I already saw what was going on. So I was just going to dig my heels in and not be embarrassed like that. And I ended up embarrassing him, but it was bad. You remember that meeting?

I can't believe that our lists are totally different.

Happy trails, my friend. Oh, also there was one of the, one of these moments in this meeting was like, he was saying like, we shouldn't be leaking stuff to the media. And I was like, but I believe you are the person doing that.

Yeah.

That one didn't go over well.

Was this the meeting where I ripped my pants?

No, no, no, that was a different one.

Number 4, Rob Manfred. Number 3, better than that. Number 3, the billboards. Number 2, you're welcome, kids in cages and all the fallout from that. And then number 1, when I was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the center back and Dan lamenting that he had to have a sports tie to all the political discussions that he was having. And that was really— that was the beginning of the end. You knew that. You knew that it was pretty much over then.

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Don Lebatard!

Kermit the Frog here, live from Meadowlark Media Studios here in Miami. Stugatz! The German Germans are advancing on France in World War II.

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugads.

All right, we'll get to my list in a little bit here. We'll put that at the end here.

How many were the same?

Uh, at the top there, we've got similar lists toward the top, but I think, I think I've got 7 or 8 different than him. So, uh, we will get to my list. Remind me here before we get out of here to get to my list, but let's do, uh, now Amin's weekend observation.

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 lite. Weekend Observations is also brought to you by the people in the comments. You're awful. Dan? The 4 greatest words in sports. Care to guess?

You're right, you're right.

Close. I told you so. Everyone was gushing about Detroit. I gave you all the reasons they would lose. Too heliocentric. Turn it over too much. Not good at shooting threes, not good at converting free throws, send the opponent to the free throw line too many times. I said this in February and it happened.

Cleveland got like 44 more free throws, right, than Detroit.

They couldn't guard without fouling. It was ridiculous. And guess what? Being right is the best feeling in the world.

It's so good.

It's better than sex, because when you think about it, sex is just another way of being right. You're— I'm not gonna sleep with you. Wanna bet? And then, ah, there you have it. Every single time. By the way, the Pistons, Dan, are 30-4 when they make 12 or more threes. 30-4. That All you have to do is make 12. By the way, the league average is 13, just to keep that in mind. Donovan Mitchell, welcome to the Conference Finals! You did it! Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said the tactical adjustment the Cavs made was to avoid Asar Thompson. Quote, if he's near the ball, throw it to someone else. Detroit should have made the same adjustment on offense. Rasard's near the ball. Throw it to someone else, anyone else. Jesus. Jalen Dern was on the back of a milk carton all postseason long. Milk cartons, 20 CB. That's the 20 CB bell right there.

Have you ever seen something like that, Amin? Have you ever in your lifetime seen a player drop so much during the postseason that he's averaging 10 points a game fewer in the postseason and having 7 postseason games of under 10 points when he only had 6 of those all season.

Yeah, half of his scoring, his shooting percentage dropped, I think, 15 percentage points. Tom Habestro had the most interesting stat going into Game 6, that he didn't have a single second chance point in the entire series. This is a guy who, like, that's what you do, you rebound and you get putbacks. He didn't have a single one going into Game 6. That's pretty bad, but he's 21, 22 years old, he's got time. Winning a Pulitzer means having to explain to everyone, "Yes, I'm serious, I won the Pulitzer." Somehow I feel like Ernest Hemingway didn't have to do that one. Like, when he won, everyone was like, "Congratulations, Ernest." He doesn't say, "No, no, yeah, I actually won it. Yeah, yes. Yeah, no, I'm not sober right now, no. But yes, I did do it." The drumstick is the worst part of the chicken.

What? What?

Drumsticks is dark meat.

The worst part? You think the drumstick is the worst part of the— a chicken liver? You'd rather have a chicken liver?

Yeah, if it's prepared right. Drumsticks are for kids. It's always like, oh, look at it, it's, it's got a handle. That's all it is. It's like cartoons taught us the drumsticks are cool, but it's not really a cool part of the chicken.

Dark meat's gross.

Well, I'm not gonna do that.

I'm just gonna say put it on the poll at Le Batard Show: is dark meat gross?

OKC could have hired me to do a singing telegram for Phoenix and LA, and that still would have been a more arduous route to the conference finals for them. Shout out to the guy behind the Cavs bench in the Satoshi t-shirt. Got an image coming up here. Where's Scottie Pippen and Tyrese Gibson when you need them? You guys listen to that episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out?

Evidently not.

You guys know who Satoshi is? I should start there. You guys know who Satoshi is?

A better question, but you're getting nothing but blank stares from the entirety of the room. I know, but why don't you explain it to Chris Cody.

I love that bit. Uh, Satoshi is the character who's supposed to be responsible for creating Bitcoin, a Japanese gentleman. Except a lot of the news reports over the last month or so have been he's not Japanese, uh, he's not even a real person. This white guy created this character Satoshi to be the inventor of Bitcoin, uh, but Scottie Pippen As Pablo Torre found out, along with myself and Wyatt, uh, Scottie Pippen claimed that he met Satoshi in Seattle. Scottie Pippen has been a huge Bitcoin crypto guy, and Scottie Pippen has created an AI basketball to kind of praise Bitcoin while also, you know, take Michael Jordan down a couple of pegs. It's kind of— it's weird. You got to listen to the episode. It's amazing. Zazz, what up? Talks like Fozzie Bear. It took me years of trying to place it, like, it sounds so familiar, that whole talking like this, and I finally— it hit me, it's Fozzie. That's how Fozzie talks. Waka waka waka waka.

Wow.

Hey, we're gonna go to the playoffs. Am I Posse or am I Zass? I don't know.

If you think that's me, you gotta work on that.

Gotta work on that. Waka waka. Just start adding— hey, looks like him too.

He also got to get to that hat.

Yeah, gotta be that head. Wemby said we almost swept OKC. Dominated 3 times with their real team. God, this guy's great for basketball. Bulletin board material, Dan.

What do you think's gonna happen there?

I think the Thunder are gonna destroy them. Whoa!

Yeah, that's how it's done, Zazz.

But I don't believe that.

Okay, but you could have said it the other way and said it would have been hard.

Yeah. Gina Carano barely lasted longer than I did on American Ninja Warrior. Barely. What'd she do in her training? Just lose weight? Was that all she trained on?

You got a million bucks to lose weight, what do you— what else do you want?

Barely lasted. I had this patino in that restaurant.

Maybe you practice, I don't know, fighting? I'm part of that. It's like she just went on Weight Watchers and that was it. President Trump posted an AI image of him walking down an airstrip with an unusually jacked alien. Tell me you've never met Giannis. That tell me you've never met Giannis. Way too short.

That's definitely what aliens look like.

Seriously, the best part about that AI-generated image— throw it back up, please— is in order for it to be made, someone had to put in a pretty specific prompt. I'd love to see the prompt that produced that image. Uh, okay, I want Donald Trump walking next to an alien. Uh, give me some Secret Service guys, maybe a military guy in the background. All right, make the alien hot as fuck. Make him hotter.

Alien's head's big.

Hotter, hotter. Like, he has to be the sexiest alien imaginable where the second you see him, you want to rip his clothes off. Matter of fact, what clothes? Give him no clothes. Take away the clothes.

Also, make sure none of the chains connect when he's shackled up walking down. Make sure none of them actually connect.

It's not shackles, it's more like a pocket watch that he's got.

It's jewelry. That's alien jewelry. Come on, Mike, they're cool. I watched Project, uh, Hail Mary this weekend. They're different. They're not like us.

What a movie.

I was surprised. I was pretty surprised.

It's got great reviews. Everyone loves it. Everyone does.

I, I thought it was going to be some shmarmy, like, feel-good movie, and it was like—

did they make you love a rock? Did you fall in love with a rock that, uh, the alien is the form of a sponge of some sort?

Yeah, give it all away, Dan. Good job.

What's that?

Here's the science.

Give away anything? I didn't give anything away.

Bar Rescue podcast hosted by real-life bar and restaurant consultant Chelsea Reynolds, commercial kitchen and food truck veteran Colin Cassard, And two guys who might use AI to generate an open bar. That's Zach Harper and Pulitzer Prize-winning Amin El-Hassan. Wherever you get podcasts. The Step Backs. Speaking of podcasts. The look back at LeBron's incredible career. Also catnip for the worst people on the internet to comment. One guy said, LeBron didn't exceed my expectations. Motherfucker what? Like, you can be like, I don't think he's the GOAT.

I—

that's not what the podcast is about. But to sit here and say, yeah, this is pretty much what I expected when he was coming out of high school, you're full of shit. Miles Turner, now that's how you get traded. Oh my God, masterclass. You guys see this? You guys know what?

Yeah, he said, among other things, that Giannis was the one who was always late, showed up when he want, and sometimes the plane would wait for an hour for him.

Yeah, and that Doc never find anybody. Anybody. That's incredible. Rory McIlroy mad he got hecklers after he choked on the 16th hole. Grow up. Golf not a sport. Taylor Twelman. Gimme a break. Messi play. Oh my God. Oh, the World Cup better watch out. Shut up. You guys spent 25 minutes talking about why doesn't Messi love the fans. You had me pining for the Jay Feely rushing quarterback conversation.

Fiedler.

You wanna know why Messi doesn't love the fans? Because he doesn't respect them. Because this whole thing is an inconvenience to him. You know who didn't do that? Pelé. Actual GOAT who was doing that stuff at 17 in a World Cup, not in the MLS as an old man. Maradona wouldn't have done that either. He was too busy snorting up the Amalfi Coast. Imagine Maradona in Miami playing for the— for Miami. See? Oh my God, it's Miami. Oh, you'd never see him. He'd show up like right as they're kicking off. He'd be in the crowd with the fans. How about that? You win, YouTube. I'm finally capitulating on YouTube Premium. These ads are literal hell. Trying to watch a live press conference, and right as the coach is going to say something really important, I get an ad for Claude AI. Like, enough. You win. I'll do it. I'll shell out the money. Anything to make those damn ads stop. Speaking of hell, What the hell was Sidano doing here? Get that image.

Yeah.

And I've already done the experience. He didn't have a shirt on under that robe. That's commitment to the bit. You can have our Bryles. Those are the weekend observations.

Don Lebatard, you getting started on the breakfast flan?

Oh man, I've been singing a song to myself all morning long. Breakfast flan.

Stugatz.

Have you never heard the breakfast flan song?

No, hit me with it.

Okay! I wish I had some breakfast flan— da-da-da-dah dah-deh deh-duh Breakfast Flan... Da-da-da-da duh-duh deh-duh Where can I find no breakfast like that?

Dah-na-ta ta da-da-da-da-duh-duh This is The Don Levatar Show With Stu Gatz!

I've got a number of basketball things that I want to ask. Let's just start out by asking you: start with the Miles Turner commentary. What other— it was, it was fairly shocking to see that out in public. So your thoughts there beyond Miles Turner trying to get traded or what?

So I talked about this on Basketball Illuminati, or actually, no, I didn't. I talked about this on SiriusXM Radio the other day. One day I'm going to write my memoirs about my life in the NBA, and the name of the book— I've known this for about 15 years now— the name of the book is going to be What Time Is the 1:00 Bus? Like, this is a very, very normal thing in the NBA. The idea that like, hey, what time is 1 o'clock bus? It sounds like a dumb question. Like, well, it's in the question, it's 1 o'clock. No, no, it's not a dumb question. It's actually a very prescient question that understands the dynamics of NBA locker rooms, which is we can say the bus is 1 o'clock, it's not leaving at 1 o'clock. It's leaving when— whenever our most important people are on it, are, are there. And so What Miles Turner was explaining in general is not a shocking thing at all. Now, an hour and a half holding the plane, that's shocking. And the most shocking part is that the Doc Rivers didn't find anybody. So it's one thing for Giannis to be late and not get disciplined for it because it's Giannis.

We, we all revolve around him. But you're telling me like Ryan Rollins and KPJ and those guys could show up late and they weren't getting fined either? That's nuts. I'm not saying that they did. I'm just saying the way Miles Turner made it seem, nobody on the roster was held accountable to punctuality. And that, that is not the norm in the NBA.

Is your reason for thinking OKC is going to smoke the Spurs simply that the Spurs don't have playoff experience, or is that the top of your list on reasons?

Yeah, that, that's the top of the list for sure. I think the, the OKC that we've been marveling at has been a lesser product We just got the news yesterday that Jalen Williams will be playing in Game 1, so I think that changes things dramatically. I think their depth goes deeper than any team in the playoffs, uh, and certainly the Spurs. The Spurs are going to hit a point where it's like, I can't play these guys. These guys who I've been able to play in these first 2 rounds are not going to be playable against an Oklahoma City team. And I think, like, as much as I love Wemby coming out and saying all those things, yeah, those guys are pretty proud over there, and saying that to a team that has the reigning MVP, now 2-time MVP, and the reigning champs, they're going to come out with something to prove tomorrow— tonight.

I have some difficulty with the historical context that we're about to have for SGA. Back-to-back MVPs. There have only been 14 of those back-to-back MVPs before the age of 28. That's only LeBron and Kareem. All-time, all-timers. Is SGA that? Is SGA going to finish this as one of the top 5 players in basketball history? Because the trajectory right now suggests he is.

He's an incredible player. I mean, that's all it comes down to really when you talk about all-time, all-timers, is can you keep doing this, right? And there's 2 reasons why someone could not keep doing whatever it is the thing they're doing. Reason number 1 is, oh, it was just the perfect situation and you're going to get somewhere else and then you're not going to play as well and you'll never reach that peak again. We don't think that's going to happen in Oklahoma City. The way their, their checking account, their saving account is set up is like, this thing is going to be going on for a while. Whether they win championships or not is irrelevant. They're going to be great, and it's a great system for him, and he's going to continue to be great. The other reason is you got hurt. Injuries robbed you of the best years of your life. So far he's been a very durable player. You know, you knock on wood and you cross your fingers and you hope that that continues. But yes, Dan, he's on that trajectory. He still has to do it though. We can't give him We can't give him the grade, the A grade, before he's taken the final, and he's still relatively early in his career.

I mean, did not agree with our assessment last week that if you put Donovan Mitchell where SGA is, he would get the championship and he would get the MVP. His reasoning was that, uh, SGA is a tall guard and can do things, many things that Mitchell can't. How many players do you believe that I could take and just put in SGA's position and get the exact same result. Name the players that I can do that with.

So, so part of the problem with this conversation then is it assumes like a plug and play where it's like, if I can just get someone to do this, this and this, yeah, it'll be— it'll run the same. Big part of Oklahoma City's greatness is their togetherness, how tight-knit they are as a group. And that starts with him. He is a very inclusive guy. He's the guy that, hey, when I do my interviews, with Prime or whoever, everyone, the team's behind me, the team's with me. You saw that he got his guys all Burberry trench coats and, you know, all types of gifts and stuff. Like, he's a very unique guy in that way. And I think that spirit speaks to the kind of team they have and that helps them in their greatness. So you got to start there with just his intangibles. I don't know if anyone can replicate that. Then you talk about basketball-wise. Maybe Anthony Edwards. I don't know if his personality is quite the same. I think his personality is a lot closer to that of what you see in Minnesota, kind of a more rugged guy. I don't know, but I trust him, I guess, to be the kind of guy who could be able to do that.

But again, I don't think Anthony Edwards is as good of a passer and playmaker as Shai is. So there's a drop-off there. Uh, I mean, think about some of the other guys. Giannis, obviously such an interior-based game. Uh, it takes away from the things SGA does so well, which is in the mid-range and obviously getting to the free throw line and converting there. Uh, I mean, you can name players. Jalen Brunson, too small. Um, like, we go down the list. So nobody—

so nobody— you're saying nobody? If you say no to Anthony Edwards, you're saying no to everybody?

Yeah, I, I think, like, the way it is, he's pretty much the only—

Luca couldn't do it?

Works that way? No, not a good defender. Like, Shay's an excellent defensive player. These are the things that we don't mention because we're too busy pouring into the narrative, like, oh my God, he's a flopper. Like, no, no, you're not watching him. You're not watching him for real, what he's doing on both sides of the ball. He's such a high-level defensive player that Luka can never replicate that level of defense. And then also, again, going back to the intangibles, Luka does not— Luka does not have that kind of effect on his teammates. He does not have that kind of spirit and joy. He's kind of a scowling guy, which works for him. That's not to say that he'll never win because of that. Or that can't work. It's just to say what's happening in Oklahoma City is a very specific brand of positivity that, that Luka does not bring, I don't think.

I mean, historically in the NBA, Game 7, so difficult to win on the road. It's been like 80-something percent for the home team historically. But over the last like 5, 6 years, I think since COVID that— not that the road team is winning more than the home team, but It's become a lot more common for the road team to win Game 7 like we saw last night. Any explanation for that?

Yeah, I mean, I think there are a couple of things. Number one, obviously the 3-point shot has such variance on it. If you make 3s and the other team doesn't, that can be it. And, and we know that 3-point defense is more about limiting attempts and not limiting percentage because teams pretty much make what they make in a game. Sometimes you make all your shots, sometimes you miss them all. And we can't call it, or unless you're the Orlando Magic and you had no business taking those shots to begin with. But, you know, the reality is because of that variance, we're gonna get more wild, uh, results, more wild outcomes. I think that's why also some of these blowouts are happening is because of the variance in 3-point makes.

I mean, we've got a potentially historic series, and going into the future, a series that we might see 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 years down the road. Um, what's the keys tonight? There's a lot of chess being played defensively to try and stop Wemby. What's the most important keys tonight for the, uh, for the San Antonio Spurs?

Well, I think for, for certain, the farther out that Wemby catches the ball, the less impactful he is. And luckily for them, he's seduced sometimes by that, by the ability to take and make threes. Well, he'll hang around the perimeter. The more they can get— keep him from the paint offensively, I think the better for them. And then the— on the flip side, the same thing. How can we draw him away from the rim? We know there's an absolute Wemby effect, that he just is there. Teams don't drive as much, they don't get to the rim, they, they choose other alternatives. So what they have to do is either get him off the floor through foul trouble or whatever, or pull him out. That means Chet's got to be making threes, and Chet's been a streaky guy. He can make a lot and he can miss a lot, but he's got to be out there. Him and Jalen Williams, the other Jalen Williams, have to be able to draw Wemby out of the paint.

Obviously the game is 3 and baskets at the hoop. The mid-range game has kind of been left to basically SGA and maybe a little bit of Jaylen Brunson, but can that be used as a weapon for, for Oklahoma City to use that mid-range game where Wemby has to decide, all right, am I gonna just play up on the perimeter or I'm gonna be back behind and make sure that, that the rim is defended? Is that the way that they can beat him?

Yeah, I mean, I, I think look, Shay, and, and every great player, every great player has mid-range in their game. Shay and Jalen Brunson probably more so than anybody else. But yeah, that's the soft spot, right? And the reason we, we discourage mid-range shots— I have to explain this every time— I'm never discouraging it from my stars. You can take whatever shot you want, man. If it's— if you're open, that's a good shot, it's a good shot, right? We're discouraging our role players. I don't want to see Jalen Williams, the tall Jalen Williams, shooting mid-range. I don't, I don't want to see Alex Caruso in the mid-range, right? Because the idea is that if they're there, that means the defense is contracted, and that means they can sit in everybody's lap, and it just makes things more difficult for Shea and short Jalen Williams, uh, to be able to do what they want to do. So in essence, like, that there— they— when people say, oh, the mid-range is a bad shot— oh no, it's a bad shot for you. It's not a bad shot for that guy. And we want that guy to be able to get his shots whenever he wants.

I actually just looked it up. Game 7s since 2021, the road team 11-9.

Yeah, it's changed that. A lot of stuff has changed about the league with the 3-pointer. I've got a number of questions, so let's do this as quickly as we can here. Let's play. Uh, Amin is a giant Shaquille O'Neal supporter, one of the biggest anywhere in the country. Let's play the video of Shaq graduating. Shaquille, I hate Charles Barkley O'Neal. So the rest of this is just cheering here. Uh, I mean, did you see this? How did you, uh, how did, uh, this was great. It was nice to see Shaq kind of happy and just trolling Charles. Uh, not a lot of relationships like that one in sports television.

Yeah, if Draymond Green did that, we'd have like a 4-hour think piece about it, right? And that's, and that's the point of humor, right? Sometimes it's not that the joke was bad, it's just who's delivering the joke. Where— like, what place of privilege do you have to deliver that joke? Clearly, we all know that Shaq is fooling around. He's just teasing, and Charles won't take it any which way. But like, that was the point of the whole Draymond Green thing. It wasn't that he said something so disrespectful, just like, ah, I don't know if you're comfortable enough with those guys to be able to attempt something like that. But when it comes to Shaq, all I'm wondering is, this is like his third graduate degree. When does he have time to do all this work? He's got a doctorate from Barry. He's got a master's from LSU.

Like, he's got another one from somewhere else.

He's a sheriff.

When does—

and he's a DJ, and he does Inside the NBA. When does he have time to do all of it?

Your thought on the Prime people being mad at Shams for breaking the MVP story 10 hours early?

Yeah, I mean, Mike mentioned it earlier. Yeah, it was contractually one of the deal points in the deal, in the broadcast deal. Hey, we get to announce this in the same way that, hey, NBC gets to announce the All-Star Reserves right now. The problem with that is it involves an ecosystem where everyone is cooperating and is mindful of those deal points. But the reality is Shams owes nothing to Prime. He owes nothing.

They're competitors. They're competitors now.

Yeah, they're not. They are and they aren't. It's just weird. It's kind of like they're not partners.

ESPN and Prime are not partners.

They are in a kind of quasi— it's like two people who may not be friends, but they have the same best friend. And so because of that, they all have to hang out together. And so it can be awkward in that way. But in that same situation, the guy who's the mutual, it's incumbent on him to make sure everybody behaves. You can't be like, hey, that's between y'all, which is pretty much what the NBA has done. It's like it has not regulated these sort of things, not since Commissioner Stern was in charge. Where we had embargoes on news breaking. Like, hey, you can't announce that you hired a new coach right before the NBA Finals. Sorry. Like, you got to wait until the NBA Finals are over and then you, Indiana or Detroit, whatever, can, can mention your new coach. But that's not how that works. But if there's that guy, the mutual, the NBA, Adam Silver, if he's not policing that, then ESPN has no responsibility. And ipso facto, Shams has no responsibility.

Stephen A has responded to Jaylen Brown. He says, quote, Jaylen Brown, be careful what you wish for. You really want me to start reporting on that level locker room, how the organization might think about you, how the city might feel about you, how Jason Tatum may or may not feel about you. Tony, you were listening to Stephen A here. What did he do to, to Jaylen Brown?

That was, that was an incredible dismount. That wasn't even the meat of it. He went and talked for like 5 minutes about all these different things, giving him praise, but telling him like, You think that this is all good? Like, you go out the day after you guys lose and you talk about how that was your favorite season? All I was telling you was we don't want to hear from you right now. And then he ended with that beautiful point. It was like vintage Stephen A crossover behind the back, another crossover, Texas two-step, and finished up with a jelly.

Did he, did he do the quiet voice?

He did for a second. That, that, that quote was done in a bit of a quiet voice.

I'll tell you what Stephen A didn't do. Retire.

I mean, what are your thoughts on this back and forth?

Yeah, I mean, like what Jaylen Brown said was accurate. It's like, hey, you guys keep saying, hey, do your job. Talking to the media is my job. That is part of my job. I get fined if I don't do it. So I thought he was right on that. But like, I can't remember who said it earlier, but I think he's got a fundamental— like a lot of people— fundamental misunderstanding. What part is journalism? What part isn't? Right. What Stephen A. Smith does on First Take is objectively not journalism. Right. And when he says, oh, the people covering our sport— is First Take covering the NBA? I don't think of them as covering anything. I think of them as just getting together and having barbershop conversations. And that's what they do.

See you later, I mean, thank you for being on with us. Speaking of part of the job— thank you, Pulitzer Prize-winning I mean, a part of the job is to speak to the media. The Vegas Golden Knights, led by Tortorella, have been fined a second-round pick for freezing out the media.

This is the United States of America. It ain't the United States of Tortorella.