Transcript of Bam Adebayo Behind LeBron's Stunning Heat Decision? Kawahi Is Back...? | Hour 3

You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App, now live in all 50 states. To be clear, just putting a punctuation on the salary cap conversation, when I'm saying to you without a salary cap what I want from my management group, I want them to be better than everybody else because it doesn't matter how much money they have, whether they're down or not down. I don't want all of these groups to have socialism and a baseline mediocrity where the executives don't have to be better than anybody. It's just all equalized for them so that, you know, Steve Cohen can't make owner over here rich because he got the toy. He gets to show off Juan Soto at the parties instead of some other owner who wanted to be able to show off Juan Soto at the party.

But no teams end up winning when their front office is stupid. Like, we just saw the New York Knicks finally have become a respectable franchise.

Man, I saw the Cavs win a title. Get out of here. Like, the Cavs won a title. The Cavs won a title. All they did was everything wrong and then get LeBron back.

I think, not just because the World Cup's going on, I think you can look to soccer and find innovative ways that these smaller clubs, perceived mid-table and feeder clubs, have operated, have been forced to become resourceful because Soccer, no salary cap. There are FIFA, FIFA Financial Fair Play rules that are constantly bent by the, the top-end clubs. But Chelsea spent a ton of money. They did not make Champions League. A team like Bournemouth outperformed them this year. We've had Leicester City win a championship. Borussia Dortmund made it to a Champions League final. And yes, it's a bigger club, but it's not Bayern Munich. They made it to a Champions League final. Why? Because their scouting network found Erling Haaland. Jude Bellingham beforehand. So it has made teams more resourceful and really pour into analytics, and it's actually made for a very interesting dynamic because while the resources are pumping into the bigger clubs, uh, more than ever right now, you're also seeing the mid-table ascend and benefit from revenue sharing.

So there's no kind of draft over there, you just get to recruit players?

You find a player, your academy goes out and finds a player, identifies a player, develops that player, you get those discovery rights, and it's a business model. It's a business model. It's what I hope will eventually come to American sports.

It'll never happen. We have a lot of things to get to before we run out of time today. Okay. And apart from the show proper, we've got a couple of things that normally exist over these 3 live hours that are going to be postgame and after postgame. So we've got Pitch Clock, we've got Good Follow. You also have a bit of content that's floating around out there. That is me interviewing an anonymous wrestler who's a whistleblower and told Tyler Herro Retire Ho. That's floating out there as well. And, and we will get Morally Abhorrent will be the postgame today. So a lot of bonus show in a lot of different places. And also Tony's about to leave because he's headed to go see if he can talk to Giannis and Bobby Portis. But I think there's a problem in that these guys are doing a lot of media today. And I heard Zazz grumbling because he—

I think that Dan, I'm sitting at the table out there, you know, we're doing production stuff. I'm finishing my bagel, Tony's finishing— Tony gets a huge plate every morning for breakfast. If you're wondering all the money that's being spent here at breakfast, Tony has one of everything every morning. Okay, whatever. What? Yeah, I look at your plate, you got everything. I got a little bit of egg, a little bit of bacon, and a little bit of potato.

What's wrong with that?

Sausage?

No.

Yes.

Not today.

Not today.

Anyway. He's finishing his plate, I'm finishing my bagel, alright, and I say, yo, I'm getting Bobby Portis today on Zaslo Show 2.0, and he says, yeah, yeah, I'm getting Bobby Portis too, I'm going to the arena, I go, okay, cool, what time? He goes, 2 o'clock, I go, I'm scheduled for 2 o'clock.

We're both scheduled for 2 o'clock, guess who's gonna get him?

Me!

Me!

Me!

I'm gonna be in person.

I was a broadcaster for the Miami Heat radio network for 12 years. What have you done for me lately, Eddie? I'm a two— You've done nothing ever for them.

What are you talking about?

I was just at Heat camp.

You're insane.

You're nuts, man.

It's true.

I have 2 championship rings.

I'm a champion broadcast.

I'm trying to bring more championships over there. He was a proud member of the Junior Heat.

Okay, we'll see. We'll see. I'm going to get him. They're going to give him to me before you. No, you can't. And you know what? It's going to be extra insulting for you because you're actually going to be there in person. I don't need to go in person. I'm going to be right here and they're going to call me on a stream, on a video link. And they're going to give him to me before you. You know what? He's going to be on video with me. You're going to be standing next to him waiting.

If that happens, I'm going to derail the interview.

That's what's going to happen.

I'm going to derail the interview.

I dare you to do that.

Neither of you are going to get him if I ask for him.

Oh, no, but you're going to be here.

Who cares?

If we're being honest here, since, since you joined the broadcast team, no winning. Okay, so I don't know.

They went to the finals my very first season.

Again, no winning.

You were an ancillary piece.

No winning.

They hoisted babies because of you.

You're an ancillary piece.

Babies.

So I don't know what you're bragging about.

You were behind Hewitt on the depth chart.

Okay, Hewitt. I only got to do it because Kirsten Hewitt left.

Do it, Hewitt.

Do it, Hewitt.

What do you think is going to be the end result here, Mike?

Because I told you, wasn't predicting—

it's gonna be like Zazzle's gonna get pushed back. I don't think any of us get them. That would be a big surprise because they told me I got them.

I will 1000% have them on Zazzle Show 2.0 today.

They can't be happy that we talked to the guy with the wrestling mask, right? Like, that's— they want all of this to go away. They don't want people asking about this. This today. I saw that Bam was at the ESPYs yesterday, a star-studded affair. Was that at Madison Square Garden? Did they do that at Madison Square Garden last night? Because they had a lot of celebrities there. And the reason I bring up Madison Square Garden is that I also heard that Bon Jovi was in the middle of a 9-show extravaganza at Madison Square Garden.

The Lincoln Center.

Okay. And so, okay, it was a Madison Square Garden joke that they then made. I guess that was—

it's Will Ferrell.

Yeah, Will Ferrell said that, but I guess he was joking. The when I thought of— it was confusing to me because Bon Jovi doing a 9-night tour in MSG. How many other bands slash artists can do 9 nights? I know Billy Joel does like once a month.

Harry Styles and Billy Joel had residencies at that arena.

So, but the 9, I did not think that there were very many rock bands anymore. I know Taylor Swift could probably do a month straight of shows, but I was not aware that there are very many rock bands anymore that endure power in a way that could do 9 straight nights at Madison Square Garden and fill it out every night? What's that list of musicians, modern musicians? How many are on it? How many?

I mean, I saw Rage Against the Machine a few years ago at MSG. It was the 3rd of 3 straight nights at MSG.

So if I ask you guys for a number, like if you guys thought just all acts in the world, obviously Bad Bunny could do something like that.

Fish can do it.

Fish.

Yeah.

And it doesn't necessarily have to be Fish. Yeah. Fish can—

Fish could do as many nights there.

Anything that's Grateful Dead adjacent. But you could look to the Sphere and you could see some acts that have had that juice. Backstreet Boys have proven that even today they can pack a house with a residency deal. No Doubt presently has a residency.

So you're not surprised that Bon Jovi still has the clout to do 9 straight nights in New York?

No, I'm not surprised.

Not surprised. It's the building. The building. He's not gonna do 9 straight nights at State Farm Arena, you know, but MSG is also part of the attraction.

I'll give you a name right now. There's an artist named Noah Khan who I just went to see recently. He sold out stadiums. He sold out 4 straight nights at Fenway Park. Yeah, 4 straight nights.

He's the first artist ever to do it, and you've never heard of proper Chelsea fan.

Uh, but that's, that's half as much like that, or half as many nights in a row. What's the number if I, if I said over-under number of music acts going today that could do—

I mean, Stones can do it.

The Rolling Stones could still do it, right?

Stones can do it.

Everybody better start playing the game. Nothing's good enough for me. Pearl Jam. No, I just— I want someone to give me a number. But it won't be good enough for me. Well, but give me one so it cannot be good enough. And I can do several. No, but give— no, I'm asking for a number. I'm asking for a dozen.

I'd say a dozen.

Thank you.

More than a dozen.

You're welcome. We can move on. I want to tell him he's wrong so bad. You haven't given me a number to say that you're wrong. Yeah, but I would have said he was wrong. But you haven't given me the number to give me the pleasure of being able to say. Just tell him he's wrong. You are gonna be wrong, but give me the pleasure I want. You haven't been the same since you ejaculated from your 3 penises. Dozen's a bad answer. That seems low. Ask Roy. Impress him on it.

8.

That's exactly the correct number. Way to go, Roy! You did it correctly.

8.

Let's go!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, ask Mike about climate change and why it's his fault. That's a bit that you were doing that I was ignoring during the break, but go ahead, do it now. I was trying— I was trying to ignore it while talking to Zazz.

Yeah, I'm sure you're super pumped, uh, you know, on the heels of what I thought was a strange segment for me personally where I wasn't able to to come up with a fix for climate change, nor was I able to find out when it started. But, Dan, I know you're super pumped about this. You're going to text all your environment friends.

I just didn't have enough time to give you the answer.

Yeah. Oh yeah. I appreciated the setup there too. Your climate change group chat's going to love this. The World Cup final is going to be impacted by climate change. Wildfires in Canada mean poor air quality in New York, New Jersey stadium. How pumped are you? And how badly will I disappoint you that I don't have an answer for it?

I don't know why it is that you think I'm pumped, or I was thinking about this the other day, as I'm horrified by hearing the stories and reading the stories of climate scientists who are learning how to hunt and fish and moving to the Northeast because they know the horrors that are headed this way.

They're moving to the Northeast to try and hunt? I got bad news for them. They're going the wrong way.

So I am obviously concerned and have never rooted harder to be wrong about we're ignoring the crisis of our lifetime.

Die, we're all gonna die.

You think I want to be right? Like, as, as fire fills the sky, you think me, me of all people, me of all people who my father taught me how to fix nothing— my father only taught me how to get friends who can fix things— you think I want to be floating with my dog on a raft because we're flooded and fire fills the sky? Because I'm going to be floating around going, I was right, I warned you I told you that it was gonna be apocalyptic, uh, uh, you know, equal parts you're right and everyone else is wrong. I told you guys these were going to be extinction-level events, and then the gurgling sound of me drowning while my face is on fire.

You'll be happy to know that I do have a solution before the climate change that is going to impact the World Cup final: longer halftime. It's going to be reportedly up to 30-minute halftime. Do you know why?

Is it because it's too damn hot and inhumane to play because of the fire and you got to be able to breathe?

No, it's because of Madonna and Justin Bieber and BTS and Shakira. You know about that "Dai Dai"? It's a song of the summer. Do you know that if you translate "Dai Dai," she just keeps saying "let's go," but it's in all sorts of languages? "Dai dai," I believe, is Italian. "Idol," that's Japanese. "Dale," That's let's go. Ale, that's let's go. And then she finishes it with just saying, let's go. She says, let's go, let's go, let's go all the time. That's what die die is.

You believe I will be happy when fire fills the sky and people are coughing on the ground?

Yes, I've never been more sure.

100%. You would rather die being right than live being wrong.

That's a great t-shirt. It reminds me of what my father used to say. I'd rather die a coward than live a hero. Oh no, I'm sorry, live—

dying a coward's worst case scenario.

Yeah, yeah.

What are you doing there?

He'd rather live as a coward than die a hero is what my father used to say. Uh, let's do—

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This is my favorite week of the summer sports calendar. The tournament is down to its final matches. Baseball's on every night. The left turns are turning. And every group chat starts with the same question: "What are we watching?" This is the time of year where my TV barely gets a break and I find myself reaching for that beautiful white can of ice-cold Miller Lite. And I'm gonna invite the boys over, no doubt. And everybody knows about the Miller Time MVP. Every group has one. The person that gets there early, saves a table, that's an MVP. The person who brings a cooler, extra ice, and enough Miller Lite for everybody, MVP. The person who makes sure nobody watches the biggest match of the summer alone. That's a Miller Time MVP. Holy cow, folks, just realized this. I'm a Miller Time MVP. Legendary moments start with a Miller Lite, and they're made even better by a Miller Time MVP such as moi. We all have that one friend who makes every game better. Now it's time to give them their moment. Head over to any of Miller Lite's social media pages to learn more about being a Miller Time MVP.

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Dan Levitar. Put a finger in there, but if you tell anyone, I'll deny it.

Mike Ryan.

Don't just stare at it, eat it. This is the Dan Levitar Show. Let's do Gasbag of the Week. Roy, what is it that needs context here on who's speaking and who is the Gasbag of the Week?

All right, so Steve Yzerman, uh, stepped down as general manager and executive vice president of the Detroit Red Wings. Having problems up there. Dylan Larkin wants to be traded. So, uh, a sports fan called into a Detroit radio station and gave his theory about why, uh, he's been so bad as general manager.

Tim is next on 97.1. Hello, Tim.

There was a clip a few years back on TNT where they were interviewing Iserman in between periods, and he basically said without saying, he, you know, he smokes a nice one, you know, every once in a while to relax. Do you think maybe, maybe he was on that lettuce a little too much? He was a little too passive, perhaps.

What?

What, think that they're high?

You think that was a factor?

No. What? Do we think that Steve Eisenman struggled because he's a pothead?

Is that what you just asked us?

No, no, I don't.

And did he admit that? I have no idea.

I feel like if he admitted that, are you on the devil's lettuce?

Are you the pothead? What? All right, well, there's that.

No.

Gas bag of the week.

Does that deserve applause?

I love radio remotes. Birds chirping in the background, the soft sounds of you adjusting your headphones.

Are you on the devil's lettuce?

The fact that that's probably a car dealership. Oh, that's hot. I like that. I'm an audiophile.

Down at Potomac Mazda.

So is Roy.

Roy, Roy, uh, Roy is— I don't know what that look is on Roy's face, but it looked a bit like old girlfriend, uh, longing. She was a real hellcat.

Like, yeah, yeah, real tomcat. Yeah, I love that. Oh, hey Gary, Gary Abarth, my return is a little too loud. Gary Abarth. Oh man, where's Trey? Oh yeah, what's the ISCN settings? Somebody G.722.

I, I got this joke too.

We got a backup coupler. Hell yeah, G.722. That's a good call by you.

Gary Abar, Jeremy, was the most competent of all of the engineering and audio help that we had. But that particular sound that Roy just played that made him both nostalgic and longing in a way that is weird. There's a little nature in there, but what you really hear there that is making Roy laugh, and it's what Zazz is appreciating here as well, Rare is it that you get the sound of what it sounds like on the very lowest rung of the show business ladder. And this is below that. Like, so what you got the lowest rung of the show business ladder and then you've got where you plant the ladder underneath that. And then underneath that, then the car people coming by and you got, you're surrounded by used car salesmen and Ed Williamson is up your ass.

Just 500 duet signing. Tax tagging time. We got a bounce house here for the kids. The cookies are warm and the coffee is hotter.

My father would show up at those when we weren't doing the remotes just to have like the pigs in a blanket that have been there since Wednesday on a tray where, you know, Julio the sad car dealer guy who's finishing 9th place that just out of the bonus that week is sniffing around as you're talking about Lusaka Polite.

Got Defoe in the corner asking trivia questions at JM Lexus about the 1970s Knicks. I love it.

That's where we started right there. Gary Abar is the height of the professionalism. I don't know why they put— I don't know why they did that. Look, people in Gary Abar's position in my history in this business, every last one of them has been insane. Gary Abar is the only sane one.

He's a beacon.

He was the only guy. That guy was a lighthouse. That guy, whenever that sound was happening, Gary, the birds are too loud. I wasn't expecting those at the car dealership. Also, there's an alligator in lot 3 because we're in the Everglades.

Ed Morse, of course.

All right, Dan, I'm gonna go get Bobby Portis.

No, no, no, your appointment starts at 2 o'clock.

No, I'm getting there at 11:30.

Doors open 11:30.

I'm gonna be there right now. You know what? That's just more time you're gonna be standing around and waiting because you're gonna be standing next to Bobby Portis, uh, waiting.

I'm getting ready to sign. I'm getting ready to sign. Bobby Portis! Bobby Portis! Somebody cut that for me.

Never happened. How dare you? How dare you?

The sheer panic when an ISDN dropped, which they always did. Always.

They always did.

Gotta have that backup Comrex. Comrex.

Codec.

I have a backup codec.

It is hard to fathom how far we've come. It started there.

Now I can just join a show from my phone.

It's— that's ground zero of like the lowest point in all of our lives, all of us together.

Well, easy, you did interview a luchador about Tyler Herro's DMs.

That is true.

What has become of that? Is the internet laughing at just the absurdity of the idea that we platformed the ridiculousness of a fight that started with someone saying to Tyler Herro in his mid-20s to retire, ho?

The amount of This League tweets that I saw based off of this interview yesterday. I mean, so it ended up on Bleacher Report. It ended up aggregated by all of these different people. And my algorithm was just full of people making jokes about how insane it was. They weren't even commenting on the, on the substance of it, but they were looking at a man in a gold mask on his face with a distorted voice telling us about DMs.

I have to salute that troll because my idea for that segment, I thought the funniest form of that segment would have would have been to treat it the way that Pablo Torre finds out treated all of his Aspiration guests, where we were doing the pixelation and we were doing the voice changing. But what he got as a mask is better than anything I could have invented in my imagination. Like, if we had shipped him something, it wouldn't have been as funny as whatever it is that he chose to protect his anonymity there.

I pitched him on, like, just throwing a sheet or a blanket over himself,, and he messaged me back just holding that mask in his hand, and he said, "Is this good?" And I said, "That is perfect." It's performance art.

We're out here at Bet Boys. Adrian's out here with the Ticket Chicks. He's got Fish Tank tickets to watch the Expos. They're in town for 3.

Uh, is that a live call-in that you're doing from there?

Hey, it's Mike Ryan. I'm here at Tire Kingdom. They got a 2-for-1 special, and we got Globetrotter tickets.

Come on out.

Ticket Chicks are here.

Have we been doing this long enough that that's a call that you would have to be making that wouldn't be on a cell phone? Because there were remote calls that weren't set up quite that professionally, as I recall it. There were call-ins that were just on a phone at the beginning of cell phones.

Yeah, we had cell phones. Cell phones became a thing that, like, everyone had a cell phone 2000, maybe. Yeah. So we were a few years in.

So that was the height of technology, the idea of being able to call on a mobile phone to say that you were on the corner of Flamingo "Tell 'em Zazz sent you." And then they say, "Who's Zazz?" Those are some crazy assignments.

You'd get so happy if you drew one person. There was nothing sadder than the ticket chicks leaving with a stack full of tickets.

Just packing the roulette wheel up.

"Where's Adrian?" "Oh, yeah." The promotions guy is always flirting with the ticket chicks. That's the deal.

It's a different time. Zazz, are you someone who did how many remotes?

So, ticket ladies is what we call them now.

I mean, I did plenty of remotes. I mean, my first time slot was 7 to 10 PM at night, so yeah, like I would have to do remotes from sports bars and doing shows on weekends before I had a permanent show.

No, but sports— No, but wait a minute, but sports bar is rungs and rungs higher on the happiness chain.

Yeah.

Than the car dealership.

Yeah, yeah. I do car dealerships on the weekends. Absolutely. Oh, absolutely.

A car dealership on the weekend?

Yeah.

It's even more noon to 3, Dan. Noon to 3 on a Saturday at the car dealership.

Absolutely.

We thank the audience again and everybody who's been with us for 20-plus years on the idea that you helped us put fertilizer on all that. Something that started way back then. Now here we are 16 years later, still doing something that helped us build all of that, which is LeBron watching, whale watching. There have been some people in the Miami Heat's camp who are optimistic because they think that LeBron is waiting until after Giannis gets introduced. And I guess that's a reason for hope. Philadelphia seems more optimistic than I thought Philadelphia would be. Can you guys get me the sound of Steve Kerr? It is hard for me to believe, legitimately hard. For me to believe, says, that in 2026, the information age, when you can't keep anything quiet, it seems to be an almost total mystery as to what LeBron James is doing. We all have our suspicions, but it doesn't seem like anybody feels like they can be trusted on accurate information. So you tell me what Steve Kerr is doing here as Steve Kerr drives away and a bunch of fans tell him that they want LeBron. Hey, when you get LeBron, man— but we need LeBron.

LeBron? Oh, we got him.

Okay, that's good.

Put that on Twitter.

Okay, I got it.

That's how the news is gonna break. Bobby Porty.

Yo, he did seem pretty sure, right? But that's also his sense of humor.

I mean, He's in his car.

Is he just being sociable? Is he being friendly with fans, trying to make them feel good, passing around the feel-good, or does he know something?

I mean, you would think so, except you look at PTI's podcast yesterday. Now, I never thought of Tony Kornheiser being the one to break the news here, but if you look at PTI's podcast from yesterday, an episode in which they don't talk about LeBron James and the Warriors seemingly, the title of that episode 'Is Steph Curry behind LeBron's stunning Warriors decision?' Also, 'Kawhi is back?' Now, the description doesn't say anything about LeBron and the Warriors here, and I thought, alright, maybe this is just a simple mistake, they're gonna leave it up, whatever.

Well, but wait a minute, just to explain to the audio audience, the headline here is the question, uh, Steph Curry— put it back up on the screen, please— the question is being asked as if it's a Done deal. LeBron stunning Warriors decision. Is Steph Curry behind LeBron stunning Warriors decision when no one thinks there has been a stunning Warriors decision?

Exactly. Except that's what gets published to this podcast. And so everyone's wondering, like, did ESPN— and pardon the interruption— accidentally leak this information? And all of us were sort of downplaying that until they changed the podcast title, which almost gives more credence to the conspiracy theorists who were going, hey, why is this there? And now, why did you feel the pressure to change it?

Yeah, if I woke up this morning and I checked and it was still there, it's like, okay, they're having some fun, they want to get some attention, whatever. But the fact that they decided, oh no, we need to change this, that, that, that to me was like, it's weird. Wait, what? Why are you changing?

They got the script leaked.

I don't know what to think.

I do. There's an incompetent intern somewhere along the chain who writes poorly.

Yeah, we know one thing about Tony is that he used to do that for PTI.

Oh!

So with history as our guide, it was just probably some idiot.

It's a Tony?

It's a Tony.

It's a Tony.

You think, uh, you think Kornheiser has some secret information and is then writing a headline? Like, what— how do you think all of that— what is the internet doing with this? Look, this is, this is something. There are any number of things about the stupidities in journalism, the details in journalism that people, uh, don't care about. I'm guessing that when we were writing, me and Greg Cody said very little more than we don't write the headlines. We don't write our own headlines. Whatever your objection is to that headline over my column, that's not— I don't write that. But nobody cares about that distinction.

Nobody.

This is not written by anyone credible. This is written by someone who hasn't been paid a lot and is just beginning in this business, has done their job poorly, and the reason it's being corrected in the morning is because somebody's getting slapped in the head. What are you doing bringing this stupid attention to our credibility? Uh, we're PTI, we're monsters in journalism. How did we hand this off to some 19-year-old intern who's now fired?

If we can also put that back up real quick, that graphic. I'm sorry for the video team. Kawhi Leonard is spelled as Kawahi.

That's not how you spell it.

K-A-W-H-I. Kawahi. That is not how you spell it.

Not in the title, but in the description.

There it is. Look at that. Yet more evidence. So did they fix that too?

Let's see.

This is a bit of a relief for me personally, because we've all had the cold shiver down our spine when Dan realizes there's a typo in our descriptions. Yeah, this is as disastrous an episode description as I've ever seen in podcast history.

They made Kawahi Hawaiian. They made Kawhi Leonard one of the greatest—

He's a LeBron Award winner.

This is—

this This is a stellar day for Metal Ark Media and our enterprise.

Down Levitar!

I ain't never met nobody in the world that's done hate on Blue's Clues.

Great nomination.

Like, who don't like Blue's Clues, bruh? If you don't like Blue's Clues, you're a loser.

Juju Gotti!

Look, you get one paw print, that's the first clue. You put it in a notebook. Now what do you do?

Woo!

Blue's Clues, Blue's Clues.

Sit on the chair and think about it.

This is the Down Levitar Show! Juju Gotti is here. As I told you, we have an assortment of content that is going to be after the show in the postgame. Today we'll have Morally Abhorrent. Mike Ryan, we'll have a lot of soccer coverage with you. We couldn't have enough of that.

English Tears 2, going to be joined by two guests. Will Gavin, co-host of The S-Word on TalkSport. He's English. And I would really like to find out how he feels about things. And Tom Bogert, our good friend from The Athletic, will be joining us as well.

Jeremy will have some Pitch Clock for you, and Juju Gotti and Trista will have some Good Follow. What are we looking forward to on Good Follow before we get to it, Juju?

Ah, man, we're going to be looking forward to people who love the W. I know y'all keep saying over and over and over, it's the slowest time in sports media. No, it's not. It's a lot going on right now in these streets. It's WNBA going on, it's a lot of tennis. Yannick Sinner, salute to my boy, he picked up another one. So we gonna have to give some credence to a lot more of these sports. I know y'all getting old and y'all got y'all little routines, y'all like to be in bed by supper, but it's a lot of games going on at 11 PM on the East Coast bit, bro. So be excited about it. Let's get some lingo going.

You did fair enough. Good criticism. That is dated. That is dated reference by me to say that yesterday the ESPYs are on the slowest sports day of the year.

All right.

Thursday Thunder is presented by DraftKings Sports. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Juju, go ahead.

Yes, sir, man. Excuse me. Pardon me. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just counting up my winnings from last week.

Juju, you're on a run. You're on a run, baby.

You feel me? I know the W, you dig it? So, hey, man, say, man, you might want to lock in. Tonight we going with Big Paige Buckets for 20 points against the Liberty. Paige always show up no matter what, and she done snuck into the MVP conversation right now. Lo and behold, her, Olivia Miles, and Asia. Next leg, Brianna Stewart— excuse me, pardon me, Stu York City— for over 18 points tonight against those damn Wings. And last leg, the duck herself, the Oregon duck, quack, quack, Sabrina Ionescu for over 15 points. She mad at these Wings. They keep getting the best of them Liberty. So Sabrina gonna have something to say about it tonight. Lock it in. The crown is yours.

And thank you again, Juju, for pointing out a legitimate blind spot of mine. I've been saying that for so long that I'm simply repeating it and it doesn't sort of allow for the idea that not only do we have a new league that has formed— it's not that new anymore— but is busy right now. You are also correct that Wimbledon just did finish, although it wasn't on Wednesday. Can we get an update on the polls, please, at Le Batard Show?

Yes, sir, man. Before I say the polls, I want to say out there to Caitlin Clark, man, you're looking kind of crazy and crazier these days on the film slow motion because people don't necessarily get to see this backwards. Look how my sis screaming dead in the referee face. Come on, man. This highlights how unfair sometimes it be in society, bro. When you look like Caitlin Clark, you can yell, you can scream in folks' faces, spittle can even hit they cheek, and people going to meet it with some kind of acceptance, like, oh, she's just passionate, oh, she's just very competitive. But can you imagine if I did that? If I did that one time and it was caught by one camera, everyone's opinion of me would change forever. So we got to keep this energy across the board. And ref, you got to take her ass up. I don't know what— ref number 24, get it together. Wake up. This is America. First pole. Hello, my brother.

Hold on a second. Juju Zazz wanted to say something here.

Yeah, I mean, Juju, they treat the referees like shit in that league. Like, I don't— I don't think there's a league in this country that treats their officials worse. Than the WNBA.

Exactly, brother. And I think we got to remember that these ladies and these fellas who are refereeing these games, they at work. So we got to treat them with a little bit more respect than they do. They miss a call, hey man, it ain't up to us. We can't throw stones. Like you said, Mike, the other day, hey man, some tweets went on. We can't just punch folk in the face because they said something. So we get— we need to stop yelling at these referees. Salute though to everybody involved. Has Lionel Messi Has Lionel Messi washed over 1,000 babies?

A million. Over a million babies. He's certainly done over 1,000.

Certainly.

64% of the audience says yes, he has.

Bobby Porty.

Does anyone love a hydration break more than Jordan Pickford? 83% of the audience says no, they don't.

Bobby Porty.

Both rosters in the lineup. 'Never watched soccer, drafting on just appearance. Is Messi the last pick?' 67% of the audience says yes, he is.

Bobby Porty.

Worst commissioner interview: Robert Manfred with us or Vince McMahon's interview with Costas? 63% say Manfred with us. I'm not gonna be deposed If you have that crazy hair, are you susceptible to mistakes? 88% of the audience says yes.

Bobby Porty.

And last poll, should Cape Verde be given third place? 88% of the audience says yes. And those are your polls.

Bobby Porty.

Thank you, Juju. We will catch up with you here with all of the bonus content. Good Follow, Pitch Clock, and Morally Abhorrent is going to act as the postgame today. I, uh, I don't know what you guys would say is the most important or interesting thing about all of the interesting things, uh, involving Messi and Argentina, but I'd put pretty high on the list, uh, the idea that the poll respondents and most of the people watching all over the world, if you ask them, you've never watched soccer before, here's a lineup of all of the players. Let's make it they're just wearing their shorts, all of the players. You can see that their, their entire body. We're going to put them all next to each other. Who's the last player selected from among all of those players? For that player to be far and away the best player that is in this tournament at 39, and in the discussion, any discussion you're having for best ever in that sport, and now best ever across sports, it really is an insanity to think of that physically at the— as the height of athleticism.

Okay, So we're looking at them only in their shorts. Do we know their ages as they're lying there?

Well, but you can look at Messi and see that he's older than everybody else.

Okay, good. Fine, fine, fine. I would be looking at it almost like, I think this is a trick question. There must be a reason why that guy is in the game. Like, he must be amazing to be old and small. I think I would see through this trick question.

I've played too many pickup soccer games with small South Americans.

But when we talk about Jalen Brunson always being the smallest guy on a basketball court, Messi is always that on the pitch too, is he not? Like, there's not— there's not anybody playing in this tournament who's appreciably smaller than him.

Not in this tournament. Not— not this cycle. There have been smaller players, but that's what's so beautiful about this sport. Bigger, faster, stronger, doesn't matter. A player like Lionel Messi can be better at that occupation than Erling Haaland is.

Yes or no? As you right now, yes or no? Messi plays in the 2030 World Cup?

No.

I don't know.

I don't know if he's done playing for the national team, though. I could see him maybe pushing it and playing in a Copa America.

It's hard to answer yes or no, though, without seeing this next result, because if he gets the win, why would he— why, why do it again? I think Pelé's history as— and maybe he respects this because certainly it's known in the sport. The way the story goes with Pelé is he won 2 World Cups and then they injured or missed the next one and then won another World Cup when that cycle of 16 years, 3 World Cups, you're not supposed to be— this is pre-athletes playing into their late 30s. It didn't make any sense at the end that the, the most aged version of Pelé would be able to win another World Cup after losing one.

We are living in a time where our greatest athletes of that sport ever are playing into their 40s. Brady, LeBron. Why are we assuming not Messi?

The reason that I'm doing that is because LeBron is a physical creature unlike most I've ever seen. Brady sort of played a position that didn't require the same sort of things running-wise that soccer requires. And I just can't believe that he'll be able to do this again the same way—

he doesn't run that much—

4 years from now, the way that he's doing it now.

It's just wild that he's that much better since he was 4 years—

that doesn't make any sense.

Complete mastery to be doing that with his right foot. It's absurd. And I think winning the last World Cup obviously helped him a lot in terms of legacy, but also the performances that he's had, the clutchness that he's displayed this World Cup run. I think outside of like a Zidane-like level scandal in the final, the story isn't Leo Messi losing which is what it's been usually throughout his career. It's the guy that has next won it.

But will he play against San Diego FC in September?