Transcript of Doing Stuff To Bring Yourself Joy | Local Hour

Summer is pretty much my favorite time to be a sports fan. The biggest soccer tournament of the summer just wrapped up, baseball's on every night, racing never takes a weekend off, and my calendar basically revolves around first pitches, green flags, and whatever game everybody's texting about. I realized I'm the MVP of my group. I'm always the friend that says, "Hey, I've got it. I've got a place, I've got some ice cold Miller Lite, I got the TV, I got a big comfy blue leather couch, come on over." That's the behavior of a Miller Time MVP. I almost never watch the big ones alone. I'd much rather be with my friends. And if I am alone, we're texting, we're sipping on our Miller Lites, toasting the day, toasting the big games. For me, Miller Lite is just a part of a big game routine. It's brewed for taste with simple ingredients, clean, refreshing, and easy to drink, especially in the Miami heat. It's a true American pilsner and the original light beer since 1975. An all-American summer starts with an all-American beer, Miller Lite. Go to MillerLite.com/Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

You're listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App, now live in all 50 states.

Where's Greg Cody? Where's Greg? I mean, he does a little bit of kicking yesterday. I know he went bowling last night.

Where's Greg?

Chris, where's your father?

I got a text this morning that, uh, not feeling it, not feeling it today. In pain today.

What does that mean?

Yeah, not feeling what?

He's in pain. He said his body hurts.

So, so does— so he's just— is he just laying down at home then? Is that what happens?

Possibly.

Because we're not asking to come in and lay brick. I mean, just sit here and, and talk.

Ayo, respectfully, over-under beers to shots on goal? 13 shots on goal.

Dead even.

Wow, that is, that is something, huh? He's got enough energy last night to go and, uh, to roll. Okay, everybody knows you don't roll in shots.

He played well.

Yeah, he did bowl well.

Yes.

What'd he bowl?

What's well, uh, for him? In the, in the mid—

and don't give me his handicap bullshit. I don't even know how that works, I gotta be honest with you.

150 is a good score for my dad.

Okay.

Yeah, 130 is where he is, probably his average. So he likes a 150, 160. Yeah, he bowled well last night. Not, not great, but not terrible.

What about you? What's it— what's an average score? You show up to the lanes, you roll right now, what should you get?

Clearly better than my dad by a little bit. I'm like in the high 170s.

Clearly by a little bit?

I'm better than my dad.

Okay.

As you can tell from me, I also had a long night, but I'm here.

Okay.

You sound like it.

I come here, man.

It sounds like it.

Well, that's just, you know.

Are you sick? You battling through something? That was just last night? What's in your chest?

This is just how I sound.

I had a devastating bout with the sniffles.

Would have killed Jeremy.

It would have killed Jeremy.

When do you get the notice from your father?

I got a text this morning, like, Not feeling good today.

All right.

Yeah.

None of us feel good today.

Everybody feels bad today. But we tell our bodies not today.

Yeah. When's the last time you woke up like, I feel good?

Ooh.

I haven't had a morning like that in a really long— I feel good.

That's not surprising. It happens occasionally.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Yeah?

Yeah. Usually like the day after basketball. I get a— yeah. I'm not sore anymore. I've worked all those muscles out.

But do you ever wake up in the morning—

Got some cardio in, sweated all the poison out.

But do you ever wake up in the morning like, man, I feel rough? Refreshed.

Yeah, sometimes, occasionally. You should try exercise, brother.

I never feel that way.

Or exercise.

How do you know I don't exercise?

I look at you.

All right, fair answer, fair answer. Last night, for the first time in a week, right, because today's Thursday and a week ago came out, for the first time in a week I was not thinking about The Odyssey because I watched He-Man last night halfway through it.

Halfway through it.

What do you mean halfway through it?

I started watching with my daughter. There's bedtime.

Oh, it's so— why didn't you continue?

I don't want to push bedtime.

No, but continue on your own.

Because I'm watching it with my daughter. Oh, very rude thing to do.

Like, she'll know that you went and watched it.

All right, look, you got a weird dynamic with your kids. I don't want to comment on it. That's your family. I don't know, but this is a shared experience that I want to have with my daughter because I grew up watching He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. My first pet's name was She-Ra. I love the Masters of the Universe, and I'm enjoying experiencing—

Are you enjoying the movie?

Yeah, so far so good.

Oh, it's so good.

Skeletor, I think, is the best part.

Unbelievably, Jared Leto does not ruin the movie, because he ruins movies.

Well, that's because—

He's poison.

There's only a handful of times that you can pick up on like, oh yeah, I guess that's Jared Leto.

Yeah, he's great in it.

If that's him.

I think it's him.

It's like an AI model. It's weird. They could have gotten anybody to do it.

My son was asking me, because we watched it again last night, Skeletor, is that— is he in, like, is he in gear, or is that his actual body? Like, his body's blue. It's a good question my son asked.

It is.

And Masters of the Universe doesn't seem— what I'm enjoying so much about it is it doesn't seem like it wants to explain things all that much. Like, his name is Fisto, he's got a big fist, you know. It doesn't really want to get bogged down into the lore of it. It's just weird. Enjoy.

I loved it. I loved it. And, and, and so in the middle of the movie, all right, it's the second time I've seen it. I've been waiting for it to come out on streaming because I loved it so much. It was as fun as I had in a movie theater in so long.

I think there's one dialogue exchange which is like, what's his problem? And they're like, he's got a skeleton for a face. Yeah, yeah, like that. He's bad, right?

Yeah, well, and that made sense. It's like, you know, why is he so bad? He has a skeleton.

Yeah, he has a skeleton for a face. That makes him bad. Like, this is perfect. This is actually perfect for a 6-year-old daughter.

Most fun you've had at a movie theater? I feel like even if I'm enjoying a movie, I'm not having fun in a movie theater.

Oh, I've had some fun at the movie theater. You know what I mean?

I do know what you mean.

What?

I've, I've had some fun at the movie theater.

You talking about an HJ, baby? It seems like you're talking—

that's what I'm talking about.

Yeah, cuz I, I, I made a revelation yesterday is what Tony's talking about. Because who was it with asking about, uh, Harry Potter movies, right?

It was me. I said I had never seen one ever.

Yeah, and I've technically never seen a Harry Potter movie either, except one time I was in the theater when Harry Potter was playing on the screen. It's because this is years ago when I was a camp counselor and my wife was also— she wasn't my wife then, that'd be weird if as husband and wife were camp counselors, uh, that would make us huge losers. But anyway, I kid, Jeremy, I kid. I'm talking about day camp here, all right? Like every day over the summer.

Yeah, I get it.

Come on.

Every Jewish kid goes to one.

And we were counselors, and so we were in the theater for Harry Potter, but I didn't see a second of it, 'cause we were making out!

Hell yeah.

That's right.

Necking.

That's what he's talking about. That's right. Anyway, what was I saying? So I was really enjoying He-Man last night, and in the middle of the movie, I— not that I didn't really know this, but it just dawned on me again, I just want to do things that I love. I just want to do things that make me feel good. And that's why That's why I'm so into this movie. That's why I had so much fun at the theater watching He-Man, because it reminds me of my childhood, and I love nostalgia. I'm a huge sucker for nostalgia, and it just boils down to, at this point in my life— and it really is a liberating feeling— at this point in my life, I just choose to do things that make me feel good. That's it. I'm not embarrassed about what I like. I'm not embarrassed about doing anything. I like Wasn't that long ago, I would never admit to anyone that I liked wrestling. I mean, you— if you grew up in the '80s and then into the '90s like me, you didn't tell anyone you liked wrestling. That was a dirty secret.

Really?

Oh yeah.

You guys didn't have like, you know, conventions or people that you got with, you're like, yo, did you see whatever?

When did that flip? Like, when did it become fine?

Well, and that's why— that's why if you find someone— and still kind of like this today— if you find someone who likes pro wrestling, you want to talk about wrestling with them, because you didn't— you, you don't normally have that. Well, you like, you like the weird thing that I like too? Let's talk about it. Okay, when did— when, when I got to a point in my life not too long ago where I'm comfortable enough at my age that I'm going to do things that give me joy, that's when I stopped caring about anyone knowing any weird thing that I might like.

So how did you find out that Mike was a wrestling guy, or did he find out first that you were a wrestling guy? Because you guys are both big wrestling guys, and back in the day, like you said, it was very shameful. So how did you guys find it?

The reason— thing, because I've known Zazz for 20+ years, and in the beginning I didn't know he was a wrestling guy.

Yeah, because you don't just outwardly tell people. Yeah, you don't wear wrestling shirts out in public.

Yeah, yeah, he wasn't wearing his Roman Reigns shirts back.

I would never have done that. I would never have worn it.

How'd you— how'd you find out?

I don't know, you just— you just hear— I don't— I don't know, it could be— it could be any— maybe, maybe this show had a wrestler on one because this show used to have wrestlers on all the time.

Yeah. When, when Zazz wasn't, wasn't a part of our show, he would ask me like, is there any interest in DraftKings potentially doing a wrestling show? And he still sends me that text every other week.

Yeah, but I'm trying to push that through.

I think that's how I found out.

I'm trying to push that through. No, but I got to a point, Chris, in my life, and I don't know how long ago it was, but I'm comfortable with myself, man. And I don't care that people know the things that I like, you know, as long as they're legal.

Love that.

Yeah. And, and, and, and so, so this brings me to, you know, He-Man last night. I was like, yeah, I love this because I just want to do things. It's why I take my son. We're going in a week and a half. We're going up to Minnesota to go see SummerSlam. And it's a lot of money. Yeah, but like, I want to do things that make me feel good. You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah.

Have you tried sex?

Yeah, sex is great, man. But you can't have it all the time.

He said the kid too, obviously.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, come on.

I have a top 5.

Things that you do that make you feel good?

No, top 5 most fun experiences I've had at a movie theater.

Oh, great.

Yeah, where you're like, wow, I'm having fun.

Well, well, we're watching it with a group of people made me enjoy it that much more. Like, this is just a hot crowd, and when I think back to that movie, I'm like, man, that, that experience in that theater, that's the magic of the movies. Number 5.

Twisters. That's a surprisingly good movie, dude.

When Glen Powell showed up in that white t-shirt, I've never heard ladies in a crowd react that way. I was the loudest among them, but like, he got a loud-ass pop. And that scene in the rain, I— it was a 40x experience. I was dressed as a cow. I just loved it.

You thought he was a bad guy. Yeah, but he's actually a good guy.

The guy— the bad guy was actually Superman.

That's right. It was crazy.

But yeah, I was dressed as a cow. The AC wasn't working second grade, so I was a little sweaty, but— and I was getting—

that's how they played it.

It was one of my first 40X experiences, and I just really, really loved it. Number 4: Mission Impossible: Fallout.

Okay, you know my problem with the Mission Impossible movies. I don't know which is which.

Well, Fallout's the best movie ever made, so it's that one.

Better than Dead Reckoning?

Fallout's the best movie ever made.

Dead Reckoning Part 2? Fallout—

Fallout's the greatest action movie ever made. Fallout.

Is that the one where Henry Cable loads up his fists?

Uh, yes, that's the one.

And it's the greatest fight scene of all time.

And it's the one where Ethan gets disavowed by his government.

I love that one.

Ah, yes, that one.

And he saves the world with just mere seconds to spare.

Yes.

Yeah, like he—

we're all like, he's on a cliff and the world's about to end.

When you roll out of bed, thank Ethan Hunt. Yeah, just saying. Number 3, this may, uh, not be on other people's list, but we did a show event for Tropic Thunder.

Oh, that was mine.

And Tropic— the crowd was so hot. And to watch a comedy in which everybody was just that ready to laugh, it was like going to see a great comedian that was just absolutely slaying. Tropic Thunder, the show watch, uh, watch-along that we had for it killed. Number 2, and I imagine this is universally on everybody's top 5, Avengers: Endgame. Yeah, when the Avengers assemble and you, you start— yeah, they start, they start coming out of those portals on your left. Yeah. Oh my God. Or when he grabs Thor's hammer. Talk about an HJ.

Hey yo.

Uh, and number 1, this one's gonna be super surprising. Get Out.

Really?

The— I saw it at Regal Kendall Village and like, I'm not exactly— it was the first of these Jordan Peele movies and people didn't really know what to expect. They were in on the concept. Packed theater, Friday night, primetime, good movie, everybody on the edge of their seat. The, the crowd reaction to that was just so memorable for me. It was such a great film. And when I think back to that film, I've rewatched it and it just pales in comparison to that first experience that I had. It was such a great film. The crowd was just reacting to everything that was on the screen. So that was my number one.

I remember I was as nervous as I've ever been watching a movie leading up to that final scene because I was certain he was about to get arrested. He was going to get arrested. And it was gonna end, like, in such a poor way for him. And matter of fact, I don't know if you guys have seen it, there is that alternate ending. That ending was shot where he gets arre— it's a real police officer, not his friend, who shows up, and obviously it looks like he just, you know, hurt this girl, this white girl, and it shows him going to prison. That alternate ending would have been— I was nervous. Watching that police car pull up, like, "Oh my God, this movie's gonna be ruined now." But instead it's a really fun ending. Anyway, there you go. Everyone was happy.

Summer is pretty much my favorite time to be a sports fan. The biggest soccer tournament of the summer just wrapped up, baseball's on every night, racing never takes a weekend off, and my calendar basically revolves around first pitches, green flags, and whatever game everybody's texting about. I realized I'm the MVP of my group. I'm always the friend that says, "Hey, I've got it. I've got a place. I've got some ice-cold Miller Lite. I got the TV. I got a big comfy blue leather couch. Come on over." That's the behavior of a Miller Time MVP. I almost never watch the big ones alone. I'd much rather be with my friends. And if I am alone, we're texting. We're sipping on our Miller Lite, toasting the day, toasting the big games. For me, Miller Lite is just a part of a big game routine. It's brewed for taste with simple ingredients, clean, refreshing, and easy to drink, especially in the Miami heat. It's a true American pilsner and the original light beer since 1975. An all-American summer starts with an all-American beer, Miller Lite. Go to MillerLite.com/Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

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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.

I came up with the top 5 things I do to make me feel good that at one time—

all right, come on.

OLI, we'll work out in the morning. Also OLI, doesn't have to be embarrassing, just things to do to make you feel good. Uh, going to the movies by myself.

I haven't done it in a long time, but I like going to movies by myself. I like that.

It's the greatest. Uh, number 5, HJ. Number 4, watching Love Island UK. Number 3, sometimes. Number 3, almost exclusively, getting a mani-pedi. Love a little manicure-pedicure combo. It's a good one.

I've never had either one.

You go, it's a great feeling. Number 2 is Christmas.

And number 1, watching Glee.

Even listening to the soundtrack.

Oh.

All right, that list is exclusive to you.

So you go lefty?

It's like getting a little strange. So anyway, can I tell you something that's bothered— like, I'm a little bit annoyed now. I'm not annoyed that LeBron has not chosen his team yet. I mean, I guess I can understand why people are annoyed. Me in particular, I'm not annoyed. I'm more so like, I want him to choose where he's going because it feels so unbelievable to me that he could actually wind up choosing the Heat, that we could have that feeling once again. Not quite like 16 years ago, but it'd be a little bit similar. It like— it'd be really similar if he winds up choosing the Heat again.

And especially with this buildup, as this buildup is making it seem that much bigger. If he did it early on, it would have probably gotten buried by other stuff. But this is— I mean, we're being edged right now by the King.

Well, and it's, it's adding to Giannis. Like, if we didn't get Giannis and then they get LeBron, it's not even remotely the same as if you're adding LeBron to a team that already has Giannis. Like, I want to know where LeBron's going because just that reality to possibly set in that, oh my God, it just happened again. Like, it was crazy enough that it happened in 2010, but this might happen again.

It's made us feel things again. Now, if he doesn't pick Miami, I get to hate him again too.

I—

he's been living his life existence, and I haven't worked up that kind of emotion. All that went when he shut everybody up, came back from 3-1 down. But now, if I'm being edged like this and he ends up going to Philly, I mean, come on, hate's on.

I'm gonna root so hard against him.

If we get him, he's still got stuff in the tank. If we don't get him, he's cooked.

Yeah, like, if, if we don't get him, I'm rooting for him to totally flop this year wherever he goes.

We're all on the same page.

Yeah.

All right, ball's in your court, King.

Yeah, but something that is annoying me is this. So it is odd. There's a couple things that are odd as far as the way the media is handling this right now, and we talked about it yesterday where you have media seemingly out of nowhere are now talking about how the best fit is Miami. Miami's a great fit basketball-wise, lifestyle-wise, all of it. They actually can offer more money, almost double what every other team can offer. Miami is the best option. It's like, how did it come out of nowhere? Nothing has changed. Nick Wright yesterday said how LeBron— LeBron going to Miami wasn't even on his top 4, and now it's the best options. Like, what? Nothing has changed. That bothers me. But what also bothers me is this whole idea that why would LeBron choose the Heat when they don't have any shooters? They have no one who can shoot. I don't understand this. Like, I saw, I saw comments—

we got some white guys, don't we?

Yeah, I got a couple, but I'm not even including Mitchell.

He can shoot, right?

But I'm not even including Jović. Like, Jović is supposed to be a good shooter, but I'm not including him because he stunk last year. Pelo's not a good shooter.

What about Fontecchio?

Fontecchio's a good shooter.

If you're including Fontecchio in this list of good shooters, you don't have good shooters.

Oh, stop, stop. LeBron's made a bunch of these guys that you're like, who's that? And then like, oh, you can't leave that guy open, deadly. Chris, he played in 50 games last year.

Okay, like, and he shot 38%.

To be fair, yeah, to be fair, Chris wasn't watching.

On this roster, LeBron is lumped into the shooters.

But I saw this tweet from Colin Cowherd yesterday, uh, and oh my God, does he get things wrong. But Colin Cowherd talking about the Heat have lousy shooting and no floor spacing. And so I had to respond. I'm sure, I'm sure he lost sleep over my response, but I had to respond You know, Wiggins 41%, Mitchell 40%, Portis 46%, Hardaway 41%, and Fontecchio, the worst of the bunch, 38%, which is still a good percentage, 38%. So remind me how the Heat don't have shooters.

And Pele would get there.

Maybe.

No, I mean, he's white, he'll get there.

Maybe. Well, and playing with Giannis and maybe LeBron probably will help your 3-point percentage go up a little bit, maybe a smidge, maybe a smidge, because you're gonna be wide open when you catch the ball.

I think it's that the people who were only following the team tangentially look at Norman Powell or Tyler Herro and say like, oh, those are the guys who were taking all of their threes. They look at the fact that Pelle Larsen is a sniper, but, but all of those guys that you just mentioned are high percentage 3-point shooters and they don't have a random white who makes threes like Duncan Robinson used to.

I like how you're talking. Uh, hand up. I watched some of LeBron in the playoffs, but a lot of those regular season games—

too late.

Uh, does he still have the gravitational pull when he drives? Does he still have it like that? Because, because you're talking about him in terms— and again, I haven't watched basketball in like 10 years— but you're talking about him like it's still like the, the same old LeBron, which would drive the lane, 3 guys got to collapse, and somebody would be open. We're talking about a, you know, a dude in his 40s.

Yeah, but also, Mike, defensively, you have to think these guys are on fast-twitch muscle. Like, instinct is somebody's driving with the ball, I've got to go help no matter who it is, right? It might be Horace Grant or it could be LeBron James.

And there's also Giannis!

That's my point. Yeah, Giannis and bam. So like, you're going to have people collapsing because he can drive the lane and just dump it off to somebody that's going to do work down low that you've got to worry about over there. So maybe he doesn't have the gravitational pull like he used to., but the trio certainly does around the cup.

It's also the fact that like Bam made a career high in threes last year to a point where by about midway through the year defenses started to respect the fact that he would even take the three. And half the time that's all that matters is just a guy being out there to take the shot whether it goes in or not. So the fact that you have a big man who can spread the floor in that way, Bobby Portis can do it at a really high percentage. And then you have both Giannis and LeBron, let alone the fact that they'll be running pick and roll together theoretically to create more open space for shooters. Wiggins did that and Mitchell did that in an offense that would get very clunky, like they played at a fast pace. But to be able to shoot that high of a percentage from 3, it's not often that a half-court offense as poor as Miami's is able to have that type of percentages from their players.

You can come out and say that you don't think Miami's a good fit. You could say you think LeBron would be a better fit in Philadelphia or Cleveland, whatever. It's the opinions. Fine. That's totally okay.

Cleveland does have better shooters. I think that was a point that Coward was trying to make.

But you don't get to make up facts, though. Like to say that the Heat don't have shooters. You're not entitled to make up your own facts. And when you look at the guys that I just told you there, those are not my opinions. Those are facts. Like those numbers happened last season. And I would assume that those numbers— if you want to say those numbers were career numbers for some of those guys, Yeah, you would be right. And I would also then respond with, okay, and now playing with Giannis and LeBron, you're likely going to get more career numbers next year. So it's just like that part has bothered me over the last couple— well, even more than the last couple of days. You don't get to just make up facts that the Heat don't have shooters. All right. They do.

Speak for yourself.

Anyway, Tony, you, you have— you sat down with Bobby Portis last week. You got him a few minutes before me. All right, fine. You won that.

Thank you.

But you, uh, it seems like you're, you're doing your part.

I've been doing my part to recruit LeBron James to the Miami Heat more so than what we do here on the show, which is great. I went over and above and asked Bobby Portis who the NBA GOAT was. Here's his answer. Uh, NBA GOAT.

NBA GOAT, uh, LeBron James.

Wow, okay, over Jordan.

Yeah, I'm a Bron fan.

You're a Bron fan?

You're—

we're kind of similar age.

I'm a couple years older than you, but I'm not I'm not going. You're not going back?

We can argue all day. We can argue all day. I'm arguing.

Does he give that answer a year ago?

That's a great question. I didn't see anybody do that kind of legwork over in Milwaukee. Obviously we're doing it better here in the Miami media. But the question was, why didn't this go viral on our pages, right? Because it was on ESPN NBA Daily yesterday. It was on all the aggregator sites.

And you, your face, your pun was on ESPN.

All of a sudden A former employee texted me, hey, you're on ESPN. And I'm like, really? I was behind Omiyama Masuko, who was also interviewing Bobby Portis. He's like, no, you—

nobody else is tackling this terrain.

No, you're the guy who used to put the titles on podcasts.

The courage to ask an NBA player who's the GOAT.

Yeah, nobody, nobody else did it. Do you see your face up there? I don't see Chris up there.

I don't— look, I, you—

I don't see you with the courage.

One thing that you can always bet on me if I ever speak to an NBA player is I will never work up the courage to ask that question.

Well, it won't go viral. Sorry.

So you're doing your part here.

I'm doing my part.

Because if you don't ask him that, then Bobby Portis isn't putting it out there, essentially his recruitment pitch for LeBron.

Exactly right.

And that's a good job.

The talking heads on ESPN were like, he must be recruiting. And we're like, yes, he is recruiting. And we don't have any inside information. All we're doing is trying to send the lifeline out there.

Hey, Bron.

Bobby thinks you're the GOAT.

This guy learned from the best because 2 years ago I asked Khaleel Ware for his Mount Rushmore of NBA players and he gave me Wilt, Kobe, Anthony Edwards, and Bam.

I'm so happy he's gone.

Now he's a Buck.

Yeah. So it's just so I don't have to have Jeremy talk us into him anymore.

I wasn't trying to.

Did anyone call you?

Come and go for Khaleel Ware.

Did anyone call you after this started to go viral where they wanted you to like maybe come on their show and talk about how you were able to muster up the courage?

Not yet.

To ask such a question?

Not yet. My line's open.

All right, well, that's a good job out of you though.

Thank you. I'm just doing my part.

Yeah, the way that Bobby like looked to the camera too made me think something was going on. Like maybe he knows something and I had to be careful with his answer.

He must be— okay, maybe he's hearing something.

Down levitar!

For 5 minutes I was watching everyone just like, nope, not letting you in, not letting you in. So when I got up there I had to say something and I said it. Cheaters never prosper. Chris Cody, my buddy, was saying, not today.

Yeah, but you're not today.

I think that was what he was adding. Yeah, I'm telling you, the response I got from this guy, what I said was amazing. Cheaters never prosper. This guy yelled as angry as he could.

I ain't cheating. This is the Dan Levatar Show. So help explain this to me. We're all waiting for these tea leaves, right? And we saw it a couple days ago. It's very embarrassing, the Miami Heat, where you got the YouTube stream that, uh, you know, for a LeBron James press conference. It's funny, man. I saw yesterday Wilbon going off on PTI. If you think Pat Riley is calling the social media department and telling them that LeBron is coming, you're like— he did kind of make a good point. And so nonetheless, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing that that got out and that ESPN is doing an entire segment on it and they're using a full screen and the Heat wind up looking silly that they made this kind of mistake. And so we're seeing little tea leaves, Easter eggs that we're trying to come up with.

Not all of them are real, though. Not like this is— our show is doing a service right now. We are, we are clearing some things out with, you know, predictions. Prediction markets out there. People are always looking for an edge. And then you have a lot of misinformation spreading. Like yesterday, we got down to the bottom of the job posting. Everyone thought that whoever, you know, left that box unchecked got fired immediately, because how can you have such a mistake? But that job posting, as our show reported, due thanks to an unemployed friend who went for that job weeks ago, that job posting has been out there.

But they did repost it yesterday because there's clearly a need for it.

But yeah, but, but it's been out there, so everyone was saying like, that person got fired. No, that's not the case. And also, Jeremy, there was this Nike shirt that started making the rounds yesterday.

Yeah, so I like— I, you know, like when I'm on Twitter, I glance through things. I don't read everything. Then I'll be— it'll take up my entire day if I try and read all of Twitter. I don't have enough time, so I glance through things. And so what did I glance at here with the Nike LeBron shirt? Is this a real thing?

So one of the aggregator sites that is trying to have new information said, oh my God, there's a new Heat LeBron shirt out by Nike. It's the Good Intentions brand for LeBron. It's got the 6 on fire. It's his old number.. And oh my God, look at this shirt.

It's on fire.

Burning through the number. Oh my God.

It is.

It's— oh, it's not real fire. Okay. Yeah. But the 6 is burning through the number 23.

Oh, and the number 23, it looks like— is that Laker colors, the 23?

I'm not sure. It could be. I can't tell. Is that purple?

It looks like it might be.

Yeah.

So what you have here is a shirt that's on sale for Nike and everyone's like, oh my God, they did this today. Oh my God. I can't believe it. Now he's going to the Heat. It's not true. It was April when this came out. It was initially posted that, uh, going into his 23rd season, LeBron would have a new deal with Nike. There was a, uh, a colorway that was going to be on its way.

But why would Nike make this shirt when he doesn't play for the Heat?

They were going through like all of these different stops of his career, so there was bound to be with this good intentions. So another—

could that be Navy and not purple? Could be because the— it doesn't make sense unless he's coming to Miami. It doesn't make sense for the Sixers to be burning through Laker colors.

Well, what are the dates underneath it? Those are dates, right? Like, is that a schedule that is listed on that jersey? Those are dates, like, like how they put concert dates, you know, on the back of the shirts. That's what's going on on one of those shirts. By the way, it looks like it's burning through a LeBron James Cleveland jersey. But what are those dates underneath there?

Yeah, I'm looking at them now. So The first is February 18th, 2002, Akron. Then May 22nd, 2003, Akron. There's New York, I believe, for the NBA Draft. There's Sacramento for his NBA debut. There's May of 2007 for Detroit. So it's all these big moments over the course of his career. And right there at the top in the middle, it's July 8th, 2010, Miami, which is when he obviously chose to come here. So there's all sorts of different important dates, including June June 7th, 2012 against Boston.

Okay, so it feels like we— I think we've gotten to the bottom of this.

But the headline here is that it's an older shirt.

Yep.

It's not on sale since April. It's— it has nothing to do with LeBron's impending decision. And also, there was another piece that got aggregated yesterday about LeBron being angered by Adam Silver telling him, hey, move this along, we got league partners to, to worry about. But if you chase that down to the root, It was just some dude on Cleveland workshopping that that could be a possibility. It's not an actual report.

Eh, Draymond said that LeBron, if he knows LeBron, this will make LeBron take even more time.

Right, but that should be attributed to Draymond.

If he knows LeBron.

Right, but this came from just some Cleveland talking head and it got tiled and it's everywhere as if it were news.

Which one, you think I'm trying to talk to Goldhammer?

No.

I want to get out ahead of another one too, because there's a Miami Heat LeBron James Nike Forever King jersey that's on the Heat store right now.

Right now it's out of stock.

Uh, this is a, a throwback. It's sort of like a cream-colored Heat jersey. Um, and before everyone—

$160—

before everyone goes and starts to like take screenshots of this and say, oh my God, there's a new LeBron jersey on the Heat store, it's been there since May.

He's also going to wear a new number, so they screwed that up. Up again.

We don't know for sure.

Just getting out ahead of that one, Chris. We're trying to, you know, be detectives.

We're trying to help.

So we've had enough of your shit this week.

This guy's like that bad sheep in Sheep Detective that always trying to ruin things.

Yeah, it's like, come on, dude, cross the street with us.

Work exactly right. We're already on this side. Put your hooves on the street.

So I saw this theory out there yesterday as well that, hey, what could be the reason that LeBron is taking too long? He's taking this long. It's taking so long. I saw one theory, which is maybe, maybe doesn't like any of his options, you know, maybe, maybe he doesn't like any of these.

They're not great. It's not the same as his previous options, you know, whenever he's hit the market before.

I don't agree with that.

They're not— it's not as strong. Like, dude, this is not a hot take. Like, can we step out of it for a second? The first time he did this, he's like, should I partner with prime Chris Bosh and prime Dwyane Wade? Okay, this is a lot different. A Giannis that has been injured and we're worried about how his game will age. Bam seems to be in the prime of his career. We always know that Bam needs to be paired with somebody better. That makes perfect sense. But we have a lot of questions about this roster, right? We have— yeah, it's not the same.

We have not seen them play together.

And the money, like, it's not great money pretty much anywhere. There's questions about Philly, like, all right, let me go play with Joel Embiid. It's not like the decisions that he had before.

Certainly. But I would say like the teams that he chose to go to before, it was pairing with Anthony Davis. But Anthony Davis had like not won anything, had just sort of been around, was always hurt. And it was a Lakers roster that was in like disrepair at the time. And they traded all of their young pieces, not dissimilar from the trade for Giannis here, where it was every young piece that they had was out the door to get Anthony Davis and pair with him. And then when he went back to Cleveland, they acquired Kevin Love, but another guy who had yet to win anything, and a young budding star in Kyrie Irving, but a guy who had literally been on the worst teams in basketball.

They also had picks, they had the assets, and Andrew Wiggins to flip. But you mentioned Anthony Davis, and one thing that might be true is people are trying to figure out—

so that's the other theory—

the reasons why this has been drawn out beyond, you know, LeBron likes the ego stroke at this stage in his career. Is LeBron is letting teams buy time to acquire Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving, which is interesting at this stage in their careers. They're, they're both guys that you have a ton of question marks about, but that is a working theory.

Yeah, I think that that's silly for a couple reasons. Number one, if that is what LeBron is waiting for, is for one of these teams to trade with Washington for Anthony Davis, what are they waiting for? Like, why hasn't happened yet? That's number one. And number two, more importantly, Washington is under no obligation to trade Anthony Davis anywhere because LeBron James wants to play with him. If LeBron James wants to play with Anthony Davis, I'm sure the Wizards would say, hey, come play here, we'll sign you.

Yeah, come play with us. Or if this story is out there and these teams are circling the Wizards to try to get Anthony Davis, you've just inflated a marketplace that probably isn't where it should be for Anthony Davis.

So what are we waiting for? Like, why isn't the trade happening then? Why isn't it happening? Why aren't these teams then offering everything for Anthony Davis? And they're not, which is why the Wizards, again, under no obligation to give a shit that LeBron wants to play with Anthony Davis. So I don't buy into that theory either. I think it's just about LeBron waiting and waiting and waiting and deciding to do it whenever he wants to do it. Because if you think about it, every time that he's been a free agent this is the 4th time, right? Every time he has been a free agent, it's gone down differently. In 2010, you had the decision. In 2014, you had the Sports Illustrated cover. In 2018, just across the crawl on ESPN, very simple. And now what's it going to be in 2026? Oh, it's, it's going to be this long, drawn-out summer with everybody talking about him. Now, how is he going to announce I don't know, but this has been different from every other time. It's just about having everybody focus on him. It's just about everybody talking about him and him once again proving he is still the center of attention.

That's all it is. That's all it is. Every time he's been a free agent, it's been completely different. He's not waiting on anyone to be traded. He's not waiting on Anthony Davis. Just wants the attention. It's all it boils down to. And then he's gonna sign with the Heat.