Transcript of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Miami Heat. Microphones. And Tony. | Local Hour

You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App, now live in all 50 states. Ah, yes. Good morning, everyone. It is a Friday. We did it, everybody. We made it to Friday. That's right. Give it up for Friday. Everybody loves a Friday. What kind of person doesn't like Friday? What a crew we got here today. Roy and Jeremy. And Tony and Mike. I don't know if this crew's ever worked together yet. We'll find out. Dave, Dave is here as well. Hello, Dave, how are you?

Well, I'm doing all right, as well as can be expected. I can't see that it's Friday because of the Canadian wildfires. I'm in Pittsburgh, PA, don't you know? And boy, it is apocalyptic here.

All right, so what does that mean? Because I am hearing about, like, you go outside and is the sky like a different color?

Yes, it's orange. And you know, it's obviously 9:00 AM and it's orange outside.. But also when you walk out, it smells like fire. We're not— we're nowhere close to Canada where I sit right now. The air stinks of fire. It's wild.

All right.

But can we— can we make sure everything's clear for Sunday afternoon for the World Cup? Are we going to be good there, Mike?

It's supposed to rain and clear out some of that smoke. But yeah, I mean, Dan—

smoke on a Mike.

Yeah.

Dan's happier than a pig in shit knowing that climate change has come to the World Cup final.

Why don't we just take, you know, the brand Big Ass Fans? And they have them at all the stadiums. They're literally called Big Ass Fans. Why don't you take a bunch of big ass fans, right? And we put them on one side of the stadium and we all kick them on.

That's great.

And then it just blows that way.

Yeah.

Blow the smoke the opposite way.

Yeah.

Hurricanes.

Hmm.

Bomb the hurricanes.

Too far.

That's what I'm saying. So we got a lot to get to here today. The biggest news. I mean, I know there's World Cup, there's climate change, but let's get to serious stuff here. Right across the street. At Caseya Center. Tony, you were there yesterday, right?

I was in the building. Yep, I was in the building. Giannis, Bobby Portis getting introduced, number 7 and number 95. Jeremy was also there, and all the luminaries of the, uh, of the Miami sports media scene were there in the building.

I didn't have to go because they come to me, you know. I, I spoke— we'll get to that coming up. All right, but what do you got for us here? Do we, do we have some— we have something from you from your, your adventures yesterday at the arena?

Obviously, as you guys know, I've been all in on the Heat this week. Went to junior camp, Got the invite there, hopefully moving over to camp coming up in, you know, in the, in earlier part of August and September, try to get to real camp. But I was able to schmooze enough to get into the Giannis press conference. I'm going to see if I can get a question answered. So we put a little package together to see if the boy could get in there and get a question for number 7. All right, a huge day in Heat history. We're introducing Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis. We just heard Bobby talk. Giannis is coming up next. We're gonna go get some food, go, uh, I'll go look around the arena a little bit and then come back. Nice little Mediterranean spread. It's the perks of being in the media, you know, you get certain things.

The food is one of them.

We've ingratiated ourselves with the Heat, obviously summer league over in Vegas. I proved myself at junior camp, now I can get real camp. We're trying to do all those things, try and get a Giannis interview one-on-one. Feel like we're close. Right now I'm gonna do A little bit of eating, probably a little bit more schmoozing after this and hobnobbing to see if we can land a Janice interview.

Janice! Janice!

Welcome again, everybody. I just want to recognize a few people first. Mariah, his wife, over here sitting next to the vet. Anybody has a question for me or Spoh, we'll answer it and then we get out of his way. You can all to yourself. That'd be good. Hey, buddy. Yeah, Tim.

Hey, Coach.

When—

ever since you got here, hopefully, hopefully, you know, the player that I am, I can, I can fit right in and I can play. I've been with Bobby, I think, 6 or 7 years now. Uh, we won a championship together.

Okay, that's all. Anything else? We're good.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Tony, why wouldn't they give you the microphone?

I don't know.

And Nick, my boy over there, I was trying to get him, you know, hey, over here, look over here. Now, with all the other luminaries, when Giannis walked into the—

it was set up in the lower bowl for the visiting audience, for the, for the listening audience, it was set up in the lower bowl, and, and the media is seated right in front. Now, who, who was the loudest of those media members who was cheering for Giannis when he walked in? A little unprofessional, if I may add. Who was the loudest of the media members?

I heard somebody screaming from up north. And where do you live?

I'm in Cooper City.

Cooper City. I heard somebody from Cooper City.

Yeah, very unprofessional shouting for Giannis when he walks in there. I did see this video yesterday where he—

he—

junior camp is going on right now and they brought Giannis, I guess, after he met with the media, they brought him into the practice court to surprise the junior Heat campers because every, every week Part of the perks with the Heat Junior Camp is you get a player who comes by, but the timing is always awful because it's the summertime and, you know, the players aren't here. So no offense, but like, hey everyone, welcome Keshawn Johnson, you know, and like that's who the kids all get to take a picture with, you know. It's not Bam, it's, it's, it's someone who's there the whole summer. It's not a star.

When I was there as a kid, Dwyane Wade was drafted, and so they brought in the new rookie.

That's awesome.

Dwyane Wade. And we all got to take pictures, and he like did a bunch of dunks for everyone.

That's awesome.

Kids were going crazy. It was him and Darrell Wright were the two that I remember meeting.

That's awesome. But that's super rare.

So rare.

You don't get the good players because they're not in town. But Giannis walked in and surprised everyone, and he took questions with the kids. It was that, that was pretty awesome.

Couldn't he shut up on Monday when I was there?

I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah.

I mean, that's really the question. So the kids got to talk to Giannis and a lot of media people talked to Giannis. The only person down there who didn't— Tony, Tony, am I right about that?

Jeremy Tashay didn't talk to him either.

So that was by choice.

What exactly, what the hell happened there? What was that whole thing we just sat through that, that minute long video we just saw was, was primarily Tony eating food and not talking to Giannis. What, what was so difficult about it?

It was a press conference where you were supposed to ask questions.

I know you're the press. Why didn't you get in a question?

There was, there was people that were more pressing to get to.

I mean, this is a failure, and I think we're—

I agree, I agree. Complete failure. Complete failure.

Okay, all right, as long as we get— I just want to keep things open and honest here. I don't want to just breeze past.

By the way, the video was not primarily me eating food. There was, there was 2 seconds of me possibly eating food.

A lot of discussion about you getting food.

Would you call yesterday? I mean, so it's a failure. Like, we sent you there hoping you were going to leave. Like, you couldn't shoehorn a question in for Giannis?

That one guy tried to. I don't know, Jeremy, if you were there, one guy tried to do it without the mic.

Uh, Sheldon Fox.

Sheldon Fox almost got taken out of the building.

It was so funny. It was so funny because it's, you know, he's used to sort of the news. Yeah, and he's like a great news reporter. He might be my favorite news reporter in the market because he understands that he's dramatic. Like, He knows how outlandish his voiceovers are.

All right, we're not looking sharp in Fox's bio.

We'll continue. Okay.

Long story short, he tried to do it without a mic when they opened the floor for questions, and then all of a sudden they were like, no, it's mics only.

Great description.

That's what they did.

I want to hear, okay, so I want to hear from Giannis because one of the things I think is interesting when a player is acquired by the Miami Heat is the first conversations that they have with Pat Riley. So here's Giannis.

And when I was younger, I told him, I said, when I was younger, we had the practice here and I went to your office. I was like snooping around, you know, to kind of see what the great Pat Riley was about because his office right there next to the court. But, you know, we had the conversation. I told him I'm excited. I'm going to work hard and I'm going to do whatever I can for the team to respect and you guys' culture and history. And hopefully I can leave a mark here and hopefully turn out for the best. And not hopefully, it will turn out for the best.

I, I find him— and look, full disclosure, I'm going to be super biased now toward Giannis. All right. That's just the way it is. It's okay for me to be hypocritical about my fandom, Dave, because I'm completely self-aware of the hypocrisy. All right. Like, I'm going to be very pro Giannis now and I'm going to like the things that come out of his mouth. So I think my hypocrisy is okay as long as I, as long as I admit to it. Right.

I guess so. First of all, I think a lot of people have seen the video or heard the Argentinian play-by-play guy on the go-ahead goal the other day and how euphoric that was and how great that was and how that added to the moment, even retrospectively, to hear that. It was great stuff. Of course you can be a homer if you want to be. Um, I, I do have to say that, uh, although I didn't hear anything in that remark that was remarkable, but I'm not biased as you are. Um, I do have to say, as an outsider, what the hell's going on down there with this Heat culture business that requires incoming superstars to change their numbers? LeBron What he flipped, obviously, the number 6 when he arrived in Miami. And now Giannis is doing the same thing with number 7. What in the hell? And by the way, call me an old man, but changing your number during your career dings your legacy. It makes it hard to— it gives you one more layer of things that's hard to sort of categorize and quantify, right?

I don't know. I kind of— well, as far as Giannis changes number, I kind of liked what his explanation was, where he was saying that he He's 34 in Milwaukee. That version of Giannis stays in Milwaukee. I'm starting something new here, so I'm number 7. Like, as far as LeBron changing his number, I can't speak to that, but I, I get what Giannis was doing there, and I thought that was very respectful, if anything, you know, about his time in Milwaukee. But of course, you're also referencing, like, there have been other players too who have changed their numbers when they come to Miami. But specifically, I'll tell you, Dave, I got, I got a DM from someone yesterday in regards to LeBron, and we're like, if LeBron comes to the Heat, what's his number going to be? Because, all right, he's only worn two numbers in his career: number 23, which has been retired by a few teams in the league, including the Miami Heat because of Michael Jordan, and number 6, which is retired across the entire league because of Bill Russell. So if the Heat sign LeBron, I have no idea what number he's going to wear.

Who even—

this Heat culture that you're so proud of apparently means so little that you just decided when you revealed Giannis to the world, um, that, that now you no longer wear red and orange, now you're pink. That's, that's it. That, that we're just making— we've decided this is the new direction of your proud organization.

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Jessica thinks you're pathetic.

I saw the look on her face. It can never be the lane to victory, Matt. No, I think Jeremy's pathetic. Jeremy just delivered the most absurd theater kid basketball analysis line that I've ever heard from him.

Jeremy Tatché.

My dad was talking about the adjustments that Spo made and criticizing him last night, and Jeremy just back here, his adjustments were spectacular.

It's just like they lost, they're down 0-2. This is the Dan Levitan Show.

I'm with Dave on this one. It just— the whole Nike strategy when it comes to NBA uniforms is maddening. I like turning on a TV and knowing who's home in a while.

I'm so with you. I'm so with you.

You're at home in the NBA, you wear white.

You wear white.

You're on the road, dark unis.

You wear colors on the road.

Yeah, occasionally mix up the alternate on the road.

I can't—

Lakers can't— we get—

we—

yeah, we get it.

That's okay.

They're the Lakers home, gold.

Yeah, that's okay.

Gold is closer to white than it is to the, the away.

Yeah, I'm totally with you. Matter of fact, it took me a long time to get used to this in hockey because in hockey They used to wear home white colors on the road. They flipped that, I don't know, like 15 years ago, something like that, maybe 20 years ago. That took a little bit getting used to. I still—

well, it was, it was actually flipping back. I've talked, I've taken my concerns, the same concerns to one Gary Bettman. I did this about 20 years ago and he said that way back the home team wore the colored jersey and he said, I'm going back to that tradition. And I said to him, Who do you think is alive at this point that remembers that day? Yeah, the home whites. And the reason you do it, of course, is because you, if you're a season ticket holder or a regular attendee at the arena, it's nice when the road team comes in and they go out onto the ice. Some of my memories of seeing the Buffalo Sabers skate out in their electric blue with those gold socks and everything, striking stuff. Right now it's the same team over and over again. I mean, like it's another team.

You're right.

Out there in another white jersey. What gives? It's terrible.

I never thought of it like that. You're 100% right. Every team that comes into your building is wearing the same white. That's boring as hell.

So look at the Red Wings.

Look, head to toe.

Look at them in that, in that glorious red and white. What uniforms these are. It was a different experience every night at the rink.

I know, I know the Heat, the NBA, they're not going to like me saying it. The NBA is going to be really mad at me. Sometimes they have conversation. You hear what Zaslo said? The Heat and the NBA, they're going to be really mad at me. But I hate all the different jerseys. I hate all the different jersey colors. Uh, and even with the Heat, look, I mean, whatever, they're gonna be mad. Like, the mishmash, and it's just terrible.

Looking back, whenever they do decide, I don't like it, this was a bad approach, we're gonna look back at these NBA Finals and say, what are we doing? The Knicks were wearing blue at home during the NBA Finals. Yeah, this is all wrong.

Yeah, the Heat, absolutely right.

I, I think the Heat should go back to the OG uniforms. The original home uniforms. Those are hot as hell.

That's right. White hot is a part of our franchise's history.

Hot as hell, those jerseys. The original white with the, with the big block letters.

The block lettering.

I love this.

On just one side.

Come on.

So interesting.

I can close my eyes and visualize the Pogo Man, Mark Strickland dunking.

Hey, Pogo Man was at the, was at the junior camp.

Oh yeah.

I said what's up to him, man.

Pogo Man.

No way.

Yeah, it was Mark Strickland, G Money.

Yeah.

Wow.

Pogo Man. Hops.

Maybe we could get Tony to go over there and not tell Pat Riley about our decision here.

I could do that.

Yeah, you were good at it. We saw you were good at doing nothing, sitting there while Giannis spoke.

Well, I talked to Bobby Portis.

Well, Giannis—

Did you get him first?

That's for Zazz to say.

He's—

this is his show.

So I'm sitting around waiting for Bobby Portis yesterday for my timed spot.

Okay.

2 o'clock.

You were here in this studio.

No, no. I went home to the Zazzlo Mansion Network Studios.

All right, the flagship studio.

I went home to the Zazzle Mansion Network Studios and I—

presented by DraftKings Sports, now available in all 50 states.

I'm punctual, okay? I'm there, I'm ready, I'm signed up. I don't need to go across the street to the arena. They're gonna come to me, they're gonna sign on, they're gonna set up a computer, they're gonna get on my stream, and Bobby Portis could be there at 2 PM. And a few minutes before 2 PM, I'm about to get Bobby. He's like wrapping up whatever he was doing there. Whatever other spot, I text Tony. It's like, hey man, I got Bobby coming up in a couple minutes. You get him yet? And, uh, you know, Tony said he got him 30 minutes ago.

Huh. You know, they got a word for that, Zez.

It's a little disappointing.

Yeah, I had more time with him too.

You know that word that they got for that?

Don't say it, man. Don't say it. All I'm saying is I got him on time.

You did.

I got him on time.

I got him early.

Stop making that— stop doing that. You stop doing that right now. You stop doing that.

He's spelling—

should I say it?

Yeah.

Don't ever say that about me. Two things everybody knows about me. Number one, I'm not a cuck. Number two, always on time for my interviews. And so I was on time yesterday. I'm waiting for Bobby Portis and Tony already got him.

I was sitting waiting and watching you on your iPad.

What?

I was watching you and I was sitting there like, oh, usually he's the one that watches.

I know, but I had already finished and I went That's one. So I show up and I'm like, oh, look at Zazz. You know that The Simpsons meme where it's— I don't know what the guy's name is— he looks down and says, pathetic. That's what I was looking at you like, pathetic. Look at him waiting there, just twiddling his thumbs and checking Twitter and seeing, hey, is Bobby Portis gonna show up? I was about to unmute and put the camera on, and then 6 people attacked me like Monsters, Inc. and like held me back.

Yeah, they know not to fuck with me.

Took the iPad and took it to another part of the room.

That's right.

And I was like, wow, Zazz has Some, some clout.

That's right.

Some juice.

Some juice.

That's right.

Then I explained to the guy, I was like, hey, I work with Zazz at the Lebatard Show, like, it's all good. I was just gonna mess around with him.

He's like, yeah, we don't know who you are.

He's like, no, you can't mess with him.

That's right.

But then I had 10 minutes with Bobby, so they show me respect.

I want to go back to Giannis. So, so yes, Tony won. All right, Tony, Tony won the Bobby Portis showdown yesterday.

I haven't forgiven Giannis yet.

Oh, for, for everything, just his behavior this past year. Well, that's why I said, Dave, like, like, I— that's, that's Mike saying he has not forgiven Giannis for his behavior this year is why I have no problem pointing out my hypocrisy, because I'm okay with it all now because it benefits me. That's what being a fan is. I'm allowed to be hypocritical about it. That's, that's the transaction. If you're, if you're doing things for me, I like you. If you're doing things that are not for me, I don't like you.

He has to play well, then I'll think about it. I still lose.

Absolutely.

But, but of course, the delusion is, is that this guy who moved over to the US of A from Greece cares as much about the Heat as you do, Zaslo, who's been rooting for them from day one. Of course, we must delude ourselves on this level. But I want to make Tony feel a little bit better, or you, I guess, Zas, because this happened to me a few years ago. I was waiting at, uh, at NFL Network, Peyton Manning was doing a preseason media tour in 8-minute chunks like you were just doing with Portis, in 8-minute things. And, uh, and I was up next, and I hear Peyton Manning on satellite. I'm sitting in the studio waiting for, for my turn with him, and Peyton wraps the last interview and then says to the PR guy seated next to him off camera, like, who's next? And you hear the voice say like, NFL Network. And he says, who's doing the interview? And the guy says, Dave Dameshek. And he's like, yeah, lose that one.

Oh, for you to hear, for you to hear.

I was in heaven. Well, also, I once said that when Peyton, I don't know if you heard, he didn't play his best football in January, you know, 'cause it would get windy out and chilly and he didn't like that. And I pointed that out repeatedly. And he said during the season, one season, he wound up going to the Super Bowl, as a matter of fact, that was the one where the ball got snapped over his head to start the game. But prior to that, somebody asked him, where did this narrative come from about that you're not good in the playoffs? And he said, whoever came up with that narrative can stick it where the sun don't shine. So I took a book, I had a book made up that said Peyton Manning stinks in the playoffs. By Dave Dameshek. And I went at media day and I was like, Peyton, I'm the one who wrote that book on you. Can I take it out now? And he said, no, keep it up there. So the sheriff, I don't know if you know he's the sheriff.

Yes.

But the sheriff considered David outlaw, not worthy of his time. Keep your chin up, Tony Anzaz.

This happens to me when I'm on ESPN and I'm afraid it's going to happen to me the way it happened to Dave one day, where I'm doing a show on ESPN Radio and we're at commercial break and I could hear in queue, like it's how I communicate with the studio there in Bristol. And so I could hear in queue when we have a guest coming up, you know, and so I could hear the producer call, calling, dialing the guests and, hey, hey, you know, Michael Jordan, it's good. Thanks for coming on the show. You know, I could hear them. And they always tell them who you're going to be on with. They don't know who the hosts are. All right. And so it's like, hey, you're going to be on with so-and-so and Jonathan Zaslow. And I could always hear the guests too. I could hear it faintly, but like they're in queue, so I could hear them. And I'm always waiting for the time that the guests are going to go, I hate that effing guy. I'm—

I lived it, Zas.

I lived it. Yep. You lived it. You— Every time they make that call to a guest, I'm waiting for one of them to say something like, the guy, the dopey guy from Levitard, hate that guy. I'm waiting for it every time.

Oh, but it's liberating, Zazz. It's liberating. You know, it's like they say about doing stand-up and bombing. Until you do it, you're like, ah, I didn't die. I think it's delightful that Peyton Manning gave me the hi-hat.

Zazz, is it worse to say—

Now lose that one.

Is it worse that I effing hate that guy or who?

No, no, who's okay?

Who's okay?

Who's okay? Yes. Like, that's— I do not care if they have never heard of me.

No, no, no, Zazz. John Madden and Reggie Jackson park their cars in the same garage, and I'm along with them. What if they ain't booing? They don't know who you are. That's not who you want to be.

Yeah, but the people who are booing, you don't then have to talk to for the next 10 minutes.

Okay.

Like, I'd rather them not know who I am than boo me.

Well, no, see, I am complicated enough with my self-esteem that I think that there's a chance that I might win them over in those 10 minutes.

So Giannis is talking about LeBron yesterday. You know, everyone now, I guess, is in their comfort zone where, look, this decision is about to happen. Let's make our final pitches, right? So here's Giannis giving his two cents on what's going on with LeBron.

If there was a scenario for that to happen, I would be very, very excited. He's one of the best players to ever play this game, if not the the best. I'll be able to learn so much from him. Obviously brings such a championship experience to the team right from day one. I think he's still one of the best players in, uh, if not top 25. Yeah, like, he has to be up there. You don't see signs of him slowing down at all. You saw in the playoffs how effective and good he was for the Lakers. But I'm just like everybody else, we don't have all the information. All the information is in LeBron James hand and his family's hands, and he's going to make the best decision for him. And the history has shown that he's always made good decisions for his career. And I hope if he thinks that the Miami Heat, that's a good decision for him, I'll be— I would love for him to be here.

I think we're going to find out Sunday night. I think we're getting there.

Post-World Cup.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think we're going to find out Sunday night. I thought, you know, like, we find out Sunday night because World Cup's over by 5:30 PM Eastern. Okay. And if he makes the announcement on Sunday night, news drops on Sunday night, you have the very start of the Monday morning news cycle. Like, World Cup's over, there's nothing else going on, and you're getting the A-block on every TV show starting Monday morning. I think we find out Sunday night. And even yesterday, like I thought, remember I brought it up a few days ago, I think there's a chance that he can mention it at Fanatics Fest, you know. Yet, well, yesterday he was at Fanatics Fest and he was on stage with Tyrese Halliburton and, you know, he did a whole spiel where, you know, I'm not gonna hold everybody up too much longer. Alright, so obviously he did not announce it there, and if he wasn't gonna announce it there at Fanatics Fest, which by the way, this Fanatics Fest, you see the prices? What a racket, oh my god. I mean, like, it's— I mean, Dave, Dave, come on, am I wrong? Did I say anything wrong?

My goodness, I saw— I don't know how much it costs to get into Fanatics Fest, it's definitely very expensive. I saw an autograph to stand in line for Jalen Brunson. You know what it costs to get a meet and greet autograph with Jalen Brunson?

I don't. I don't.

It's $1,000.

Sweet Jesus. All right, that seems a little heavy there. You just— I'm sorry I laughed. You just never sounded more like an old you than you just did for— what a racket, am I right?

Am I right?

Denk an den 31. Juli. Wieso? Last call für deine Steuer. Oh no, ich weiß gar nicht, wo ich anfangen soll. Bei Wieso Steuer? Das ist wie Steuererklärung, nur ohne Stress. Ist das einfach?

Klar, macht fast alles automatisch.

Dauert das Nö, einfach per App.

Na dann.

Hol dir jetzt dein Geld zurück. Mit Wieso Steuer. Bis zum 31.

Juli abgeben. Dan Levatar.

Hey, uh, Damacek, you know about that Jadakiss?

Dave Damacek.

No, I don't.

Okay.

I figured.

This is the Dan Levatar Show.

Fest.

It's, it's like Comic-Con for athletes, all right, for folks who don't know. And it's all kinds of athletes and also wrestlers. WWE stars is a major thing at Fanatics Fest. And you know, they have all kinds of like activities for—

I know where you're going to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a dark day in Cuban American history.

They have all kinds of activities for fans, you know, including things like kicking a field goal. All right. Kick the football through the field goal posts. So watch this, Dave. This is Cody Rhodes, all right, uh, former 3-time WWE Champion. Here's Cody Rhodes taking his, uh, taking a stab at kicking a field goal. Watch this, Dave. Yeah, uh, Cody, good luck. Oh man, that is a tough approach for Cody.

Doesn't feel like he wore the right shoes.

I don't think, I don't think he really thought through That's the first time we've seen Cody outside of a pinstripe suit. Right, of course.

That's not good.

Yeah.

Nope.

Yeah, he—

it's a similar kicking style that we saw him at the FIFA station. And it's— You're not going to get any air on that. No, no, it's tough. He's running there. So Kevin, what else are you doing at Fanatics Fest? The cool thing is we're going to be live. Oh my God. All right, I've seen enough.

That's your champion?

I've seen enough.

That's your champion?

That's our champion.

That is our champion.

Cuban American Nightmare.

I find another champion.

I mean, so far now, now he's about to attempt his fourth try, and does he have a prosthetic leg? I mean, the first three tries, Dave, the ball doesn't even get off the turf. It just bounces its way toward the field goal post, which is— I don't know, it's about a 15-yard field goal attempt, but who cares about that? He doesn't even get the ball off the ground. Now, like I said, he's the former WWE Champion. He lost the title a few weeks ago. If I'm WWE, I gotta have a conversation with Cody. I'm like, you cannot be our champion and out there looking unathletic like that.

How—

Mike, have you seen him shoot hoops too? No, that was a tough look. Tough look. And it's not like in the ring he's not athletic. This is bad.

You can't be the champ. You can't be the heavyweight champion.

Well, he's not anymore.

I unders— well, maybe he never should be again.

I'm telling you that.

That's what's great.

This is— you see, this, this harkens back to— I think we've had the conversation about the great old TV show that would be the best if they would bring it back with Superstars, which was they took the greatest stars of our major sports and they did a sort of a decathlon of things. Not just running and throwing a javelin. No, it was like par 3 and ride the bikes and then obstacle course and so on and so forth. We need to go back to that. And I think it's rote and done, this thing of throwing out the opening pitch and evaluating them. I like this update. Now we should see all athletes try to kick a field goal because that was, that was, that was an atrocity. What I just looked at—

his gait—

all of wrestling should be ashamed.

His gait looked worse Than Greg Cody's.

Oh no.

All right, so how about this, Dave? You just saw Cody Rhodes. All right, you saw that pathetic attempt. Which was worse, Cody Rhodes with that pathetic attempt of a field goal, or Greg Cody, who a few days ago we got video of him taking penalties with his granddaughter in goal? Check this out. Yeah, we'll get it for you in a second. I want you to imagine it. Here it is. Well, I've seen it, but yeah, rewind it here so Dave can see it again so I could set it up properly. Here is Greg Cody taking a shot against his granddaughter. I mean, go get it.

His gait was better. His gait was better.

Look how sad Greg Cody is. Look how disappointed he is, Dave. He's ashamed.

His sense of etiquette, his etiquette were not good that day, though. Go get it. Go get— you go get it.

Well, no, because first, first she yelled, I'm not getting it.

Well, I mean, disrespectful, but nevertheless, I think that is the rule, right? Same thing as wiffle ball. If you're the one who hits a foul ball backwards and it goes down the hill, you know, into the, into the creek, you're the one who's responsible for going.

That's exactly right. Oh, that's exactly right, Dave. Like, for Greg, go get it. You got to go get it yourself. And that was, by the way, that was Chris Cody yelling at his daughter. No, you go get it.

That's right.

Like, you're going to have to be the one that goes to get it. But, but the fact that Greg could kick a ball that wide of the goal and then have the gall to pretend like someone should go get that soccer ball for him, it's a level of disrespect that I can't imagine having for my future grandchild.

I agree. But I think this does open up an opportunity to see how all of you look. Kick field goals. I think— I don't think it's really fair ultimately to judge Greg or, um, or the former wrestling guy Cody Rhodes, whatever his name is.

Not former, he's a current wrestler.

He might be a former wrestler after what we saw.

He should be.

You said champion. I said champion. Okay, I don't know that he's at it anymore, but yes, I would like to see all of you try to make a field goal. And in the meantime, I do have to say, because I took Tony to task slightly, good form on the jumper. I did see that when you were at the junior camp and you look pretty good.

Thank you.

I still want to see the one-on-one of Tony v. Mike.

I don't know if that's not going to work out for me.

I'm more of like a team defender.

Fundamentals.

Yeah, like I can D him up and make his life hard.

Who is it again? A mixture between Dennis Rodman and Mitchell Robinson.

Yeah, but prime Dennis Rodman.

Yeah, prime. Oh, of course. I got Dallas Mavericks version.

I got a boo-boo right here. Eating glass. You see this?

What is he doing to you?

What is that purple line down there?

It's okay, it's just a finger.

It doesn't mean anything.

It's what Peyton Manning did to me. Jammed it, toughed it out, finished the game, went 4-1 on the court last week and today had the sniffles, still showed up.

Am I the only one who thinks this is remarkable? So Pat Riley, of course, spoke yesterday as Giannis was being introduced to the Miami media. And it's a short, you know, mention. But here's Riley when he was asked, you know, just how like how special it is to be able to get this deal done with Giannis.

I got a call after about a month of discussion, and the call came late, and he said to me, we have a deal. And he closed the deal, and we both sort of screamed out loud, yeah, we landed the plane. Now there's another one we have to land, but I just want to welcome Giannis here.

So Klay Thompson.

Another one we have to land.

We landed the plane. Now there's another one we have to land. Dave, it's very exciting. Come on, come on.

I guess so. I don't want to get in the way of your boundless enthusiasm. I'm excited for you. I just do come back to the question. Sorry to be a cynic, but if you add LeBron to that mix, do you really think that that's a team that can go to the finals? Yes. I don't have the answer. I'm not trying to—

I do have the answer. I do.

Yeah.

What is it, Mike?

I think it's a team that can go to the—

it's a team that can go to the final.

But something that, you know, this sounds out there now, and I watched ESPN chew on it with a bunch of NBA insiders, and Brian Windhorst was there, and I was chatting with Brian Windhorst, and he's kind of been warming up to the idea.

Yes. Last few days it's been more Miami makes sense.

And he was the one that posited that, you know, most people are looking at this like it's a 1-year deal. And is Miami the best equipped to win a championship in this one year in a vacuum? Probably not. There are probably better options. I concede that Cavs got further than the Miami Heat. But he did mention that this could be a multi-year thing. And if it is indeed a multi-year thing, that's a horse of a different color because the Miami Heat are well positioned to add to this team beyond this year.

Well, LeBron knows it was my second year in Miami that we made, you know, more moves and won.

If this is more than a 1-year deal, the prospect of going back to the Miami Heat is a bit sweeter.

And when LeBron was talking at Fanatics Fest yesterday about his free agency, he talked about the final years of my career and then was like, you know, maybe a couple of years, maybe a year, kind of correcting himself. But it's interesting that he did sort of first by gut say the final years of my career. And look, we all saw it. Like the guy led a team through a playoff series. It's not— it's not like he's not a great player in the league anymore.

Let me hear a little bit more. Pat Riley, this is from ESPN.

We've had conversations with Rich and, and they were very good. So if that happens and he wants to come to the 305, we got a golf course. Okay. The weather's nice. Steve Kerr, same thing down here. And so, and there's no state tax. So that's, that's, that's a little better in California. But anyway, he's got a decision to make and he, he deserves the time to go play where he wants to play, whether he's gonna end his career in, in, in a city or there could be another move. But there hasn't ever been an athlete like him, as durable as him. And I can only think of one, and that was Kareem.

Uh, that's interesting there because Riley has said many a times, Kareem's the greatest basketball player of all time.

That's mighty big of them to allow him to sign anywhere that he wants as an unrestricted free agent.

I, I am, I, I'm amazed. Like, yes, okay, we've known the Heat are in it because we've been talking about this for a few weeks now, but hearing Riley directly talk about LeBron James coming back to the Miami Heat, it's, it's staggering to me considering how everything, how bad everything ended 12 years ago. That Pat Riley there is openly speaking about LeBron coming back to Miami.