Transcript of Goodbye, Sergei Bobrovsky. Hello, LeBron James? | Local Hour New

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 lange?

Nö, einfach per App. Na dann. Hol dir jetzt dein Geld zurück mit Wieso Steuer. Bis zum 31. Juli abgeben.

Need some help from the group here on how to start the show because we've got in play Serena at Wimbledon. Mexico, dos a cero. Are you chewing bacon? You're gonna start chewing bacon? You're gonna start eating your breakfast?

I didn't realize where it started.

It's the closest to the Mikey's ever been.

How many pieces of bacon are you holding there?

Well, this is the best bacon I've ever had, and it's a rare double wide. When you get two pieces of bacon naturally, organically stuck together, it's just a beautiful thing. And this is the— I happen to be reading The Pride of a Lion, And these two slices of bacon were right in the book, right on page 85.

We're not on video right now. That would have been a great visual joke for people to see the bookmark as bacon in your book.

He's in front of the mic, he's playing to the camera all during a time where it's not at all necessary.

Perfect. I mean, I'm bragging about the bacon they have here.

I will say it's a beautiful piece of bacon, Greg. The color on that bacon.

Is like a leather couch.

It's sublime. The taste, the thickness. Oh, it's all right on the mark. I didn't mean to interrupt the show. What were you saying?

We have LeBron possibly coming to Miami. We have the Marlins are the best team in baseball in June, mathematically, empirically.

I have a blue leather couch, but you know what I mean, a red leather couch. You know what I'm talking about, Greg, right? Nice burgundy color on the bacon.

Oh my God.

I need a new couch.

Uh, perfect crunch.

Again?

Little combination of crunch and chew. Oh my God.

Put it on the poll, please, @LevitarShow. Do you know anyone who, or do you know any adults out of college who have a blue leather couch? I want to know whether or not anyone in our audience knows someone else who has decided that a married couple who are adults and have a child have decided on the blue leather couch, because I only know one person like that. That is, he finished in second place in the recent contest for Dad of Honor. Mike Ryan's the only person I know who's got a blue leather couch. Adult. Not in college.

It's a good-looking couch.

I'm not saying—

What's going on over here?

I'm not saying it's not a good-looking couch. I'm saying blue is— it's an aggressive choice. I'm not saying it's not a nice couch. I'm not criticizing the couch.

Seems like you're criticizing the couch.

I'm talking about its rarity. I'm not criticizing the couch.

Well, what shade of blue is it? That's the key, because blue among all the colors, Blue can vary from like a light powder sky blue to an almost deep blue, like a sea blue, a burgundy almost.

This is a true blue.

Wow.

Like a Chelsea blue.

Put it on the poll please @LeBittardShow. Of all the colors, does the blue have the most range of colors? 'Cause I think Cody might have this correct.

Yeah.

You got light blue, electric blue, like there's a whole spectrum. The whole spectrum of most colors. Yes, but blue more than most.

Blue more than most. Thank you, Chris.

Great intellect, you've been smarter ever since you are on Pablo Torre Finds Out. It's been amazing to watch. Yes, there is a whole spectrum for colors, but I believe Greg is right when he says more by name in the Crayola box once they go to 64.

I'm—

well, you can look this up actually, how many blues are in the Crayola box, because that will, that will at least, uh, help us start answering.

Depends, is it, is it the Extendo boxes, the regular boxes, the blue box?

I made it to 64. It can't be the blue box. There's a whole blue—

they got a whole blue box.

Do they have another box for another color?

There are 11 shades of blue in the Crayola 64.

I feel like Greg is like, he's got a burst of energy. It's like the bacon is like a superpower for him.

It is, yeah, it is. You know why? Because I don't eat it every day, okay? So when I see bacon, it's like a grand prize to me. It feels like I've just hit the lottery, you know? And then I can't stop. Those are my 7th and 8th pieces of bacon this morning. Although when it's a double-wide like that, you get to— you get to count it as one piece of bacon.

Yeah, counts as one.

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

The LeBron thing to Miami is real, and I'm going to tell you why, even as I tell you that some of my information recently out of the Heat Organization can be spotty because they're always very private, but also they're not terribly happy with me for a number of different reasons. But in the people that I have contacted, and I realized this last night, all of them are saying, I'll tell you how happy I am on July 6th. And I thought that was because that's when the Yanis thing can go through. It's because they've got a plan around Yanis that's about this year. It's not about 2 years from now. And when LeBron breaks up kind of quietly with his team, a lot of respect there for the Lakers and for Doncic. That's the first time LeBron has left a situation. That's the first time recently with these partnerships that they don't end kind of messy. And then the framing is LeBron tells the Lakers he's going to go elsewhere when they broke up with him. Okay, they're allowing him to frame it, but they weren't going to pay him. And when you consider some of the moves and how they're making them, where the Wiggins deal can be traded the way that it's done, you're signing Hardaway.

They've got money for LeBron. They're gonna have more money than the Warriors to give LeBron. And the biggest thing, the most important thing, it's in the East. That's where all of his success is. Like, I know he won with the Lakers, but what he did for many years in that unprecedented run through the conference, it was always an easy conference, and it's still the easier conference. If you can't get past OKC and the Spurs with Doncic, you're not going to do it with Golden State and a team that's old. When you consider that in the playoffs last year, when all the players are broken, the oldest guys who got minutes among the top 25 were Tobias Harris and James Harden. Everyone else was under 32. You're not going to win with an old team in today's NBA. They cannot withstand the rigor of this. And I, I just really think the LeBron to Miami thing is real. It's not, it's not just something to talk about. It's not just because LeBron wants the attention. It's one of his options.

You're not going to win with an old team in today's NBA, but wouldn't Miami become an old team?

Yes, they'd be old, but their centerpiece is 31, not Steph Curry's age. Yes, Miami, Miami is an old team. Like, Miami is already an old team with all of the things they're doing. They've gone from a young team, an old team. But what I'm telling you about that as the blueprint, it's for right now, not 2 years from now, not 3 years from now. It's an old team to win the whole thing right now.

I spent a lot of time on this yesterday, and I was a little bit disappointed in myself that I was essentially fooled, or I fooled myself a couple of days ago when the Andrew Wiggins extension came out. You know, 3 years, $64 million. I'll actually— let me back up for a second. You know, if you're trying to look at teams who think that they have a shot at LeBron James, well, it's easy to point at the Warriors, right? Because Draymond Green opted out, and that's going to give them a chance to spread a little bit of money out.

They're the betting favorite. They're the overwhelming betting favorite to get LeBron.

So hey, they must know something, right? They are, they are positioning themselves to have a chance at signing LeBron. It's not gonna be for a lot of money, all right, but Draymond gave them some flexibility. And when the Heat signed Andrew Wiggins to the extension, I was like, oh, 3 years, $64 million. Nice, he's saving them about $9 million a year, they're gonna be able to bring back Norman Powell. No, no, no, that's not actually what happened. Andrew Wiggins opted in to the last year of the deal for $30 million, saving the Heat no money this year, and it's an extension of 2 years after that for $17 million per. Why did he do that? Well, if we're talking about a trade, a sign and trade, a player like Wiggins who the Lakers can use.

I'm not—

I will never believe that LeBron is gonna take any type of $6 million contract until I see it. But $30 million, when you're trading Andrew Wiggins' salary for LeBron, LeBron will take $30 million. And it becomes very attractive, Dan, for the Lakers when Wiggins' salary next year drops to $17 million.

It's one thing with Wiggins though, but what I'm telling you about how these architects do things, Ellisberg more than anybody, okay? The Giannis thing is a single piece, and once that's locked in, they have a splayed-out plan around him that is immediate. It's not to— look, Pat Riley's in his 80s, man, and he is notoriously impatient. This is not a person who has much tolerance, and at very many points in his career has played with the young people he played with the last couple of years who netted him nothing in the way of real results. He does not trust young players. He didn't trust them as a coach. He does not trust them as a general manager and president. He wants to win with old veterans who have seen a little bit of everything. And I'm telling you, LeBron to Miami is real. And it's at least in part because there aren't a lot of other real competitors. Why would he go to Minnesota? Why? Why would he go play with Lonzo? Why would he go play with Lonzo Ball and Anthony Edwards? I'm sorry, uh, uh, LaMelo Ball. Uh, why would he go do that, uh, and play in Minnesota and live in Minnesota?

Dan, it was literally just, what, 3 weeks ago when the NBA Finals are going on and we're talking about, okay, every free agent or every player that wants a trade is going to leave the Western Conference. And it's not just about Wembenyama, it's also about Oklahoma City. So LeBron— LeBron's smart, man. He knows what a good basketball team looks like. LeBron thinks that going to Golden State and teaming up with Steph Curry, who played just 40 games this past year, and Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler was not available until March, that that team is beating Oklahoma City or San Antonio?

But more to the point, okay, what he has just seen and learned at the end of his career in Los Angeles with Luka Dončić at his side is Defense is really important, and where do you get it? Here. This, this is where you get defense, and he won't have to play it. Like, with those two guys behind him, he will not have to be the one playing the defense. He just learned the last couple of years with the Lakers, no matter how good Luka is, I could be by his side, we're terrible defensively. We do not have a chance against the two teams we keep talking about, the Spurs being young and OKC, and the Spurs being young. Yes, they are. That's one reason to fear them. The greater reason to fear them? Both of those teams, top 5 in defense.

Their frontcourt is amazing defensively. They're unique in that they can come out to the perimeter, but Miami presently on their roster has very capable perimeter defenders as well. And LeBron can still defend, but he doesn't have to do it night in and night out.

LeBron hates playing down low. Hates having to use the body, especially at this, this age. With Miami, he doesn't have to play big. Their two big stars are big. He will not have to play big if he signs in Miami.

There's no question that Giannis and Bam make Miami a great destination, particularly for, for LeBron. But don't discount Cleveland. A homecoming with Cleveland, which is second in the betting odds behind Golden State, because I don't know at this point if LeBron is obsessed with one more championship. He's a multiple champion. In a couple of different spots. If he's looking to play one more year and make it a homecoming, I, I wouldn't discount Cleveland.

Uh, Rich Paul, his agent, put at the top of the list in a happiness bucket that he said had 10 or 12 things, uh, making sure to be competitive. Uh, he's not going to go— all of the teams that are going to be in play for LeBron, every single one of them is going to be competitive. He's not going to Utah. The options are limited. Like, he does not have the kinds of options that you would think that he would have because not a lot of people have the kind of money that he's going to need. And the Warriors are among the teams that at at the moment don't have the money.

And the Warriors, uh, not only that, the Cleveland Cavaliers— you want him to play with James Harden also for the twilight of his career, being like, all right, let me figure out how to get James Harden over the hump. Like, there's a lot there if they even keep James Harden, right? Like, if they ship him out for an incoming trade with LeBron, then all of a sudden you're looking around saying, all right, I got Spider Mitchell, I got Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.

All right, good luck.

Like, is that competitive in the East? Thank you for this segment. Market price on the Miami Heat to win the NBA Finals right now on the DraftKings Sports app, available in all 50 states including your Sunshine State, plus 11. $1.50. Took it.

It's, uh, it's good value because I, I will tell you again that it is real. It is more real than the idea that Windhorse is floating LeBron and Jaylen Brown teaming up with the Cavs.

What is that?

That's a mess.

Then you lose your frontcourt. They're gonna trade Evan Mobley. Like, where does, where does James Harden go?

But besides, like, Boston, when Boston trades Jaylen Brown, they're not trading him to a team that they're gonna have to then beat in the playoffs. Like, they're not going to trade him to Cleveland.

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Down levitar!

Can't trade Moreno!

Nice hat!

Nice hat, Zach!

It's what he's most known for! It's not like I'm holding on to it! Great Cody! Nice hat! But it's Marino. And then the next time we saw Marino after Greg Cody traded him, he threw for 5 touchdowns. And he was being the man on the COVID of Sports Illustrated. You can't trade Marino.

Nice hat, asshole. This is the Dan Le Batard Show. Let's go out to the whiteboard where Jeremy Tasche is the white person. Go ahead, Jeremy.

Hi, I have money here for all of these teams. So you have the Cavaliers, the Warriors, and the Miami Heat. I've written down where things stand at the present moment, but there's maneuverability with all of these teams. So presently, the Warriors have the non-tax mid-level exemption open in full. That's $15.1 million. But the only reason that's the case is because Draymond Green is presently unsigned. He opted out of a $27.7 $27 million deal. So to be able to sign LeBron James outright and sign Draymond back, if LeBron was at that number, Draymond would be taking over a $10 million pay cut for this season, and they would then have to squeeze the rest of their players into the margins. It probably would end up being less than $17 million for Draymond. So that doesn't seem to be right. The guy they could be trying to move right now is Moses Moody to potentially clear up space. He makes $12.5 million. When you look at the Cavaliers, the Jaylen Brown idea was floated. You would need to be basically breaking up the team that you have. You have James Harden presently opted out, but the only thing at the moment that the Cavs can offer is the veteran minimum.

They're over the salary cap. So they're trying to move guys reportedly like Dennis Schroeder and Max Struis, guys who are making $14.8 and $16 million respectively. And then you look over at the Miami Heat. Now at the moment, after the Tim Hardaway Jr. signing, the Heat have $6.5 million left left in their mid-level exemption. Um, but that $15.1 can become available on the MLE if you move a Bobby Portis, who technically has not been traded to the Heat yet, and ship him somewhere else. If you're able to move Nikola Jović, and as Zaz brought up, that Andrew Wiggins contract is most interesting right now. Having him opt in and then create what is going to be one of the better contracts in the league next year. 32-year-old Andrew Wiggins at $17 million with a player option is going to be one of the better deals. So whether that's still on the Heat or moved elsewhere, like potentially those Lakers, there are all sorts of routes for the Heat to open up money. But the question becomes, could a team like the Timberwolves jump in, or even Dwyane Wade's Utah Jazz? Those are the questions we have to ask.

Uh, we don't have to ask that. Uh, I can answer both of those for you. No, you don't have to take Minnesota or Utah seriously.

LeBron in Utah last year, that would be so funny.

Hey, uh, I'm leaving family, I'm gonna go to Utah.

Yeah. So Bronny got his money guaranteed by the Lakers yesterday.

Good dad, LeBron.

Draymond is trying. Draymond is trying and has been trying for a while to figure out how to play with LeBron. Draymond represented by the same management team as LeBron. So is Anthony Davis. The Wizards are saying Anthony Davis is not on the market in any way, shape, or form. It is interesting to know that Draymond and LeBron have the same management team, because the maneuvering around the Giannis stuff, both in Miami— where I am assuring you that the Wiggins contract is not a success if Andrew Wiggins is here for all 3 of the years. They did that to have the flexibility to move him because that is a, that is a valuable asset. He has been good for them, but they made a cheap, easy signing in Tim Hardaway Jr., and I'm telling you, the league is paying Wait a minute, Giannis is going to go eat at the rim and I can just shoot threes? So Tim Hardaway's got a 1-year deal and he's saying, no, no, I was really good in Denver. I've become a really good three-point shooter. I'll never wear my father's number in Miami because he's already told Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller that his kid ain't wearing his number.

Would you like to see your son in the Heat jersey?

Do you think it happens before he retires? I've been trying to get him in a Heat jersey and he will not be wearing my number. He gets on the Heat team, he will not be wearing my number. Do you understand me? That number is never coming down. You are not going to wear my jersey.

I agree.

See how I walk now? It hurts when I walk.

That's why my jersey's up there. You are not going to wear my jersey.

Then my wife be like, well, why not? Because he's not. That is not a dad of honor. It's just not a dad of honor. What do you think of that? You're a selfish dad, Greg.

Sure am.

What are your thoughts on, uh, holding back your son's— like, it would be great if they took the number out of the rafters and draped Tim Hardaway Jr. in the Giant jersey.

I love Tim's attitude, and Tim Sr. is, is who I mean. He's being truthful. He earned that number. He earned the rafters. His son, his son's had a nice career. He's played in the league like 12 years. He's a good sixth man. I think he's a good signing for the Heat, particularly if they lose Portis. Good 3-point shooter, but he's not Tim Hardaway the dad. And, and I love the fact that he's not just playing nice and saying, yeah, I'd love him to have my number. No, nobody's going to get my number because it's way up there.

I hate when players, they ask the retired jersey guy, can I have your number? No, it's retired. That's what that means.

Yes.

All right, put it on the poll at Le Batard Show. If your jersey were retired would you let your son wear it? Yes or no is the question. Uh, I just posed the question to the Dad of Honor last night. Las Rosas has a big, uh, semi-annual award where they give, uh, a Dad of Honor, uh, his honors for being a dad. And here you see a shocked and, uh, altered, uh, Zaslo, uh, out very late at 5 PM and, uh, out past his bedtime.

What are you, in the Blue Man Group? What is this? They dyed you blue in there?

And that trophy is very small. The Dad of Honor trophy is— it It doesn't seem like it's very large. Do you have it?

No, no, I left it there. I left it there because I want everybody who shows up to Las Rosas to remember, you know, what happened that night. And that was me giving that award.

It's on proud display.

Yeah, that's right.

All of you are with Tim Hardaway Sr. on this. This is a funny repeat question we used to always ask on Highly Questionable. We would ask NBA players, when did your dad stop playing basketball against you? And all of them said, every one of them, it was a consensus, as soon as I got very close to beating him for the first time. Like, that's when the fouls started, and that's where the aggressive play started, and I became bloodied, and he knew I was, I was going to be better than him, and that's when he retired. Uh, and so there is a weird thing here with dads and competitiveness. I think it would be a great honor if if they unretired the number exclusively just so his son could wear it and then would re-retire it when his, uh, when his son was done playing for them?

Absolutely not.

That's the key for me. If it's going back up in the rafters after, then I would let my son wear it.

Absolutely not.

It besmirches the, uh, hallowed number. It really does. I mean, plus it's so ceremonial if you do it like that. Come on.

There's no caveat. We're retiring your number unless you want to take it down one day and give it to someone. No, no, not someone. Yeah, someone.

Not someone. Someone who is literally a piece of you.

He's someone.

The only someone who can be a piece of you are the children.

Now, these numbers aren't retired, but they are honored by the Miami Heat. Numbers 23 and 6.

Correct.

So we're going to have to do something like that once LeBron gets here, which I am now certain is going to happen.

You're now certain?

Yeah. You guys laid out the perfect argument.

It's just enticing is what I'm telling you. And it's a legitimate option. It's real. And the Heat think it is something that can happen because because I did not realize— I had not realized until last night, because I just— I've not been chasing this story because I know right now that they're not happy with me. And as it relates to some of the things that we do around here, we don't trade the access for favor. I'm gonna try and do, you know, the job the way that is responsible to the audience. And so my information on Giannis has been very limited, but the fact that in one voice what's coming back to me is I'll tell you how happy I am July 6th when I'm saying, hey, congratulations on getting Giannis. And there's not— it's not just Giannis. The plan is— the plan, the utopia is not just Giannis. That Tim Hardaway Jr. knows what the plan is. If someone asked Tim Hardaway Jr. what he just decided to do for a year at $6 million with this particular time in his career, because he could have gotten more than that, that, that— look up for me, please.

I don't know if this is public or not, but I I've heard Tim Hardaway talk about it, senior, so I don't think, uh, I don't think that he would mind me telling the story. I'm pretty sure that, while I don't have the facts, that Tim Hardaway Sr. went into some financial difficulties involving his house, and the Heat helped him out with his home.

Yeah, this is public knowledge.

At the time. And so it's an unusual relationship, I would say, that the Miami Heat cultivates, and it's a rare thing to have the same people in charge for 30 years. It's not normal in sports. The whole thing is transient, okay? But when the Miami Heat talk about the loyalty and the lifers that they have, uh, Tim Hardaway Sr. is someone they regard that way so much that when he hits financial trouble after he played for them— this is not something that, that happened when he played for them— after he played for them, they helped bail him out with his home.

Tim Hardaway Jr. was at Michigan, so this isn't a tampering thing. Thank God. We had already graduated because we played against each other in 2010. He was already in Michigan in 2011.

Business Insider headline from 2011: Miami Heat buys $2 million mansion to rescue Tim Hardaway from tax debt. So Tim Hardaway Jr. now comes to Miami. He was very good in Denver last year, a serviceable player, like just is very good at shooting threes.

Yeah, good, good bench player.

Reshaped his career because when he was with Dallas, it was looking like he was done.

And so you have Wiggins and you have Portis again, old team, but you do have shooters around what is going to be the core defensively. And we always ignore this side of the ball. But the reason that Bam has not been tradable is because they love his defense, because they're always— they fell apart late last season, but since Bam's been there, they're always great at defense. It does not matter who the players are. You add Giannis to that, obviously you're doing things with length that are going to be enticing to LeBron James. So let me present it to you another way. Why wouldn't you do Miami if you're LeBron James? Like, uh, is it because Golden— you think Golden State is that enticing? Because playing with Steph is absolutely enticing. I would love to watch that, and they would love to do it. They would have a great deal of fun playing basketball together. That is an enticement that I believe the Miami Heat cannot provide him. But what they can provide him is that basketball will be easier for him here than there because they're going to play defense and he's not going to have to be the one playing it.

A lot easier. I'll go back. I'll go back to what I said earlier. He, he understands what a championship-caliber team looks like. And I'm sorry, you cannot make the case that that Golden State team, especially without Jimmy available until March, is a championship-caliber team when they have to play in that conference.

Dan Levitar! Can't wait for 39.

Yeah, I can't either. 40 comes first.

Do you know what 40 is yet?

Not yet.

See, what are we doing? Greg, did you just laugh? Did you just laugh out loud at something Lewis said in your ear?

Greg Cody!

Yes. I couldn't help it, it was funny. Yeah, but thanks, Louis. Yeah, gagging the goose, of course. Choking the frog. I mean, there's a million of them. Of course, half of them would sound dirty if we keep doing it.

This is the Dan Levitar Show. So here is Wynn Horst, uh, he is being quoted here. You can hear him on Get up. I encourage you not to do that because you need to stay here. Uh, who acted with knowledge? Did the Cavs act with knowledge? Did the Heat act with knowledge? Did the Lakers act with knowledge? No, the Warriors acted with knowledge. Draymond opted out. That's all I'm going to say. That's not all he's going to say. LeBron has made it clear money is not driving this decision. That means he can choose a team that could win a championship immediately. You need to look at teams he'd feel comfortable playing with. It's only a couple he'd consider. The Miami Heat just traded for Giannis. He has a history there. They have Bam Adebayo. If walked in, they'd form a new Big Three.

Heat Knicks is so back.

I can't believe that in 2026 we're actually having the conversation that the Knicks don't want any involvement in LeBron. If you ask the Knicks right now, do you want LeBron James, the answer would be no.

How about 16 years later, we're doing the summer of LeBron again?

Yeah, it's amazing, right? They got him in his prime at 25. And now he's 41, and they're, they're interested again. That's an amazing compliment to LeBron. But let me ask Dan a question that I think he's equipped to answer. When LeBron left the Heat earlier than some hoped he would and thought he would, it wasn't a great departure. There were some, some issues with his relationship with Pat Riley and all that stuff. Has that mended to the degree that you're comfortable saying no problem?

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh, and when I say it's been mended that way, uh, I've never seen Pat Riley crazier than after LeBron left, and it was for months. Like, it was among the most brutal blows in his career because it was the ego swipe of watching the player take the power in a way that made, uh, Riley have to go re-recruit LeBron when Riley's general feeling was, "Well, didn't we win 2 championships? I've got to go re-recruit you." And the story I've told before of Pat Riley in a room having to wait to meet with LeBron. LeBron's— what Phil Jackson would call LeBron's posse, because this was a power game between the Phil Jacksons and Pat Rileys getting to control the sport, and LeBron and his agent controlling the sport. In the room where he was recruiting them, he had to ask them to turn off the television.

Wasn't it also the World Cup?

It was the World Cup. Yeah, he had to ask them to turn off the television because they were distracted while he was doing the recruiting. And, uh, like, all of that ended up being publicly humiliating because we have the pictures of Pat Riley and Andy Ellisberg at a sad Las Vegas blackjack table waiting to meet with LeBron as everyone's wondering what he's going to do, and Wade is flying all around him. It is amazing that we're doing this with the oldest player in the league all these years later. But also amazing— like, it, to me, it is crazy that LeBron still can dominate a free agent conversation at this age.

Oh, he loves it.

No, I know he loves it, but he's gotten very good at it. And the fact that he can do it in the middle of the World Cup and still be of interest, and it feels like Golden It seemed to me when the news broke, LeBron tells Lakers he'll be playing elsewhere next season. It seemed to me that just before that, everyone assumed, well, it's going to be Golden State. The reports are Anthony Davis and LeBron. Uh, it's a betting favorite everywhere that LeBron is going to go to Golden State. But once you announce, we'll play elsewhere, and once you announce, I'm leaving my free agent options open, that's not just to get the attention. It's to leave the free agent options open. Open. Like, it— I, I know in the past people think that he and Aaron Rodgers do some of this stuff for attention, and it's fair criticism, I get it. But it's not just for that this time. Like, he understands his place in the world because the last time with the World Cup, you remember, he flew from Vegas to Brazil. He still hadn't made a decision. He was like flying to World Cup games.

People were following him around from gym to gym, wherever it is that he was. He really changed the way we do all of this. The fact that we talk this much about transactions during basketball is something that he worth with all of that 16 years ago. That's— it's just nuts that this is still in play. And he fits here. That's the other thing. Like, however it is that you want to concoct these scenarios that have Jaylen Brown and James Harden and, and, uh, you know, Donovan Mitchell, uh, he fits in Golden State where they're not going to play any defense. Draymond Green is a reigning Defensive Player of the Year many times over and old. Like, and he's all they've got defensively. You cannot have a bunch of late 30-year-old guys trying to guard guard everybody. And say what you will about the Heat being old, Bam and Giannis are built to run right now, right? This is their 29, 30, 31-year-old. You don't want to be doing this like with Kawhi at 35 in Toronto. You want to be doing it right here in this window, and it's not for 18 months from now.

Like, it's not— you guys keep talking the last couple of days about, uh, year 2, year 2, year 2, this is the weakest of the Giannis teams. I don't think it's gonna be. Like, I, I think they're gonna get a real-ass team around him with the promise of, Giannis, you want to rebuild your career and your legacy? Will Barnes already forgotten about you. He ain't waiting a year either. Like, he, he already waited a year. He wasted last year. Last year's totally wasted. This is about right now. It's not— it's about July 6th. The Heat expect to be saying something more than it's just Giannis and Hardaway and Portis.

I think if he were going to Golden State, okay, why'd Golden State make that move? I think if he he was Draymond. I think if he was going to Golden State, it, it, if it was a sure thing, it would have happened right away. Remember, when he left Cleveland to go to the Lakers, there was no free agency. Like, we all knew throughout the year he's going to leave Cleveland and go to the Lakers, and then one day we just got the report, like on the bottom of the crawl on ESPN, LeBron announces he is signing with the Los Angeles Lakers. That was a done thing. He didn't do this whole free agency song and dance. Now, do I believe that he loves the attention and at his age right now he kind of wants to show everybody, "Hey, I still run this league. Look at everybody looking at me." I do think there is something to that. But if it was a short thing, he was going to Golden State, I think it would be done already.

The NBA always wins the offseason, and the two biggest stories of this offseason were Giannis and LeBron. What is their future? And now the Miami Heat might win both of the two biggest stories. Pat Riley's put up for 10 years. Years hearing the games pass him by. He's too old. He, he can't sign the whale anymore. He can't win the big guy. And now he's won Giannis. If he gets LeBron too, Pat Riley should throw up a big middle finger to everybody who's, who's criticizing the past 10 years.

Yeah, totally. If he gets that done. Do you think LeBron still has the checkered pattern shirt? Oh yeah, because that'd be pretty dope. Does Jim Gray have one more in him?

Oh, it should We should, uh, we should figure out how to, uh, how to do some things with that shirt. We should lure him here by seeing if we could get shirts here that just have the show begging all over again for LeBron to come here. I believe the summer of 2010 is something that ended up building our studios at the Cleveland, or like the economy that he brought to Miami was substantive.

If I can tell you funny enough, 16 years ago, that week of NBA free agency, I was filling in for Stugatz. That entire week I was doing the show next to you, and you did the whole— you and Stephen A. Smith went, put your names out there and said, this is happening. And I was next to you that whole week, and I remember how intense— and I was really young, Greg, I was very young— and I remember how intense those shows were because it was like, holy shit, you, Stephen A., you're putting your names out there for something that is really, really massive, and how exciting it was that this was potentially going to happen.

That's as scared as I've ever been giving a report, and it's as scared as Stephen A. Smith has ever been giving a report. And he also said afterward, I will never do that again. He was so scared because the information was, uh, locked down. This organization is really private. And, uh, there, there was a lot of— there was just so much misinformation. So many people were getting it wrong, and no one thought at any point, really, no one thought— because I remember doing this show with Wilbon and Kornheiser and, and, uh, and Bill Simmons, and we did like a free agency special. And the idea that I was putting Bosh, Wade, and LeBron together, they laughed out of the room. Like, they said it was a stupidity. And everyone thought that because they didn't think that any, uh, any three stars like that would team up.

I don't think in 2010 we fully appreciated what we were getting in LeBron. He was just really coming into his prime at, at 25, and what he would become was greater than what we thought we were getting in 2010, I think. But the idea that 16 years later, at 41, he still commands this kind of interest, it's just— it's the same. And we see what age does to other athletes. We just saw what it did to Serena Williams at Wimbledon. And, and for LeBron at 41 to still be at this level, it's just amazing.

Sham Sharania has tweeted, free agent Norman Powell has agreed to a 2-year, $45 million deal with the Chicago Bulls.

Well, no, now you don't talk. Tell me what this means.

Now, now you shut up. What?

I mean, you got me all hot LeBron and ready for LeBron again. What does it mean, Jeremy?

I mean, it means they moved on from Norman Powell. They couldn't get a sign-and-trade done, but also probably at this point didn't want to make a sign-and-trade, right?

It's not in there.

It's not—

what's the plan?

Is it LeBron?

Are you paying attention?

Yeah.

No, no, no. Does this help or does it hurt?

What's the matter with you?

Does it help or does it hurt? Can you tell me? Are we closer?

Uh, it helps.

All right, sweet.

Norman Powell's options were limited. The Bulls are a bit broken, uh, and going there, a allows him to sort of have his own team. Uh, he got a little bit used to that here for half a season. He enjoyed it. They were playing, uh, unique offensive basketball around him. And before we get too far down the path of who is the next guy through the door, I don't want to dishonor some of the people who are leaving. I thought we did that with Tyler Herro as a show. Uh, we'll probably do that with Norman Powell as a show. I mean, he was an All-Star while he was here, uh, but I don't want to do that to Sergej Bobrovsky Sergei Bobrovsky, because it's one of the most interesting careers we've ever had in South Florida. I remember this show being very loud about not wanting him around for many years, and then he became a two-time champion goaltender and someone you trusted in the playoffs to be great, back when hot goaltender is how we were doing much of the math in the playoffs with undermanned teams. Sergei Bobrovsky ends up being, uh, one of the great free agent signings in the history of this market, even though for half of it all of you were calling him a bum.

I kicked him out of this city several times in the first few years of his 7-year, $70 million deal, and now I will tell you he is the greatest free agent signing in the history of the Florida Panthers. It's, it's an unbelievable run, or turnaround if you will, that he had. I'm, I'm sad that it is officially over now, now, but that guy is my dog. I'm not upset with him at all. I love you, Sergei Bobrovsky, and I look forward to his number going up in the rafters.

Me too. He's a legend. I think you're right, most impactful free agent signing ever. But when Dan says you guys wanted him out of here, not just us. Remember how this run started with their first Eastern Conference Championship of this core as an 8th seed? It started because Alex Lyon got them to playoffs. He was benched. He was the worst free agent signing arguably ever. And then what a turnaround for his story.

It's crazy.

Becomes a 2-time champion, has one of the most iconic saves in the history of the sport. It's awesome with the Bobbery. And forever a champion, forever a legend, a Hall of Famer, and definitely going to have that 72 retired.

Yeah, I think he's gonna— I think he has left as one of the most popular players in franchise history, a monumentally awful quote in the postgame when you went to him after the best game possible. You get the same stuff.

Yeah, bad interview.

Just awful.

Roy did one of those with him.

Oh my God.

Greg, most important number 72 in the history of South Florida sports: Richmond Webb, the Perfect Team, or Sergei Bobrovsky?

Uh, I'm old school, you got to go the Perfect Team, but, uh, I, I think Bob and Richmond Webb would be right up there. When you think of the back-to-back Stanley Cups, what player do you go to first? Probably Barkov and, and Bob, right? I mean, those two.

I love that you answered that question seriously, Greg.

Yeah, I did.

Richmond Webb, '72, Sergei Bobrovsky, or the only perfect team in the history of professional sports.

Also, Richmond Webb was number 78.

Oh, well, you know, yeah, he's trying to trick me over here, this guy. It seemed like '72 when you said it. It sounds—

I think Vernon Carey was '72.

That's who I That's what I meant.

Okay, no, we don't. Vernon, I love you, but you're no Bob.

Wow, two I love yous in this segment. Zazz just said I love you to Bobrovsky, and Greg shouted out an I love you as well. Let's empty the Bobrovsky file here solemnly and respectfully here. What do we have from our file on Sergei Bobrovsky?

Bobby!

Bobby!

Bobby!

Bobby!

Thank you.

Okay, and excellent, excellent work at the parade. What else do you have there from the Bobrovsky file? That was Roy going to Canada and coming back with only a guitar riff. There was only an Anna Bobrovsky interview that was not any good.

He said so little that we I just don't want to play what he said. It was the star of the show was the riff.

Yes, uh, they needed to dress it up a little bit because Roy came back with a Bobrovsky interview again that was not any good, and so they put a guitar riff on it and it made it much better. Uh, anything else in the Bobrovsky file? Sergey Bobrovsky.