Transcript of Is Chris Allowed To Become a Yankees Fan? | Hour 2

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.

Ah, it's a good song before you ruined it. So anyway, where am I supposed to go with that? Black, what are you doing to me there? Where am I supposed to go?

Zaslo Show 2.0, wherever you get your podcast.

Oh, wouldn't it be nice if just LeBron would announce where he's going right about now? Steer us in a completely different direction. So we all saw with the World Cup ending, you know, the MLS has that commercial, we'll take it from here. Did you see what happened in the Inter Miami game last night? Boy, did they ever.

Uh, dude, all right, so I want to have a discussion about where soccer goes from here. I found myself missing the World Cup. You guys remember that?

It was awesome.

World Cup was great, man.

World Cup was terrific.

I'm gonna miss it.

But it's very clear that the United States only seems to have an appetite for international soccer played at the very highest level. Like, we'll get up for a World Cup.

I mean, that's, that's what our other sports are in this country, right? We have the best baseball, obviously American football. We have the best American football. We have the best Basketball. We have the best hockey. So doesn't that make sense that we would really just want the best soccer?

It does, but we're also not ready to put the work in and build something out, which is what MLS's real problem is, in that they gotta make a huge investment, spend far too much money, and guarantee that you're never gonna get all the biggest stars. It's not going to be like that because there are so many formed leagues that make huge amounts of revenue. You're going to be competing against Real Madrid. By the way, Inter Miami got into trouble. There's tampering charges being filed.

Yeah, because it's the shadiest franchise. That's why I told— this is why, like, look, let Inter Miami win. I'm fine with it. Obviously, it's local.

Are you familiar with what they're— the charges over, though? The tampering?

Yeah, it's like salary cap stuff.

It's because MLS shady organization. No, MLS is dumb. MLS is dumb. Discovery rights is what they, they're in trouble for.

Are other teams getting pinged for this in MLS?

It's a stupid thing that shouldn't exist.

LA Galaxy discovered Casemiro.

How did they discover him? They put on the Premier League one day and were like, hey, that guy's pretty good. Let's say, let's, uh, let's— that's our guy. Dibs, dibs. Hey, this Messi guy is pretty good. Dibs! What, what is that?

I know, but the point that I'm making is it continues to be Inter Miami that gets pinged for supposed rules violations.

Yes. And the violations that they have are stupid. They're— I think in some cases, like the Matuidi, like they're clear. But it's also because Inter Miami's ownership group is an ownership group that, like you say, you want MLS to be the best. You want, you want them to spend a lot of money. You want them to get the best stars. MLS ownership typically isn't like that. Inter Miami wants to push in now to that. They don't want a salary cap. They want to be aggressive. MLS doesn't even encourage competition with things like discovery rights among their own franchises. We have discovery rights, so we get to negotiate with this player. That— what's fun is multiple teams chasing the services.

I still, I still find it amazing, like, because we're obviously so used to the way American sports operate that there's no draft with the soccer.

There is, there's an MLS draft.

No, no, but, but, but, but the big leagues overseas.

Yeah, no, because they find their, their talents at the academy level.

It's amazing.

They go out and they scout these other clubs that are regionalized, that are in parts of the world that find, you know, this hotshot that's 7 years old. They develop him to a certain state, they fund his development, and then some another club knocks around and, and decides, we'll take it from here, you feed them to us. And usually that is a mid club and you ascend depending on how good the talent is. We'll get there eventually. But this is something that took 100 years over in Europe. MLS is only 30 years old. But my point is, as embarrassing as that goal was yesterday too, that was fun. But it was actually indicative of what the problem is at MLS.

For the people that don't know, Miami— and I was thinking the whole World Cup, I said to my dad during the World Cup, These— they pass it back to the goalie a lot. Does the ball ever accidentally go in the net? And that happened to Inter Miami last night. A soft pass back to the goalie. He swings and misses and the ball just—

right.

He straight up swings it like it was an easy back pass to the keeper and his leg just swings over it and it goes in for a goal. MLS's slogan after the World Cup is, we got it from here. It was embarrassing.

And of course, everyone's, you know, all over it on social media. This is the team that Messi is going to come back. That was the joke. That was the prevailing joke. This This is what Messi has to go back to.

Yeah, it was a tough look.

Inter Miami won the game, by the way.

Um, did they?

Yeah, 3-2.

Um, I didn't watch, uh, because Messi wasn't playing. No. Uh, so Chicago Fire— Chicago Fire were playing in that game. That's tough. Robert Lewandowski is a big star in global soccer. He, uh, he plays for Chicago Fire now. It was a big signing. But it's also like, I love that Robert Lewandowski is playing in MLS. He's still a good goalscorer in his age, but. But to make that signing happen, they kind of insulted the number 9 that they had already who was leading MLS in goals, 29 years old, not a huge star name. I'm not even going to say his name, but now he's on his way to Liga MX because they paved way for an older Robert Lewandowski instead of just making it work with the both of them. You're losing talent that can help build this league, but it's never going to happen, at least with this current media deal for Apple with Apple TV. It's not going to happen for MLS. And it's hard to see the path for MLS to gain real traction in this country from where I'm standing right now. That's not the future of soccer in this country.

The future of soccer in this country is really highlighting the national team and hoping that trickles down. So we have new broadcast partners for the U.S. men's national team and women's national team. We have a World Cup next year and those typically rate well.

Where is that?

It's in Brazil. The United States in, in the women's game is the best— is a global superpower. So hopefully we'll get out to similar numbers.

Why, why are the women— is, is it more about our women are that much better than our men, obviously relative to competition? Is it that our women are that much better than our men, or the rest of the world is not as good as the men?

You want to get down to the heart of it, I think we have supremely talented women athletes in this country. And unlike the other sports, soccer is like— soccer and basketball are the main things. They're not competing with American.

So it's more— it's more about our women.

The thing that has actually impacted our global dominance the most is actually Title IX. If you— if you want to get down to it, Title IX forced, you know, some sort of resources being pumped into it, where in Europe they don't have such a thing and they only came around on it once they realized it could be a business. And it's actually booming for them because unlike MLS, they have the benefit of having prestige brands. Real Madrid bought an existing women's soccer club and just absorbed it, rebranded it Real Madrid. And it's a success because they're wearing the Real Madrid crest. You're not having to sell, you know, Phoenix Mercury. You're essentially selling Phoenix Suns. It's easier from a branding perspective and they're catching up quick. They have better facilities over there. The domestic soccer league here in the United States is still upper echelon, but you are losing stars over to Europe. But my—

the point that I'm trying to get to, long-windedly, was the goalie really fucked up.

Where I'm getting at is just ride the momentum of the national teams. As someone that wants to grow the game here, I— it's going to be a hard sell, especially after watching that goal go in. For Inter Miami. It's a hard sell. There were tickets for $12 to watch the reigning champions play yesterday.

But that's because Messi wasn't playing.

But Robert Lewandowski was making his Chicago Fire debut. It's just— I understand Messi wasn't playing, but it's still— it's a disappointing secondary market price on the heels of what was a huge World Cup. What I say is the broadcast partners that hold the rights, you're going to have a qualification process with the men's national team. You're going to have domestic tournaments that happen in the summer. Seems like we have a finite attention span, right? Alright, so let's really make the Gold Cup matter. Let's really make Copa América, when the US competes in that again, really matter. Make it feel like the Euros by comparison. The Euros go on, international soccer, like, there is something soccer-wise every summer. You've proven that you have this month-long attention span for summer. Let us use the rest of the year of qualifying to put that over. And for US soccer, schedule more aggressive friendlies against Mexico. Make those feel like something. It's not requiring a lot from your audience. Hey, there's an international break once every 2 months. Get over here, we're playing Mexico primetime. I think that's really where soccer grows here. And it's a recent change that I've made.

I've always been like, pump into MLS. The old money in MLS is never good.

Oh, MLS really screwed it up with the Apple Plus. They really did, you know.

And Garber—

it's convenient for Garber, who's on his way out, to highlight that. Yeah, yeah, your deal is terrible.

They screwed it up because I, I really like soccer.. And I had the subscription for a couple of years to the Apple Plus because I was an Inter Miami season ticket holder. And the subscription comes with your season ticket package. But this is now the second year in a row that I have not been a season ticket holder for Inter Miami. And so I don't have the Apple Plus package. And it's not like it's that expensive. It's like, oh no, you know, I only have a certain amount of income. It's just that, do I, do I want to spend the money on something I don't know how much I'm going to be able to watch it. And now as a result, even when I am at home and I don't have anything going on and I would watch the Inter-Miami game, I'm not watching it because I don't have this subscription.

Well, it's not a subscription anymore. Like, you have to just have Apple TV. They double paywalled it initially, which was a huge mistake.

Yeah.

Thinking that there was an appetite. Let me pay for Apple TV and MLS League Pass. That doesn't, that doesn't work, pal. And so now you just need Apple TV. But still you have this issue, which is Apple TV is still not a destination streamer. It's, it's asking a lot for what is globally such an accessible game. So I think we got to think about this conventionally. You highlight big matches. This works top to bottom with the national team, and that's how you grow the sport. And then you invest in some of those stars and get you let the spigots open and you get rid of these ridiculous rules like discovery rights and GAM. The MLS can't get out of its own way in that regard.

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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 oz.

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Down, Levitar!

God, I would love to see that interaction. Lord, let there be a day.

Hey, Oprah!

Let there be a day. Oh, the color purple.

You like these glasses? She would see these glasses. She'd be like, this is someone I'll take a picture with. He looks sophisticated.

I love big game, not a big game.

Jonathan Sasselow. She would say that to me instead of me having to go up to her and say, I'm a big fan. She's like, I love big deal, not a big deal.

Huge fan of your work.

You're a one-time or two-time championship broadcaster?

Two. Oprah.

You think Oprah would say like, hey, know about that book club?

Well, and I would say yes, I do, Oprah. Yes, I do.

Have you seen Weapons?

But it was the kids.

This is the Dan Levitan Show. Speaking of the women, you know, I brought this up yesterday with the WNBA. WNBA All-Star is this weekend. All right. And mentioned yesterday how the 3-point shootout for the WNBA All-Star Weekend has come under a little bit of fire for who was— who is involved and who's not involved. And I mentioned it yesterday how I don't understand how Sophie Cunningham is not in it, because number one, it's not like she's not a good 3-point shooter. She's second best in 3-point shooting percentage in the entire league. So clearly she's a pretty good 3-point shooter. But also this league, which is obviously rising in popularity, should be leaning in in every single way imaginable to what is popular, to what is trendy, and to what is going to grab people's attention. And Sophie Cunningham is a lightning rod these days, and she's a good 3-point shooter. She should be in the contest, that's for one. Sabrina Ionescu yesterday, who I know is not having a good year, but Sabrina Ionescu is a, is a champion and she's one of the great players in the league. And if she's not having a great year— and by the way, she won the WNBA 3-point shootout last year— apparently she wasn't even invited.

Here's Sabrina Ionescu yesterday.

I saw that yesterday. I guess you can't really— at least personally, I can't decline an offer I never got officially invited to. So I was pretty surprised to see that. Um, never got— never got invited. And obviously that's, you know, whether it's against Steph Curry or, um, you know, in the W, I always go out and try and beat my record. Um, every single time I've gone out. So yeah, I mean, I just kind of wanted to set the record straight. Um, like, that was, that was just false. But I'm really excited for the participants in it, and obviously there's going to be a new winner, so I'm excited to see who wins.

When the participants were named, people said, why is Sabrina Ionescu not in it? And the WNBA responded apparently that she declined an invitation, and that's why there she is saying, uh, she's responding to that, saying she was never actually invited. She's also referencing she likes to participate with Steph Curry. You may remember a few years ago where she appeared at the NBA All-Star Weekend and she had that shootout with Steph Curry, which was a lot of fun. I don't want to pile on on the WNBA because it's real easy and people use the WNBA as a political weapon.

I do.

But there are some instances where I don't understand what they're doing and how, like, what could possibly be the— well, and this is twofold with Sabrina Eskew, right? Where number one, someone's lying. Someone's lying. Maybe it's Sabrina. I don't know. Someone's lying. That's number one. And number two, if Sabrina is not the one lying, how don't they bring back one of their best players, a champion, and last year's 3-point champion. The NBA in the early '90s, Craig Hodges was like the thing in NBA 3-point shootouts. All right, he was a bench player for the Chicago Bulls, but he was the 3-point shootout king. There was one year where he made 26 out of 30 shots and made like 19 in a row at one point. He was the guy. He was an attraction for 3-point shootout at All-Star Weekend. Well, because he wasn't a real good player, he was out of the league. He was playing in the CBA, the Continental Basketball Association. He was playing in the CBA, but he was the previous year's champion. So what did the NBA do? They brought him in to compete in the 3-point shootout to defend his title.

And Sabrina Ionescu is not defending her title.

They had Damian Lillard on one Achilles shooting, remember? He was— yeah, he wasn't playing because his torn Achilles, but he was in the 3-point shootout.

Yeah, so again, like I said, I don't want to pile on WNBA because it's easy, but it just feels like sometimes who's running things over there?

This seems bizarre to me. I don't understand why it's All-Star Weekend. Why don't you highlight your best stars especially? Could she just be lying?

She could be.

I don't want to believe her.

Who's lying?

I don't know why she would lie.

Who's to not believe them?

She, she could be lying, but she seems upset that she wasn't invited. So If she was invited, why would she say no?

On the NBA side, Tyler Herro won it in 2025. He did not participate last year. He returned to action just after the All-Star break. Who knows if he was healthy enough to theoretically participate in that? He hadn't played since mid-January. Looking to see of other examples because the 3-point contest, like in the NBA, is, is sort of not treated the same way. It's become more of a showcase.

But everyone, everyone's watching NBA weekend. You know all the players. You know all the teams, it's the NBA, it's enormous. The WNBA is not the NBA, it's not enormous. You should do everything possible to have the biggest names, the most recognizable, notable names, and Sabrina Ionescu is literally— she's a— she's an NCAA champion and a WNBA champion and the former 3-point shootout champion. How is she not in the competition?

I agree with you wholeheartedly on Ionescu. Like, that, that part of it, especially for the winning, the influence in the league, the stardom in terms of actually like being the person who leads your team and is as, as talented as she is. It doesn't make a lot of sense. It is strange the way that—

and there seems to be some lying.

And so that's the biggest piece in all of this is like it seems to have been mishandled and now not addressed in an appropriate way where we saw issues with Cathy Engelbert at the beginning of the year. Like it seemed like there's real miscommunication between the league and its players at times. And so that becomes the bigger issue than any of the other people that we're talking about.

Wasn't there an issue too where she called one girl who she thought was another phone number of another All-Star and was like, oh, you're an All-Star, but actually not really because I was looking for somebody else? Like, things like that, like, odd, don't happen in professional sports leagues.

It's a weird league sometimes, man. Like, I don't get it. And obviously, like, I, you know, not watching every single day, but I follow it. I know what's going on. And it just seems like every other day there's some type of weird drama going into this league. Chris, why are you wearing a New York Yankees hat? Oh, It's really stupid.

I'm a Yankees fan. My wife— I need approval on this. Am I allowed to as a sports fan? I'm a Marlins fan. My wife and her family, diehard Yankee fans. And, you know, last couple of seasons—

hold on a second. Your wife is a diehard Yankee fan. What does that mean? Is she watching the games?

She is watching. She puts them on. I will say, you know, my wife, my dad, my father-in-law is a diehard Yankees fan. His daughters are Yankees fans. My brother-in-law, like everyone in my life is a Yankee fan.

Like if you're my brother-in-law, how about your uncle-in-law?

He is a Yankees fan.

Yep.

How far do you go down, Uncle Ray, down the family tree? Like, will you say this is my aunt-in-law?

No, it doesn't go much past, uh, brother-in-law.

Will you say it's my cousin-in-law?

No, but uncle-in-law in that family, uncle-in-law, it's Ray Romano.

So I got to say that.

But, uh, is that true?

Yeah.

You didn't know that?

Yeah.

Taz, you don't know about the lore of Ray Romano?

Do you listen to our show? It's very clear that this is the first time that you're listening to our show.

It is very clear that this is the first time that I've heard that, but this has not been mentioned in the year plus that I've been here.

Ray Romano is first cousins with my father-in-law.

First cousins, that means, uh, their parents were siblings.

Yeah, mom and mom.

And also at a Tahoe, yes, Ray Romano struck Chris Cody with a golf ball while we were looking for Ray Romano to introduce him to Chris.

It was the celebrity tournament that we went to. We covered it a few times in Tahoe. Beautiful place. God, I love that place.

So he's, he's your, he's Uncle Ray?

I call him Uncle Ray. He looks at me weird when I do it, but I've called him that.

You've met him?

I have met him a couple times.

Yeah, one of those times was when he got struck by a golf ball.

I'm telling you, the golf ball thing though, now every time he knows who I am, he tells the story of hitting me on other podcasts.

Okay.

It's like one of his go-to, like, I actually hit a family member of mine once.

Didn't he call you a family member?

Nah, I mean, he calls him a family member, but not Chris. He's, he's guy I hit with a golf ball.

But my question is, am I allowed to just— and the Marlins, you know, I mean, we were, we were hot, but now they've lost 9 in a row.

Oh, yes.

Irrelevant.

What happened there, Jeremy?

Injuries.

Hit a wall. Like, it is what it is.

But I'm just— I'm asking you guys, am I— is it— is marriage an acceptable entryway into becoming a fan out of nowhere for a team?

Well, you have a natural out here because that's an American League team, right?

So I get in one league.

In baseball, you're always allowed to find out. The issue here is down here locally, you get— you get Rays games. That's why Dan's such a huge lifelong Rays fan.

So we're doing that.

He's going out of his way to purchase that package now, by the way.

Oh, really?

He has Rays.tv.

But it came with the Heat.

No, not anymore. Yeah, yeah. He just got addicted to it. I don't want Rays. He told me that he told Valerie, I don't care what we have on our television, just make sure I have Rays games. That's it. This man watches more Rays baseball than anyone on the planet Earth.

It's really stupid.

A little caveat here, though, is my dad grew up in Boston. My dad is a Boston Red Sox fan. So I have always kind of grown up as the Red Sox being my American League team. And I'm kind of just punting on that and going with my wife. Does that make it worse?

It's a, it's a job for Judge Zaslo. My opinion on it, especially it being an AL team and not really competing with the Marlins on that level, you should always be able to adopt something that's hugely important to your wife.

And I'm really—

what I'm really—

your own rooting interest, because you're also— I imagine she's tried to make your, your daughter a Yankee.

Oh, we're fighting over all the teams. We basically have like— we've like, with my daughter, we're basically like, all right, she can have the— my wife's a Florida State fan. I'm like, you can— she can be Florida State, but she's Dolphins and Marlins, you know? I mean, we're like negotiating my daughter's—

you don't want to do that to Gracelyn. Why, why give her Florida?

I know this is one of those that you put—

it's one of the ones I had to I was willing to give up.

Really?

Because, you know, I'm not as into Miami as you are, so it was one of those ones I was willing to give for FSU, but I got the Marlins.

When did you make this decision? Years ago?

This was a while ago.

Yeah, this was a few years ago.

You regret that one, huh?

I do regret it.

Well, the first thing I would say is I don't like you wearing the Yankees cap.

Jerry says I look wealthier.

He does. He looks like he has more money.

Wealthier? I—

Maybe also an asshole, but—

I would never. Wear a hat, a shirt of another team. You will never catch me here.

But it's my team.

You will never catch— well, no, no, you're determining whether it's your team.

Well, sometimes it goes with the fashion, but then I realize I'm not going to go down that road with you.

And you shouldn't either. Just because of fashion, you would wear another team's shirt?

Yeah, like, oh, this razor goes well with this shirt.

I had a Pirates hat for a few years that I was just— I just love that hat.

I would never wear that.

What, it insults you if I wear a Craig Biggio throwback?

I would never wear that. I would never wear the jersey or shirt or a hat of a team that is not mine. I would never do that.

Dudes pop when you just walk into a room rocking a Craig Biggio throwback. It's almost like, it's like guys naming dudes. It's like you walk into a room and say, hey, Gosder Cherilus. Oh man, great. No, that, that changed my mood. Gosder Cherilus.

If you wear a shirt or a jersey of another team, that means you like that team, and I don't like any other team except mine.

No, no, that's not what that means.

It is what it means.

No, it's not what that means.

It is what it means.

No, it means that, oh, this is a sick Baltimore Orioles shirt.

If I'm being honest, what I'm really angling for is if the Yankees make the World Series and my father-in-law buys us all, like, I want to go.

I want to go on that trip because you want your uncle-in-law to be there too.

I'm just saying, like, you know, that's a little angle that I know that if they made the World Series, my father-in-law would be like, we're flying up to New York, we're going. And I just want to get in on that trip.

But your favorite team played against this team in the World Series.

Yeah, I know it's, it's tough. And I grew up kind of hating the Yankees, but it's just went to a Yankee game. I don't know, I'm just kind of— I'm in on it right now. I just want to be a Yankees fan, and Marlins are not, so it's like, give me something to root for.

What was that word?

They're not—

I don't know what you're talking about. I, I, I think this is a play on— we can let Judge Zaslo rule, but enjoy the courting phase.

Thank you.

Enjoy it. I'm courting the NFL. Yeah, still. I, I, I—

you're a noted Bucs guy though.

I'm a Bucs guy, and I think I lean Bills. That's my AFC team. I'm going to the, the, the first game at Highmark Stadium.

Nice.

Yeah, because I I like the— there is like also some—

you're a man of the shield though.

I am ultimately. But there is— if you're a legacy Browns fan that's been displaced once before, you're familiar with the story that the Buffalo fans welcomed you in when you lost the team to Baltimore. And it's close enough in region. It was— and in terms of like the story and the fandom, they took the Browns fans in. So it's a natural thing that I have where I lean Buffalo. Dan Levitar! I hate that Carolina's gonna get this moment just because they waited us out.

Jonathan Sasselow!

But I love that Buffalo is gonna replace the Panthers in this situation because those fans absolutely deserve it. Not going to the playoffs, what, 14 straight years?

They deserve it! We deserve it! I don't care.

We won twice already!

I deserve a third one before they deserve anything!

I just started paying attention to hockey. I live in a swamp. Give me 3 in a row.

Sabers.

Buffalo deserves Eat shit, Buffalo. Why care about Buffalo? This is the Dan Levitan Show.

I need a ruling.

All rise, the honorable Jonathan Zaslow now presiding with prejudice.

All right, let me hear the case in front of me, Chris.

Is it acceptable for me to just become a Yankees fan out of nowhere?

Well, if I am correct in some of the evidence that I saw earlier, it's not actually out of nowhere. True. You do have reasoning behind it.. It's, uh, you want specific familial benefits is what we're talking about here.

Can you marry into a team is the real question.

Can you marry into a team? My answer to that and my final ruling is no. You are guilty of bullshit fandom. With prejudice.

So you gotta have one team?

Yes, you gotta have—

Across all the majors and in college athletics?

Yes, you can't just decide—

Oh, that's weird for a guy that went to Santa Fe and likes the Gators and the Canes.

Okay, I never went to Santa Fe.

I wouldn't even know where it is if you held a gun to my head and said, show me where Santa Fe Community College is. I'd be dead.

I'm pretty sure you'd say Gainesville, where I went to college.

Is that where it is?

You know this, you went.

You cannot just pick up another team in the middle of your life. You're stuck with the teams that you're stuck with. You're a Marlins fan. Sucks, but you're a Marlins fan.

Even if they serve ice cream chicken.

Now, ice cream chicken, like drumstick.

The drumstick.

I ate it.

Yeah.

Oh man, it's why I planned my trip to New York.

Can we see this?

It's salty, it's sweet.

Oh, that's perfect.

And then you're gonna see here as I bite into it, it's like the drumstick, me and my daughter, a little cheers, nothing better. You bite into it here, watch, we're gonna get a little zoom in. The middle there was—

Is chicken?

The middle, what acts as the bone is like a little cookie pretzel.

Oh.

A little cookie pretzel combo, a little crunch.

That's even more salty and sweet.

I'm telling you— delightful!

How do they get the ice cream inside the chicken? It's really stupid.

I definitely wasn't on any gummies there.

Wait, pull up this still that's in preview right now. No no no no no no no go back yeah no no no wait put it on main put it on main put it on main right now put it on main all right Jarvis zoom in.

Yeah.

Roll it.

Roll it.

Or just do whatever you want.

Never mind.

I'll just—

I'll just—

I'll just go fuck myself.

We were all enjoying one as a family. Fantastic. Good food at Yankee Stadium.

Was that your first time ever at Yankee Stadium?

No.

I've been there once before. It's fine. It's whatever. It's cool. Yeah.

It's just a bigger version of what they had before.

Yeah, it's fine. Yeah, whatever. Uh, Jeremy, have you seen what's going on? I figured this is something that would grab your attention. This is something we talked about weeks ago because it's been in the, it's been in the news where the Portland Trail Blazers owner, he's called Tom Dundon, and, uh, he's, he's a real cheapskate. Now his team, the Carolina Hurricanes, that's right, he owns the Hurricanes and the Blazers, they just won the Stanley Cup, and he, remember, put his entire family lineage on the Stanley Cup. That's right. Uh, his entire family was on the Stanley Cup. And it's not just other people who are looking at it saying this is a disgrace. Carolina Hurricanes fans were kind of appalled at this. And I mean, there's children on the Stanley Cup. And so he's been in the news a lot lately, but also before that, the way that he's been running the Portland Trail Blazers since buying them. And there are all kinds of rumors out there right now as well that he may actually be trying to move the team out of Portland. But before we get into any of that, I saw yesterday the Portland Trail Blazers have laid off a bunch of their broadcasters.

All right. Including our pal Tom Haberstroh. I saw he was laid off from the television team. He's been like, like an analyst for a few years there. A bunch of their broadcasters were laid off and longtime TV play-by-play man, legendary NBA broadcaster, formerly of the SuperSonics for many years, but the last however many years as well for the Portland Trail Blazers.

A decade, actually.

I think it was— I think it was shortly— I think it was longer than that. No, because I thought it was shortly after the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City. He did not move with them, uh, Kevin Calabro, and he did not move with them to Oklahoma City.

I see a 1987 to 2008 run with the SuperSonics, but then called the Trail Blazers games since 2016. Okay, so there was a little bit of a gap there. I imagine might have been doing some national games or things.

He was— he was definitely doing ESPN Radio. Yeah, he's great. Uh, one of the all-time greats. They apparently lowballed him so hard on his new contract that he was quoted as saying, "It's not worth my time." And he left the team, not retiring, still looking to be a play-by-play man, which obviously if the NBA awards a new team to Seattle, he has to be the play-by-play man whenever that happens. But this is, this is a legendary NBA play-by-play man and That's, that's not NBA. Like, like, that's not NBA-level ownership.

It's awful.

You have to cut costs so much to the point that you are insulting an all-time great television play-by-play man. That's— how did the NBA allow this guy into the league?

Somebody get these beggars out of here.

It's shocking. I mean, to lose him, they also ended up losing their radio play-by-play announcer. He wasn't retained after his contract expired.

They're going to wind up going to a syndication, aren't they?

I mean, the fact that they're— it's that they had his radio.

That's syndication, simulcast.

Yeah, this is—

they—

Neil Everett, who was doing studio stuff, he had Haberstroh.

Like, how's it—

the overwhelming amount of overhaul that is happening with their broadcast really concerns me for the future of the team being in Portland. Like, Portland is a, a great basketball town. They love the Blazers. And we've already seen— I— it was an interesting point, um, on the Emotional Basketball Podcast. It's, it's Ian Carmel and Zach Harper, and they were talking about this, and they were saying like, oh, there's probably be some like financial analyst within the league that's looking at it and going like, ah, if they move the team out of Portland, it's fine, the Sonics will be back there soon and they'll all go root for the Sonics because, eh, it's the Pacific Northwest. Like all the Sonics fans became Blazers fans. That's not how it works. You have this regional identity tied to these teams, and for the NBA to allow a market like Portland that's been so passionate about their team for so many years to have this new owner come in— remember, this was also the owner who, you know, wasn't paying the extra for hotel rooms to decimate what it is that they've built and what it is that they're doing as a franchise and, and a fandom, to get rid of all of the feeling— like, if we all of a sudden lost all of our broadcasters— like, broadcast changes happen when, when teams go from one network to the next, right?

Things change. But if Eric Reid— all of a sudden there was new ownership with the Heat and Eric Reid was just gone and lowballed, it would be a disaster unless they offered for the Miami Heat. It would be an absolute disaster unless they offered it to you though. Oh, I'd take it. But I'd be a scab for sure.

You're a Portland guy, Vin Scully.

No, but the way that they've done this stinks. And it worries me that this whole threat to move the team from Portland isn't just bluster, that like this guy really might do this. And that would be, I think, a real black mark on the league.

It wasn't that long ago that that was a thing down here that I used to be worried about, like with the Florida Panthers, because every year it's like, oh, they're moving to Quebec City, they're moving to Quebec City.

Hamilton.

Yeah, whatever small Canadian town that can't afford to have a team, the Panthers are moving there.

Jack Edwards said that all the time during Bruins broadcast. It really pissed me off.

Yeah, and now it's obviously never going to happen now. Never.

All right, Original Seven.

But that used to— that, like, it's the worst thing that could ever happen, obviously, to a sports fan. And I feel bad for Blazer fans. They're good, they're good basketball fans.

How do NBA owners and governors across the league feel about what he's doing too? Because I feel like they're looking around being like, that's a bad look. Like, at least it's not us, right?

Some of them want to see how this works out.

I, I think that they're probably— I think they're probably okay with it because if he would be moving out of Portland, which is a small market, to a different market where maybe you can make more money, that's more revenue that the other owners share.

You say it's not working out. It's not like he isn't the exact same way for the current Stanley Cup champions. They operate that way.

What kind of mark did I say?

Black.

Yeah, but the NFL and NBA are two totally different—

I understand there's different standards. No doubt they are different. One, there's ice on one. It's crazy. I'm aware that it's different.

And I forget who made this point, Mike, on, on this show a while ago when we were talking about this. The, the NBA player will be more vocal about team amenities that they don't necessarily have. The NHL player, you're not going to hear that.

No, you don't. I mean, I can't believe the iceplex that the Florida Panthers played most of their existence.

Right, right. It's crazy where they're at now. It's pretty great.

It's incredible.

But where they were major league or— yeah, where they were before, it was— it's pretty minor.

No, it was dumpy. Yeah, it was dumpy.

Yeah. But the players are just like— it's a different culture.

It's a lifestyle thing that's in the NBA is so much higher because everything is done at a top tier and they make a ton more money.

There's also fewer players, though. 2.

But also remember, Mike Inouye was hired as their coach for like the cheapest contract.

1-year deal.

Yeah, 1-year deal.

But if you're not only cheap, one year deal.

How are you supposed to earn— how are you supposed to earn the respect of your players if they know you're a lame duck?

Well, and your fans too, because Thiago Splitter had plenty of success over there and it was a really good story. And if I'm a Portland Trailblazer fan, I was really excited about the proposition to watch that team grow.

And they were a good fun team, like they were good young—

he developed He developed players. I mean, there was plenty of reason to get excited over there. And this does take the wind out of the sails a little bit.

Yeah. So anyway, do we know where LeBron's going yet? Have we got any news?

Still hasn't decided.

Chris?

What? There was also this other thing. We're here to clear up any sort of misinformation that's out there that I saw aggregated that LeBron had made his decision but then changed his mind and then we're all back at square one. Are you familiar with that, Jeremy?

Yeah, I saw the report that said he had made a choice and backed away because—

someone tweeted something—

because he was mad at Silver. Now, there are the rumors that Chris did this, and he's the one that set him off.

Well, but how much goes to Chris and how much goes to Pat Beverley?

Yeah, Pat Beverley did say it was going to be that day too. There's been a lot of that. There's been a lot of like, "Oh, it's going to be today," from idiots like Chris.

I did run into Pat Beverley in New York. I'm kidding. That would be funny if me and him told each other.

You know what's the question we didn't ask you about New York?

Sup?

Your sister-in-law a Yankee fan?

She is.

Hmm.

That's right.

Now I get it.

She's probably a bigger Yankee fan than my wife at this point, if we're being honest. Oh.

Send her a selfie.

Always do.

How do they get the ice cream inside the chicken?