Transcript of Is The Bagpipe The Worst Instrument? | Hour 1 New

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Star of the day! Star of the day!

It's here—

star of the day! Start of the day! Start up today it is your start of the day! Start of the day! Start off the date that this year starts on the day part of the days started be Dave he did see his car every single night of his 11-year baseball career Luis Urias has gone to sleep as a .300 hitter for Atlanta Braves who was just named an All-Star Game starter last week so I'm sure you know what happened next but let me tell you anyway because we're going live right now from WSB Radio Studios at our home studio downtown Savannah Georgia welcome back everybody thank y'all very much again hey guys how about some more music? Every time there's been one hit by Arizona Diamondbacks or any team they've had against us lately uh yeah man if only somebody would have told them before starting their season like 100 don't do anything until after May 1st when all these hitters come through okay well anyways um oh hitter my goodness look out boys get ready cause Aaron Rodgers got another touchdown run downfield go Raiders baby yes sir! Hey listen everyone hope everything goes great tonight hopefully things will work itself out between Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Green Bay Packers tomorrow evening though boy those Bucks were getting beat every bad yesterday didn't think they'd ever lose two straight games over Thanksgiving single break especially not versus Kansas City Chiefs huh nope never thought so either wow man good luck Tigers keep winning please help him win something else too cuz then maybe someday we'll give him a trophy also check night of his 11-year career.

Only 11 players ever have done that throughout baseball history.

So like the first ever game he appeared in, he went like 1 for 3?

Correct.

That's how it happens.

That's the way you have to do it in order for that to be.

And you didn't go 1 for 4.

That's right. Uh, can you look up for me, Chris, there's a player famously, um, last name starts with a P. I need to know some of his history.

He—

Peralta.

He finished— that is incorrect. He finished—

Polanco!

You don't know that, Dan, because you're asking for his name.

No, I know.

I put—

if I heard it, I'd know it, and I haven't heard it yet.

Pocetnik.

Every, uh, every stat—

Brzezinski.

Uh, no, that's a good one. Nope, nope. What, you guys don't even know what I'm gonna say yet? You're just guessing names and, and you're getting them all wrong. Incorrect.

Patterson.

Page.

Look up for me a player who finished with a career batting average of .299—

Poindexter!

—.44 or something like that, that couldn't be rounded up. All he needed was like just, just one fewer out or one, one bloop single and he would have finished with a career average of .300. Piazza? No, all of those are wrong. It is not a player of very much fame, but I just I've been watching a ton of baseball lately. No, that was Sidney Ponsonne. You think Sidney Ponsonne was a .299 .444 hitter? That's what you think is happening there. Chris Cody will look that up for me in a moment. But put on the poll as well, @LeBittardShow, is the bagpipe the worst of all the musical instruments? Yes or no? And if you have another nominee—

Harmonica is dumb as shit. Okay.

I think, I think Zazz had it. I think it was Albert Pujols, Dan.

It was not Albert Pujols. Okay, I'm reading here.

Here. He had a career batting average of .2994 near the beginning of the 2020 season, and which ultimately rounded up to .299 before he officially retired with a .296.

So it was exactly what you mentioned. No, it's not him, and it's— and it's not— somebody finished their career in a way that couldn't be rounded up, and it was just short by percentages. Uh, Shams is saying right now on SportsCenter, he's saying that the Clippers and the Raptors are seriously engaged in trade talks on Kawhi Leonard. Today is Kawhi Leonard's 35th birthday. Happy birthday to him. I don't care. Good luck. Yo, accordion, man.

Like, bagpipes, I think bagpipes are kind of cool. Accordion sucks, man.

What? You see a dude with an accordion? You are not a fan of Carlos Vives, that's for sure.

Or Weird Al. Have you ever heard Another One Rides the Bus?

So you believe— put it on the poll then as well— worst musical instrument: bagpipe, harmonica, or accordion. Harmonica's cool as hell. Nick Saban plays the accordion. Tom Izzo plays the accordion. I think that you would respect them less if either of them played the bagpipe— bagpipes, I should say. For some reason though, Zaslow is swallowing the G on bagpipes. He doesn't think it has a G. The The accordion is a cumbersome instrument— how do we feel about the harp? Do we like that one more?

Ethereal! You want to go back down memory lane... blblblblblll Harp does it.

Yeah but it's still inefficient of thing is what bothers me.

What you wanna efficiency Dan?!

You don't somebody laying there in Greek palace ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding I think part objection here why harmonica doesn't classify into this stuff I'm talking about all these other three instruments: The harp, uh, the accordion, and bagpipe; pipes. They're just unwieldy. I have a question.

You keep saying her monica.

Is there a his monica? Put it on the poll at @LebatardShow. Should there be a his monica?

You're telling me when Rowdy Roddy Piper used to be escorted to the ring with dudes playing bagpipes, that shit wasn't cool? Pretty lit. Never saw anyone walk anyone down to the ring with an accordion, tell you what.

Jonathan Davis of Korn. A recent hot topic around these parts. He comes out occasionally with the bagpipes lit.

You haven't seen anybody led into the octagon with harps either. That's not— it's just— it's not a good instrument.

Well, yeah, it's a famous— I'm talking to the—

I mean, what happened?

All waiting for you to talk and you're just— you're waving your hand like you're waving your hand around.

No, but I— by the way, Dan, I'm not finding for the career. I'm finding multiple examples in single seasons. Prince Fielder did it in a single season. A guy named Jim Ray Hart did it in a single season. For an entire career, I'm struggling to find.

All right, I'm going to go look. Kirby Puckett. When we mentioned SportsCenter and what Shams said on SportsCenter, Linda Cohn is retiring after a career of 3 and a half decades. And I wanted to ask you guys if it's even possible anymore to do what she did? Is, is that extinct as an idea? The person who gives sports highlights becoming somebody who is a figure that you associate with a time, with a place, like as the sports anchor in general. Is it even possible for anyone to come around now and be a sports anchor who is so distinctive that the person then has a 35-year career that is celebrated as something that is, you know, special and memorable. Because when we talk about ESPN as a content company, this is a fairly amazing thing that I'm going to say. Most of their best content is not— it's not produced in-house. It never has been produced in-house. Their best content is, is farmed out. But the best thing they've ever done is SportsCenter. And the thing that they've clung to is SportsCenter. And it made an assortment of anchors international names. But one of the places where they have saved money in recent years, and you understand why because they can be pretty interchangeable, is whatever the art of that is has been taken to wherever its limits are.

And I don't think people can go any further there. So you can just rotate people through and they can be serviceable and professional, but they're not going to be standouts anymore as personalities, I think. Do you think I have this wrong? Because that's The SportsCenter model in general, the highlight model, you're getting so much now faster than you need it at 6 PM or 11 PM or running all morning that I just, I don't think that that as a career type is something that can ever or will ever again be that lucrative, obviously, or that kind of enduring.

I think you're right because, you know, right now on ESPN, on SportsCenter, Randy Scott and Gary Strzyski are really funny. Those guys now, they're— they are those guys. Like, they really are the equivalent of those huge names from 25 and 30 years ago. But I don't think they come close to the recognition that, you know, hey, anchors like Linda Cohn have.

Who's Batman? Who's Robin?

That's a good question. This is a generational thing. It takes time to build nostalgia. SVP has become that in a time and he was born. I know he was a little adjacent to that whole time sunsetting where these guys were essentially MTV VJs becoming stars. But SVP is a huge star, a tentpole attraction for ESPN. I think Randy and Gary are going to be that for a generation. I think that's one of the best SportsCenter duos of all time. Gary is a filthy cheater.

Hmm. We did that go-kart race with, with Mina and Katie. And he went and he had like the go-kart people take the governor off his thing so he could go faster. We don't talk about that enough. Now look at this guy at the heights of media, but his roots will always be as a dirty cheater.

Uh, you are right, Mike, about Scott Van Pelt. I'm talking about the next generation being born now, people going into the career.

Oh, it's raining, Gary. They are so good. They are fixtures. If you do— I don't know how many people in our audience do watch SportsCenter on the weekends, but For me growing up, that was always a huge deal. And they are tethered to the hip. They are a great tandem. And I think the years will be very kind and I'm sure they're going to get big contracts. They are so good.

And he's a dirty cheater.

Sorry. It is the equivalent of the Big Show. I mean, it is Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, what they're doing.

You guys yawned at Kawhi Leonard.

No, I'm not yawning at all. I think that's big. We're going to have Pablo Torre in studio. I'm very curious to hear what he has to say. On that. Yeah, he's here. Yeah, so be, be on your best behavior, Tony. You don't want that guy looking into your shit. But I think this is, you know, a huge impact. Quietly, quietly had his best year ever, um, despite all the injuries. I think he's a really— I'm curious to see what he goes for. I mean, given the uncertainty around him, given his age, given the injuries, and also he did just ball the hell out.

I mean, you can't, uh, you can't go Scottie Barnes or Brandon Ingram there. Is that what you're doing if you're the Raptors? Like, what are you doing if you're Raptors. What, what is Kawhi Leonard fetching at 35 years old today?

It's Ingram is the guy that they're naming in the, in the trade rumors. Meanwhile, Dallas is supposed to be P.J. Washington, Klay Thompson, and some picks. But the, the— I want to be clear about something for everybody. There is no uncertainty about whether Kawhi Leonard can play basketball. Article 13 of the collective bargaining agreement, which deals with cap circumvention, has a list of things that they can do for disciplinary issues The one thing they can't do is ban you from playing. They, they can void the contract, but I don't think the league would do that if he were on another team. And they can obviously fine him up to $350,000. What they cannot do is say he's suspended for the year. So he's available. He's going to play basketball next year, guaranteed.

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What is the worst part of the life? Jonathan Sasselow. The worst part of the life of what? This is the Dan Levitar Show.

In all seriousness, why would Kawhi Why Leonard getting into trouble here?

Because he was complicit in the cap circumvention. But why?

But that's not his responsibility to be— to, to be—

it's his responsibility to follow the rules. It's everybody's.

It's everybody's responsibility to follow the rules. A player can't ask for a billion dollars and then team says, all right, we're gonna find a way to get it to you. That's on the team.

No, no, Article 13 makes everybody complicit in it. Like, the fact— the only way he would walk away unscathed if they prove that Uncle Dennis did this without Kawhi's knowledge. That Kawhi's like, wait, what is this? I don't know about any of this. But as long as he's complicit, he is eligible to get fined or disciplined. What are you doing there, Zazz?

You're thinking that somehow the player doesn't have any responsibility? He doesn't have to be the primary rule breaker. He doesn't have to be, um, the, the, the rule breaker who gets punished the most. But why would you think that any player is allowed to simply circumvent league rules?

Because the way that I see it is I don't, I don't see it as the player circumventing the rules. The team circumvented the rules. The player is not in charge of the salary cap. The player's responsibility is not to make sure everyone's cap compliant.

The team is. So, Zazz, if I sell drugs and then I hand you the money, here, Zazz, have $100. You didn't sell the drugs, you had nothing to do with it, but you know where this money came from. Does that mean you're completely innocent? I just accepted the money, it's on me.

He's the one selling the drugs. Frank DeMare played in the '30s and '40s. He's the only batter in MLB history that on his final at-bat of his career, his average dropped from .300 to .299. He ended with a .29947 batting average. Frank DeMare?

Frank Pomare? DeMare. Oh, not with a P?

No. Huh. Good work, Chris. Continue to search there and we will see if I can find it or you can find it— Brandon Phillips! —before the end of the show, before the end of the show today.

So, uh, one Piedroja did finish with a 299, but it wasn't close to the 49.

Kawhi Leonard going back to Toronto where he won a championship, won a championship with a team that is slightly better now than it was at the time, given what it is, our assessment of Pascal Siakam.

$80 million, Jakob Pertl would like to beg to differ.

So you don't think that that Toronto team was slightly better than we regarded as when we say that it was Kawhi Leonard winning by himself and you saw Siakam and Anunoby was on that team too, right?

That championship team was way better. Way better. Way better.

And Norman Powell also. Norman Powell. Frickin' love him. Kyle Lowry.

OG. OG. Siakam. Marcus Hall.

Won a championship and it's just regarded— it is so funny to look back on that championship and because Klay and Durant got hurt, it gets discredited. It's a championship during this era of super teams and trios. It's a champion, one of the few that was won. It's Dirk and Kawhi who are given credit for sort of winning a team. Who was— was Josh Howard Dirk's second best player?

That— no, he wasn't on that championship team.

So who was it? Tashawn Stevenson? Like, who was the second best player?

Terry. On that— I know what LeBron would say.

Jason Kidd, Tyson Chandler, Peja Stojaković, Butler. That team was— Shawn Marion. That team was loaded too.

Brian Cardinal and JJ Barea really stick out to me.

When the Heat got tagged for salary circumvention, Juwan Howard didn't get in trouble, did he?

The contract was voided. I understand. Yeah, that's called getting into— he didn't get his 100.

He still got the contract.

Someone else, like Washington, then came up with the money. But the point is, of course it was voided because they circumvented the salary cap.

That's not allowed.

That's— but it's not like, Juwan, you get to keep the $100 million, but you can't play for the Heat.

Oh no, I agree that like the league can void the contract currently with the Clippers, but that actually benefits Kawhi Leonard. Go get more money somewhere else right now.

For sure, because of the collective bargaining agreement, uh, Adam Silver and the league are somewhat handicapped here on just how much they can penalize the Clippers, correct? I mean, are you not expecting at this point— and we'll have Pablo in here— are you not expecting a punishment that the public at large finds generally unsatisfying because they're limited in how much the penalty can be, even if Adam Silver calls it the cardinal sin of integrity damaging, when he's only going to be able to punish it so much, right?

I'm not— yes, first of all, the answer to that is yes. There are limits according to collective bargaining agreement to how much punitive measures you can take in this kind of situation, no matter how egregious it was. I'm not going to steal Pablo's thunder because Pablo's got some pretty big thunderbolts he's bringing with him. So I will defer. I'll wait till Pablo comes and has that thunder moment, and then I'll jump in.

I don't think there are thunderbolts, though, are there? There are only lightning bolts. There are no thunderbolts, correct?

Thunder is just a sound.

It's just noise. There's no bolt of thunder. It's just a sound and Zazz stole it from me earlier.

It is a play on, Dan.

Is it? It's a play on?

Okay. You hear the thunder and then the lightning happens.

No, other way around. You see the lightning. Close.

You weren't paying attention in science.

Like I said, the lightning comes and then you hear the thunder. And depending on how many seconds you count the seconds, Dan, that's how many miles away it is.

So hold on a second though. You thought for a second there that first the sound came to warn you of the lightning? It wasn't the lightning that was producing the sound?

As the words were coming out of my mouth, I was thinking, I'm not sure if that makes sense.

That was a Dusty May situation right there, right? When you asked him, hey, was winning it better than losing it?

He understood what I meant. Uh, thank you for bringing up Dusty May because, uh, Mike Ryan has been, uh, has been reporting, has been asking questions, has been wheeling and dealing, and he found out that, uh, that Dusty May thing which came out of the sky like a thunderbolt, the Dusty May thing that none of us were expecting, Dusty May to Dallas, I think could have been predicted affected by Dusty May's appearance on our show when he was saying, among other things, yeah, I don't really get to coach anymore here in college. Like, it's about everything else other than coaching. It's something— it's a CEO job, but I'm not actually getting to do the parts of this job that I love the most.

It's a great move for Dusty May. I think it's a good spot teaming with Masai Ujiri. And you have a superstar that you can build around. And if he flames out out. If he gets an F-minus grade, he can always go back to the college game and get whatever job he wants. I think it's a brilliant move. I did some digging and talking to some people. I'm pretty sure this move came together in South Florida because Masai was spotted in Miami that weekend, and so was Dussey May. He was in town recruiting. And I have a friend, Peter Ariz, who now works with Cane's Pulse, and he was talking to people in the industry. You may find this interesting, Dan. Dussey May was calling on potential recruits the morning he took the Dallas job to the very end, he was still recruiting for Michigan.

What a pro. It's his job.

He was doing his job till the very end.

Loves the game.

You love the game? That's a love the game.

So you have to call those— you have to call those kids and be like, hey, by the way, I was— whatever I said to you this morning, I'm leaving.

Yeah, never mind. He just— he just said NVM.

We've been talking a lot about, uh, just just how crazy the college landscape is, where you're recruiting 17-year-olds with money, you're having to deal with their parents in a way, uh, that is a little bit difficult and is throughout sports. I will tell you that the Mike McDaniel-Tua situation started to come apart because McDaniel wanted Tua to line up a 3-year contract. They were supposed to line up together, and Tua's dad got involved in a way that fouled up everything that they were trying to do there. That is a plague. In college sports right now when the family gets involved around the money, and it's something that is making these coaches really not like the job very much because the job has become about an assortment of things that they never could have imagined when they got into coaching. Dusty May could not have imagined the idea that, um, the money problems would be more in college than they are in the pros because the pros have a structure and a system that makes the the money fixed, and college sports don't have that. So I understand why it is that Dusty May, the timing of what he did and, and the job that he chose, because the thing you need to do if you're a college coach is make sure you're lined up with a young superstar.

Just that's the job you have to take. Even if you're coming off of a championship, you just have to get lined up with whoever the, the young superstar is. And you're coming in after Dallas has already cratered. I just don't know how much difference you can actually make as a college coach in that league of any pedigree, of any pedigree whatsoever coming into that league when what you have in the conference is OKC and San Antonio. Scott Pizzetnik. How much of a difference can any coach make? Like when, when Dusty May is hired, you are getting the college coach that has the most sterling reputation at the moment, right? It would either be be him or just Tom Izzo. But Tom Izzo is older. If you're going to entrust your— Tom Izzo is older. And when he was up for the Cleveland job, he just couldn't even get a hold of LeBron James in order to ask him, hey, should I take this job? Are you going to be around? He could not even reach LeBron James because of how the power works in the NBA versus college. But when I say Dusty May, obviously it's a name that gets all of your attention.

But do you guys believe that he's going to make a substantive difference in Dallas, that— or that a coach of any kind I'm not even, I'm not even saying this is any kind of indictment of him because he's got the most sterling reputation that you can have right now. In fact, I wonder how Juwan Howard feels, the aforementioned Juwan Howard, to see what Michigan did as soon as they got rid of Juwan Howard when he was handed over the things that you needed to, uh, the same things Dusty May got.

Well, Dan, you just answered your own question. You had Juwan Howard who wasn't that good of a coach. You bring in Dusty May who's an excellent coach and an excellent recruiter and they win the national championship, right? Now he's moving up to the next level. He's proved at every level he's been a winner. Now he's going to get connected with Cooper Flagg and what they're doing in that front office with Masai Ujiri. And it's like, yeah, it's— coaching is super important. You look at Kenny Atkinson, what he didn't do, what he failed to do against the Knicks in that whole series in the Eastern Conference. And it goes to prove, if you've got a good coach that knows what he's doing and is timely, can make adjustments on the fly, you pay that guy whatever he wants because he's going to end up taking you to where you want to go.

Historically, it's always good to follow Jason Kidd.

Yeah, I don't agree with what Tony is saying there, though. I mean, Kenny Atkinson, when he got there, unlocked Evan Mobley, and then it fell apart after that. But when Atkinson was hired there, everybody was telling me, well, not only what a good coach he was, how he had changed what Cleveland was from a 4-seed to a 1-seed because specifically of what he was doing on offense. You think there is something that Dusty May or any college coach can do that offsets the advantages that OKC and San Antonio presently have in that conference? Yeah. What are you doing with college coach?

I think Dan Hurley is a tremendous coach and he can make an impact. I think Dusty May has proven, having just beat Dan Hurley, that he is a really good coach.

I don't dispute that he's a really good coach.

So you don't think that a really good coach has an impact? Dan Levitar! Ahh! Jonathan Sasselow!

Thank you. This is the Dan Levitar Show!

Damn, this is a lottery team. Like, so this, this happened when the Warriors got Kevin Durant. Everyone, well, why are we gonna even build a team now? We just quit. But no, that's what you do. You hire a coach and you build and you add players and you trade for players, and then one day you get to this place. We're dealing with it right here in Miami where there's so many people who rush to a microphone or a camera, let us know, oh, this is a terrible deal, they're not gonna win a championship. That's not how this thing works. Works. It's not, hey, I did this deal and now watch all of my dreams come true. It is an ongoing process, and you knew they needed a head coach. Obviously Dusty May made enough of an impression on Masai Ujiri, who's a pretty bright guy, to say, this is my guy that I want to lead my very young team that's led by a guy who's 20 years old and Cooper Flagg.

So when Stan Van Gundy comes on with us and he says that if Gregg Popovich had been coaching the Spurs, they wouldn't have done anything more than what they did in that series— Gregg Popovich, widely regarded as the best there is. I still think you guys are assigning way too much value to what it is that Dusty May's name recognition is going to do for the Dallas Mavericks. I'm not saying that he's not going to help, and I'm not saying that he's not a good coach. I'm saying that what is the talent disparity with the two young teams in that conference is impossible for any coach to overcome.

But then you're assuming that that's gonna remain. We already seen Oklahoma City start pawning all pieces because they've got to get their salary in order. That— to believe that OKC is going to be awesome and they're just going to stay together forever and ever and nothing is ever going to go wrong.

I'm not saying that. I'm saying that the distance between the top of that conference and Dallas is so substantive that it cannot be corrected by any man.

Yes, it can. You know how it can be corrected? When they have to trade Jalen Williams because they can't afford him. That's how it gets corrected. When players leave.

If that's the attitude, why try anything? Anything. The way that you combat it if you're Dallas is let me get Masai and let me get May.

I'm gonna get two program builders in Ujiri and in Dusty May who know, all right, we're in a separate timeline, right? OKC and, and San Antonio and whoever you want in the West is on one timeline. We're a couple years behind that. We don't have the pieces now, but we've got the guys in place that in a couple of years maybe we could take on a big contract or two.

We talked about this when the Giannis trade happened. The only guy still on either the Bucks or the Suns 5 years ago. That's not 100 years ago, 5 years ago. Devin Booker. And within 5 years, every single person on both of those rosters has been traded or left via free agency. So this idea that, oh man, how could they compete? Like, life, uh, uh, finds a way.

Let me go back to what it is that Amin was saying here about Giannis and the specifics of you guys doing Fast Take last week, uh, based on Nick Wright immediately deciding that upon the making of the trade that what the analysis should be is predicting each round of next year's playoffs before anything has been constructed. Nick Wright got out there very quickly with the idea of they might win a first-round series, they might win a second-round series, but not a third-round series and, and not the Finals. I'm just wondering what it is about today that makes people so forgetful when 3 years ago we would have been saying San Antonio and Miami are the best team builders, organizational builders. That there are in the sport. And, uh, Erik Spoelstra's peers were voting him the best coach in the NBA. Can you explain to me, beyond Michael Wilbon just dismissing Giannis' ability to play anymore, can you explain to me why it is that people are so forgetful that the timelines now erase not just 30-year careers, but stuff that was happening 3 years ago that we were talking about, uh, not understanding or believing how it is that the Miami Heat with Jimmy Butler as an 8th seed beat Giannis and got to the Finals, and we were all talking about team building.

How and why is it that people get so forgetful so quickly? Like, what's happened to the take that Nick Wright, who's really good at the take, has to get in immediately with the analysis of next year's playoffs when we're a week removed from this year's playoffs?

Well, a couple things, there's a lot more value in being the first one right than the first one wrong. No one cares about the first one wrong. If you're the first one right— Nick Wright was the first one right. Not on this though.

On anything. But predicting next year's playoffs?

On anything. Dan, it's June.

Okay, got a good point there.

No, no, but wait a minute, uh, Chris, Giannis was traded. Like, that can't be— you're giving a take on Giannis, but that can't be your analysis. Like, your analysis cannot be predicting the next 4 rounds of next year's playoffs. Playoffs in June because you don't have anything else on somebody being traded. So you're going to predict— you don't know who the opponents are, you don't know anything, but you don't even— you don't know the roster construction. You know nothing except the player was traded, and the first thing you're going to do is fast forward 9 months?

He said a lot on the Giannis trade. I think this, this is just one of those things, and I had heard him occasionally couch things by saying, as presently constituted, touted, which he's not wrong. Miami Heat have a lot of work to do when it comes to this roster. They don't even have a full roster, they have to forfeit every game, right? I think it's possibly a fair thing to say that this is— going into this, at least first half of the season, probably going to be the worst team they pair around Bam and Giannis. They got their work cut out for them. I also don't think they're done.

The, the second part, the reason that I think people like Nick Wright are doing this is, and obviously I'm biased from this perspective, I think there's a very anti-Miami sentiment out there. I think there's a very anti-Miami sentiment. I thought some of that was weird though.

There seemed to be a rooting for and disappointment that he didn't go to Boston in a way that I thought was strange, like that he erred, that he erred in not forcing his way to Boston. Uh, I, I thought it was weird to absorb that coverage where it seemed like there was cheerleading on half of— some people, this happens in the media all the time, some people are just rooting to be right on what it is that they have already said and it skews their perspective. So a lot of people thought he was going to Boston, but I also found the next part unusual. There was a bit of cheerleading there. I mean, did you see cheerleading for Boston more than an anti-Miami sentiment?

Uh, no, I think it was mostly anti-Miami, but I did see the cheerleading for Boston. But that's skewed, Dan, because we have a lot of people in the media who are from the Northeast. Either they went to Syracuse or they're from Boston or they're from New Hampshire or somewhere like that. And so obviously there's a vested interest in them to see their favorite team get this great player. But to your point about anti-Miami sentiment, it's because people like this show have often touted Pat Riley's whale hunting skills and they're sick of hearing about it. And for the longest time now, it's like, oh, who— what has he done for you lately? I thought he was this big bad Pat Riley throwing rings on the table, and now he lands the Wiles. Like, damn, all that criticism that we've had over the last 7 years or so has been moot. But I would point to this: Pat Riley's first big move was to get Alonzo Mourning in 1995, right? Then he gets Shaq in 2004. That's 9 years, right? Then he gets LeBron 6 years later in 2010. Then he gets Jimmy Butler 7— well, excuse me, 9 years later.

Excuse me, no, no, 19. Yeah, 2019, 9 years later. And now he gets Giannis 7 years after Jimmy Butler lines up. I would say right on time, baby. All that he lost is touched up, out the window. And that's why these people are angry, because now they're proven to be wrong.

That's a great point about the timeline. I think the only thing that differentiated this era of Heat basketball with all the other ones is they were consistently contending outside of maybe one down year where they even failed in the lottery. They got Michael Beasley, they end up flipping him. But this is the longest stretch where they haven't really mattered as much within their own conference. I don't know. I, I disagree with that, man.

Over these last 6 years, they were in the finals twice. Like, that's— I'm— make it 4 years.

I'm confused though. I'm confused by the forgetfulness is, is the thing that is, is strange to me.

I, I— Miami fans need to stop with the finals stuff. We don't say it with Phoenix. We don't even say it with Dallas, and they were in there more recently. Stop with— they were in the bubble NBA Finals. Just stop it. That's ancient history.

You think the stretch from 2015 to 2019 where they missed the playoffs twice was more relevant than this past stretch?

Yes. I thought they were better.

Dan, to answer your question about the amnesia, it's this thing in our hands right here, right? It's instant gratification. It's now, now, now, now, now. And that has totally erased the concept of history or context or any of that. None of that matters. And it's not just a basketball thing, it's across all sports. I get into it all the time with Chris Whittingham in our soccer chat because Chris Birmingham doesn't believe soccer happened pre-9/11 somehow. And I'm like, no, these things happen. It's real. They were great players. Not everything that you're seeing right now is the best that has ever been done. And pick up a book or watch some old film once in a while.

Except for Messi. Except for Messi. Messi is very clearly the best thing that's ever happened.

No, I loved Zlatan's quote the other day where he was talking at the time of Messi has scored 5 goals in 2 games, and Zlatan is like, I did not score any goals in 2 World Cups. It's hard to do.

It's hard to do. There's a Canadian dude right now that has more knockout round goals than Cristiano Ronaldo has in his entire career. It's a very difficult sport, and it's not like you get a crack at it every year the way that you do with others.

Let's talk for a second though, I mean, about how you feel about the precision of the Japanese today as they go against your beloved Brazil. Because when I look at the countries who are not supposed to win the World Cup, I'm not even talking about Cape Verde, which is the smallest, uh, smallest entity to ever get this far in the World Cup, smaller than all 50 of the United States. Uh, they've got 525,000 citizens. But when I fear teams, what I end up fearing is the athleticism of the African countries and the precision of the Japanese. Are you worried, as somebody who loves Brazil and watches Brazil, uh, and celebrates the Brazilian soccer team more than you do even basketball, are you worried about today?

Not in the slightest. I'm more— you know what I'm worried about, Dan? I'm worried about the monster that is going to emerge out of me, because I think— I don't like— there are a lot of people who watch me do this show and do other shows, and they think they have a pretty good handle on Amin. Oh, and Amin's passionate about something. Newsflash: I'm faking it. Every time you see me get worked up here talking talking about, oh, the Giannis or the Heat or whatever, like, that's— I'm not really passionate. I'm just talking. When it comes to Brazil, you're that into Brazil?

Minor penalty, 2 minutes for explaining the show.

You can't say that every time you sound passionate you're not actually passionate. He's Bill Walton, Dan.

The hyperbole is what it's meant for. Are you not listening to the man?

This is so he can come in and contextualize how much he cares about I care about Brazil in an unhealthy way.

Like, I will— I was watching the Brazil versus Haiti match, minding my business. I'm chiming into the chat like, hey guys, and these guys are like, oh, you're supposed to be really proud. And I went ballistic. I went off on everybody in there. And then at the end I said, if you don't like it, you can start a new group chat or just blame Mike Ryan because he's the one that brought me here. I did not ask to be a part of this.

There is a chance that Amin totally crashes out today because even before the tournament, in the preview episodes, I was like, look out if Brazil Brazil plays Japan. That is a very tricky opponent. Now Brazil, I think the last few matches has settled in. Their identity is good. Vinícius is playing incredibly well, but they kicked Scotland and Haiti's ass, right? They, they, they high-press Scotland into pure hell. The high press is not going to be as effective, I think, against Japan, who is very skilled, very good with the ball at their feet, very good at dribbling through traffic. So I do think that this is going to be a, a really tricky test for Brazil.

My thing is this: you could argue that Spain had a pretty underwhelming group stage. I haven't heard anybody, dog, do doubting of Spain the way they doubt Brazil. You guys love to— this is the worst Brazil— I've had to hear that one. This is the worst Brazilian side in like 40 years or 50 years, whatever, or ever. That's the crazy one, man.

I, I remember '75 because they're still counting on Fabinho and they don't have like a striker.

So you don't remember '75? You know why, Dan?

Because I care about this shit.

I want—

hey, Chris Chris Whittingham, fire up YouTube! It's all there! You don't have to just say, "Oh, it happened while I was alive. Oops, I don't know it." This is your goddamn job, Chris Whittingham! This is your job! You should take it seriously like I do! I take this shit seriously! What year were you born? 1979.