Transcript of Klay Thompson Signs With The Miami Heat | Local Hour

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

So I went. All right, I went to the show. I went on Saturday night. I saw Pearl Jam tribute band Still Alive at Revolution. I got to tell you something, staying out late at night It's hard. I, I, I—

What was late?

Uh, well, it was— we left— it was over like around 11-ish, and so we're in the car on the way home, and—

It was over at 11?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And this is staying out late.

Oh my God, it's so late! And we couldn't believe that when we were on the drive home, we said to ourselves— when we used— 'cause Fort Lauderdale used to be my spot with my wife, you know, when we were just dating. We loved Riverfront. And so we'd be going out there all the time. Yo, stop shaking your— putting your hands up in the air, Roy. You think it's called Riverwalk? It's not.

It is.

It's Riverfront. All right, Riverwalk is in San Antonio. You're confusing the time that you went to San Antonio with Riverfront. All right, Riverfront is Fort Lauderdale. Anyway, you're getting me off track here. We used to go there, you know, like when we were dating. That was our spot. And we said to ourselves, I can't believe there was once a time where we were just arriving at this time. Who the hell is arriving somewhere at 11 o'clock? What a nightmare. Oh my God, we were so tired at the end of the night. Who needs this? I was even thinking to myself during the day, I'm like, all right, I'm excited for this show. We're gonna go see a band play nothing but Pearl Jam songs. How's that not gonna be great? And but, but, but the thought did cross my mind was like Am I even going to be able to do this? It's late.

I did it.

I did it, everyone.

You got to do it again.

I mean, if they play again. Yeah, I would do it again, but I don't need to do it again.

It's a weeknight.

Yeah, I don't need to do it for a while. All right.

Weeknight.

No.

Whoo!

We were tired. Oh, man. Going out.

But back when I used to perform all the time, we didn't go to the club until 12:30.

Oh, what a— what a vomit! 12:30? Are you kidding me? How— you take a nap during the day, right?

Nah.

What?

It was excitement.

I, I can't even believe that.

I'm pretty sure when we were in, in Vegas for Summer League, we had gone for the UFC fight. Meek Mill was performing at a club that we had gone to with Cuervo, and Meek didn't come on till like 1:30.

Oh, I saw Wu-Tang Clan at Revolution, which is where we were the other day for, for the, you know, this Pearl Jam tribute band. And I saw Wu-Tang there, which I think was the last time that I was there. I hadn't been there in 20 years. My wife still thought it was called The Edge. All right. I hadn't been there in 20 years. And the last time I was there was for Wu-Tang. And the show, I think I mentioned this last week, you know, the ticket says 9 PM. You know, that bus with Wu-Tang pulled— because that was the outdoor— that bus pulled up with Wu-Tang at 1 AM. Man, that's late.

But see, the thing is, if the club closed at 3, then that's actually the time to get there, because you don't want to be there for 5 hours. You get there at 11 o'clock, you got to be there at 2, 3, so the performance don't start till about 2:30. Might as well stroll in about 1 AM.

As everybody can see in here now, we have Juju here with us hanging out for the week. Good to see Juju.

So glad to be here.

We have, uh, we have good news for the Miami Heat over the weekend. How about that? Klay Thompson, officially a member of the Miami Heat, signs a 2-year deal, something like, uh, like $11-point-some-odd million total. But Klay Thompson, like The plan worked, I guess, right? When you, you know, you look overall what the Heat have done this offseason, obviously they didn't land LeBron, but this summer the LeBron thing was kind of like, uh, oh shit, we got a chance at LeBron, let's try and do that. LeBron was never the plan.

If we change the sequence of events, this is an A+ offseason, and it's an A+ offseason no matter what, but the way that it feels is different because you know, the, the way that prediction markets were swaying and market prices, it looked like Miami was certainly at, at some point favored to reacquire LeBron James. And when he goes to Philadelphia, that lets a lot of the air out of the balloon, right? But say the pursuit of the offseason started with LeBron and ended with Giannis and Klay Thompson— A+ home run.

They've actually done a really nice job when you look at it. They lost a lot of young talent obviously in trying to acquire Giannis, but now you look at the pieces that they have surrounded Bam with. And we're talking— so, so we're talking Giannis, uh, Bobby Portis, Klay Thompson, Tim Hardaway Jr. Like, they've done a really nice job filling out this roster.

Yeah, I, I guess because Tim did a great job of like rebuilding himself, because at a certain point in his career it looked like, yeah, I don't— I'm not sure if this guy can—

oh, he was— he, he had been in the league for a couple of years and was sent down to the G League.

Yeah, and he reshaped himself, made himself a really consistent shooter. By the 3-point shooting percentages, they have addressed what was—

no, I thought they have no shooting.

Yeah, they, they addressed it with what was like the, the lingering question. However, I, I still think, and we saw DeMar DeRozan went to Denver, getting somebody on the perimeter that can create their own shot, that, that seems to be—

so I was thinking about this last night. I was thinking about this, like, you know, sometimes when you, you're going to sleep, you can't fall asleep, you I think of a lot of things.

I like that time you were thinking about how the Miami Heat can get a guy on the perimeter that can create their own shot.

Bingo.

Yeah.

And so I was thinking about this last night, waiting to fall asleep, and I came to the realization most people are not going to like this answer. But in regards to what you're talking about, where, you know, a guy like DeMar DeRozan would have— and DeRozan is the guy that I wanted, by the way. Like, we spoke about this. The reason that I wanted DeMar DeRozan, who does not shoot threes and is not a good 3-point shooter, but still can create shots, is still a big-time score. And I really wanted DeRozan because I didn't think it was worth hoping that Dallas was gonna buy out Klay Thompson for then Miami to eventually sign him when you just go out and sign DeMar DeRozan right now. Like, I would have taken that guarantee as opposed to hoping. But this is, this, this is what usually happens, right? Where people on the outside like us We don't have all the information that they probably have on the inside, and the Heat probably knew the entire time that they were going to get Klay Thompson. But I was thinking last night before I fell asleep, the reality of it is when you're talking about who can be a guy who can create shots late in the game, get you a basket that's not Giannis, because sometimes in that spot he struggles, the guy kind of needs to be Andrew Wiggins.

Like, they have the guy on the roster. I know, I know people, you don't, like, that's not flashy to you and you don't want to hear me say that, but—

I don't.

But the guy kind of needs to be Andrew Wiggins. He's a perimeter player who's been a scorer for most of his career. He needs to be that guy.

There was this Heat account that I'm sure was trolling because they said like Pat Riley has rebuilt this roster in the image of like the 2013 Miami Heat.

Take it easy.

And I go down to the line that has Wiggins compared to Wade and I threw up.

Yeah, I saw that.

I threw up. All over my phone. I didn't even see the rest of the tweet. I threw up all over it.

And you need a new phone now.

To be fair, like, Wiggins has played in some big-time games.

Yeah.

In the Western Conference and has played like really, really well.

They need a guy to get a shot landing it. Like, it kind of needs to be him.

Yeah. And I think the most— one of the most important things about this roster is all these guys are Heat culture guys, and I can see buying into Spoelstra's system.

I think it's a high-character roster.

Exactly. So I think that whatever Spoelstra says in the practices or, hey, bro, we need this out of you, I I think he's going to give them to him.

Yeah, I think, I think it's a very hot character roster. And, and you guys know that's the kind of stuff that I personally have been missing from this Miami Heat team over the last few years, where it's just got to get back to having dogs on this team. All right. And it feels like they got so many clowns, dude.

Had so many—

so many clowns. Yep.

Yep.

Just not, not culture fits.

Yeah.

Look out for Davion Mitchell this year. Oh dude, I love it.

Yeah, I, I love him. I trust him. I think he, he is Miami Heat type of player.

Yep.

I think he can shoot well and he can create some off the dribble, but a point of attack defender. He— I think he would have been great on this roster if LeBron had come here. I was expecting huge things from Davion Mitchell.

I mean, can you tell me Davion Mitchell can't give us what at least Mario Chalmers did for a few years?

Come on.

Easy. And defensively, way more easy.

What are you saying? Easy for easy, easy.

What? You're comparing Davion Mitchell to someone who in my mind deserves to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame. And that's not a joke. I can— no, he— Europe, college, pros. He's won everywhere.

The winner.

Big 3.

Every level he's a winner.

Every level.

It's true.

No one else can say they've won in Europe, college, the NBA, and Big 3. Nobody.

Dude is a— he is a winner at every level.

We asked him about it and he agreed.

A great thing. That he's a winner or that he should be in the Hall of Fame?

No, that he's a Hall of Famer.

Wow.

In the pros?

Yeah.

In the group, we asked him, hey, are you a Basketball Hall of Famer because of what you did? Remember, hit one of the biggest shots in college basketball history.

Yep.

All right. Big time piece for a two-time champion Miami Heat.

And come on, that Game 4 in the 2012 Finals.

Yeah. Where the Mario Chalmers?

Come on now.

Europe and the Big Three. I'm still— I still got a tiny bone to pick with Spo because remember, there was a point in time where Mario Chalmers signed a 10-day and was back with the roster. Yes. He never got his moment.

Yes.

He just never played a minute.

Hall of Fame probability for Mario Chalmers?

Can I guess?

97%.

Can I guess?

Go ahead. You'll never get it, but go ahead.

3%.

Ow.

0.1%.

Oh.

Ugh.

The 1% of the 1%?

A tenth of a tenth of 1%.

Oh man, come on. That's too low.

Come on.

I agree for a guy that won 11 championships.

At least give him a whole percent. Come on now.

No one else has the argument that I just laid out. I mean, why would anyone else lay it out? But my point is, don't compare Davion Mitchell to Mario Chalmers.

I'm just saying he could at least give us that. He could give us what Mario gave the team in those championship years. So I'm really pleased, even though I wanted DeRozan. There has to be context to it. I wanted DeRozan because I wanted the guarantee of that guy's there, he's available to us right now. But The Heat's plan worked and they got Klay Thompson. And so what they're banking on, right, because Klay Thompson just had the worst season of his career where he came off the bench.

Uh, Mario Chalmers, also McDonald's All-American, he did it at high school too.

The winner at every level. Yeah, literally natural-born winner. Klay Thompson came off the worst season of his career, uh, shot under 40% from the floor, which is bad, and shot 38%, I think, from 3, which is still good, still good, not elite, but it's still really good, and averaged 11-point-some-odd points. And I think what the Heat are banking on, and I'm okay with them banking on this, is that he's gonna have a ton of wide-open 3s on this team, shots that he did not get last year in Dallas because they didn't even have Kyrie Irving in Dallas last year. Like, who, who else was— who was on that Dallas team last year? It's Cooper Flagg and Max Christie, right? So yeah, at 36 years old, can't create his own shots anymore, but between Bam and Giannis, he's gonna get a lot of open looks out there. And I would believe that his 3-point percentage will be a lot closer to his career mark, which is 41.

I think the best thing you think about Klay is, is playing Klay ball, right? When I think of Klay at his apex, he wasn't dribbling, right? Like, everything is off.

Wasn't there that one game where he had all those points and they're like, he took 6 dribbles the entire game?

Yeah, he had like 38 points, like 7 dribbles the entire game. But like, That kind of—

I think it was 7. I thought 6.

All right, whatever, whatever. I'm playing Price is Right. I'm gonna go over 1.

Oh, 6, 7.

Um, but you look at what that offense was for Klay and just like in-rhythm shooting, right? Off of screens, pin downs, like go running down the baseline. Like all that stuff is going to be available when you've got guys like Bam and Giannis and Portis and all guys in the middle that are going to have to command some sort of committee downstairs.

Do you think he ever considered the Warriors? I feel like he's got, he's got real beef with the Warriors. I don't think he's happy with them. I think he probably looks at it like, wow, you keep giving Draymond money, like, you know, I, I didn't want to leave because, because that is what's happened. They, they didn't want to pay him and they keep giving Draymond Green money, including giving him back the 1-year $28 million.

He—

I, I would, I would imagine he's probably got beef with the Warriors because wouldn't he have at least considered them It doesn't even seem like it's considered anyone but Miami, which is why I think it's easy to draw the conclusion that the Heat have known the whole time that they were going to get Klay Thompson.

Dan Levitar! Janataslo!

How you love that catchphrase!

Bad news for opposing teams in the Triple-Air! Janataslo! He's all smiles! Till the blood's like clutch again, clutch again, clutch again. This is the Dan Levitan Show.

How do you feel about Giannis already talking about going back to Milwaukee?

I think those are old quotes.

No.

Yeah.

No, these are new. Like, he's like, when I'm done with this Miami Heat thing, I would love to come back to Milwaukee and close that loop. By the way, The Miami Heat added Vin Baker to their—

I like that, that's a smart move.

Who's apparently a Giannis guy.

Yeah, smart move, you know, make the guy comfortable. Wasn't that a thing, remember, in Milwaukee when they traded for Damian Lillard? Damian Lillard's lack of comfort, familiarity, nope, like it was a problem. Make Giannis comfortable. So that seems like a no-brainer to me. You see, Klay Thompson was beefing with fans on Instagram. Over the weekend as well. I guess they were comparing— I guess he was being compared to Ray Allen in some fashion, and so Klay Thompson was on his Instagram going in the comments. I'll never understand that. Like, can the NBA player, the super successful NBA player— he's going to be in the Hall, he's gonna be a first ballot Hall of Famer, Klay Thompson, he's a 4-time NBA champion— and he'll just see a comment that he doesn't like on Instagram, he just can't help himself, he's gotta respond? I don't get it. I would pay no attention to any of that shit, right? Wouldn't you? If you were Klay Thompson or someone of that ilk, wouldn't you just pay no attention to anything like that?

Right?

None of that stuff is your business. Like some of the comments on this YouTube right here that we own. None of that is my business, man. I don't care how y'all feel about me. I love myself. I think that a lot of the players, they see that Kevin Durant, he be getting away with them burners. So they be like, oh, me too, me too. And they don't do it like my boy.

So Buddy wrote, and he actually, he actually wrote this at Klay Thompson on the Instagram comments. It was facts, but it was against the top defenders of each team. Or did Stephen KD draw those? Ray Allen led a team to the Eastern Conference Finals without another All-Star. It's not close, bro. And Klay Thompson responds, you do realize I was the second-leading scorer on two championship teams without KD. You want me to go to a bad team and put up empty stats? That's easy, buddy.

Buddy at the end.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, why? Ray Allen wasn't on— wasn't getting empty stats. I don't, I don't understand. What, what do you mean?

There's a couple years in Seattle and, and that those Seattle teams are good.

Those teams were good, dude.

Those Seattle teams were damn good. I think one was the number one overall seed.

And, and, and when he was in Milwaukee too, before that, those— like, that's the team he's referring to. They went to the conference finals.

Yeah, it's Wim Baker.

Yeah, was, was it Vin Baker?

I know they made the big Shawn Kemp trade.

I know it was Vin Baker with Glenn Robinson. That was the duo there. What did they, did they have? They may have had Ray Allen for a little bit. They may have, they may have been with him, a couple coffee. It may have been. So I, I made this point a few weeks ago and, and Dan poo-pooed it about Klay Thompson, like maybe he can be that Ray Allen role. And, and Dan really made the case of Ray Allen was a much better player when he arrived here at 37 years old than Klay Thompson arriving here now at 36 years old. And I did look up the numbers, and like, Ray Allen's numbers— field goals, 3-point percentage— were still elite at 37 years old, his last year in Boston before he got here, compared to Klay Thompson's last year in Dallas. But again, Ray Allen, that last year in Boston is on a championship-level team. The Heat obviously took that ass, everybody knows that, but was on a championship-level team with Garnett, with Pierce, with Rondo, while Klay Thompson is, you know, playing on a bad Dallas team. So yeah, Ray Allen was, was a better player, at least coming off a better year, but I love this signing.

I'm really pleased with the Heat. I think the Heat are gonna be really good. I do. Like, I've been having trouble. I've been having trouble trying to get pumped up, trying to get fired up. As far as them being a championship contender, I think they're going to be really good.

I think that they needed a couple more lotto tickets. I would have loved— in an ideal world, you get DeRozan and you get Klay Thompson, just increase your chances of one of them landing.

They have money for one more vet minimum contract.

Yeah, I don't know.

I—

the last we saw Klay Thompson, It looked like, you know, they just seemed to hit open threes. Didn't look, didn't look great. Yeah, but don't dribble, just stand in the corner, shoot. Okay, I guess he certainly has guys that can open it up a little bit more for him.

Yeah, over here. Yeah, that's—

he's had a lot— he's played a lot of basketball and he sustained a lot of injuries.

Only played 21 minutes a game last year too, important to note. I mean, came off the bench but did not play a ton last year. Anyone watch the Dolphins on Saturday? Woof.

Kept a little eye on it, just looked over.

When all the starters on a bad team aren't playing, it's a rough watch.

It was bad. Well, I mean, the Dolphins this preseason have been a brutal watch outside of the first drive of the first game.

Quarterback play has been pretty bad.

Yeah, I mean, Malik Willis drove them down the field and looked fantastic, but everything since, unwatchable.

I'll glance up at a TV on mute, watch a quarterback drop back and say goo.

I mean, super hard to evaluate any team whose starters, especially starting quarterback, are not playing. But man, I don't, I don't know what you could possibly take away from these past couple Dolphin games. Like, I guess, I guess the first preseason game, it's okay, cool, Caleb Douglas, you know, you know, might be a guy.

That's what the— one of the takeaways I've heard is that the rookie receivers look good. Like Tutu Atwell, they're saying, has been one of the worst guys at camp. These people they've brought in, like names you've heard of, are not going to be on the field. It seems like a lot of the rookie receivers are actually going to be playing.

Like, people like what they saw obviously from Caleb Douglas.

Tutu does one thing though, the one thing that plays to Willis's skill set. Willis throws a great deep ball. Tutu is a 9-route guy, but apparently he's not doing well.

I think he's struggling. I don't think he's even going to get on the field catching the ball.

That's an issue. You're a receiver.

Yeah.

Did you see Javon Holland? So the Dolphins played the Giants, all right, and that's who Javon Holland plays for now. And after— Javon Holland didn't play. And after the game, Javon Holland, former Dolphin safety, put on Instagram on an image, big dub, fuck them. I mean, the first thing I would say is those guys that you would like to, to, to F, none of them are here anymore. Like, they fired all of them. They're all gone. You know, right? Like, there are no familiar faces in the building to Javon Holland anymore. So I'm not really sure what there is to be angry about, especially because, look, Javon Holland had a real good rookie year, and then he was pretty good the second year, but after that, he wasn't that good. Like, I don't know if many people wanted to stick around anyway. I don't know, maybe, maybe I get, I get too sensitive about that kind of stuff, you know. Telling my team— only I could tell my team to fuck off. You can't tell my team. Only I could tell my team to fuck off.

Worst team in the league.

Okay, I'll tell them to fuck off. You don't get to do that. I'll relay the message. See Reuben Bain though?

Oh, Zazz, that's the big takeaway from the weekend.

Right arm under the armpit, lift you.

But I thought you had small arms. You got T-Rex arms.

I mean, it actually helps for that one move, which is he doesn't have to extend all the way.

Just power.

He's like £350, just, mm-hmm, see ya.

You should be terrified of anyone that doesn't care about that hair because he's just going to keep that haircut forever. And that hair—

he doesn't have time for hair.

That haircut is a terrifying haircut.

Yeah, he doesn't have time for haircuts. He didn't have time to look good.

You got the same haircut as James Amos from Good Times.

He only has time to play football. He does not have time to look good. I love, I love him walking out on the field and someone pointed this out on Twitter. He's walking out into field. He's got no tape. He's got no gloves. None of that bullshit.

When you say tape, are you talking about the hair again?

Mike's got tape on right now and he's talking to a microphone. Look at his finger.

He's like AI.

Nope.

Well, I've been trying to tough it out.

Bruce Wayne doesn't need that.

And I realized I kept re-breaking my finger because I'm a dog. I was like, I should do something about this.

You're a mix between whom again?

Mitchell Robinson and prime, prime Dennis Rodman. Yeah.

Look at that scouting report.

I mean, come on. It's just the off-court issues.

Reuben Bain just walking onto the field. He's got his jersey, he's got his pants, he's got his helmet. Doesn't need anything else.

From a branding standpoint, the hair is good, but the face mask that he opted for in the pros, that's elite. You saw what he did.

No, no. What kind of mask is that?

His face mask is meant to look like—

It's the one with all of the bars?

Yeah, to look like— Bane from The Dark Knight Rises.

That's scary. That's a good job out of him.

He's a tremendous football player and he looks the part. And who, who's Dominic Foxworth said that the Bucks are a sneaky Super Bowl candidate? Baker Mayfield's talking a lot. We're going to surprise people. I don't know about that. I think they have some injuries already at wide receiver.

Emeka's got a turf toe. They're dealing with a sprained toe, so we're looking at that, but I don't really know who else they have on the roster. Mike Evans is no longer there.

I mean, they play in a division where they should—

you win 9 games, you win that division.

They should.

Saints look real good.

Where is Chris Godwin?

Chris Godwin's there, still there.

Off the ghost of compound injuries.

Broken leg, broken ankle, like 30, north side of 30.

He was one of my favorite players to watch, but last year, absolute shell. He had nothing, and I hope he can recapture some of that. Maybe he tried to come back too quick, but He was always so dynamic to watch with the ball, and it was— yeah, I didn't recognize that guy.

Dan Levitar!

I mean, Trotten Madonna out there. I don't know what the hell she was doing. And then, uh, what's this, this, this boy band? KPS? KBS? What's their name? I have no idea who that is.

This is BTS.

Jonathan Sasslo!

Isn't this the big—

this is the biggest band in the world!

That's right. Get out of here! Not bigger than Pearl Jam!

This is the Dan Levitar Show!

So when I bring up Ruben Bain again, I'm not trying to be a hater. I'm not trying to do the thing every time that I bring up Ruben Bain. I'm not. I promise you, I'm not going to do this the whole season. Where you are.

Where—

well, I might do it for most of the season.

I have a feeling Ruben Bain is going to force us to have that dialogue.

No, but what I'm saying is I, I don't, I don't want it to be a thing every time where it's, you know, Caden Proctor, he sucks.

You'd prefer Caden Proctor not suck?

He played 3 plays and they took him out. They're protecting him.

Yeah, let's, let's, let's go on the record with that. I prefer Caden Proctor not to suck.

Bold.

Same.

All right, copyright, I own that statement. I prefer Caden Proctor not to suck copyrights. But we could talk about Reuben Bain, who we love as a Miami Hurricane, like we could praise Reuben Bain and have it nothing— have it have nothing to do with Caden Proctor, right? That's what I'm saying where I don't want to be a hater. How about I'm just praising Reuben Bain, you know?

I heard you talking to Dominique where he was just kind of saying that people in Miami are way too high on Reuben Bain.

Right, he— yeah.

He's like, you guys are way too emotional about this. He's a good prospect, but it's But I'm— I think Dominique's wrong. Yeah, I think he is that dude. I am emotional about it, but he's going to be a stud.

Yep.

Dominique on Zazzle Show 2.0, a good podcast. Yeah. He mentioned last week he thinks that if we weren't from Miami or if Reuben Bain didn't go to UM, we would not be feeling this way about Reuben Bain.

Yeah.

No, that's a huge part of it. It's a huge part of it. The emotional reaction is because of that big spot in the Venn diagram that is both Hurricanes fans and Dolphins fans. And, you know, A lot of those people that occupy that Venn diagram saw Reuben Bain plenty, didn't see Caden Proctor a lot, probably saw Caden Proctor against FSU. That wasn't great. The Nick Saban quotes exist. Those are bad. Yeah, I understand. It's a hometown. In the flats.

I think this is going to provide Reuben Bain with that chip that he wouldn't have had if he would have came to Miami. If he would have came to Miami, he would have been a great player. But I think them snubbing him is gonna make him a generational talent, bro.

I hear you. Ruben would find the chip.

He'd be—

he'd have a chip for not going number 1. That's just how he operates.

He's gonna be so good. He's so good.

So obvious.

He's gonna be so good.

Hurricanes D-line, I don't know if they're gonna miss him all that much. Now he's a special player. The, the ends— look, you lost two first-round D-ends, guys that have been playing. Like, Mesidor was 30. Come on.

And I haven't heard much about him. Is like, we doing anything so far preseason, training camp?

It's had a decent camp.

Yeah, I, I heard like did all right in camp.

All right.

Like, everyone knows what to expect from Mesidor because he was basically a finished product already in college. Bain is a guy that high end, this guy could be a Hall of Famer, but short arms, and there's a question about him. Mesidor he's not, not super polarizing, but the interior line play from Miami on the D-line for the Hurricanes should be better than last year. Should be better. I do worry about the D-ends. I would have liked Hayden Lowe to stick around on the team.

That one hurt.

A 5-star talent. Hayden Lowe, really good. But Wilson and Lightfoot have potential to be first-round draft picks on their own. And we saw Lightfoot, especially in the CFP, make big-time plays for the Miami Hurricanes and his mentality, his approach to practice. I like it a lot.

Getting close. It's a couple of weeks.

This week. Well, this weekend's college football, but in 2 weeks we get to watch Stanford this week.

Do I get game day Saturday?

Yes.

This Saturday?

Yes.

Oh, talk to me.

I mean, we got NC State-Virginia. You mean you think— you think game day is going to sit that one out?

Talk to me.

We get Hawaii-Stanford.

Keep talking.

We are talking.

Canes get out of camp. No injuries. No, no big injuries. No season-long injuries. Now we're in install, folks.

On the Canes opener is a Friday night.

Friday night, 9 p.m. against Stanford. You know, if this happened in the middle of the season, we wouldn't like it.

Yeah. Friday night to open the season. That's like that could be any day.

Oh, in the ACC, the last thing you want to see coming is Bobo Schuizen in that Friday night window. Get it out of the way early. And we have a couple of those. Thankfully they moved the Virginia Tech off of Friday because that would have been spooky.

I'm being told, by the way, no College GameDay this week. College GameDay schedule will open, uh, in what's the normal week one.

Really?

They always do week zero.

Well, that's what I'm being told.

They've always been bubbling and doubling.

Stop talking to me.

The thing I'm being told could be wrong, but that's what I'm being told.

But what? But they bubble and double.

Say better things.

Wait, is Virginia and NC State an ACC game? Because remember, like, there was a weird thing where Virginia played a game against an ACC opponent that wasn't an ACC game.

Oh, I hate that.

Yeah. And this was a game that was originally scheduled for Brazil.

How do you feel about them no longer calling it Week 0 anymore? It's just like it's an extended Week 1. Week 1's 2 weeks.

I like Week 0.

Yeah, they heard our complaints. Yeah, I feel like we complained about that for a while.

Which was worse, Week 0 or when in the NCAA tournament they called the first round the play-in and then the weekend was the second round? That's bullshit. That was the bullshit of all bullshit. Yeah, you had to change that back.

I mean, I like it when Week 0 has the one marquee game. Yeah, for example, like when they play in Dublin, when Georgia Tech beat FSU. How great was that day? That was fantastic.

When the Canes—

when Jeff Thomas screwed the Miami Hurricanes and Kadarius Toney broke the Canes over his knee. In Week 0 in Orlando. That was a great Week 0. The headliner this Week 0 is UNCTCU. Yeah, no, not for me.

It's a fart.

Can we find out if that NC State-Virginia game is an ACC Conference game? Because if so, we've just sweetened the pot, as if it needed more sweetening.

Did you guys see Dwyane Wade over the weekend?

The new mustache?

Dwyane Wade, I, I don't know if I'm gonna say he's unrecognizable, but it's close. Like, if I saw this guy who shaved his entire beard fully— almost fully shaved, he's got the little deal on the chin, all right? I'd lose that, Dwyane. But if I saw this guy on the street, I would do a double take. I'm not 100% sure it's Dwyane Wade, right? He looks—

that's like to be Dwyane Wade.

He looks younger for sure, but younger doesn't mean better.

He look like Calvin Ridley.

I, I think he looks— I don't know, I don't love it. I like the backwards hat.

Yeah, we could tell he somehow looks like KC and JoJo.

Yeah, shaved off that beard, huh?

Yeah, I like it. But bruh, this is a reminder of bruh handsome though. Like, he got good genes, bruh. Put over 40 looking like this, looking like a teenager. Salute to my boy, man.

Yeah, I mean, like I said, he looks good. He just— he didn't look like Dwyane Wade.

Doesn't look like Dwyane Wade to me.

No.

You know who else don't look like themselves? That boy Luka Dončić. You saw he took the Lakers overseas and sporting a new look. I'm like, dog, is that Luka or Tom Cruise?

Yeah, he looks like a model. You're right.

Exactly. Salute to my boy.

Yeah, he's looking good.

Can't— I can't salute him. I'm too busy monitoring him.

Good call.

It's a lot of monitoring of Luka going on, monitoring the situation.

I'm monitoring a few folks. Yeah, Jokic, Anthony Edwards with the change in ownership, and now got my eyes fixated monitoring the Luka Dončić situation. Like, apparently I'm not the only one, many teams are.

Wow.

Do you think they have meetings where it's like, yo, do you think we should monitor Luka? And some of those teams like, nah, not necessary.

Well, remember the last time he got a monitor. There was a change in ownership. So he's already gone through 2 changes in ownership. I'm just saying, get an opportunity to monitor a situation.

He's played under now 5 ownerships in his career.

What's happened to the NBA?

5.

We can't— we can't allow this.

We can't allow what happened to the game I love.

Yeah, it's just constantly flipping these assets.

Well, we're kind of in one of those spots where you take a step back and you're kind of grateful for Mickey Arison.

No. Yeah.

Even though Josh Kushner was here.

Was.

That was good.

That was minority owner.

That one went underreported. Oh, especially on this show.

Yeah.

I mean, very minority.

Free Jeannie Bliss.

It's a really small percentage.

How do those phone calls go when you're monitoring a player on another team? You call the team, you're like, hey, what's going on over there?

He looks like Tom Cruise now.

Yeah. All right.

Check back later.

What are you guys doing? I think you just say, so I'll let you know so I didn't catch you by surprise.

Well, monitoring, like keep in touch kind of thing.

Nah, just like if they see you creeping, you don't want them to get, you know, startled because you're letting them know, yo, I'm monitoring here, taking a look. Yeah, I'm not creeping, I'm monitoring.

Well, we were all caught by surprise the last time he got moved, but you know why? Because no one was monitoring the situation in Dallas.

That's right.

Only Rob Polenka was.

That's right.

Now everyone's learned.

That's right. Yo, Mike, does Inter Miami suck?

They might right now. They might. And they should probably take a look at the head— the head man.

You know, they never win games anymore.

No. Now it seems worse than it is.

They've won a game this month.

Yeah, it seems worse than it is because there's League Cup matches in here. Well out of that competition. They're not going to win the League Cup, a cup that they have won previously. But now you're worried about what's happening in MLS. And they're— it's not like they're losing to good teams here. As Nashville's—

right, Toronto stinks.

But yeah, that, that's, that's real bad.

And Messi scores every game, by the way.

Yeah, that's why this is super concerning, because you could point to obviously Messi was super close to his dad and that, that was sudden, a surprise after the World Cup. He's played a lot of minutes, traveled a bunch, then travels back to Argentina, comes back and performs really well. Now, in the Eastern Conference, again, it seems worse than it is because Inter Miami is still second in the East because they've lost all these comp— these games in a different comp.

But first place is running away with it.

Yeah. Which is one of the teams that they've lost to. Nashville. Really good. One of their nice little budding rivalry inside of the Eastern Conference. But now you've allowed the rest of the conference to kind of catch up.

But you're saying they may have to fire the coach Again?

Well, they fired the last one, and I don't know if they ever just like— did they remove the interim tag? It felt like they were just kind of— this is Messi's guy that they've installed, and this is a huge step in for him. I do think he'll get a couple more matches here in, in, in the MLS campaign. But if they drop some more, you know, like Casemiro has been here and that just— if you're going from wins and losses, bad signing because Casemiro was supposed to kind of fix this this Busquets type of hole that was in the roster. And Busquets was a very good player for Inter Miami. Casemiro, not— I mean, just from a results standpoint, not working out the way that you would hope for Inter Miami.

Well, they play again this weekend, this Saturday night. They're playing at home again against Montreal, who also stinks.

Big update. Game between NC State and Virginia in 2026.

Conference game.

All right.