Transcript of LeBron Watch 2026: Is LeBron Currently In Miami? | Local Hour

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Generally speaking, men tend to think they're about 20 years younger than they are at all times, and Greg Cody athletically pretty routinely believes himself to be 30 years old even though he's in his 70s, thinking he can make 50-yard field goals. How many penalty kicks do you think Greg Cody could make against a— not a world-class goalie, but a legitimate goalie?

It's funny you say this because while we're watching Colombia and Switzerland PKs the other day, I turned to my son who is a soccer player. I said, do you think you could score this right now against that goalie? He said yes. But how many do I think that Cody can score? I, I think he'd have a hard time scoring any.

I, I think it's a lot harder than people think. They think it's easy because it's professional soccer players and they make about half. But I think that goal starts to look real small when the goalie spreads his arms.

For reference, Messi is at 50%. Yeah. In the World Cup for his career.

Yeah. I think you'd have a hard time scoring any.

Chris, what do you think? Text your father and ask him, because we should do this. The last time we did this, we did it in the rain many years ago, but Greg Cody didn't participate. It was an assortment of others. I, I believe I should make a bet with stakes with Cody. And I'm going to— I'm not— I'm not brave enough to make the over-under half a goal, but that would insult him the most. And he's really been insulted because Carl told Greg Cody, he said to him, we're thinking about using the Pat Riley cutout as the goalie and we still don't think you're gonna score. We think you're not gonna be able to— He did not like that idea.

He's aged a lot. I'm worried about a hairline fracture along the hip.

He's 70 years old.

How many shots are we giving him?

10.

Okay, 10. I mean, I think—

No, he's not putting one past a goalie. He's not. Yeah, I think he will.

10 shots.

If it's not a world-class goalie, I think he gets one. I just don't think he can get the pace behind it. If it's a legit soccer ball and he's legit taking it from the spot against a goalie that knows what they're doing, the real soccer ball is kind of heavy.

Like, I don't think he'd be able to kick it very hard.

He's just not gonna be able to get enough behind it. I've seen that guy's gait. That guy's gait has gotten rusty over the last few years.

Why does he have such a hard time accepting that he's not like a prime athlete anymore?

His narcissism shines forever. It does not age. It's forever young. It's not— I just sent some video to some friends. In fact, I'm gonna send it to the video crew of David Lee Roth prowling around on stage. David Lee Roth used to be, as the lead singer of Van Halen— I could have made an argument for a stretch from 1984 to '86, he was the biggest rock star in the world, and he's still prowling around on a stage at about Cody's age. How old would David Lee Roth be? He'd be about 71 right now.

He's got about be 70.

It's been sad watching those videos. And Rod Stewart too. You want to talk about Forever Young?

Uh, Barry Manilow.

Barry Manilow, he had a bad health issue, but you know, they want to leave something for the estate. That's what's happening right now.

David Lee's 71.

He's Greg Cody's age. Okay, get— I'm gonna send him.

Have you seen the video where David Lee Roth shows up at a bachelor party and he's like, hey, I heard you guys playing like Panama or something. Well, And they're all confused, like, who's this creepy old guy?

It was a Las Vegas hotel room. He shows up and they're playing a Van Halen song. He hears it. He knocks on the door and he holds out his hands like, ta-da! And they have no idea who he is.

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

I did not think I was going to be starting the show with these words. But get the David Lee Roth video ready because Greg Cody is this man's age. This man about 40 years ago was the biggest rock star in the world. He could kick his leg up so high it was amazing. It was way over his head.

That's, that's a go-to move back then. If you're going to be like a big-time frontman, you got to be able to have that leg kick.

Yeah, but he, I feel like he invented it. And at the very least, he's the one I most associate with the giant leg kick in videos that I don't believe any of us can do.

I think Steven Tyler used to use that move too.

No, the leg kick.

No, you don't think so?

David Lee Roth. Well, I don't want to talk about rock stars from 40 years old, 40 years ago too much. Just know that Greg Cody is this man's age.

Typically we don't play music because of the commercial rights, but I'm not worried about getting pinged on this one because that's impossible to discern what that is.

It, it doesn't sound, uh, anything like whatever it was 40 years ago, so let's turn that down please for a second. Why, is Mike on?

It's not good.

I urge you all to find on the internet the video, incredibly sad, of him walking down a Las Vegas hotel hallway hearing a Van Halen song in one of the rooms, knocking on the door and expecting the bachelor party inside to be excited. And they all just looked at him. Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?

How would you describe that outfit, though, for our listening audience?

Black and red with flowers all over and lean, body tight, sleeveless.

Yeah.

Leather vest with stitched-in roses, seemingly. Leather pants, giant belt buckle, rhinestones everywhere. Looks like Chavo Guerrero's ring attire. Yeah.

I want to get to what's happening with LeBron in a second because I felt the stale, faint whiffs of 2010. Planes being tracked yesterday, planes from Akron to West Palm, photographs being taken, grainy photographs being taken on a golf of course, so he may or may not have been in Miami. Are we going to have exclusive investigation? We are now a Pulitzer Prize-winning media organization. You, you have pushed us, Mike, as happened to know guy insider who has trafficked in the information business to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning media company. Do we have investigative information about LeBron that is going to be something the mainstream media wants?

That's right. Pay no attention to what Dan said. I'm totally giving the game away. But yes, we have tracked flights from Akron to West Palm, and yes, we have grainy photos that put us as the only show to confirm the whereabouts of LeBron James. Now, there was someone on the periphery of the NBA, someone that is in the know, someone that is followed on social media by Matt Sullivan. That's all I know. But I ripped this from an IG story.

Wait a minute, this is just a picture of a golf cart.

Yes, but if you see that it's LeBron— please allow my investigation to play out before you start rudely interrupting and letting the air out of it.

Let it happen.

Please. All right, so we know that LeBron was on a golf course because he put out a selfie video where he was doing the thing where he was, you know, singing along to hip-hop and not a care in the world, graying his beard, having fun with the whole thing about his name.

In Akron though, right?

No, you're—

that ain't Akron.

Look, the, the golf course that he was at, it was sunny, it looked nice, but he was very careful to not give us any context clues. But someone else spotted LeBron James, and we can tell from the outfit and the canopy on the golf cart that, oh, that is LeBron James. Now I want you to pay attention to this tree.

Yup.

That tree.

Mike, I can't tell that that's LeBron James.

You're gonna have to frickin' trust me on this, man. Alright? LeBron was doing a selfie video from a golf course.

Obviously.

We have tracked the plane, and by we I mean panicky Cleveland Cavs fans have tracked the plane from Akron to West Palm That happened yesterday.

I saw that.

Now, now pay attention to this tree. If you're from South Florida, you may recognize this tree, the Royal Poinciana. Now, this is not a tree that grows in Tahoe. This is not a tree that grows anywhere else other than Florida and the Caribbean. All right, now for the third still, guess who has a Royal Poinciana across the street from his house?

Not Akron.

I do.

Whoa.

And it is also in bloom, as you can see. We have deduced that's yours, that, that's across the street from in my neighborhood.

That shit's blooming.

It's blooming up top. You see the same little red blossoms that are blooming up top that tree. Guys, do what you will with this information, but I'm like 75% sure LeBron James is in Florida.

75% sure. Right now on my television on Get Up, Brian Windhorst, Vinny Goodwill, they're talking. It says LeBron James is yet to announce decision on next team. Shams is saying money not the driving force. Behind James's decision. We are in the middle of what happens when there's no World Cup soccer for a day.

Oh, what a long 24 hours. Also, I can investigate— Shams put out just 3 teams at the top of, of his list. He also removed Denver, which I actually thought would have been a cool spot for LeBron to go to, but if he was going to stay in the Western Conference. But it was the Sixers, it was the Cavs, it was the Heat. And that's weird, no Golden State Warriors. And Shams has reported that Draymond and LeBron plan to hang out at some point this week.

So he's reporting playdates.

That's correct.

Didn't Steph Curry say something?

No, no, no, no, no. I have an investigation. I don't care what Steph Curry said in front of a microphone in Tahoe. I can tell you that Steph Curry feels like it's a 50-50 shot that LeBron goes to the Golden State Warriors. So why were they not included in the Shams report? You're getting really good stuff here. You, you are. You're getting world-class stuff.

Well informed. It's definitely 50/50. Either he's going to go to Golden State or he's not. That's 50/50.

So I don't think the odds are 50/50, uh, when you do it with all of the other teams involved. I don't think that that's how we do, uh, odds making. Uh, I also, uh, don't understand what we're doing with Steph says it's 50/50 and Mike says it's 75% sure that he's in Florida. I think you have to report that with 100% certainty in order to make it— if you want that to cross over and be something that gets people excited today in the news stream, you're gonna have to report that with 100% accuracy.

I am 100% sure LeBron is either in Florida or the Caribbean. I am 75% sure that he's in Florida.

Well, so you have him closer to Florida, you have him closer to Miami than he is to Akron, is what— wasn't he in a nightclub Akron like 2 days ago or 3 days ago.

You know what's funny about 2 days ago? It's not yesterday. That's the thing about 48 hours ago. It's not 24 hours ago.

Well, let's talk about yesterday for a second because I'm a little worried, Zaslo, about the addiction Mike has that yesterday represented withdrawal for him because there were no World Cup games. Everyone breathed for a moment, but— and I'm dead serious when I say this, as I couldn't help but sort of smile watching my television yesterday because it took an off day, but World Cup soccer fever absolutely has arrived in full force like I've been promised for 4 decades. And American soccer felt like the biggest thing yesterday because none of the news media had games to talk about, and so they attacked the United States soccer team full-throated all day because there was nothing else to attack. Jaylen Brown's a week ago. There's not anything going on. You have only soccer on the, on the platform, and everyone turned on the United States soccer team as if it matters, as if it's a thing that matters, as if it's worthy of criticism. Here's Landon Donovan. Pulisic got all of it, and Landon Donovan This is funny to watch. Okay. Landon Donovan is the biggest name and face and voice still in American soccer. Pulisic, we've been told for years he's coming for Landon Donovan's crown.

But if you ask Americans who gives you better feelings about American soccer, Christian Pulisic or Landon Donovan, it's Landon Donovan. And so he put on his fake hair and he went on and he went on and he went on on Pulisic.

People are fed up with it. They treat people poorly. They do things poorly. It's always a no. Whenever you want to ask, can we do an interview? Can we? It's always a no. You can't get near him. He doesn't say hi to the commentators who do all the games all the time. When they walk by, all the other guys come over and shake hands and say hello. There's just this sense about him that like you can't get near him. It's too big. And I actually don't think it's from him. I think it's from the people around him. They need to stop and he needs to man up and have a conversation with them and say, look, guys, this is not helping me. He needs to get some training on media. I did too. I said a lot of dumb shit and people are like, hey, Landon, you don't want to come off this way, do you? And I still make mistakes all the time. All of these things can be a positive. He has— I have to say, though, he has a big challenge ahead because, Tim, I'm thinking ahead to the next game. And JR, like, if we happen to be at this game, the next US game in this country, what do you think that's going to look like?

Like, think about that. Is he going to get booed when they announce him?

Maybe.

People are livid. So anyway, it's a long-winded way of saying this can be a good moment in your life. A lot of things need to change. And I actually think it's not him. I think it's the people around.

Uh, says I would make an argument that Mike Ryan, among American mainstream media members, has done an exceptional job covering soccer for many years now, back when he was doing a podcast for Chelsea that had a lot of interference in it because of how careful the rules are around everything Chelsea-related and just Premier League and soccer-related in Europe. But today, at the end of the show live, he will have Chris Whittingham and his friend Tom Bogert— his last name—

Bogert. Everyone knows who he is.

Fantastic mustache. Yes. And they will do Morally Abhorrent as the live postgame show to talk about some of this stuff. But you also know that Mike is a bit of a know-it-all. And Mike rarely asks for help of any kind. He had to interview Pulisic twice for that podcast, and twice he requested some help because Pulisic was such a bad interview, just a terrible interview. And since then he's been protected. But the idea that we are now at the stage where it's not just turning on America's greatest hope and name in goal scoring because he played poorly, Donovan just put his name on and the people around him are assholes and he's soft with the people around him. That's a bad 48 hours.

I hated everything. I mean, I understand what Land Donovan is saying and I believe what he's saying and I hated all of it. Like, I hate that stuff where you're not treating people around you well, where you're rude to people, you're bigger than everyone, and, you know, realistically, at least in this country, I understand he's performed well in Premier League, but in this country he hasn't accomplished anything. And, and I hate hearing that about that type of behavior. Boar's Head brings to the deli the taste of deep-fried turkey. One bite and flavor takes over. Perfectly seasoned and deliciously golden fried. A backyard tradition available at the deli. Presenting the Fryer's Turkey Breast, only from Boar's Head. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite at your local Boar's Head deli or deli counter. Boar's Head, committed to craft since 1905.

Tony, you know that moment at a party or at a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks?

I know it well.

It's usually when I show up, everybody goes crazy. Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, but it's because Tony usually walks in with Cuervo. I walk in like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it, but again, It's the Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering, "Keep it Cuervo!" Keep it Cuervo, baby.

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Down, Levitar! Eh, it's not my favorite rejoin. Context needs to be applied there. I was going for a joke and— I thought the context was applied. We, uh, we'd like to rip that out of context. I was going for a thing. And you're gonna— I have a family.

You're gonna pretend here that you don't love Matthew Tkachuk more than you love anybody you've ever loved?

I don't love Matthew Tkachuk more than my daughter. Mike Ryan! Now it's pretty damn close. This is the Dan Levatar Show. He's been good for AC Milan and in stretches. I mean, you can make an argument a couple of times that on form he was the best player, best attacking player in that league. And then injuries. And then the last half season doesn't mean he's a dick. No, I think Landon kind of let him off the hook a little bit because at Chelsea his family isn't around him. The same handlers aren't around him. I know people have had their opinions for years on Christian's dad, but you're letting Christian a little off the hook. Christian is just not a people person. Christian hates doing media, which is going to be funny when he inevitably makes a turn as being one of the more recognizable names to all of a sudden being a media presence who's bad at media, who actually loathes the idea. We do this often. It's where Bill Belichick can be an absolute dick to the media for 20 years and then because of his greatness all of a sudden turn and think he can have a media empire and we'll allow it because you got name recognition.

Christian's let off the hook there a little bit by Landon because Christian himself is just not a people person. I don't know if there's like a social thing that goes on with him, but he hates the media. He hates doing interviews. He hates answering questions that you wouldn't even think to be invasive, like just casual getting-to-know-you questions. He's a, he's a challenge there. But I—

Captain of the team, grow up.

He was the captain of the team, and that captaincy was removed from him because on his watch, he's a more lead-by-example type of guy. They displayed a lot of immaturity. There was breaking of curfews. He's— look, he's not a vocal guy. Some people are like that. I think, like I mentioned yesterday, Christian has lived this very charmed existence in U.S. soccer and with clubs because everyone knows when he is healthy and when he is in top form, he's really good. He is a quality world-class attacker, the best talent we've ever produced. I mean, he is decorated. He's won a Champions League. Yeah, he wasn't starting, but at times for Chelsea was really important. And he's shown in Italy he can be a really good player. But it was always load management, protect his ego. We always want him to succeed. If we deal with all these weird idiosyncratic things that are around him, It puts him in the best possible spot for when he is in his prime of his career. He can put this nation on his back and win a game that they're not expected to. And when he doesn't perform, when he asks out of a game, when he has a horrific quote where Landon is 100% on the money— this dude needs media training and has needed it for quite some time— when you fail to deliver and everyone has been working around your sensitivities That is why you're seeing the hammer being dropped on Christian Pulisic.

It is years of frustration boiling over.

In this episode, Landon Donovan also mentioned how Christian's not going to like hearing it from me. He already doesn't like me. So there's a history between the two.

Christian doesn't like anybody but Jeff Cameron.

Like, he—

Christian doesn't have like— like, he's got some friends that are his teammates, but Christian does not have close relationships in the media at all.. And with the older generation, they say these things. You can tell in their coverage, you can tell two things. They don't like the way that Christian Pulisic approaches a game. And dog, they hate Jesse Marsh, the Canadian manager. They hate him.

Just to cover a couple of things here that we just did that I don't want to be doing.

Okay.

Tony Reale used to bust taping on Around the Horn whenever any of the new people who were on there would get in the comfort of whatever sports radio standards are and do some form nationally of saying, that person, bad person, bad guy, asshole, some version of that. That happens a lot in sports radio, but you don't see a lot on television. You don't actually see a lot on television anyone say, that person's a bad person, a dick. Like, it's just, it's not something you see very often. So I don't want to do this to Pulisic, but I do want to address a couple of the things that Mike said there, because if you want to be an American star, you've got to make a choice between between are you going to be excellent or are you going to be a little bit of a personality? Because you can't be the way Pulisic's being and not perform, because this is what's going to happen to you. The stardom, when you don't participate, engage in the relationship, what ends up happening is— I think I can form a pretty decent argument that the most famous names in American soccer are still Landon Donovan and Alexi Lalas.

Like, I think I can make that argument, and it's not because of excellence in Lalas's case. And Pulisic might not want to play the media game, but he's not good enough to not play it. He doesn't perform enough to not play it. And so what he's getting today is that Zaslo is coming by the opinion because Landon Donovan is telling him bad dude, and I was just doing bad player yesterday.

And I, I think you're, you're taking some liberties here. Neither Landon or I said Christian is bad dude. I said he's idiosyncratic and has some like social stuff. And Landon put a lot on his camp. And I said, you got to put some of this on Christian because at 27 years old, he's a grown-ass man.

I understand anybody who's got media discomforts and you have a number of ways that you can do this. I don't think I've ever heard Lionel Messi do a good interview ever in any language, but he doesn't have much of a taste for the media, doesn't show much in the way of personality either. But everybody always wants to talk to him, and you will not hear an assortment of unprofessional things about him or his handlers. To hear this about Pulisic, to me yesterday, the reason I had the smile on my face is seeing with great wonder, okay, so free agency fizzles out, just waiting a little bit by LeBron. Nobody wants to talk about Justin Verlander or Aaron Boone being ejected, or even though they've lost 11 of 13, or Dylan Cease going into the 9th inning with a no-hitter. They don't want to talk about that.

I do, I do.

Uh, the, uh, void in the addiction of— nope, we've got the attention span right now for the World Cup for about 2 months, and here's a day off. What do I do with myself on the day off? Uh, Mike, are you surprised? You've been waiting for this day, I dare say, more than a decade. Uh, you've been— probably all your life in some form, you've been waiting for these games. You're flying all over. These tickets are very expensive. Uh, where has this ranked for you in terms of you mainlining a sport for 2 months and just feeling like a bit cocaine addict?

I don't even know how to answer that question at all. Uh, been a weird one. But, uh, when it comes to the last 24 hours and the fallout from their performance, I'm proud of us. I'm proud of us, dude. That— it's great. Christian deserves this. And it's so funny to me because the whole thing with Christian is he doesn't like talking to the media because he doesn't want to create headaches for himself, and everyone's pouncing on him because he asked out of a game and he said it's time to rest up. It's something that he said, which again goes to Landon's point about media training. I hope we keep this energy up. Don Garber did an interview where he commended Landon, who said going behind a paywall with MLS was a mistake. You very rare for a commissioner to say, yeah, we shouldn't have done that, which is why we altered that. You would love domestically the energy to continue, but I just don't think Nick Wright, who's been great Dan, to your credit, you've been doing as well as you can and learning and trying to talk about the main talking points. Colin Cowherd has done so.

ESPN is trying to inject as many soccer people as they can, knowing their limitations. But we're trying to get better. People are talking about this seriously. The biggest podcast, Bill Simmons, part of my take. They talk about soccer with reverence, and that's a seismic shift. I am proud of us. We are not going to keep that energy for Rapids, Real Salt Lake. We are not We are flatly not, which is a shame. But here's something that we can do because the television numbers are through the roof on English language alone. This is— and it's impossible to count because no one watches soccer by themselves in their home when it's a World Cup. We all go out and we watch this in scores, in by the hundreds, right? But 40 million plus on English language, that's bigger than the national title game, which was a huge number. Spanish language equals that. You have something that is approaching Super Bowl type numbers that is happening here. So here's where we can keep the energy. We, we clearly like the international game. We don't like the club game. MLS is growing, whatever. It's, it's on Apple TV. It's hard to keep that energy.

Football's around the corner. This is a World Cup finals which you're witnessing. The final isn't just like the last game. That's a This is the World Cup finals. The World Cup actually goes on for about 3 and a half years with qualifying. We didn't experience that because as a host nation, we just qualified automatically and we had a series of friendlies that we didn't really take seriously. Let's keep this energy for the US men's team. And certainly next year when the women who've actually earned the right to be talked about seriously with reverence and respect when they are in the World Cup in Brazil next year. Let's keep that going. We— I think we can get the storylines down when it comes to the national team crest on over the heart. So let's keep that energy when we have a tough World Cup qualifier in Curaçao.

Let's talk a little bit, though, about the numbers, okay? Because Mexico-England is one of the most watched televised things that there have been because it's just It's pretty rare when the world gathers around the television.

It's emotional.

I like that, uh, that Japan and, uh, the United States have made baseball so that the World Series feels more global.

The Islamic Republic of Japan?

That's correct. The idea, though, that I have seen all over our city, uh, televisions and screens, giant screens pop up in places where you would not see them, and, uh, like the the restaurant burgeoning economy of, and we'll put tables in the street. Um, this has come and ransacked Miami during a time that is very slow. Everyone leaves Miami this time of year. All of the money tends to leave, and a lot of these homes where this is such a rich place are second homes for vacationing people from other places. Uh, this is a quieter place during the summer, but this thing has ransacked this community, which is super ethnic. Okay, when I tell you big screens filling up with people who are not normally together in parks. Like, that's not— if you've seen what's happened in the disconnecting of the devices that make it so your children don't play in a yard anymore with other kids in the front of the street, whatever that— whatever happened to us over the last 20 years, it's been interesting to watch the streets fill with singing people and money spill everywhere in the drinking and consuming of this thing because the sport has gotten a hold of people and made them feel something good.

And it's just actually getting started because the playoffs start now. Like, whatever you've been watching that's been a lot of fun and it's been interesting, yeah, okay, that's the regular season of whatever this is. 4 years of season to get to this point. Now the games really begin because Argentina shouldn't be scared like that against the last 2 opponents. It shouldn't be that close. But now they have our attention. Unfortunately, this is the, this is the squad understood opportunity of the last 48 hours. Ah, the U.S. almost got to the playoffs, the real playoffs, not the stuff that we've been doing that is a nice little warm-up. But the numbers, as when Mike says, you realize every television I see in public has 40 people around it. That's one television, but you ain't watching this alone. This, this stuff is best shared, and it's different from any other emotion in your life. You don't jump up and down screaming very often when you're happy. You don't start screaming at people, inanimate things, you know, a referee a world away. You don't start doing that in your normal life with other things very often.

I've only done it once ever with the U.S. men's national team, and it's probably the same for a lot of people, and it was Landon Donovan against Algeria where—

it's a goal. America this century remembers scores a goal. It's been 25 years. That's the squandered opportunity. And aha, ah, if they get to these next games, they could have gotten— Landon Donovan still— Alexi Lalas and Landon Donovan have built media careers post-retirement because they touched us there however many years ago that was. I don't even know how many years ago.

Well, then Donovan was 2010, I think, right? Yeah, that's the only time I've been jumping up and down because of a moment in U.S. soccer. I wish there were more.

I think in defeat everyone can point to Tim Howard's performance against Belgium where they played their hearts out against a really talented Belgian side, not like this last time.

But a save elicits a different reaction than a goal. Like, you didn't jump up off the couch, jump up and down from one of those 16 saves. Like, it's amazing, every one of them.

Tim, I'm forever grateful. On the media side, he leaves stuff to be desired and he's improving, but like, he made himself a media career. And he's pretty recognizable even to the casual. He made himself a sex symbol. Like that performance is an all-timer.

But think about, think about what it is, is the missed opportunity here, Zazz, when I tell you, yes, 16 years ago, Landon Donovan and Alexi Lalas built media careers on a moment in time when America was paying attention to soccer. Like that's the thing that we've been talking about for the better part of 40 years as we continue to have these conversations about. I don't get it, our kids play soccer. Yeah, but you don't care about it the way the Brazilians do. The way you care about it is to have those moments that make you jump up and down with your kids so that you're— when they're burying you, they remember, remember that time? That's as happy as I've ever seen, uh, Dad. The happiest I've ever seen my father is running around a living room because the ball went through Bill Buckner's legs in the 1986 World Series. Because they, they got here, went to Central Islip, my mother and him went to Shea Stadium and went to Mets games, and so they became Mets fans. It was really becoming fans of America. Is what they were doing. Like, what do you mean we can do all of this?

And, and so the happiest I've ever seen my father is there. And I'm guessing that's as happy as your kids have ever seen. I mean, it's in the realm, right? I guess the Panthers probably do some of this to you as well.

The Panthers. Yeah. The Panthers are the greatest experience I've ever had as a sports fan because I got to experience it with, with my boys. Yeah.

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Dan Levitar.

I've never stepped foot on that campus. If you told me right now your life depends on it, go to Santa Fe University and just take a picture.

Jonathan Sasslow.

I would die. I don't know where it is. This is the Dan Levitar Show.

Carson Beck with his legs. Well, I was— Oh, Cattoni, he's still running, motherfucker.

I was on my own because I was on the road with ESPN. So I was watching Carson Beck with his legs in a hotel room by myself.

Little sad.

But if I could also tell you though, if I could also tell you, because you say how everybody gathers around the television and watches the World Cup together. My wife is out of town right now. If she weren't out of town and I wasn't living the bachelor life, I'd be watching by myself on an iPad on my stomach.

This was a wasted opportunity, and it's crazy that one performance went so sideways that it burned up all the goodwill to where you can't even say, yeah, like, on the macro level they reached expectations, but the way that it fizzled out was a nightmare. And now it leaves a bad taste in everybody's mouth when— can you imagine if we just did what we were supposed to do we'd have a game against Spain tomorrow with a shot at the semifinals to start your weekend. You would have had Spain-USA in LA.

That's a good start to the weekend.

The thing that makes you lament the squandered opportunity, though, is as nice of a World Cup run as it was, because you got 4 games that you were paying attention to, or 5 and 4. You know, I guess 3 of them felt good. The idea that you don't have from being the host country a World Cup moment of any kind that makes, you know, think of Landon, like Landon Donovan, 16 years later, whatever he says and does now, I'm associating him with that moment. Alexi Lalas, I'm associating him with that team that time and that he was near Landon Donovan's moment. Moment. We don't have any moments. We got everyone's yelling at the star of the team because he asked out of the game and he doesn't like the media and doesn't want to talk to anybody about anything. So you don't have a moment and you don't have a personality and you don't have anything.

The Tillman and Freeman goals were really cool, but not good enough.

I'm talking about one of these moments that echoes, like, where it feels like the country's shaking. The Landon Donovan goal was that. I associate him with only one thing, and it's his hair.

In terms of wins,— this was the most successful Men's World Cup we've ever had. We've never won this much. I do think the overall performance against Paraguay is something that people— that, that feel-good to kick off this tournament where everyone looked at each other like, holy crap, do we have a shot? I think people will remember that feel-good. And then probably Tillman's goal to secure the victory against Bosnia.

It's too broad.

You're asking too much of, of memory and Yeah, maybe they'll remember 4-1, they'll remember. But I'm talking about the moments that connect you because you're building up to something and the tensions in your heart. Man, I have not seen South Florida like this. It's, it's weird for me to see it because even during the championship runs, as of all of the teams down here, we have too many ethnicities down here. Not everybody's about it.

Go on.

Not, not everybody's about it. Basketball, baseball, uh, college football— not everyone in town is about a thing. But here, this thing, I can honestly say I haven't seen televisions sprout up in parks when the— even when the Heat are making championship runs. Not all over, in some places, but not all over.

I thought you were tired of all the singing.

I am, but it went away and now I miss it. It went away.

They—

that's What? Those people were only here to drink for 13 days and then they had to get back to whatever their jobs are in the country where they can go be pink and drink 20 beers a day and sing songs all night.

They're not going back to their jobs, they're European. They have the entire summer off. That was another thing that I learned working with Chelsea. No one gets back to an email over the summer. They're just on a seasonal holiday.

You haven't told us very much. I'm always the one volunteering that you did that with Chelsea and you tried so very hard to bring out his personality. Like you were trying to help him. An adversary. You were doing something for a Chelsea podcast that was meant to celebrate him and American soccer and the fact that America had a player good enough to play in the biggest league.

Yeah, it was a propaganda arm. I love Chelsea. I got to work with the club and I tried to adhere to some principles. But yeah, like, I— it was to grow the game and to grow Chelsea's brand in the States. We were successful. It was a very successful podcast and a large part of Part of it came about because they signed Christian Pulisic, and at the time, that was probably the biggest move an American soccer player had ever made. Chelsea's a big club. Chelsea went on to win Champions League after signing Christian. So it was a big part of their strategy was let's grow our fan base here in America with the biggest American soccer player. And you'd like a personality that leans into that. We're not going to ask him pressing questions that, you know, put him in an uncomfortable spot. We're asking him personality-driven questions. And Guy just didn't didn't have any time for it, hated doing it, hates media altogether, thinks people, I guess, are out to get them. Hard to get them to make eye contact. The only time I— I think I interviewed him 3 times, and the only time I ever brought anything out of him was one time during COVID I guess, when he was like totally isolated and just happy to see somebody because he was over in the UK.

But yeah, he was a real challenge. And some people— that's all right, you can be tough in media and, and just do your obligations. You mentioned Messi, notoriously terrible. Media doesn't like doing it, has a system in place that actively keeps the media away from him. But that's Messi, the greatest of all time. Pulisic was just merely the most talented in American time on the men's side, and we were so desperate for success we allowed that to happen. And that's why you're seeing the whole world crash in on him right now, because everybody was biting their tongues.

But also with Messi, I understand, okay, he doesn't do media, but you know, he's Messi and he's performing on field, we're not getting these stories about Messi, about, you know, him and his people not treating people nice, right?

Well, no, that's out there.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, it's out there, but people don't care. He's the best.

When Mike is saying, though, now the hyenas have been let loose and when he's talking there about media tongue biting, I'm not used to that, right? The way the European press covers soccer is like the last 24 hours have felt to the United States. It's angry. It's, it's poisoned. It's, it's mean.

Have you watched what's going on with Lamine Yamal? Lamine Yamal is 18 years old. He's gonna be 19 next week, and he is being crushed because he is not carrying his team, a team that has surrendered zero goals this tournament, because he is not dominating the way that he did in the Euros and not dominating the way that he did for FC Barcelona. He is getting crushed at 18 years old.

I couldn't believe that when I was watching the game against Portugal the other day and they said how Spain has not conceded a single goal yet this term.

Like, what?

What?

They haven't given up a goal?

But that's an 18-year-old that's already won a major tournament for his national team, that has been the best player in one of the biggest clubs in the world, and he is getting destroyed. And we don't do that with Christian Pulisic in this country.

Calm down, Spain. Sheesh.

The thing though, I wonder, I want to get into this with the group because I wonder if America has the history or understands what happened in that Colombia game at the end and how light, how hard life is about to get for Campas because he missed that goal in, uh, in the second overtime. And he just had— he had a breakaway, it's straight on goal, you can advance, you beat Switzerland. Uh, we've talked about the 30 for 30, the Escobar— are they brothers?

Uh, no, the two Escobars. You keep trying to make them brothers.

I keep making them brothers. Forgive me for making that, uh, title, the Escobar Brothers. But a Colombian soccer player was shot for, for an own goal in a situation like this, because this is what Colombia has. This is their national pride. This is their identity. This is the biggest thing. And they play a style of play— they play a style of play, Zaz, that doesn't score very much. Like, they drag the game into the mud, even though it's a— I'd like them to play more like Brazil. You miss a goal and people remember you forever, and his life just got really hard. Like in, in that country specifically, because it was him and the goalie. He's right on the goal, everyone's exhausted, they don't want to take it to penalty kicks, and he just missed. He just— it, it seems impossible the way that he missed. It's about the easiest chance anyone's had in the entire tournament.

Kind of feels not worth it to play when you sum it up like that.

I mean, it seems dangerous, seems dangerous.

The perks are pretty good. They haven't come to the U.S.-born soccer player just yet, the, the perks, but is an incredible lifestyle. It's like Formula One all the time for, for these guys when they're playing for bigger clubs. So we're just not going to talk about the Marlins?

It's a national topic, baby.