Transcript of Mark Walter and the Potential Demise of the Dodgers and Lakers | Hour 2

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So I'm not trying to be funny when I say this, Amin, but is James Harden on a team? Yeah, he is.

I mean, he's not signed to a team.

Why not?

He's on the Cavs.

Well, I'm glad you asked this question. What the Cavs are doing Is they're basically— they know, and James knows, he's coming back. But if they sign him to his new deal, it takes away a lot of flexibility. So what they're trying to do is do some other deals and then turn around and— well, there's Peyton Watson, who's a restricted free agent for Denver.

Well, why isn't this happening then? What are we waiting for?

They gotta— you gotta reach a fever pitch of like where Denver's gonna be leveraged out of its mind and have to figure out— you don't wanna make this decision easy for Denver.

'Cause we're not that far away from training camps.

Yeah, this is how you do it. This is how you draw it out.

That's why people hate restricted free agency.

Because like the offer sheets are slow to come by because that's part of the strategy, is to put them in a position where they have to make a decision under duress. The other one is Jonathan Kuminga, which I think is their backup plan. I think they want Watson. If they can't get Watson, they— Kuminga, Kuminga is an unrestricted free agent, so that one is— I won't say easy peasy, but it's like you can do— it's a lot more straightforward than the dance that is restricted free agency. But all of that is a capable, able to happen because Harden remains unsigned. It's not because, oh, they are— they know exactly how much they're going to pay him. It's just they're waiting for that to get resolved.

All right, so yesterday we spoke a lot about Kawhi Leonard and the statement that came out from the NBA in response to ESPN's reporting. Yeah, and ESPN's reporting was essentially that The league, at least as of right now, has found no connection to Bomber funneling money to Kawhi Leonard, and that now the focus of the investigation is whether there was improper contact in regards to someone from the Clippers setting up Kawhi Leonard with a sponsorship, which I would assume would be, you know, a much lighter punishment than if they were to find something else. What's next here?

I don't even know if that's technically against the rules.

It is. Yeah, yeah, I think it is, right?

I mean, hey Kawhi, you should meet the Mattress King.

No, you, you can't.

You guys will get along. All right, see ya.

You can introduce, but it's like, that has to be it after that. Yeah, you got to be like— and there's, uh, to use Steve Ballmer's words, then it's off to the races for them. Again, the part that I look at with great skepticism is the idea that these two companies, Aspiration and Daktronics, wanted to pay a guy more money than they've ever paid an endor— a celebrity endorser to not endorse their stuff.

Now, is that right there, everything you just said right there, that's fact, right?

Yes. Well, we know what— yes, the Aspiration part is fact. We know what the contract was. We know that when they did not meet the the, the payment or whatever, then they went bankrupt. He filed for, hey, you owe me money. Like, that's fact.

So even with just that, he has been paid a lot of money, more than other people in these business companies have ever been paid for endorsement deals, and he didn't actually do any endorsing. So that right there, those facts, yes, that right there, how doesn't the league—

that's, that's my point—

just look at that and Like, why can't we— this is not a court of law, okay? This is not a court of law. So just with that information right there, how doesn't the league say, okay, this is really shady?

So again, again, I gotta specify, I'm talking about the Aspiration one because we have the contracts, we have the, like, the payment, we have the filing as a creditor.

What about Daktronics?

Daktronics, look, that's still— we're doing the uncovering and investigation on that. Right? But in this case, I've seen the contract, I've seen how much was owed, I've seen him file— all these things are out there, the paperwork is out there. And the two lines of the collective bargaining agreement is the violation, and such compensation is substantially, substantially in excess of fair market value of services rendered, right? That's one— actually, three statements. Statement two, that this was furnished or made for the benefit of the player or any person, entity controlled, related to, or acting with authority on behalf of the player. Meaning Kawhi doesn't need to be in on it. If his agent and his uncle were the ones doing it, Kawhi had nothing to do with it, that's still bad. And number 3, and this is the big one, guys, this is the one where like I don't know how anyone can, can argue this: evidence that the player contract or any term or provision thereof cannot rationally be explained. In absence of conduct violative of sections this and sections that. That's what it comes down to. It's like, number one, he got paid. We know he got paid by Aspiration way more than what they paid Drake, what they paid Leonardo DiCaprio, what they paid, uh, RDJ, all three of whom did stuff.

Tony, you heard about DiCaprio, right, where he has sex with girls with the headsets on, right?

Yeah, loud music so he doesn't hear them.

It's weird.

Best part.

Anyway, and we know that that's obviously from fair market value, you could say that's not fair market value, and we know that it happened, so what's the, what is the argument? That's the part, like the Clippers, it's that rational belief, the Clippers like, yo, Aspiration love Kawhi so much, they thought it was more important to pay him to do nothing, contractually do nothing, 'cause we read that contract too. People forget that was in the first episode, where it says, Basically, all you have to do is like, like or retweet or make a post unless it conflicts with your beliefs. And as David Samson points out, usually when you have a clause like that in a contract, they will have a list of beliefs in there. For example, if I am a spokesperson for McDonald's and obviously I don't eat pork, they would say, okay, and you got to be shown eating McDonald's products and loving it and whatever. It's like, unless it conflicts with my beliefs. I don't eat pork, so I'm not gonna have the McRib, right? It'll say, you know, Muslim diet will not eat pork products. That would be defined in there.

It's not just like, what's my belief? Well, my beliefs are I don't like when the fries are cold. Like, that's not— you can't just make up the belief as you go along, which is how that contract was worded. Basically, if you don't feel like it, you don't have to do it.

What if your belief is you don't believe in working after you get paid?

A no-show job, right? And so that's the other part of this is, this is where, like I said, these things are circumstantial. They can be circumstantial. Circumstantial evidence. We know that they've asked multiple teams in the past—

and again, it's not a court of law—

about no-show jobs. Like, all of this— that's why I said, look, I'm not saying that they gotta get the maximum, maximum, maximum penalty. I'm just saying there's no way you could say, "I don't know, I didn't find anything." I just don't understand how that could happen.

So one of the prevailing theories here And things that have been shared on, on this show by Dan is a theory that the NBA wants this to go away because in part they're scared of Steve Ballmer.

Yeah.

Why aren't they scared of the players union?

Because it seems like the players union even cares.

Well, I think they would. I think they would start caring if they see what appears to be unfolding right in front of our eyes, which is that owners could do whatever they want and that Kawhi and Uncle Dennis seem to be the fall guys here.

So yeah, so—

Although Lawrence Frank does look like a fall guy, like professionally.

The union has been vocal. David Kelly's the new president, just took over a few months ago. He's been very—

Not David E. Kelly, right?

No, that's a different guy. Yeah, that's a great TV guy.

He wrote The Practice. Ally McBeal, The Practice.

Yeah, this whole plan, I mean, it's a cynical view, Boston Legal. And again, it should be mentioned that The NBA statement via Mike Bass was very, very strong and immediate. Yes, they said that there were a lot of inaccuracies.

So, so this is what I would say from the union standpoint, right? The union is on top of this and they are, as they should be, defending their constituent, Kawhi Leonard. The, the most of the player responses to this case are so— I call them Cliff Notes. You guys are listening or what, you're basically—

It's so— the responses are so vapid is what they are.

Vapid, except Draymond Green, because Draymond Green actually made the argument that should be made, which is if nothing is done about this, then why do we have a salary cap, right? Like, if the whole thing is the salary cap is in place to stop owners, protect them from themselves, to stop them from overspending, but you put a salary cap in, you limit how much people get paid, and then some owners just get to say, ah, fuck it, I'll spend what I want anyway.

Right, but what Draymond said was Draymond then also said that if that's the case, if nothing happens, then the punishment should be there's no salary cap anymore. Hold on, that's a reward for Steve Ballmer. There's no— no salary cap is a reward for the wealthiest owner.

But that's the point he's making. It's not a punishment for Steve Ballmer, but you know what it's a punishment for? The other 29 assholes who are like, "Oh shit, now we have to do this." And that's why people say, "Oh, the owners don't want this to go down because they don't want what happens if someone investigates them." Like, no, if you allow this to happen If you say, hey, second-round pick, let bygones be bygones, right, then essentially what we've done is said, you know what, now, to use Steve Ballmer's parlance, it's off to the races for everybody. Now let's figure out how I can pay my guys.

The precedent has now been set. Right.

So you asked me about James Harden, right? And they're going to try, the Cavs are going to try to make a deal to get Peyton Watson or Jonathan Kuminga or whoever, and then afterward figure out what they're paying James Harden. Well, what if they didn't have to do that? What if they could just sign guys and say, Harden, you're gonna make $3 million, and oh, by the way, Dan Gilbert owns one of the biggest mortgage companies in the— hey, you like mortgages? All right, here, get some mortgage money. Hey, we got a casino across the street, you want some of this casino money? If we're gonna just do this, and the slap on the wrist is gonna be, or the punishment is second-round pick or whatever, —fairly lights up. It's absolutely worth it. That's why it's important. That's what people are like, "Why y'all care? Why y'all pocket watching Kawhi?" This isn't about Kawhi Leonard. It's about Steve Ballmer. It's about the richest owner in the league allegedly being allowed to do whatever the fuck he wants.

Yeah, it's about an uneven playing field.

You have to. If you care about the way this works, you have to care about this. If you don't, then let's all go to Ozark and become Jason Bateman and just set up money laundering left and right.

What a show. Great show. What a show. Any hateable characters on there? I mean, the wife, of course.

She's one. She's one where it's like, even though it's balanced, but like, I see her face, I'm like, oh, Marty eats a lot of shit from her.

Mhm. See, it seemed—

and I haven't seen Ozark in the same way you haven't seen Breaking Bad, but I have a feeling it's kind of the same dynamic, which is like, ultimately they were actually right. Like, Skyler White is, is right.

She's, she's pretty evil. She's evil. Wrong. Okay, so, so, cuz that show was made after, so maybe they learned from the Skyler White of it all.

Skyler really did nothing wrong.

Skyler ultimately does one thing kind of wrong, but it's not as wrong as sleeping with Beneke.

Oh, Ted Beneke.

I mean, that guy. You know what? Make him a hateable character. All right.

She did join in on the money laundering.

The wife on Ozark.

Yeah. I'm not liking how this is sounding. What sounds like we hate women.

Well, that's what I'm trying to say. You shouldn't hate Skyler White.

And if you hate any woman from Ozark, it's Darlene. Why Darlene?

Oh no, stop that. No, Darlene was fine.

What? Darlene was fine. She was an evil woman. She was fine.

And she was a sexual predator.

She was fine. Look, Darlene was fine. You're going to want to walk that one back or rewatch Ozark, one of the two.

That woman was awful. Dan Levitar.

Put a finger in there, but if you tell anyone, I'll deny it. Mike Ryan. Don't just stare at it, eat it. This is the Dan Levitar Show.

Do you know which one Darlene was?

Exactly who she is. I know. I know exactly who she is. Her character.

I didn't feel like I hated her. She was with a boy.

She was a sexual predator.

Took care of the baby, too. Yeah. Doof, doof, doof.

Well, if they're like 15 or 16, it's fine. It's Ozarks.

Let's—

you actually sound like that woman. That's what his voice sounded like in Ozarks.

So clearly, though, the story from ESPN is coming from the LA Clippers. Like, that's the Clippers wanting to put it out there that We didn't do anything wrong.

Like, again, I always trust the people, the real people who work in this industry. I'm not talking about like, oh, I got 7 million followers on Twitter. I'm talking about like actual people employed to do this. I trust that the information that they got is information that they have verified from their sources. I always question the sources. So I would imagine whenever you hear a story, especially it's a story about opinion, not like So it's getting traded, but it's just like, this is what's happening, this is what's happening. You always have to ask yourself, who does this benefit? Yeah, who does this slant benefit? For instance, when Kawhi Leonard was with the Spurs and he was hurt, and we're getting all these stories about, you know, like, Kawhi's actually fine, but like, he just, he is, you know, drawing this thing out, whatever. I remember going on The Jump, and I'll never forget this because Rachel Nichols led the segment, said, look, a lot has been said on both sides. I said, No, it hasn't, Rachel. A lot has been said on the Spurs side. I know because every news story is about how Kawhi's awful, and that's it.

Like, we don't hear any rebuttal because some people actually respect the keeping it within closed doors, which the Spurs used to do up until then. Then all of a sudden they were the chattiest organization in the world. So when you see all the stories are about this, this, this, this, clearly it's not coming from him, it's coming from them. And so now this is different because Obviously there's an investigation going and the people doing the investigating cannot comment. The NBA, as Mike Bass reminds us in his statement. But yeah, if you're reading something that seems so over the top beneficial to one side, but we, but we really respect these reporters who for ESPN who put this story out. So when you, when you do a story like this is the journalism rule, you got to have two independent sources, right? So it can't be like I talked to one guy from the Clippers and another guy from the Clippers. That doesn't work. What's another constituency that would want that to be the story? You writing this down, Chris? Right? Well, who else? The Clippers, clearly. It benefits them. Who else would it benefit?

People from the businesses that are being implicated?

They wouldn't know anything about the investigation. Who else would it benefit? It benefits Kawhi Leonard, who is not a Clipper, right? So who represents Kawhi Leonard in this? The Players Association. Players Association, Clippers, two independent sources. But they have a vested interest. In the story being a certain way. So if I hear something over here and I go over there— and by the way, this is me connecting dots. Basketball Illuminati.

And the Clippers are in Ben's story. Basketball Illuminati, every Wednesday.

Keep your third eye open. I'm doing a plug, right? Connecting the dots, keeping my third eye open. I'm just saying, if I was looking for someone to verify information that seems a certain way, that would also verify the situation because it is beneficial to them, it would be these two, you know, these two entities, the Clippers and the Players Association.

And the Clippers are an independent source because they've kind of traded Kawhi?

That's why? No, no, they're an independent source because like, hey, it came from us, right? Like, so let's say, I mean, we're playing hypotheticals here, I'm already walking on a tightrope, folks. Let's just assume my name is John Armstrong and I am the assistant legal, uh, second in command of the Clippers, right? Mm-hmm. And look, I just— I can't be on the record, Jonathan, but let me tell you, they haven't found anything connecting us with stuff. You didn't hear from me. You didn't hear from me. You playing a white guy? I— there's no— John Armstrong is—

yep. I'm just trying to get a visual.

So then you're like, wow, okay, well, this is great, but I can't run off of just one opinion. I've got to get a second opinion that isn't connected to them. —Is it a Clippers or employer? Because obviously then it's just the marching orders. So I'm gonna call around and call here and call the league office. League office, no one wants to talk to me. And I was gonna call the Players Association. Players Association wants— you didn't hear it from me. My name is Cam Jablouni. Cam Jablouni. It ends with a vowel, so don't do it. I'm not. It's an ethnic name. That's right. All right. You wanted to know?

The thing that confuses me the most about the sequence of events—

By the way, that LED screen behind Tony is scaring me.

By the way, she killed her husband in self-defense, let's be honest. And also, Wyatt was of age.

Yeah, clear of age.

Honestly, big win. She was a predator.

She was not a predator.

He was a young girl. Oh, so if it was the other way around, you'd be fine. You're like, Hugh Hefner can have all these young broads around. Exactly right.

But poor—

but then he reported Epstein to the feds. Hero. It's quite the narrative shift. Yeah. And then I realized, like, but he was, you know, he's got his own complicated legacy. Sure. Also, as does Darlene. Sleeper body. Really? You remember that one scene where everyone's like, I kind of understand why?

I was like, oh, there we go.

That's what I'm talking about.

It might kill me, but you know, hey, look at the— look at that smile on Zazz. He knows the lighting.

Apologize to Darlene. Zazz, her husband was so afraid of her. Capitulate.

She killed him. So what I don't understand about the sequence of events is ESPN has to take this story to the league, right? Because they're looking for comments. They did. Yep. So why isn't the league statement that came out later included in that story as the official comment and stance.

Brother, you got to talk to the editors over there. Wow. That seems orchestrated. That's the part where it's like, I can't speak to their— how they frame stuff. Yes, they approached the league. Yes, the league declined to comment. Did they mention it in the story? No. Or are you saying like the statement by the league?

The statement of the league was so strong and immediate that it could have been part of the story, which is a huge part of the story at that point, because it is a very strong statement from the league, the likes of which you don't often see. It— I don't know. It feels like a game is being played.

A game being played between two— for what end?

I don't know. I don't know. But that's a very strange release.

I think, look, By the league? I don't think it's strange at all.

Why wasn't it included? Why wasn't there— why wasn't it their initial stance?

Because I think ESPN, based on what I've seen in the aftermath, is they stand by the reporting. Okay, we got— we stick by our sources, we stick by our reporting. Like, whatever the league is saying, because it wouldn't be the first time someone said that's not at all how it happened, and then a little bit later the thing comes out like, oh, that's exactly how it happened. You guys were just denying for the sake of denial. That could be happening here. I don't know. I'm not telling you that the league absolutely is going to punish the Clippers or punish Kawhi Leonard or whatever. All I'm saying to you is they should, right? But ESPN's reporting might be accurate. That's— I'm not— that's the part where I don't want anyone to think that I'm saying like these guys don't know what they're talking about.

It might be a Pulitzer winner over there too. They sure do. DVN, right? DVN. There you go. Who was attached to the story?

Was that, you know, who's who of Rabona, DVN, Baxter, Shams, right? That was the four. Those are really good reporters, folks. That's why I made the— I led off with, hey, if you do this shit for real, I always will trust that your reporting is vetted and accurate, right? But ultimately, every report is based on somebody told me some shit.

So if there are enough people, I could say— Yeah, but Pablo's reporting is also They literally have the receipts. Yes.

Well, I mean, we have documents, right? We have paperwork.

Yeah.

We have people who work for the company.

You have sources. You have sources, but you also have hard copies. Yeah.

But even our sources, our sources aren't people hearing shit. These are like, yo, we did it. They made us— they told us, yo, don't worry about it, right? Like the one in the Daktronics episode, the guy's like, yeah, we had emails about this. Like, so yes, it's still a source. Yes, we're still trusting the source, but it's like, these are the people who are the whistleblowers pretty much. But again, I'm never gonna look at Ramona or Shams or DVN or Baxter and say, you guys, this was like very done haphazardly, quickly, whatever. I believe they are getting information from sources. All I'm saying is, Your sources may be incorrect.

Okay. I want to shift gears to the other basketball team because this story is getting more interesting by the day and it seems like another scandal is brewing. The Sacramento Kings? No, I'm talking about further south. Oh, okay. The Los Angeles Lakers.

L.A., south of Sacramento. Yeah.

I don't know where anything is. Put on the poll, Juju. Did you know that L.A. was south of Sacramento? Huh? I already told you. We've been through this.

I don't know where anything is.

Hundreds of miles south. Okay, it's close. 9 hours driving.

So did you know that San Francisco is north of Los Angeles?

Nope. Huh. Did you know that Los Angeles is west of us? Yes.

Okay, yeah, but only because of tip times. Time zone. All right, so, um, it seems as though the NBA and its board of governors approved an owner that didn't actually have the money to purchase the Lakers, which is why he had to, in record time of being approved as an owner, felt compelled with just two phone calls to agree to sell to the Iger-Kushner group. Mm-hmm. Iger! But in researching the net worth of Kushner and Iger, and understanding that there's more partners in this, but Kushner is worth— I mean, who knows anymore because of how things are going in this administration, but—

Thrive Eternal has a lot of money.

Yeah, $5 billion is a number that I've seen out there.

He's— Thrive Eternal, which is the actual money behind it, is worth a lot more.

Okay, but Bob Iger is worth $600 million. Yeah. And are we just doing this again, or is there someone else here whose name is being kept private that actually has the biggest equity in this.

So, so again, there's a great—

Is this a theory? You getting this from somewhere? No, there's been some—

I mean, Henry Abbott did something, uh, Pablo reposted with eye emojis. Yep. There's an Abu Dhabi link here, folks.

Dan Levitar! John Zaslo! How you love that catchphrase! Bad news for opposing teams! Jonathan Sasslo. This is the Dan Levitan Show.

So a couple things. Number one is great episode of Basketball Illuminati out today. We talked to Yaron Weitzman. Yaron wrote the book about the Buss family. Yeah, we've had him on before. Yeah. So everyone knows Yaron, right? He's a great reporter, great writer. Right. And very good on these type of topics. He's kind of top level, especially when you talk about this, this, this particular team. We talk about all of this, which is the Kushner-Iger Group, which is now just conveniently being called the Iger Group. Right.

Just sportswashing at its finest. The remaining Buss is called the The Iger-Kushner group. Yeah, so they seem to be down.

So the, the Thrive Eternal is the name of the, of the, uh, the company, the, the, not hedge fund, private equity fund, right? And it's a capital holding company. And this is a direct letter from Josh Kushner to the backers of the $65 billion investment firm Thrive, right? The principles that have guided Thrive since inception remain the same. What has changed the world is the world around us. I want to use this letter to share what we are seeing and how we are applying our strategy to this moment. And basically the principle is to skip ahead. We believe an investment firm could be opportunistic. Da da da da da.

Uh, uh, you got the menu again. You're looking at the menu. What do I want?

Make that noise purr for me.

Yeah.

Culture is a word that is easy to overuse but hard to define. For us, it has always meant a small number of simple things taken seriously. Basically, they're basically— this is so long, I can't find the exact part, but basically in this long-ass letter it says they want to buy brands that have like staying power above everything, right? That's—

and that's a statement from Josh Kushner. Yes, the lifelong progressive. Yes. Okay.

Yes, the lifelong Democrat. Yeah. And so the idea is like they think all of these things that we're seeing now that are, are, are getting a lot of purchase or whatever, like a lot of it is like fleeting. They want the things that are like going to stand the test of time. That's why they went after FIFA. I was a lifelong Democrat. That's why they're going after the Lakers, right? It makes total sense from the— again, the Thrive Eternals point. That's what the Eternals about. Like these brands will last forever, right?

Yeah, but isn't this how we got in the mess? Like, well, we'll see.

The Mark Walter mess is Guggenheim and Mark Walter. Did not have the money to pull this off. They didn't have the money to pull this off, so they had to go get private equity from elsewhere to, uh, through the Sovereign Wealth Fund, to even have the wherewithal to do this. And now this is the part where the timeline becomes murky. We don't know how exactly this happened because what he is being investigated for, in essence, bloviated his actual worth. So was that to fool the NBA, or was that to fool the Emiratis to invest in him, $10 billion, which 2 months later he puts in the bid to buy the team. And then after that, he gets investigated by the feds. His laptop and his phone get confiscated in a raid of his plane. And then 2 months after that, the NBA ratifies the purchase. So this all happens, bang, bang, bang, bang. We talk all about this on Basketball Illuminati.

All right, so I, I have more questions. Part of Steve Ballmer's defense was, hey, I'm a victim, I got scammed too. And these people, you know, are bona fide scammers. Did the NBA get scammed or were they just so consumed about increasing the values of these franchises and having the Lakers sell for that amount? And a local example, if you will, was that Bruce Sherman did not necessarily have the money to operate the Marlins as a prestigious ballclub, and he overspent and You know, a lot of fans were frustrated that, you know, we're operating like this small club because our guy didn't have the money. And Major League Baseball didn't care about sustainable growth after that. They just cared about $2 billion in that, in that sale. So was the NBA consumed with getting the market value up there so much so that they didn't actually do proper due diligence on—

So people, people ask the question. Did they know or just were purposefully negligent? Or did they not know and they were naively taken advantage of? And I would say to you this is one of those weird times where it doesn't matter. Intent doesn't matter. What matters is ultimately $10 billion dollars! Blah blah blah blah blah blah— like that's what mattered. And everything else whether you know or don't know you got hypnotized by the number $10 billion dollars And that's what led to all this. But again, it follows a trend. Again, we talk about this on Basketball Illuminati. Keep your third eye open wherever you get podcasts. This trend of— like, if you look at NFL owners, most NFL owners, their wealth is rooted in something physical, industry. If you look at the NBA, a growing number of these teams, the owner's wealth comes from private equity or from tech or from all these things that are by nature very volatile, meaning like, like real, like mortgages, right? The idea is like Matt Ishbia, we talked about this also on Basketball Illuminati, he's just had one of the worst quarters ever for his company. He had to bring in some equity to, to float him some money.

Might be the next franchise, though.

But that's what I'm just saying, like, ready, because But dude, if your money is like a roller coaster— nobody's buying mortgages right now, right? The more the mortgage rates have been insanely high for so long, everything's going so great. All, all of his stuff is starting to, is starting to fray. So you look at all of these guys who have their money in things that are not like tangible, right? Like even, even someone like Tilman Fertitta, who I would say is tangible, right? He's got restaurants, he's got casinos and stuff like that, but it's still kind of like Yo, it's fringy. It is fringy. Like, it's not like owning US Steel or some shit like that where it's like, okay, we're— we sold Microsoft. Yeah, yeah. So all of these kind of sources of wealth which allow them to come in over the top with massive offers are also susceptible to, oh shit, now I'm not quite as rich as I thought I was.

I mean, when you think about the Kushner-Eiger Group, Eiger-Kushner Group, however you want to do it, Thrive Eternal. Like, isn't this actually a lifeboat for the NBA? Being like, these are people with real money, right? Walton didn't have fugazi money, Ponzi scheme money, where it's like, yeah, we got the $10 billion, I think my boy over there has got it, he'll pay you when he's ready. This is like, Thrive Eternal has, like you said, $70 billion in market cap of what they have in their fund, and the NBA is probably looking at it like, okay, perfect, somebody that actually can pay the bills if the bills come due is a really important thing, right?

They're not— they're not like Guggenheim, where Guggenheim, they were like, well, let me do this and move this thing around. And like, oh, look, now we got the money, right? And people are putting out Josh Kushner, oh, he's already vetted because he was a part owner of the Heat before that. So he's already— and the Grizzlies too, and the Grizzlies for that. Guess who else was a part owner of a team before? Mark Walter. He was— he owned 27% of the Lakers. He bought in in 2021. So he was vetted technically. So I think all of these things have a risk inherent to them. It's just, man, how do— this all happened because Adam opened the door for this, right?

Private equity and sovereign wealth funds did not used to be able to buy in, and they're okay with the pitfalls of this. It's just bad headlines. Meanwhile, the values keep going up. You can survive this stuff, But this ownership group from the LA Dodgers to Chelsea FC, franchises are changing hands at a really rapid pace in ways that we're not accustomed to.

Well, this is fascinating for Major League Baseball as well. I know we've been talking about it through the NBA prism, but for baseball and the Dodgers, when you're dealing with Mark Walter and everything he has going on, the reporting in the last, like, what it's been like the last not even 24 hours and it's 12 hours. It's been insane. And basically, with reporting from The Athletic, it said that there are the couple of his insurance companies and Delaware Life and Clear Spring Life and Annuity are the ones that are under federal investigation. And then there was reporting through a couple of economic reporters on Twitter that the Dodgers TV network. Right. So we all know about this Sweetheart TV deal that the Dodgers have where this company is paying them out the wazoo for their TV rights deal. And MLB gave them an MLB tax break on that TV deal in the revenue share because the Dodgers were coming out of essentially bankruptcy. The Guggenheim Partners, like, saved the Dodgers. Well, what it turns out is that the Dodgers, at least according to these reporters— and this is Nick Nemo 17 on Twitter and then EconomPic on Twitter just so that people have it.

It's essentially showing that the $1.45 billion in debt for American Media Productions, which is the entity behind Sportsnet LA and their 25-year, $8.35 billion deal with the Dodgers for TV, is on the balance sheets of 5 life insurance companies that are tied to or controlled by the Dodgers ownership group.

So essentially, they're just shifting debt back and forth, and they're paying themselves through these life insurance companies that back up the RSNs. And because they've taken so much of the salary, these billions of dollars— and so they have a billion dollars of deferred salary, yeah, to these players. So this massive payroll that they've built up theoretically is built on fake money. Somebody— Guggenheim Partners was a savior for Major League Baseball coming in and doing this. Like, they have been the the preeminent owners in Major League Baseball. We've seen what they've built. And now with the Major League Baseball, you know, CBA coming up and the Dodgers being viewed as sort of the, the evil empire with everything that's going on here and the way that they're talking about a salary cap and all these different things, this sets up for a really bizarre story to continue to unfold. And the fact that it's really kind of coming out because of what's happening with the Lakers and people looking deeper into what's going on with Walter makes it all that much more fascinating.

I gotta get in this club where you can just buy things. The billionaire club? Yeah, I gotta get in this club because like if the, if the Lakers were a house, a bank would not approve Bob Iger to buy that house. I don't understand how Walter has been able to buy all these properties. Billionaire club.

But it's because this goes back to what he's being investigated for. He— imagine putting on your application for the house.

Oh yeah, I have like a job over here that pays me $2 million and the job like, oh, they just keep getting away with it because he's going to get away with this and he's going to get away with it though, Mike.

Like the lien on that or the title of the house is going to be under Thrive Virtual.

$2 billion. Here you go. That's like they got me missing oilmen.

So watch this. So this is— I was— this is the part I was looking for. Says, in a world of abundant intelligence, certain scarce human experiences may matter more. In a world of fragmented distribution, trusted institutions may matter more. In a world where content and software become easier to create, assets rooted in identity, culture, community, history, and physical experience may become more valuable. Ladies and gentlemen, that's FIFA, that's the Lakers, that's everything that Thrive is trying to get in on. Is what is described in that letter from Josh Kushner to the backers.

Is all of this alleged?

Yeah, let's say it, right?

No, no, no.

Let me do a big fat allegedly on there.

I don't know anything about it. Cover us. Remember.

Sure, yeah, well, it's always alleged until we say it, right?

I can tell you, if someone gets in trouble, it's gonna be us, not them.

Asterisk, may contain inaccuracies. Remember that? Yeah, that's right. That's us. That's how we do stuff.

Hey, let them come after you.

Oh, you'll be alright, whatever.

I don't want that Mike Bass treatment. Mike Bass has been doing this for a long time. Come at me, bro.

Be alright. Hey, you think I should go to that tribute show?

The following week.

I'm gonna go to Waffle House and I have to eat 24 pan—

like, I have to be there 24 hours and every hour I eat, you know, that stupid thing.