Transcript of Ramona Shelburne on the Sale of the Los Angeles Lakers | Hour 3 New

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

We're going to talk to Ramona Shelburne, ESPN NBA reporter. She's all over the Lakers story. The Lakers sold yesterday for an estimated valuation of $12.5 billion. That's with a B, billion dollars.

Thank you for clarifying. Some people are like, you mean $12.5 million, right?

Yeah, like, yo, that's a steal, $12.5 million. I didn't want anyone to think think that, you know, that's what happens. So that's why I clarify. Ramona will join us coming up. We got a lot of questions for her.

Lots of questions.

But I mean, why do I hear you before the show started today and you're trying to tell everybody about, uh, cities that are overrated? Cities here in the United States, I guess, that are overrated.

Yeah, so, so I feel like everyone's got one of these where it's like there's a city that everyone you know loves.

This—

oh my God, I love going— I love going there in the summertime.

Liberals in San Francisco.

I gotta know. I got a nominee: Charleston.

No love for Charleston?

I've never been. It's just one of those cities I hear about.

I'm talking about places you hear about, but then when you go, somehow every single time it's awful.

Nashville.

What? Nashville's great.

I haven't had a good time. There you go. But that plays right into it.

I went to Nashville. I, I, that was almost where I live.

That's like my heaven.

Nashville.

Broadway. That tracks.

Are you a country music guy?

I do sneak in like country music. Well, there's also like, if you, you bar hop, if you bar hop there, there's a lot of like It's rock too.

I was bar hopping and I found that Kid Rock bar. I'm like, no more bar hopping. I'm staying right here. That place was awesome.

He's not wrong.

He didn't learn about that in the black internet, I'll tell you that.

No service out there.

I was processing so much that his son's even fake complicated legacy, Zagaki, he didn't know what to do with it at first.

Uncle Cracker showed up, he started performing.

I'm sure he did. What about the artist?

Mike, what's your Nashville?

I just didn't do it right. I know that. I've been there twice and I did the Broadway thing and I thought I would love Broadway because New Orleans and Bourbon Street is touristy too.

I love New Orleans.

But I don't know, I just didn't— I just— it didn't connect with me. I saw a great concert out there though. I actually had a great time in Memphis.

You would.

Rest in peace, Handolph.

Chris, do you have a city like that? Like, I guess Charleston is a fun town.

The one that I've been to and that I thought was overrated?

I got to keep thinking.

I'm not sure.

Tony, every place that I've ever been to has been good. So here we go. I can't— no, I've been to a lot of places. I've been to a lot of places. I haven't sat there and been like, you know what, this place kind of sucks.

How'd you turn that into a negative? Oh, here we go.

Every place I've been to is awesome.

It's just so—

I've been to a lot of places.

Are you—

even places like Milwaukee, me and Amin, when we had a nice time, we had a blast in Milwaukee.

I mean, you got a Touch Tunes and a bar, I'm good.

It's normal. Light pouring, I'm there.

Let me tell you right now, Chicago enough.

Really?

You don't like Summertime Shine?

Everyone loves Summertime Shine.

I'm glad you brought that up. And I read, and I quote, the alert that blared on my phone, my laptop, my iPad all at once: Critical imminent threat alert. National Weather Service tornado warning in this area. Take shelter now in a basement or interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. I was in a high-rise. A basement? I've never—

like, yo, the weather in Chicago during the summer gets nutty.

Why is everyone talking about summertime shy then?

But because when it's not nutty, it's beautiful.

That's like— no, you know why? Because they can't talk about wintertime shy. That's right, that's the reason. But like, summertime Miami, I get it. We get a lot of rain, there's some hurricane warnings, hot flooding. So, but guess what Miami has? Wintertime. Wintertime.

Well, we don't have seasons, but I'm just saying hot and less hot time.

It's the idea.

The 2 weeks in January were at 66.

Oh, everyone's the coldest 66 you'll ever feel.

It's a freezing 66.

Get your Uggs out. But like, the idea that you at your best— Chicago, when's your best? Oh, summertime. Okay, I'm here in the summer. Weather's awful though. What's that about? What's that about?

What?

I, I just can't get over— by the way, now let's not even talk about how How shit closes early. Let's not talk about for every place with good service, I get awful service.

Awful, awful.

We came to a bar on a Tuesday night. You should be like, "Oh wow, this is great. Big group, whatever." "Hey, can y'all get us seated?" "Hold on, I need to give my server a break." What? Do y'all not like money? Do y'all not like money? They ended up seating us. We had an extra person that showed up. They're like, "Oh, you said 7, you got 8." I'm like, "Ah, okay, sue me," right? And we're waiting and we're waiting and we're waiting and we're waiting and we're waiting and we're waiting and we're waiting. Guess what we were waiting for? Sounds crazy. A server to come take drink orders. You know what we ended up doing? You got it, you guys are fine. You don't need any.

I hope you left.

Of course we left.

Okay, making sure.

Just like, you guys are fine, you clearly don't need any money.

You guys print money in the back. Oh, must be.

And it wasn't like a crowded, busy bar. It was, it was pretty light. I mean, it's what I would expect Tuesday night as a bar patron.

You are.

But I'm just like, come on, man. Like, yo, I can't keep hearing about how awesome this place is, and every time I say, oh, let me give it another shot, it just presents itself. So far in all of my Chicago dealings, on this side I have a mountain of negatives, on this side I have one positive— that McDonald's looks like an Apple Store. That was pretty cool. That was me and Juju went there during, uh, WNBA All-Star Weekend. I was like, this is awesome, it's massive, it looks like an Apple Store.

I did Summertime Shy for like 12 straight years.

Anything special about it with the menu, or it's just a normal McDonald's? Just looks cool.

Just looks cool. It looks like an Apple Store. And I'm not saying like, oh, it looks like an Apple Store shrunken down. I'm talking about The size of an Apple Store.

What do they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?

Quarter Pounder with Cheese. They don't use the metric system.

Is that your go-to at McDonald's?

No, it's a weird order.

Don't like the Quarter Pounder. No, it's not a good tasting burger.

Don't trust someone who gets the QP.

Yeah, who gets it?

That's what I'm saying.

It's there though. Double cheeseburger.

Think about your friends throughout your life that get the QP.

Double cheeseburger.

They're not in good places.

You get the double cheeseburger or the two cheeseburger?

No, double cheeseburger.

I've been— I had a two cheeseburger phase.

Two cheeseburger. Let me tell you something. Bang for the buck, the best in all of fast food.

People talk about fast food burgers, and obviously, like, look, it's nothing to look at, but there's just something about that McDonald's cheeseburger.

Simplicity. There's a simplicity to it that I appreciate.

Wendy's my favorite though. I like that square burger, man.

You would.

You get chili with it too and a baked potato. Sicko.

Nah, I mean, that was the go-to order in high school.

Yeah.

Sometimes you get nutty with it and you put the chili on the baked potato.

Oh God.

No, in high school, sometimes that was the move in high school.

They don't, they don't do the chili anymore, right? At Wendy's.

They don't do the chili.

Why?

The chili's awesome. They definitely, unless they recently took it away, they said no.

Why would they? No, they would, they would get so many complaints.

I'm gonna look it up.

A lot of people talk about the dip in the fry and the Frosty. You haven't lived till you dip it in the chili.

There is no way that the chili's gone.

Fries in the chili sounds awesome. Fries in the Frosty sounds like you got a problem.

No, it's—

that's a textural thing. Hot and the cold together.

You don't do— it's one of those things people talk about. You don't do more than one or two.

You notice I'm talking to you guys and I'm not talking to the guy who doesn't let his Thanksgiving food touch.

Whatever.

Like that offends me that you're not into the way that I eat.

How do you not put a little mashed potatoes with the corn, a little gravy, a little turkey?

I have all that stuff.

One bite.

One bite.

Everyone knows the rules.

When you go to Chicken Kitchen, do you— rice on one side, chicken on the other?

That's completely different.

No, it's not. It's the same exact concept.

That is made to eat together.

So you'll, you'll eat a bowl. You'll go to a bowl place.

Love it. Yeah, love it.

So dude, Thanksgiving is basically bowl before bowls happen.

What about the KFC bowl?

What's a KFC bowl?

You never had the KFC bowl?

The KFC Famous Bowl?

It was historically like the most calories of any fast food item.

They would do it. You know how Thanksgiving is kind of deconstructed? They would construct it. Put everything together for you.

Get the bowl, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, chicken.

A little bit of cheese if you want to.

Most calories of all fast food.

You know what? I think they did an episode of that on South Park where Cartman eats it, but he eats it on the toilet. It was gross.

I like that.

That was the problem. They're all in it, I always say.

Wendy's serves chili at 100% of its US locations.

If they stopped the chili, there would be a nationwide revolt.

Yep.

I hadn't seen the chili in a long time.

Me neither.

They used to be very chili-forward.

They don't market the chili as much.

Yeah.

Everyone knows they got it though.

The chili doesn't slap as hard since it change their color scheme. Slaps hardest in that yellow.

Yeah, it's not in the yellow anymore.

No, they stopped being—

they're like red and white. Yeah, they got rid of the yellow.

No, I like the yellow.

They got rid of the old-fashioned hamburgers used to be on the sign too.

And everything used to be in the tinfoil wrap. They don't do that anymore, I don't think, right?

I know there is a whole discourse about how Wendy's has fallen off. Ah, Wendy's, it's like a big thing on the internet.

Really?

I got this one though, this one location.

Which one?

I'm not gonna give it out.

Tell me which one it is.

I'm not gonna give it.

Did they change the—

it's Alapata.

Oh, did they change— does it still look the old school architecture?

Yeah. Oh, that old school.

Yeah, it's old school architecture.

Look at Wendy's logo.

It is fire and fries.

Marlins Park still has the old school architecture.

I thought that one closed.

I— that one did close. That one did close. Yeah, the old school architecture also includes wooden panels over the windows.

That takes a while as well.

Recently Hey, that bar is going to reopen soon. There have been signs on Bull Bar that it's going to reopen soon.

Yeah, I mean, you know about that Bull Bar?

I don't know about the Bull Bar.

Don't read the review. We've done that show. We've done the read the Bull Bar review show.

Mike, what is this, uh, streamer on TikTok? I don't know TikTok very well. I don't do TikTok. I don't have TikTok. What is this streamer on TikTok who is— he's playing video games and he's trying to accomplish what?

Not just playing any video game. He's playing MVP Baseball 2005, which is— MVP Baseball is one of those games that you hear it, it takes you back to a time. This guy is—

is it as good as RBI Baseball from Nintendo?

What, better? You're like, man, you miss a whole MVP Baseball thing, huh? It's the best baseball game ever, ever made. No one can touch it. And this guy is making it his life's mission to complete a perfect game with Roy Oswald in MVP Baseball 2005.

Why Roy Oswald?

That's a great name.

Dude, I don't know why, but it's his—

it's his—

he's attempting it now. He stops every time that the perfect game is broken up. He is presently on 1,300 attempts.

Okay, so the perfect game gets blown up in the 5th inning, he doesn't play out the game.

Yeah, we have some video of that.

Pretty uninspired.

Look, this is a real heartbreaker that he lost on an error in the 8th inning.

On an— oh yeah, because it's always a tough play with your shortstop going, oh, that's a base hit for me.

That's not—

that's an error. I think it's a hit. They ruled that an error, huh?

Either way, he lost it in heartbreaking—

either way you lose it.

Yeah, but Roy Oswald is a curious pick, but you just hear that and that's just guys being dudes.

Like to say hell yeah.

Yeah, it does make— that is a thing that makes you say hell yeah.

Should have done that tomorrow.

I know, that's our Friday segment, things that make dudes go hell yeah.

Things that make me go hell yeah. Attempting Very specifically to get a perfect game and MVP baseball '05 is fun enough.

That'll make me say, "Hell yeah!" You said it's with Roy Oswald, right?

But it's with Roy Oswald.

That ground ball in the hole just brought me back. Like that play where the shortstop's moving and you got the little meter.

Dog, dog, I started singing Von Bondies as soon as I saw that.

Come on, come on.

Dan Levitar.

The Packers win or the Bears lose?

Jonathan Sasslo.

Shitty, you wanna know how that— what were the kids doing?

This is the Dan Levitar Show.

People used to tell me that I looked like Roy Oswald when I was younger.

I can't—

Yeah.

Oh, I see it. Actually, I see it. Wow. You had a Pearl Jam shirt on.

We're looking like a Seattle Sonics shirt. I like that.

Yeah. Yeah, it's a Sonics shirt from Seattle.

I know.

That's why I like the shirt, man. It says Seattle, Washington, right there.

Seattle show.

I did not. I ordered that from the 10 Club store.

We were doing our BattleCourt draft last night and one of the TVs had the Game 5 of the 2008 World Series. And I haven't been that locked in. I've been at baseball games and I haven't been that dialed in.

Phillies-Braves, right?

Scott Kazmir.

Scott Kazmir. Rough first inning.

Ryan Howard making plays at first base.

Oh, Ryan Howard.

Do you remember how that game ended? That was— there was a rain delay.

It was raining the entire game.

They couldn't finish the game. So instead of everybody waiting around, they moved the final inning of the game to the next day before, uh, before whatever the game would have been. But the game was "if necessary," so if the Phillies win the final inning, they don't have to play the next game. So you have a whole stadium packed with people to maybe be there for just one inning, or be there for one inning if the Phillies lose, and then a whole nother game. But the Phillies won and they won the World Series. Everybody showed up for just one inning. That's what happened.

That's wacky.

I forgot about that.

I had totally forgotten about that.

You know, I remember that actually because, because I watched it at a Le Batard Show watch party. That's right.

Oh yeah, how about that? Yeah, where was the watch party at?

Somewhere in Miami.

Somewhere in Miami.

Yeah, okay, how about that?

Was I there? I don't even remember that.

I remember, Chris.

Don't remember.

Well, now you know.

Were you with the show in '08?

No, no, I don't think so.

I didn't join until around LeBron time.

No, I think it was most of our audience. Yeah, it was Dan Stugatz, you, Roy. I think that was it. That was the show. And I was there.

Simpler times.

Roy Oswald was doing his thing back there, and so were the Von Bondies. The singer of Von Bondies got beat up by Jack White. Jack White went to jail.

It's a weird thing to know.

That's like the only thing I know about that. Von Bondys.

I mean, you remembered the details of the Phillies-Rays World Series.

That's a pretty famous ending to a World Series.

I'm pretty sure Jack White and the dude from Von Bondys fought while Renee Zellweger was there. That's when Jack was dating Renee.

Wow.

Was this before or after the weight loss?

For who?

Renee.

After.

If you're a Phillies fan, do you root for the loss there so you could be there for a whole game?

No.

No.

No, can you imagine how like—

It's a lot of money.

We got one inning where we can win the World Series, like you are— the pregame is epic.

How did the beer sales go for that? Like, do we keep pouring? Do you pour?

Because then you have the entire—

And then you have the entire night to party. The entire night.

Just feels so anticlimactic, like you can't— I feel like you don't gather up the adrenaline. You've been in your seat for 20 minutes, now you just win a World Series, you know?

There was some poor asshole who got there late, right? It's like, "All right, I'm gonna stop off, I'm gonna drop the kids off, and then I'll meet you guys there." "All right, cool." And he walks in and like, "Why is everyone going nuts?" "Why is there such a roar from the crowd?

It's only the first inning, bro." Yeah.

You got stuck in traffic, you just see the fireworks, like, "Shit." Yep.

All right, there you go.

Do they keep pouring though? That's my question.

Wow, and all right, and there you go. We got a transition coming, folks.

Like, the game ends, there should still be beer sales. There are never beer sales after a game ends. It's too late.

There's never beer sales in the 9th inning.

Yeah.

Well, you know, it could be— it could be dates.

I don't know.

No, not in the 9th inning. They stop— they cut them off with this.

Oh yeah, so when there's a game in the afternoon, there's no beer sale cutoff, right?

There is. The 7th inning stretch is when they stop selling.

Oh right, people have to drive.

You still got to drive home.

All right, there you go.

Okay, that's what I'm talking about.

Hey, that's what I'm talking about.

That's what I'm talking about. We're going now, huh?

I don't know, how does he—

I— you're doing a bit. I mean, this is so clearly like— this is so clearly a chronic redneck bit.

You're doing the bit I was going to do yesterday.

I just feel like these are all things that are just normal sayings.

What'd you learn, huh?

Yeah, like if you're beating someone, I'll be like, hey, what'd you learn? What'd you learn?

Who won? It's gonna— it's gonna take the Bernie Parmley line. That's what it's gonna take.

Or if I'd say— I already put it out there. Like if they said, "The Little League Theory!" Sassafras won't get him.

No.

Sassafras will not get him.

Someone could definitely say, "Nice hat, asshole." Come on, like, look, here's the thing about Greg. Greg's sayings are not like Greg's inventions. They're just sayings that Greg says a lot, right?

He's not claiming to invented the word.

Yeah, so like a lot of these are just things that have been said anyway. It's just that Greg also happens to say them. Now they said something that he clearly invented like, "Now that's what I'm talking about." Clear Greg invention.

Can't wait for someone to be thrown through a plate glass window.

Yo, the—

what do we do, break a window?

The "huh" after "we're rolling now," like, no one says it like that.

We're rolling now, huh?

Well, yeah, after you beat someone up, you're like, "Huh?

Huh?

Yeah?" It's amazing that Greg's catchphrases could be used in an intimidating fashion.

Of course.

As someone's kicking ass.

Well, is it worth us finding out if it's real or coincidence, or is it better?

It's more fun this way.

You already ruined freezing cold takes for me. Don't ruin this.

Don't ruin AEW Dynamite for you. Yeah, he does seem to be locked in every week.

He is throwing the huh around as I listen to both clips. He does the, we're rolling now, huh? And then, uh, maybe he does just work that.

Huh? You guys are reading into things. That don't actually exist.

Gotta eat a peck of dirt before you die!

That's—

"What'd you learn?" is not part of wrestling vernacular.

Yeah, it is. You're teaching someone a lesson and then you ask them.

What'd you learn, huh? By the way, he said "What'd you learn, huh?" while he's choking him. It's tough to talk back and tell the guy what he learned while he's being choked.

It's more about the humiliation.

Choking him, "Yeah, what'd you learn, huh?" Like, "I can't talk, you asshole!" "They all learned from me!" It's plenty humiliating to get your ass kicked on television and have someone shout Greg Cody catchphrases at you.

Punt!

He said Hee Haw 3, but Amin's gonna be there, but he didn't do the bidet up.

If he doesn't do bidet up, then that doesn't count.

You can explain rationally. Hee Haw 3.

Yeah, it's Hee Haw 3.

That makes it so odd, man.

What?

This is a real thing.

No, it's not. You guys are making it a thing. I like— look, I get it, we're making content here, folks. Oh, let's buy into the The wrestlers are using Greg Cody's— no, I'm not gonna go along with this.

They debut a new tag team. Who are these guys? We are the Lobos.

3 words. If they say 3 words—

Oh yeah, you'd be like, Lobos, perfectly acceptable wrestling name.

They're Lobos everywhere.

Coincidental.

And then they start howling? Like, oh my God, only Greg Cody knows that Lobos howl? Is that what we're saying here?

I'm gonna go take a QK.

Quick crap!

Brat.

That woulda burped ass wipes.

Oh man.

We've had this video that we haven't played for the last few days. We haven't gotten around to it, but I— a part of it is because like this kind of stuff creeps me out. So what is this story here? It's a news story, right? A news report where there is a A venomous snake that has been found. It was hiding out in like a player's— a football player's helmet, right? And they put the helmet on and like, so now they're like Medusa, they got snakes on their head.

Hell no.

It's as terrifying a story. We have a news report here that we can play for the audience that kind of sets up what's going on here.

A 2-foot-long cottonmouth snake slithered its way into a high school football player's helmet in Arkansas. After about an hour of practicing, the student told coaches about some discomfort with his helmet and they discovered the venomous a snake. The reptile lodged itself underneath the helmet's padding so deep that the officers called to the scene could not get the snake out. Animal services had to submerge the helmet in water, grab the snake when it came up for air. The student was not hurt and now has a new helmet.

That's what I thought.

Wow.

I told y'all, man, football players are different. That's the kind of person—

15 minutes it took.

The kind of person who would take 15 minutes— we got snakes in their helmet— is the same kind of person who thinks, ah, it's a cool game.

You know, yeah, you think football players are different. I'm pretty sure a hockey player would play with it like in the helmet.

So no, no, no, I'm playing well, I gotta keep it in there. Yeah, yeah, dog, that's crazy.

Cottonmouth snakes, also known as water moccasins, are dangerously venomous pit vipers native to the southeastern United States. Their hemotoxic venom destroys blood cells and tissue, causing severe pain, swelling, and tissue damage. While medical treatment makes deaths rare, a bite is a major emergency that can lead to permanent injury. And he was just chilling with that cottonmouth on top of his head for 15 minutes.

We have water moccasins everywhere here in South Florida, especially by the canals and stuff. If you look by the canal, you'll see something slithering. It's a water moccasin.

And those are like venomous.

Really?

Incredibly.

I didn't even know we had a lot of venomous ones down here.

I don't like those.

I don't like snakes.

So G.I. Joe, like, remember Cobra was the bad guys? They had a bunch— everything that Cobra had was snake-related.

Yeah, that's how he killed, uh, Duke.

He had like a—

it was like a serpent and he stabbed him with it. And then they brought Duke back at the end of the movie because the parents were all angry when Optimus Prime died at the beginning of the Transformers movie.

You're talking about a G.I. Joe movie?

Yeah, sure, of course.

No, man, I'm talking about back in the day watching the cartoons and stuff, man. I'm back in the '80s with this.

Yeah, movie was in the '80s. That's back in the day.

Nah, man. Nah, man.

Don't tell me nah, man. I'm telling you about what happened.

You know about that Serpentor?

Yeah, I do.

Okay, tell me about Serpentor.

He was the guy.

What was the guy?

How'd they make him? Serpentor.

He had the— they had the DNA of all the worst tyrants in history. I'm gonna say NFL history, I don't know why, but it was like Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan. They got all the DNA, put it together, and it came out, and he's supposed to be like the ultimate military leader. And Cobra Commander thought he's gonna be my slave, but But turns out Serpentor was like, yo, I've got all the tyrants in me, why would I work for someone? So he ousts Cobra Commander. But I digress. The point I was gonna make was all their weapons and their vehicles and stuff were named after snakes, and their hydrofoil was called the Water Moccasin. I was like, oh, that's so cool. Because I was like, I thought moccasins were shoes at the time. I was like, oh, it's kind of like a shoe on the water, not knowing that, oh yeah, it's a snake. But I say all this to say, did you guys know that they're making a new G.I. Joe movie. Do you know who is the—

cartoon, live action?

Live action with The Rock. You know who is the creative force behind it?

J.J. Abrams?

No.

Steven Spielberg?

No.

Ridley Scott?

No.

Christopher Nolan?

No.

Guillermo del Toro?

No.

Quentin Tarantino?

Well, no, not an—

Wes Anderson?

No.

Paul Thomas Anderson?

No. Any other guesses?

Quentin Tarantino.

Oh, there you go.

Oh, him? No, not him. Danny McBride. Danny McBride, better known as Kenny Powers.

Katherine Bigelow.

Okay, I've already answered the question.

Danny McBride. James Cameron.

Danny McBride, better known as Kenny Powers.

Better known Quentin Tarantino.

As the one of the gemstones.

Did you start reading his book? No, I started reading him with my Quentin Tarantino.

You started listening to it?

Yeah, it's interesting.

Does he read it?

Uh, he reads one of the chapters. Now I'm in another chapter where John Goodman reads it.

Oh, okay. Well, that's nice.

But yeah, no, like, Quentin Tarantino.

I'm really excited to see what Danny McBride makes out of G.I. Joe because apparently he's a huge G.I. Joe fan. And as a fellow huge G.I. Joe fan, I'm like, yeah, one of my problems, that's what all these movies, whether it's Transformers, whether it's the G.I. Joe reboot movies that came out, whether it's even Masters of the Universe, is I don't feel like they're faithful to the source material.

Do you think he'll be faithful to it or try to make it a little bit more comedic? Because it's not the first time he's taken on existing IP.

He did so with Halloween. Quentin Tarantino.

Yeah, I think he's going to make it funny, but I think it's going to be a lot of like references and things. To that. So those of us that remember, that grew up on it, will have a connection point.

All right, let's table the G.I. Joe conversation and bring Ramona Shelburne in here. Ramona Shelburne, NBA insider, senior writer for ESPN. She knows—

still getting her ready here, so you can say—

knows what's going on with the Lakers. Uh, all right, we're gonna bring Ramona in for a moment so you can continue. You know what, Quentin Tarantino.

So how did it end with the evildoer who had all the other evildoers DNA inside of him. So try to avoid saying that.

So Cobra Commander ends up going like with G.I. Joe to help them, but he's only helping them to overthrow the dude, and then he comes back and turns into an asshole.

What do you think of the casting of Cobra Commander in the first G.I. Joe movie? Not great. Live-action Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Oh, they're all terrible.

Not great.

They're all terrible.

I like the G.I. Joe.

The whole thing about Cobra Commander is you can't see what he looks like. He's got— because he got the cowl on and he's got to say all his S's like this.

I like that about him.

I do too, man. I was a big, big G.I. Joe guy, man. I love G.I. Joe.

I love G.I. Joe. Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes, Lady Jane, Lady Jane, Duke, Sergeant Slaughter.

That we talked about the other day.

Quentin Tarantino, was he G.I.

Joe or was he wrestling first? Which, what came first?

We'll have to think about it.

Will we?

Dan Levatar.

Yo, I'm not gonna lie.

Jonathan Sasselow.

I look good in red.

This is the Dan Levatar Show.

Let's bring Ramona Shelburne on now. Ramona Shelburne, she's all over what's going on with the Lakers, and they've been sold again. That's right. Ramona, rather— thanks for joining us. Rather unusual that in the span of 14 months you have the, the marquee franchise in the NBA is sold twice in 14 months. Were you, as, as someone who's in the area and close to what's going on with the Los Angeles Lakers, how shocked were you? Were you as surprised as everyone else?

Oh, completely shocked. Like, this doesn't happen in professional sports. You don't you don't have a team like this basically get flipped in less than a year. But that's what happened. I mean, it took me a minute to, like, I'll put it this way. When I was, you know, when you send a story and you know you're right and you have multiple sources, like, you shouldn't, like, you should never feel scared like hitting send. But I still kind of did 'cause it was still such a huge, like, I can't believe this is happening. Like, this is real. I know I'm right, but this is—

whoa.

Like, you know, and I think I'm still kind of like that a day later. Like, maybe you guys are too, because this flat out just doesn't happen like that. But we really are in this new world of professional sports where we're dealing with different kinds of owners now. We're dealing with billionaires, but we're also dealing with funds like venture capitalists and funds. And the types of numbers that we're talking about are only justifiable if you're talking in those terms. If you're like a VC or an— owners used to be real estate guys, or in the '90s, it was like guys who made money in tech, you know? This is a whole nother class of owner. And I think we're going to see maybe more of this or this type of profit taking. And obviously the investigation with Mark and the DOJ is in the background here. And I, I don't think that there was— it was causative. But does it play a role in terms of why Josh Kushner and Bob Iger thought Mark might be amenable? I mean, they, they read headlines. And I think they thought it was worth a shot, or at least a call.

And, and it certainly was.

Yeah.

Ramona, in your reporting, you talked about this thing came together within 72 hours, basically. And so I'm curious from Bob Iger and Josh Kushner's standpoint, these were guys that were involved in trying to get an expansion team in Las Vegas. What led to the abrupt pivot to say, well, we're going to buy an existing team and why the Lakers? Or were there any other teams on their shortlist of would they try to by those?

You know what? That's actually a good question. I should have asked that of me. And if there were any other teams, you know, I really think it's because the numbers in Vegas got so high. I think, you know, when you're talking about $6 million— $6 billion or $6 to $8 billion, that's, that's one class of team that you're talking about, right? That's one class of investment. But this was getting up north of that. You know, the bidding, from what I've heard, is, is gone really, really high. And I think once you start getting above that with the idea that you're also going to be building an arena there, that's another $2 or $3 billion that you're going to have to raise money for to build there. And I think like they just kind of had a gut check moment and, and said, if we're going to spend this much, maybe we should at least make a call. And again, like I'm gonna say it the way I did before, they read headlines too, okay? And I think they're smart enough to know when somebody's dealing with an investigation like that. And I think you saw the Wall Street Journal reported that he had called investors and was sort of looking for to raise money and et cetera, that they read headlines.

These are smart guys, everybody in this, in this class understands what's going on at this exceptionally high level. And it was, it was just worth a call. And that call, from what I understand, took place Sunday morning. I think Mark initially said no, the team's not for sale, but the seed had been planted. They called back a few hours later and made a better offer. And at that point, Mark had been thinking about it and kind of trying that on. And, you know, by the end of— he really had a day to decide what to do there. And it was because they had to get back to expansion if it was a no. And he took it. He just took the offer. And I mean, it's just exceptionally fast how this comes together. But it's not all that surprising because they had their funding lined up for expansion. Like, they've already raised money for their group. They've been doing this for a few years now, getting prepared for this kind of moment. You're in position to do something like that and make a quick pivot.

Only have a couple more minutes here, Ramona, so we want to make sure we get in a couple more questions with you.

All right. I'm afraid this might be a very dumb question, so please bear with me. How do these sales work? I know to buy teams are often financed unless you're Steve Ballmer. Not a lot of people have that kind of cash on hand. But how do the payouts work? How do the payouts work? Do the owners that flip these franchises—

usually there's Yeah, it's not a dumb question at all. I mean, like, literally, when— have you ever bought a house? Like, yeah, you get—

yeah, you get a lump sum. Like, you get lump sums there.

So I'm wondering if you get like a cashier's check from, from your bank and like you walk down the street to the loan office, you're like, whoa, this is a lot of money to have in a cashier's check, right? I mean, um, I— this is a different level than a cashier's check, right? Um, but I think, um, I, I The way I would— there's usually investment banks involved, okay, that are handling the transaction. They're, of course, making a cut. Okay. But the money from the fund. So, so Josh Kushner owns Thrive Capital. This is also Thrive Eternal. This is a fund that's raised money over a long period of time. Thrive invests a lot in AI. Thrive Eternal is supposed to be for legacy brands. And that's— I think their first big investment was a minority share of the Giants. This is obviously a much bigger transaction, but I think it's the investment bank that would, that would handle it. And then obviously Mark has a banker as well. And so the bankers will get together. There will be wires sent. People will take their fees. I think that's how it would go through. But first, we have to see— they have to go through a process now.

There's going to be a vote. The NBA has to approve it. The other owners have to approve it. So I think there's a few more things that need to happen. It's probably going to take a few months.

Ramona, how do you think Adam Silver feels about a team being flipped like a house? Basically, they bought a house and then an offer came in a year later.

Yeah, I think Adam Silver works for the owners. And while the owners may be stunned, shocked, and whatever adjective you want to give here, a $12.5 billion valuation is a— rising tide lifts all boats, right? So let's just look at the exponential growth we've seen. Okay. Remember the Suns went for like $4 billion and then we all were blown away when the Celtics went for $6 billion. Remember that? Okay. And then it was like, whoa, the Lakers went for $10 billion and now we're at $12.5 billion. Like, if you look at that, if you look at that curve, you know, the investment curve, it's shaped like that. And I think all the rest of the owners, they've got to be thrilled with that. They've got to be thrilled with the idea that the expansion teams are being discussed at the level they are. You know, if it ends up being $8 billion now because one of the big bidders has dropped out. OK, so that kind of affects everything because if they were in a position— I don't know if it's a pole position or a good position there in Vegas. What's being discussed, that that's going to be a financial windfall for everyone in the league because the expansion fees are, are shared equally amongst the other 30 teams.

There's—

everyone gets 1/30th, whatever that, that is. They've got to feel good. And also, I mean, if I'm another owner, I'm thinking to myself about what could I get for my team if people are willing to pay this much now?

Ramona, who's the Funko Pop above your shoulder on your shelf there?

Uh, which one? Oh, uh, it's, uh, Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase.

Hell yeah, it is. Ramona Shelburne, NBA insider, senior writer for ESPN. Great job, Ramona. Thanks for joining us.

You like my bobbleheads and Funko Pop things? I thought you were gonna like Quique Hernandez.

I get, you know, Million Dollar Man.

We like that one.