Transcript of The Best Christmas Day Sports Schedule Ever? | Hour 3 New

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Do we have an update as to how much Greg is going to cover for the fantasy football champion to come and be at the draft in person, which Greg promised? Well, not promised, he offered. He offered, he wanted to buy— 2 beers! —a flight for— what is homeboy's name? Steve. For Steve, the champion, to come and draft in person. Steve went and booked the flight. Greg did not remember. Video evidence proved that this was in fact offered up to Steve.

It does appear to be me.

It does appear, yes. Facial recognition says that it was you. And you reached out now and asked Steve— we're going to guess how much it is. But we first asked Steve what airline did he book. American Airlines. And he's coming from Connecticut? Yes. Okay. Oh boy. He's flying into Miami, I assume?

Fort Lauderdale.

Okay. Uh, um, oh boy. Yeah, we're looking at like 4. I think it's gonna be 4. Oh boy.

Now, I'm not sure if Steve was aware of my dad, like, when he booked— basically, I got news that Steve basically has miles and he used his miles. Oh. So this actually ended up costing like under $100. Wow.

Okay, no, no, no, okay, that, okay, that, that actually, okay, that's interesting. So he's only gonna want the difference, or he's gonna want what the price would have been because he did pay in miles. That's true.

So like he said it would have been close.

It's not free, he paid in miles. He said it would have been close to $500. Whoa, that's an expensive trip. Okay, see, this is interesting now, Greg, because With him— I'm gonna defend you a little bit here— because with him not asking you first, or at least telling you, "I'm about to book this, this is what it costs." Thank you. I think then asking to be reimbursed for a flight that's $500 is a little on the expensive side.

Thank you, I appreciate that support. Right? He should have brought me in on the discussion, and all of a sudden we're negotiating. Well, can't you— On this flight, on, you know, Asswipe Airlines, it's only $240, you know, but he didn't do that. So what do I end up owing him? Like $100? Less than that. Okay, I'm going to up it to $100. I'm going to give him $100 for his troubles.

I'm going to round it up to $100.

And matter of fact, you know what I'm going to do?

Will you pay for a car service?

Will you remember that you say this? I will remember.

I'm going to give him a Benjamin as I hand him the trophy. That's what I'm going to do.

I don't believe you'll remember that.

A week from now. Who forgets stuff like that?

Who forgets who won?

All right, so we want you to text Steve back now and say Greg says he's going to spot you a hundo.

No, I mean, I think he'll take that because he was just kind of like, I put it on my miles, don't even tell him, don't worry about it, is basically what he texted me.

Okay, I'm going to own up to my offer by giving him a crisp $100 bill. I'm an Iron Man. Take that for dinner too though.

Take that for dinner. I've got it all wadded up.

But the thing is at my house, so in effect, you know, all the snacks and hors d'oeuvres.

And you don't ask for any money there. You just treat people.

All of the snacks? You mean the 100 wings that I always purchase? Like there's no snacks being eaten from your— everyone brings their own drinks. That's fair. It's just the place. Okay.

Well, the place, that's not—

It's 'cause the game room of Curious is a perfect draft location.

Thank you. Okay. All right. All right. So good. I got off easy. Thank you. There you go. I'm happy. There you go. I was fearing the worst. I was fearing $400 and something.

$500's a lot. Yeah, it is.

That's a lot. That's why I said earlier, I hope the number starts with a 2. I would have been happy with $279.

This is someone who doesn't know what airplane tickets cost.

Zigaki.

That kind of thing. Flying across the country. Plus. $200.

That would not have gone over with your mother if I'm telling her, can you sell $500 to some guy in Connecticut that you've never heard of?

Guarantee you would hurt you more than her. She would just be like, okay, whatever.

I know you're right. Okay. Anyway, thank you, Steve, for flying cheap.

Now, Mike, you are no longer a Cleveland Browns fan, right? Correct. So if they were to make the playoffs this year, you would not— like, you would not jumping on that and rooting and invested?

No. Like they made the playoffs with Flacco the other season. Right. And I was rooting for their fan base. My problem is Deshaun Watson and Jimmy Haslam and the decision that went into that and forcing Baker out to bring in this predator in under center. And it's easier to disassociate when it's Joe Flacco under center. I have plenty of friends and I made a lot of great relationships as a Browns fan. But with Deshaun Watson, absolutely not.

What about when— nothing. What about when Watson's no longer on the team?

I mean, we talked about this hypothetical when they were in play for Cam Ward, and I absolutely would have probably been back for Cam Ward. I kind of root for the Titans a little bit because Cam Ward's there right now.

So the Cleveland Browns quarterback competition, believe it or not, I think is one of the more interesting ones. It is in preseason right now. Yep. It's not very often that you have an interesting quarterback battle on a team that everybody knows is gonna be shitty. And that's what's going on right now with the Cleveland Browns.

You say it's not all that often. It seems to be commonplace in Cleveland, a bad quarterback battle with a team everybody expects to be—

No, no, but I'm saying like you don't very often have an interesting quarterback battle on a team that's going to be— You have quarterback battles on shitty teams.

Well, this one's interesting because Deshaun Watson probably has the worst contract of all time, and because the other guy should—

or Sanders—

and the other guy is Shador Sanders, in which ESPN forces discussion about daily. Is there—

it feels like if it seems like Deshaun Watson's going to win the job and I wonder if Deshaun Watson wins the job, do they then actually cut Sha'dur Sanders? Because we're now 2 years, 2 head coaches.

It's like, do we really need this headache? I mean, Deshaun Watson's been on Cleveland for a long time.

This year, 5, I think.

And him starting seems wild. Like, I feel like I haven't seen Deshaun Watson as a Browns quarterback even though he's been there for 5 years. Well, last time you saw him, he tore his Achilles and we thought he'd never play football again. So it's like all of a sudden now he's back.

And the fans cheered, right? Didn't they cheer when he was being carried off the field?

Yeah, he was atrocious when he was healthy. Right away, it was just bad. All of it was bad. Nobody was happy that it was happening. And I'm sure a lot of Cleveland Browns fans would have been, all right, well, at least let's get the guy that we saw in Houston. And they did not get that guy. Speaks to how bad Shador has been, that if a guy who's come off like one of the worst couple seasons of his life, then tears his Achilles, then gets back and he's still playing better than you at camp where there's at least some sort of competition. It's like, woof. And remember, they drafted Dylan Gabriel ahead of Shador Sanders. What number is he now?

He doesn't know. So, so Todd Monken is the new first-year head coach of the Cleveland Browns, like a coaching lifer, Todd Monken, who now finally has a chance to coach, be a head coach in the NFL. And every day it's stuff like this in training camp between Deshaun Watson and Sha'Dur Sanders. When Mary Kay asked if they're even steven and then you, uh, mentioned that Deshaun's got— is better. Hold on, what was that?

So that's what I'm asking.

I said Deshaun's better. Were you saying that he's gotten better since camp or that he is better than Sha'Dur? I don't think I threw in there that he's better than Sha'Dur.

I'm not sure I went that far, but I I appreciate you trying to trap me in that shit. I'm not.

Every day, Greg. Oh, man. Every day. Every day. That's the stuff the coach is getting.

I don't envy him. I mean, both of his quarterback options are polarizing guys who I would guess a lot of Browns fans still hate Deshaun and aren't sure about Shedeur. I mean, it's just a weird situation.

This just seems like a wasted year. And you remember when Vic Fangio became a head coach and everyone's like, he just wanted to say that he was a head coach at one point in his career. And that's kind of what's going on. With Todd Monken here. I read he apparently threw something after ending practice early yesterday because he did 90-second drills with his, with his offense and there were multiple false starts and just disaster plays.

Have the Browns ever not wasted a year?

Juju, can you put it on the poll? Have the Browns ever not wasted a year?

Was that one year that we, we won at Pittsburgh with Kevin Stefanski having COVID in his, in his basement? And then did they— that was the height. That was the height. That was— so it wasn't wasted. That was like entertainment value. No. And then there was that bad call in Kansas City where Higgins caught a touchdown, but he got like absolutely helmet to helmet crash in. He goes limp at the goal line. It's a huge swing in that game. And I believe Matt Morse had a huge scramble. Flacco year too. I mean, that wasn't a lost season.

Todd Monken every day. Must walk away from that press conference and just mutter to himself, "Boy, this is a real shit job." Right? Like, every day. Every day. There's no chance they're gonna be any good. Zero shot. And he's dealing with a really shitty quarterback controversy.

The face of the franchise is now in LA.

And this is his one opportunity, which of course is why Todd Monken took the job. He can't not take that job.

No, I mean, I think the mindset of NFL coaches No matter who it is, no matter where, I've got one of 32 jobs that 1,000 other guys would want, you know? Like, I don't think Todd Monken sees it as a terrible job. I think he sees it as the time of his life.

But he will eventually.

Oh, he will. Yeah. I mean, when they're 3-11 and everybody's booing. But right now, I mean, if he's upset now, if he's shaking his head now, he's got no shot.

If Deshaun Watson wins the job, which it looks like he's going to, If Deshaun Watson wins the job and like that, they're gonna cut Gabriel or Sha'Dur Sanders. They're not going to keep all three.

It has to be Sha'Dur.

If I, I think they could wind up cutting Sha'Dur Sanders.

Does another team pick him up as a free agent? Maybe.

Um, I know next segment on First Take, I'm wondering if somebody will— Dylan Gabriel does not look like a serious quarterback.

Oh, but the Falcons have to pick him up, right, and make him the third left-handed quarterback on their roster. Come on, yeah, two left-handed Hawaiian quarterbacks on one roster.

There is one flaw in all of this. No, Stefanski is the head coach in Atlanta. Very big flaw, Jeremy. Come on. Damn, I know all about this guy. Damn it, this guy's terrible.

That would have been the one opportunity for him and he blew it.

Very big flaw. Oh, what a shame. Have we heard anything recently about Tua out of Falcons camp? I haven't heard anything. Has he practiced?

No, I haven't seen a pen— uh, Tua has the back. Penix still, I don't believe, has been cleared yet. Knee or something. The guy's throwing passes in Atlanta.

What a disaster and nightmare.

Dan Levitar! I'm not going to apologize.

I'm— I wouldn't expect you to apologize. You're a giant infant. Okay. You have no control over your emotions. You have no control over your emotions when you're calling someone you know an idiot. I don't deserve it. Okay. I don't deserve it. All right. And you're a fool for saying it.

Okay. Great, Cody.

You're a fool. I was kind of following you.

Oh, you're locking in right now? You're locking in on us? Yeah, right. Let's drop the gloves, pal. Let's drop— You should be thanking me. For what? Every day. For what? For what I've done around this character. And the second shit gets real for you, you want to come at me and call me a fool? Huh? No, no, no, seriously. Jeremy, seriously, pal. I've added 10 years to your career. This is the Dan Levitan Show.

Speaking of disaster, a couple of guys were not here with us yesterday. One is Jeremy, one is Greg Cody, and we, we, we talked about something that I know you guys want to get in on, and that was what's going on with the WNBA right now, because there's always some bullshit going on with the WNBA. A lot of times it is their fault because they have very poor leadership. And a lot of times it's not their fault because you have people in the political sphere that like to hijack the WNBA and make it about what they want and their talking points. And that is happening right now where you have a couple of bozos in Royce White and Enes Kanter who have injected themselves into the trans, you know, what defines a woman conversation. And they have both declared for the 2027 WNBA draft. So Greg, uh, your thoughts here when you saw this news over the weekend?

I mean, it's controversial enough as a topic without Enes Kanter coming in and, and just throwing the silly into the whole thing by saying, I declare for the 2027 WNBA draft. It's just ridiculous. And you see memes now— I don't know if you've seen any of these AI memes have these super masculine men playing against women and just dominating, and they're just distasteful and off-putting, and the whole topic has gotten ridiculous. And what Sophie Cunningham started has really taken legs, and it's not going away nearly quick enough. It's a straw man argument because it's just being used to hurt transgender people. And these are bullied people. These are people who need all the support and love and understanding they can get. And this conversation is just hurtful to them. The grain of truth to it is what Sophie Cunningham is talking about, but the grain of truth in the biology of the whole thing is not enough to instill the hurt on people who don't deserve it.

Yeah, I thought the conversation you guys had yesterday was, was pretty good, honestly, in terms of throwing enough at both Royce White and Enos Cantor Freedom for what it is that they're doing here. But the reality is, and this is something that I wish we could have gotten ahead of because it was obvious from the moment Sophie Cunningham started this where the logical endpoint was going to be. And something that didn't happen yesterday was talking about how, you know, you guys mentioned that this is not really a conversation. It's not a real thing. This is concocted. And the frustration is that, like, Sophie Cunningham brought this upon this league, and Sophie Cunningham claims to be standing up for women and, you know, women's rights and women's safety. And if she was really advocating for women, she never would have brought this upon her league. And once she did, even if You know, Sophie Cunningham is not someone who hates trans people, although I would bet within the year she's doing the Riley Gaines circuit and she is one of these sort of paid actors out there who is advocating against trans people, because that will be her grift.

And that has been a part of this grift. Even if you think she's running a grift, Sophie Cunningham, 100%. She's a mediocre player who averages 2 or 3 points per game and averages 15 to 20 minutes a game and is toward that part of her career. And once this was an opportunity, all she did was fan the flames as opposed to shut them down. And if you really are someone—

she shut it down since, or she tried. She's— she's— after spending—

she tried to walk it back after spending multiple weeks just saying like, hey, I'm just here advocating for the little girls. And that— and that's the thing, by the way, like, I, I want to articulate, like, something that happens here a lot of the time is, is in terms of the language that we —use. It's always protecting little girls from biological men. It's never like boys versus girls. It's never men versus women. We talk about protecting little girls from biological men, and the language that's used is careful. And whether Sophie Cunningham is, is willfully ignorant or purposefully ignorant is irrelevant. She's using that same language that is purposefully used that way because it creates this boogeyman that doesn't exist. Correct.

That's a huge part of this, Jeremy, is there's— there was one race that happened several years ago, a college race. This isn't an issue. There was an executive order signed. The pipeline for this crazy hypothetical that conservative commentators always try to paint— there's men beating up women in women's sports, you got to protect— no, there's no pipeline. They can't— they can't be in college sports. They're— they can't be in— but at the lower levels it happens.

There was an executive order signed.

There is no pipeline to get people to the league. Yeah, this— it hasn't happened in the WNBA. No, but I'm talking lower levels.

I'm talking like actual younger age, right?

That's what the executive order was signed for. They've been signing bills all across the country to ban high school athletes from competing, high school trans athletes. And what they've had to do as they do that is go searching around their state to try to find a singular trans athlete. You can go back and watch a lot of the work that Pablo's done over the last calendar year or so, whether it was the Riley Gaines episode or a separate episode where he talked about the bill specifically in Ohio, where all it did was single out one trans girl who was a backup catcher on a softball team.

It's interesting. I, I had this conversation with my son, my younger son. He's, uh, 14. I had this conversation with him recently, maybe a couple months ago, and, and this topic came up. And I said to him, I go, I go, Jordan, let me ask you something. Do you know anyone who's trans? And he said no, right? I said, have you ever met anyone that's trans? And he said no. I go, neither have I. What are we really talking about here?

Yeah, and you might have, like, you might not know because that's part of the reality of all of this too, is we're creating a boogeyman out of an unknown person or an unknown situation. But, but you know the abuse that happens? It's, it's from Riley Gaines' own coach who allegedly raped her teammates.

Well, she's okay. She's her own. Like, I don't think she's not her own Sophie Cunningham. They're taking pictures.

Hey, hold on a second. They're posting pictures together. These are not She's not shying away from this. And my point is that right now, Sophie Cunningham is not Riley Gaines, right? But let's have this conversation again. And, well, okay, because that's where this all starts. Riley Gaines herself did not start as what Riley Gaines is right now. But we talk about money in politics and the way that it works. Like, there's all sorts of dark money that funds Riley Gaines and people like her so that they can be the faces in front of this hateful rhetoric that's out there. And the real abusers are the people like Royce White, who's been charged with actual abuse of his own wife. Like, even when there's not— and, and the, the last part of this is, Mike, you brought up the, the race with, with Leah Thomas and Riley Gaines. And ironically, in all of this, Leah Thomas was actually an example of this process working, right? Didn't they— Leah Thomas, Leah Thomas, pre-transition was a, a Stanford swimmer who was highly successful in the male category and had really good records and had competed in the Ivy League tournament and finished in the top 5 as a freshman and over the span of years went through hormone suppression and her times significantly decreased, but she was just about equally as competitive.

When she was a male competitor, and then ultimately after she transitioned and was competing amongst the females. I think she tied for 5th in one race, and that changed everything. I'm not saying that there aren't genetic advantages, but I understand.

But you're giving this way too much attention to defend things on merit. It's not— it's not a merit-based conversation.

That's the part where it starts, is that this conversation comes out of nowhere. The only problem that I have, and I am— I'm giving too, too much breath because the thing is, it's a bad faith convo, right? But the thing that I want to make abundantly clear is not that in the end what needs to happen, because what it is, is, is someone would look at someone like me and say like, oh, so what, you want men in women's sports? No, it's not. It's not that simple. When someone transitions, there are all sorts of guidelines in place. And the WNBA, we talk about their leadership, got caught sleeping here on something because it was not ever, has never been and will never be an issue for the WNBA in particular. Every other sporting organization where this has been something that's come to fruition, they have specific rules and guidelines in place when it comes to hormone suppression to make sure that the competitive balance is fair. And when it comes to the boogeyman aspect of all of it, that's a totally separate thing and where this grift is going. But we are— we are letting all of this be a bigger issue.

And, and, and Zazz, whether we like it or not, Sophie Cunningham opened this door to let her league be at the center stage of this circus. And it's really frustrating that we've now just skipped to only Enos Kanter and Royce White, who were fools to begin with when she let that happen.

It was manna from heaven for conservative media that wants to hit something that was a very popular piece of their platform during the last election cycle. It won. And Democrats did not know what to do with this, um, this one thing, and it proved to be a huge single ballot issue in many cases, even though there was— ah, swim meet, you know. And this is not a good faith combo. It's a diversionary tactic because everything is terrible right now. Everything is super expensive. They're in a forever war with no way out, and they'd rather talk about this because this is what scores than talk about policy. That's right. And that's all they're doing right now. I imagine behind the scenes there's all sorts of engagement with, you know, right-wing media members really amplify this non-issue. It is a not— it has never been a thing in that league. Hasn't been. The whole notion of being a man making yourself draft eligible to go in the WNBA to become the first to do so. I saw, I saw. And highlight— see, This is a problem when you're the— you're patient zero?

Mike, I saw some of the poly markets have Ennis Cantor 30% to be drafted. What?

I don't know what those are.

Let's see the— let's see the bit out. Transition. How could it not be 0%? No, own the libs. Go out there. Own the libs. Transition. Please. Do it. Royce. Do it.

That's the confusing part to me, Greg. Like, these guys like Ennis Cantor and Royce White, they don't want men playing in women's sports. Okay, fine. And their solution is let's be men and play in women's sports. Yeah, I don't understand. They're being witty and sarcastic.

And do they not? Well, then maybe they do know that the WNBA has a specific bylaw that says only women can play.

If I'm the commissioner, I make a waiver. All right. Well, she's a nothing. Royce, if you transition, absolutely. Let's do it. Yeah. Join the WNBA. Let's own the libs together, pal. Dan Levitar, you are a fool. You're nobody. You are an infant.

You have no skin in me. I literally put together Mike Ryan's stage for your toenail.

I am your career right now, pal. Look at me. No, I am your career. No, Greg Cody, you have messed with McDavid, and now you're messing with me, and I'm more dangerous, pal.

This is the Dan Levitar Show.

You know who the happiest person out of all this is? Oh, let me hear. Caitlin Clark. Because prior to all this, she was MAGA's Barbie. So all that weight on her shoulders.

And they're mad at her now, right? I saw some people are mad at her. She's not speaking up.

I don't think Caitlin Clark's happy about any of this.

Yeah. Every time I see Caitlin Clark in these post-game press conferences, she looks miserable.

It's just people like It's always the people that don't watch the sport that feels most comfortable weighing in on this sport.

Well, and you're right. And that's, that's why I always preface it when we bring this stuff up, because we never actually talk about the WNBA games here because none of us really watch. Although I don't watch it at all.

Mike's the only one who's willing to. I have the courage.

Mike's the only one willing to admit that he doesn't watch it. We don't— like, I watch it on the periphery and I'm totally transparent about it. I watch it on the periphery because like, that is kind of— Jeremy doesn't watch.

Jeremy doesn't watch it.

Oh, we got two people who admit it.

No, I don't.

I don't watch on a consistent basis.

He doesn't want to admit it.

I'll watch an occasional playoff game.

I actually think what Zazz is doing is very smart. I watch on the periphery.

Yeah, you don't watch that. I watch on the periphery because I need to know what's going on.

I don't watch at all. I don't know what's going on with this. Don't watch at all.

No, I need to know what's— I need to know what's going on. But that's why I always preface it, Greg, with—

Not a second over here. Any—

oh, so you don't watch? No. Any time that I bring up— I also don't watch. Oh, Tony, you don't watch? He doesn't watch. I was about to come to you for a top 5 storyline. Thank you for your great storyline, GWBH.

So the thing is, We're just learning he didn't watch. He didn't have the courage to tell you that he didn't watch.

But it's why I always preface it, Greg, with I feel bad bringing this kind of stuff up because we don't talk about WNBA on this show, and I feel bad sometimes when the only time that we do talk about it is the bullshit. Yeah, you know, like we're then essentially contributing to the bullshit. And the fact is there's a lot of stuff going on in that league. Like there's a lot of storylines that are actually in-game. They got cool players. You know, there is a lot of fun stuff if you're into the league.

Roy, you watch. It's on in the background.

Oh, you're going to the background.

Oh, what the fuck?

I'm working on— I have a basketball game. I mean, it's on the background.

There's 6 teams. 6 teams. Okay, wait a minute.

Wait a minute. The Chicago what? Sky. Yeah.

1. That's 1. Dallas Wings. 2.

2. Go. L.A. Sparks. 3. You could do it. The Atlanta Dream. 4. You can do it. Panicky.

You got this. 4. Who are the champs? The Connecticut Sun. They're leaving, but okay. There you go. 6.

There you go. He did that without saying the Indiana Fever. That's right.

Or the New York Liberty. He didn't even mention the New York team. Good job. There you go.

There you go. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

All right. In the background, what a cop-out.

A hero. Who's the bigger fan? Somebody on the periphery or somebody in the background?

That's a great point. I'm the bigger fan.

Come out and say it's not on in the background. I agree. Wow. It's not on in the background. Oh boy. Canucks-Oilers from 2007. Where do you watch it? Yeah, in my office while I'm working. Just like I said, because it's on in the background. What channel is it on in the background? USA. Oh, you know what, I don't watch at all. That you said that with conviction, that's— I wouldn't be able to check you on this. You could have said anything.

L. Duncan. Bring back the Miami Soul. Yes. Where's Ruth Riley?

Yes. How about that?

How about that? She's not there either.

It's been years.

It's been a long time since she's been doing that.

She's still around though. I still see her.

Oh boy. Peripheral.

What are you laughing at there, Chuckles? Oh boy.

Oh boy.

The league has, from certainly outside looking in, and I saw Katie Nolan weigh in on this and I really appreciated her perspective as someone that actually watches it. And she's —like, this is— the W is a safe space for people that are actually disenfranchised. I think everybody can understand, and maybe some of you in the audience might even say "good" under your breath, but I think we can all acknowledge there has been a gigantic sea change on how these people are being treated, on how we're moving in on their rights. Kinda sucks to be going through that at this point in time in America. And WNBA games would seem to be a safe space for those that are actually disenfranchised. I'm not talking about the white people getting upset about a swim meet that feel like they have all the problems in the world. I'm talking about people that are actually having their rights trampled and having actual hate. And to do this to your fan base and have this discussion with all the toxicity attached to it puts your fans in a tough spot.

Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. It is a fun league if you're into the games, but too often you get the bullshit that I love women's basketball.

Look, I do love women's basketball. I go to many Miami Hurricanes women's basketball games. I have donated to that NIL program.

Not into the professional level.

No, I don't. It's fine. It's a fan with thing for me. It's fine. I also don't watch baseball like I, I don't, I, I don't watch F1 anymore. All right?

But I'm courageous enough to admit it. Let's, uh, let's steer the conversation.

You didn't want to say let's transition?

You know what, I didn't think of that.

Oh boy. If I did, I would've.

That would've been funny.

Oh boy.

So instead, you got the joke. You get credit for it, Jeremy. Oh boy. Thank you. The NBA schedule is coming out in full on Thursday, but we've started to have leaks, right? There's leakage with the NBA schedule. Do we have anything like— I would imagine the opening night games, Christmas Day games, those are the ones that are coming out first. Do we have some of those handy? Open— like, has the opening night been released by the NBA? Do we know that yet?

I saw Shams put out the opening night games, but they— he leaves out that there's a game at 3 PM before these two games.

Okay, so opening night is gonna be October 20th. And you're telling me they're doing an afternoon opening day game?

The two games he shows is Sixers. They just took it off the screen, so of course I can't see it anymore. But it was Sixers at Knicks and then Thunder at San Antonio. Those are the 7 PM and then late game. And then—

but yes, you don't have to point out good games. It's opening night. We know it's going to be a game.

Okay. But the 3 o'clock game is Pistons-Celtics.

But you think like someone's going to look at the opening night game? Well, it's a real shitburger.

No, it's opening night. 3 o'clock. You got it.

What's the game? Celtics-Pistons. You like that one? That should be a good game. Yeah. You have the number 1 seed versus the number 2 seed. Yeah, actually. Yeah.

Number 2 seed, please. They were last year.

Yeah, that's right.

What do they have this year? Hugo Gonzalez? Has there ever been a number 1 seed that has become such an afterthought in its conference?

I think the East has had a bunch throughout the years.

No, no. But the Pistons, like, they are not entering this equation at all.

Weren't the Hawks the 1 seed a couple of years ago?

They're in a tier to themselves.

Well, the Pistons—

my friend Ben was like, their tier is Pistons.

The Pistons very much feel like those Hawks teams that Budenholzer coached where, all right, they're going to win 60 games and no one's afraid of them.

And then the Cavs, weren't they the ones?

But nobody thinks that they're going to have the same type of season at all.

Okay, so opening day, it's Pistons-Celtics in the afternoon. Why are they doing an afternoon game?

The NHL does this too, but at least the NHL is 5 PM. Okay, well, they— the NBA also has appeal in Europe, so I imagine this is a big TV window over there too. But I like the idea of— we do this for Major League Baseball opening day. Okay. Hockey started doing it.

I do like that they're just taking a game like, don't put, don't put the Sixers at Knicks at 3 PM.

So the Sixers, LeBron, they're going to— not only did the Knicks smoke them in the playoffs, but LeBron and the Sixers are going to stand there and watch the banner being raised. Yeah, I like that. I like that. I like that. Perfect. That's a good story.

And then we had the Christmas Day games, which, guys, Miami Heat fans, we are back.

The Heat are playing on Christmas. So the Heat are at— the Heat are the second game on Christmas, which must be what, 3 PM? 2:30. 2:30. So 2:30 on Christmas, Heat at Celtics. Yes, we are into that. We are back. I am into— I love the Heat being on the road on Christmas. Amen. I love that because if the Heat lose at the Celtics which they won't, but if they lose at the Celtics, like, whatever, it's Christmas, that's a tough spot to win, the Celtics are supposed to win that game. But if the Heat do win Christmas at the Celtics, then we ruin your Christmas. We take your Christmas from you. And you're all upset. It becomes fuck your Christmas if the Heat win at the Celtics. That's a win-win to me. So I like the Heat beating on the road and at the Celtics too on Christmas.

I'm into that. And LeBron goes back to LA. Sixers, Lakers.

Okay, so let's see here. Yes, Spurs at Knicks. We know the Knicks always have the noon Christmas game.

Do you want me to do this through the NFL Prism? I have here the full Christmas Day NBA and NFL combined.

So give us the NFL, NBA. All right, go ahead.

All right, noon Christmas Day Spurs-Nicks. Good game. 1 PM Pacers-Bears.

Okay, gotta go slow. Noon Spurs-Nicks, 1 PM Packers-Bears. Excellent.

Yep. 2:30 Heat-Celtics. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 4:30 Bills-Broncos. Big game. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's my shtick.

5 PM Sixers-Lakers. Yeah, Sixers—

oh, that's his only game back at the Lakers, LeBron. Okay, it's on Christmas. 8 PM— hold on, hold on for one second. Rousing ovation for LeBron in his return?

Definitely positive, but not as loud as Kobe's would be.

But it's a rousing ovation.

I'd say a tepid ovation.

I see smattering of boos, but most—

oh, you think there could be a smatter of boos?

All right, look, they were NBA champions and they were in-season tournament champions. They won 2 trophies.

Yeah, no one cares about the second thing you said.

All right, IST, whatever they call it. So 5 PM Sixers-Lakers, 8 PM Thunder-Wolves. Thunder-Wolves. Of all the games in the day, that's the meh, whatever.

8:15.

What are we talking— Anthony Edwards SGA on prime time?

Okay, of all the games.

And shout out to those that called. Yes, the Knicks actually do have that noon window. It is a traditional thing.

Was I arguing that?

Well, well, because I was like, well, they've also never been good enough to be in that later window.

It fit perfectly for them for decades.

No, New York City in the afternoon, that's their thing.

All right, so 8:15 now, Rams at Seahawks.

Bucks. Oh, NFC West. And then nightcap, 10:30. If you want to start something, a huge game or not a huge game, that I guess could be your thing. But I, I— it's a huge game, could be mine. It could be, but I mean, everyone would know it's a knockoff, a cheap knockoff.

And then 10:30 Nuggets Warriors. 10:30 Nuggets. That's a nice little Christmas.

8 games on Christmas.

Now look, there's not a ton of options for the 10:30 game, West Coast game, but I think the Warriors are gonna Nuggets may not be any better.

Really? Yeah, I love their surrounding. You're telling me that I can exactly right put Seth and Jokic in the trade machine? Jokic for Jović and a couple firsts. What do you say, take it or leave it?

What if the Heat acquire Klay Thompson? Hey Steph, you want to play here, don't you? What about that? Hey, I like them apples.

What's this Klay Thompson thing?

I don't know. Why is my summer being hijacked? I don't know why. I don't know why. All the second game, it's been hijacked by Klay Thompson. It's been hijacked by—

you're at Las Rosas and you're thinking, I can't enjoy this because of Klay Thompson. No, it's actually been hijacked recently by Enes Kanter Freedom. That's recent though. Yeah, it's the last couple days. Yeah, also the country's a tire fire, so I'm— that's usually got my free—

but the Klay Thompson thing, it's been hijacking my summer. I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think it's the second game of chicken. I think it's the second—

the first game of chicken, it's DeMar DeRozan. Yeah, it's been a 15-year-long game of chicken. You may argue this is a good nominee. There was a whacker game of chicken. It was Jacoby Brissett and the Arizona Cardinals. Like, come on, what are we doing? Get your money. This is your opportunity. Whatever. But this one— and Carson Beck might be better— but this game between the Heat and DeRozan has been going on for 5 years where they're like, come here, championship culture, got a role for you, maybe take a little bit less. And DeMar DeRozan's like, I don't want to, I don't think you're very good. And they're like, no, we're gonna, we're gonna be good. What are you gonna do, go play in Chicago or Sacramento? And DeMar DeRozan's He's like, yes, and we're both going to be worse for it.

No, but the Heat's thing is, yeah, we've really wanted you for years. Yeah, but we're offering you a minimum contract.

There was that one time that they offered the same as Sacramento, and he's like, I still think I want to do Sacramento. And we're like, well, but we're the Miami Heat. He's like, I don't care. Yeah, I'll see you in the play-in.

They love to go after the same guy for like 3 or 4 years in a row.

When the Heat like a guy They like them forever.

It, it worked with Giannis eventually, but now these guys— like, isn't Russell Westbrook also in the, in the rumor mill to the Heat?

God, I hope not. I know your Christmas.