Transcript of The Epic Mister Lister Duel | Hour 2

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

I want to tell you guys about Kenley Rasmus. So Kenley Rasmus is a pitcher for the Alabama team in the Little League World Series. Kenley is the 9th girl to ever pitch in the Little League World Series. She's the 25th girl to ever compete in the tournament, and the team slogan is Fear the Bow for the bow that she wears on the back of her ponytail. But she threw 6 shutout innings the other night.

Um, unfortunately, any relation to Colby?

Yeah, she's Colby's niece.

Colby Rasmussen. I was joking.

A name from the past, one of our favorites. Uh, so 25th girl to ever compete in the tournament. Again, she threw 6 shutout innings. She plays shortstop as well. She's going to be playing shortstop tonight in an elimination game for this Alabama team. But she is the best player on this team. She is electric. Like, when you watch her pitch, she is clearly one of the best pitchers in this tournament. She's helped to lead her team from Alabama to the Little League World Series. And it's so cool because Corey and Colby Rasmus, obviously Colby's brother Corey, who was also a big leader, they went to the Little League World Series back in 1999. They went all the way to the—

I always like when they show clips of the major leaguers from either current or former major leaguers when they played in the Little League World Series.

Well, and that's just like the guy we introduced earlier in the week, Matt Tugboat Wilkinson, who had pitched in the Little League World Series. Now you have this example of Kenley Rasmus, and it's really exciting.

This is more your lane, Adam. She beat Vijay. This is more your lane.

It's really great to see them in this tournament for the first time in 27 years. She won't be able to pitch tonight, but hopefully she can lead her team to a win. And I just want to salute to Kinley Rasmus. She deserves a toast. And Worth a Toast is presented by Cuervo. Keep it fun, keep it Cuervo. Shout out Kinley Rasmus.

How about that? You know, this is a good opportunity actually, Jeremy.

I said literally, was it serious?

This is a good opportunity, Jeremy, actually, for you to tell us about this new Kardashian reality show.

Let me just underscore, drink responsibly. Yeah. Whoops.

Fear the boat is the team slogan? Sounds like it's her slogan.

21 and over, please.

I'm gonna go.

No, I want to, I want to hear about this Kardashian reality show that she's producing. I'm being serious. Yeah. You fool.

Uh, so it's called, I think, Team Moms. Let's find out. Team Moms, I think. Uh, so basically there's a reality show again that Kim Kardashian is producing that's going to be on a streamer, and it's a reality TV show about following the parents, and specifically the moms, of a private school baseball team that's one of the best baseball schools in Arizona. This is going to be an absolute bleep show.

This sounds like we're gonna see these are horrible people.

Yeah, these are gonna be some of the worst people you've ever seen. Like, the prep parents, um, in general, like prep school, private school parents, Not everybody's favorite. Way, way, way, way, way, way, way worse when you're dealing with prep school parents of a baseball team.

Don't look over there, you're talking to me, look over here.

There's a baseball team here. And I think most of these prep sports are pretty bad, like whether it's basketball or anything else. I will tell you from personal experience, dealing with baseball parents, and particularly baseball moms, at a rich school like this—

You gotta work through it, man.

—is disaster.

I'm having a really bad day. This is, this has immediately turned into a bad day. It was a bad day. I'm not having a good day. You fool. Normally I'm pretty good, but then, you know, the pressure.

Go take a break.

Yeah, I need a break.

Thank you. Go, go.

I'd like him to stick around if I could make that request.

No, he's leaving. There you go. I mean, I— before we get to your shenanigans from last night, I do want to go over last night's preseason game real quick. You know, we got a glimpse of being able to see Fernando Mendoza in his second outing. He started the game last night. Night for the Raiders. Raiders and Texans played. But get a load of CJ Stroud here. Dave Dameshek, did you see CJ Stroud's very interesting way— oh, this is so good— of warming up before the game? Here's CJ Stroud. As you can see, he's on the field, and his, his drill— he, he's got his thumbs out and he's doing his eyes.

He's doing some type of eye drill. Someone described this as a field sobriety test.

You don't want to just go left to right here, you also want to go up and down. So then he puts his thumb above and below, and he's just up, only moving the eyes. If you want to work out your eyes, you don't move. Before we were doing this before the show and people were moving. No, no, no. You don't move your head at all.

Just the eyes. All right. So we were playing a game beforehand, like, who, who in the NFL can you guarantee is not making the playoffs? And we're trying to up the ante because most people would go Dolphins, but that's playing it safe. Who has the hottest hand? Who has the hottest take guaranteeing that this team will not make the playoffs? That man right there, CJ Stroud, it's an important year for him. Last time I saw him play football, he was bad. Now, that defense, spectacular, spectacular defense. You trust that defense, but I don't trust that quarterback. And if I'm trying to impress you with a hot take of a team that's not making the playoffs, it's the Houston Texans. No playoffs for you.

It's very easy, as I, you know, from around the time of free agency and the draft, it sort of boosts every fan base's a sense of optimism. And until the actual evidence of the regular season is provided, you can kind of talk yourself into almost any team making the playoffs. And I'm not just making fun of the Dolphins— they don't want to make the playoffs, so they clearly are not going to be a playoff team this year. But it's way easier to cobble together the list of teams you could kind of see making the playoffs versus the ones that you definitely know will not. It's easy to say Dolphins easy-to-say punchline teams like the Browns and Jets. Let's see if we can raise the standard here a little bit. You're coming in awful hot there, Mike, though. You're starting with the Houston Texans. I have the hot—

I have an even hotter take. Oh, the Baltimore Ravens.

Holy hell. I mean, they missed last year. New coaching staff.

Lamar, that arrow is not going in the right direction. Derrick Henry maybe finally shows Uh, some diminishing returns there.

Um, somebody has to win the division though, you understand? Are you saying the Pittsburgh Steelers? Are you saying Cincinnati Bengals? I'm saying Cincinnati.

So we're trying to be like poker hands here.

I got one.

Yeah, do you have a— do you have a better hand than Mike's, or at least, uh, you know, equivalent hand of Mike's Ravens? Chris, do you have one?

I'm gonna go with the Eagles and the Seahawks. Wow, that's right.

Someone hasn't been watching Hard Knocks.

I mean, that's honestly one of the biggest factors. Like, one's like, Hard Knocks teams don't really do well generally.

How about Hard Knocks teams that just won the Super Bowl?

That's true.

But I'm just saying that I think that they over— obviously, I mean, they won the Super Bowl. Nobody thought— I think everyone thought they were a good team last year, but they definitely overachieved last year. I just think we've seen— I'm kind of feeling that way about JSN in fantasy. I'm selling high on JSN right now.

You are— I don't think you're crazy.

No, no, no. I think JSN is a great receiver, but I don't think statistically, I think we saw his best season last year. He's not gonna Cooper Kupp it again and win every— like, I just think you sell high there.

Speaking of the Super Bowl, Patriots aren't making the playoffs.

That I agree with, but that's not— that's not a hot take. Runner-up is not as hot. That's not as hot as saying the team that actually won the Super Bowl. And by the way, the Philadelphia Eagles is also a pretty hot take too. Cody just dropped a bomb. So I just—

so I just can't do anything right today.

And by the way, that's the second time I've toasted a kid.

That wasn't a big deal then.

It wasn't a big deal. I did the bird call, kid.

Nobody said anything then.

It's fine. I'm leaving again. So it's going to be impossible then to top what Cody just did because—

sorry, I ruined the game—

the hottest take is saying that the team that won the Super Bowl is going to miss the playoffs. I mean, my, mine is not going to— I'm not going to be able to top that, but I have the Packers not making the playoffs.

Ooh, that's pretty spicy. No, it's milquetoast. Here's one for you that I don't believe, but here's how The only way you can do hotter than the Seahawks is to take the team with the shortest odds, which is the LA Rams, which is a fascinating team to look at because you have a quarterback, reigning MVP, who's got a bad back, and the guy, the guy— I have the Jenga theory, as you know, that if you remove the wrong Jenga piece, the whole thing's going to implode on you. If Puka Nacua, who has had a, a wild offseason were to go down for any stretch of time, where would the Rams go from there? I mean, Davante Adams is 34 years old. He can't be your, your feature pass catcher. They would really be doomed. That's the hottest you can go, Zazz, is to go the LA Rams because their odds are so short.

That's part of the reason I took the Seahawks too, because of the Rams. I think the Rams are the best team in football in that division. So you got the Niners. Yeah, I just think it's a tough division and I just, I think they fall back. I don't think the Seahawks are going to be bad. I just think in a tough division that they fall back a little bit.

I think if you miss the playoffs, you're bad. Like, you're not a good team if— you're bad if you miss the playoffs. So you're saying they're gonna be bad? There, I said it. Last night, this century—

but this century though, I should say that the Super Bowl runner-up has made the playoffs only half the time in the following season. It is not good to make the Super Bowl and lose in it. Your, your next season does not generally work out very well. Yeah. So the same highlight, same as highlight.

And that's right. That's where we are this season going into it. So tough spot.

Very difficult spot. You hate being the runner-up. Everyone knows that about the World Highlight League.

Everyone knows that. Fernando Mendoza last night.

Yeah, there were a lot of people like Hurricanes fans reveling in that pick 6. I— dude, I am not like that. I don't get that. Like, I get being a hater.

Like, Hurricane fans are hating Fernando Mendoza? I get that.

I get being a hater, but like, man, that guy like broke you over his knee. Like, tip of the hat. Yeah, I don't feel that way.

Like, Fernando Mendoza, I mean, there's no rivalry with Indiana.

I saw people like really enjoying that he threw a pick 6. And he's from here!

He's from here. Wouldn't you think people would behave? Yeah, no, that's weird. That's weird, right?

Yeah, I don't— rivalry? I mean, it's not really a rivalry. That's like a, you know, even-handed kind of matchup. This is more hammer nail, right? The Hoosiers took the Canes to the woodshed, didn't they? Yeah, I don't like that.

That's lame.

It wasn't woodshed-y, but it was wire-to-wire. Miami didn't lead in that game. No, dude, all the respect in the world to the Hoosiers. They kicked our ass. I think that's the best team that Miami's lost to in a championship ever.

Is there a nicer player in the National Football League now than Fernando Mendoza since he is now in the league? Here was Fernando Mendoza This was in the second half, once his night is over, with Laura Rutledge.

Okay, well, you nailed it. We'll go tell Kirk that you did a great job. Thank you.

Please do.

Please do. And please tell Mr. Buck I say hello.

Oh, we love it. There you go. What about Mr.

Aikman? Oh, of course. I mean, he's a legend, you know. I think Mr. Buck needs some more love because, I mean, Mr. Aikman's already, you know. Well said, Fernando.

You nailed it. Thank you. God bless. Back to you guys. See you there.

I mean, what's he gonna be like when the Raiders are on like a 7-game losing streak? Are we gonna see him upset? He's, he's so positive.

I think that's the kind— we're talking about culture guys the other day, and like usually culture guys talk about Desmond Bain picking up shit and throwing it around or whatever, but like sometimes the culture guy is a guy who's fine.

It's cute now though, didn't I? If Mendoza is not good though, it's gonna— this act will run thin. Kind of like McDaniel when we were winning, you're like, oh, he's so zany.

That's interesting.

I don't know, if he starts and he's not good—

also curious part from that clip, already ramifications for the, the rules that Troy Aikman now faces. You know, he's subject to the Tom Brady broadcast rules. Yep. And so like Mendoza doesn't even want to say hi to him because he's not in the pre-meeting.

Go back to my point. When you are in a loser-ass situation, it's very easy for people to become cynical. So sometimes you just need someone who is going to find the positive and be uplifting. When day after day we show up to this facility and watch ourselves on film suck. Like, you need someone who's got a silver lining to all this. Not silver lining like, eh, we did our best or whatever, but like not give in to the darkness and the moodiness of losing. But if his name—

but, you know, I think he is such a sweetheart of a guy. If his name weren't Fernando, I think we would consider him very differently. I think that that provides him a sense of bravura, right? Fernando, it betrays his manner. A sense of what? Bravura.

Bravura. All right. Yeah. All right. Yeah.

It's Yiddish, I think. Yeah.

But let me just say in closing, if you're a Miami Hurricanes fan, especially a local one, and you're rooting against Fernando Mendez, stop being lame.

You're a weirdo. Yeah. Stop being lame.

Yes. You're a weirdo. Down Levitar. I used to say when I turn 80, all bets are off. That's when the heroin starts. But then I moved it up to 75 a few years ago. Dave Demacek. I'm thinking now 65 years of age. Jonathan Sasslow.

I have a pact with a friend that if we both live until 90, we're gonna do heroin. This is the Dan Levatar Show.

Hey, let's get into it now.

It's time to do some Mr. Lister. Football season is close enough.

Let's do it.

First up, Tashay via me. Here we go. According to DraftKings Sports, 2026 team win totals that are in the double digits. Amin, you go first. Wow. These are NFL teams as set by DraftKings Sports over-under win totals for the season set in the double digits.

This is good. This is going to upset Chris Cody, but I'm going to go the Seattle Seahawks. That's correct.

This is going to upset me. The New England Patriots.

The New England Patriots is correct.

I'm going to go right into your backyard, Damashek, and say the Los Angeles Rams.

Los Angeles Rams is correct.

Buffalo Bills.

Buffalo Bills 10.5, Rams 11.5. One of two teams expected to hit the double digit— to hit the, uh, to hit 11.

I was interested about that Bills number because the Bills schedule is very tough. Very different.

How many teams total were there? How many total teams are in this game, Dave?

So like, uh, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

I mean, so we got 4 down of the 10, so there's 6 remaining. I'm gonna stay in your backyard and see the Los Angeles Chargers.

Ah, you have a chance to steal, Tashay.

The Detroit Lions. The Detroit Lions is correct!

A massive upset! Jeremy Tashay takes down Amin El-Hassan, thereby beating the NBA expert I mean, I had a tremendous final round that played into Amin's hands, but he is out. He will not get to play in the, uh, in the ultimate round. Now we go—

wait, can I ask? Let me ask, let me ask, what was the Chargers over-under?

Uh, it was under 10.5 because it's not— be— I feel like it's 9.5. Pretty sure it was 9.5. Wow. Seahawks, Eagles, Patriots, Chiefs, Lions, Bengals, Bills all at 10.5, Rams and the Baltimore Ravens at 11. What? Really? Take the under. Very heavy. Feels very heavy with the Ravens. I am with Mike Ryan that there are some questions, especially about the Ravens. You know, they've been predicated— our, our perception of the Baltimore Ravens is owed to much like their archrival Pittsburgh Steelers. We think they're mighty at the line of scrimmage, but that's been the failing of the Ravens. The last couple of years is some questions on both sides of the thing, and the interior of the offensive line is not doing Lamar Jackson or Derrick Henry any favors. The assumption that they're going to win the division is, uh, is a little rich. I'm with you, Mike Ryan. I got the Cincinnati Bengals winning the AFC North this year. But here we go, Zazzalo v. Chris Cody. You're up first, Cody.

I'm ready.

New York Jets quarterbacks who started a playoff game for the Jets.

Oh my God, I'll go first. Joe Namath. That's correct.

Vinnie Testaverde.

Vinnie Testaverde is correct, appeared in the title game, if you'll recall, against the Denver Broncos. Mark Sanchez. Mark Sanchez is correct. By the way, you know, everybody has these alt-casts casts now. Wouldn't it be great if Mark Sanchez and Tony Romo started one? I'd watch. I think we all would want— right?

I want to start an alt cast to an alt cast. I want to— I want to do the Manning cast alt cast.

Romo and Sanchez are perfect. Stop Googling stuff on the Manning Boys.

All right, now we're getting into the difficult territory. I got one more. I mean, it's such a— you got another one? It's such a bullshit franchise. Now we're getting into the tough area.

Do you want a clue? Is it— it's not fair for me to give a clue.

I don't, I don't really want a clue. No. Okay. All right. I don't feel great.

You have— you have— you should be able to— the only clue I'll give you is you should be able to benefit from your sense of history.

All right. That feels like the quarterback was Jewish by him saying that.

No, that's not what I'm getting at. Stop with the hints. I said I know. Yeah, I am kind of trying to steer Zazz here a little bit.

All right, uh, I don't feel great about you guys.

Root for a team that you should be able to put two and two together here.

Ryan Fitzpatrick.

It's incorrect, you fool. Chris Cody.

I'm gonna go with Chad.

Chris Cody's already our winner, by the way. He's already won this round.

Of course, that's a terrible job by me. He said Pennington.

Pennington is correct, and they really gilding the lily because he already won it. When you said Ryan Fitzpatrick, I think what you were going for, Zazz, was Pat Ryan. Ken O'Brien, um, started playoff games. But who I was trying to steer you towards, Zazzle, is of course Richard Todd, who threw those interceptions in the rainy Orange Bowl to AJ Dewey. That allowed David Woodley and the Dolphins to advance to Super Bowl XVII.

What other— are those all of the Jets starting quarterbacks in the playoffs? Are there any others?

That's it. Chad Pennington, Testaverde, Ken O'Brien, Pat Ryan, Joe Namath, Dick Todd. Could forget Pat Ryan.

It's kind of a pathetic list.

It really is a sad one. I don't even know if we should proceed here. In fact, I'm gonna do this one anyway. Who are the two biggest cinephiles in that room? Amin and— is it Mike Ryan or is it me and Mike?

No way.

Okay, here we go.

I'd probably go Mike and Amin.

Honestly, you're not even top 3.

I mean, Roy knows everything about it.

Roy, I put Tashay. Roy, you might be dead last.

Roy, like, but specific from like '70s to '90s. I think he kind of lost touch with the movies about 10, 15 years ago. Is that safe to say, Roy? I lost touch with everything.

Sidney Crosby broke his spear. No, no, don't you dare. Well, I think what happened happened. All right, here we go. Let's go, Zaslo, since he's volunteered himself. Mike Ryan and Amin, the category: John Travolta movies starting in 1990. Wow. Nothing— you can't get, can't get in the Wayback Machine. Nice. Starting in 1990. Nice. Zaslo, you start us off. Phenomenon. It's correct.

What's the, what's the order here?

What's the order?

What's your order? What's order? Mike Ryan.

Let's go Mike Ryan. The Punisher. I mean, is our rank The Punisher?

Oh yeah, we're going deep already, pal.

I love it, I love it. Michael, that's right. That's another great category— movies that have the same name and the greatest distance between what those movies are about. You know, like Gladiator is a boxing movie or it's set in Roman times. Um, with Russell Crowe. Michael is an angel, or is Michael Jackson?

He's buying time for you, Zazz, so dig deep. Broken Arrow.

Very nice. Great flick.

John Woo. You know, Christian Slater kicks Howie Long off a moving train.

Hell yeah.

You know about that getting head while you're hacking? Swordfish.

Oh, that's it. Yeah, that's going, that's going. Oh, do you know about that?

Oh my God.

You know about that scene? Halle Berry's boobs.

You know about—

you got paid, love some early, half a mil, half a mil per some early morning tanning.

Yeah, but you know about that?

Yes, that hacking. Yes, while you're getting that dome, dude. Swordfish.

I mean, all right, all right, because I want to get the easy ones out the way so Zazz can get exposed. Uh, Face/Off.

I think that's the way to play it, by the way. My two cents is that you should take the easy ones. Don't take the hard ones away early on, file those away for later.

Zazzlo, to you. Pulp Fiction.

Very nice. The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three.

Nice. Wow, very nice.

Look Who's Talking Too.

Look Who's Talking Too. T-O-O. The first— that's the first one on the list, 1990. Look Who's Talking To an important note, what if you went with the OG? You would be out now. I mean, instead it's to Zasla. He's already done.

Really? I might be done. Oh no. Oh no. Battlefield Earth.

There you go, friend. Nice.

He's got like the hair, the dreads, right? It looks stupid.

The Taking of Pelham 123. I'm allowing— I'm, by the way, I'm going to allow animated.

I'm trying to get the animated Disney dog movie. I'm trying to remember that one. I'm like stuck on it.

Ah, I don't know if that was properly Disney, but yes, I know the movie you're thinking of.

Yeah, what is it? Can you tell me?

Uh, all right, uh, Chargers fan, you would know it.

Um, is it Wild Hogs?

Oh yeah, Wild Hogs is correct. Amin's done. I mean, Gotti.

Oh, it's a great one. Wow. Amin's done, dog. I do a movie podcast.

Yeah, but with like—

I know this would be embarrassing if you lost.

No one gets more insulted about anything than Amin does if you question anything movie related. Could have stopped at anything. All right, I'm pretty sure I have the animated film. Bolt. That's the one.

I mean, I just told you, I said Chargers fan. You bet somebody better get that one. Bolt is correct. I knew.

All right, I might be cooked here.

Mike's done.

I might be cooked here. I might be cooked here.

Mike's done, and then Amin's done.

Wait, wait, wait, look who's talking now. Very nice, very nice.

I was wondering if anybody would get that one. I wonder if Amin's gonna get a movie that I really love that comes— well, we said Pulp Fiction already. It's sort of cashing in on his return to stardom. He plays a compelling lead character in— I don't want to say too much, it'll, it'll, uh, it'll tip the movie.

No, I know exactly what— I know exactly what it's done. I know exactly what movie it is. It's The Fanatic.

Hunter Dunbar! Is that the movie directed by Fred Durst? Wow, happy birthday this week.

Are you scrolling to confirm? Is that what you're doing to me right now?

No, I'm waiting for Zaslo.

Oh, I'm ready. Go ahead, get shorty.

That's the movie I was looking for. What a gem. Chili Palmer. I was all set to give a clue that it's like a soup, but it's not a soup. It's something better. It's its own thing. Chili, like a hot dog, is not a sandwich. It's its own thing. It's a wiener. To you, Mike Ryan.

Mike's done. No, 'cause I know there was a— get cool. Be cool. Be cool.

Get cool. No, be cool. Be cool. I'm gonna allow it. Be cool. It's a sequel. It's a lousy book and it's a lousy movie.

I mean, The Poison Rose. Yeah, go ahead, fix your face.

There it is, The Poison Rose, 2019. What the hell is The Poison Rose?

My name is Carson Phillips and I'm a P.I.

All right, you guys are cooked. Zazz and Mike Ryan, if he's pulling The Poison Rose, but do your best.

Give me a second here. Give you a second? Yeah, this is Mr. Lister.

Yeah, I'm thinking tough. Like, you know when you see it, like, it's too long.

I mean, we're a lot of movies in here. John Travolta, he made some bullshit after 1990. That doesn't help. I can't help. You fool.

All right, I'm gonna go Domestic Disturbance.

Oh, very, very good.

Domestic Disturbance is correct. Terrible. There are a lot of movies left, but I don't know how many of these I've heard of. I definitely have not seen very many.

Wait a second, Dave Dymashek, are you telling me that you don't know that reality switched sides in White Man's Burden?

Oh, there you go. That's right.

All right, I don't want to do the thing where I search for an answer. I'll probably get it, but not in the time. I punt. You fools!

Oh, so, so there's another one. There's the Bill Clinton movie, Primary Colors. Ah, there you go. She's So Lovely, A Civil Action, Mad City, Multiplicity.

Oh, there's some— do you— are we gonna let him win? Hey, have you heard— have you ever heard of Killing Season?

You ever heard of that one? You know what really surprised me? Nobody said Hairspray.

That's right, he was in Hairspray. That surprised me.

Great flick. Mobland.

You would have gotten it.

The hell are some of these movies?

Anyway, there you go, man. That was, that was fun. Yeah, that was good.

That was good. White Man's Burden.

White Man's Burden. It was a, it was, that poster never left that Blockbuster Video.

Hold on, Lionel, I, I, I, I get it, I can't get the performance up, but I need a fucking job, man.

Yeah, can you do a quick, uh, can you do a quick um, you know, news hit about what just happened here for MTV News.

Amin Elhassan has emerged a victor in the latest game of Mr. Lister hosted by Dave Dameshek. Jonathan Zaslow went down in just the fourth round while Mike Ryan lasted but not long enough before Elhassan took the victory. There you go, that's good. Yeah, I know I could do news, I know, and that's something I know about.

I forgot about my win, but that's fine. I bet.

I also won. Good job, Dave.

Dan Levitar. Analytics have/are ruining the game. We're playing AI hoops.

That's his team! His team's in the forefront of all that!

Damn, Zazz, don't steal my thunder!

I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Jonathan Sasselow. I get carried away. This is the Dan Levitar Show. Amin, last night you got involved in a drunk spelling bee.

I got involved? It sounds like I was like drunk and then I stumbled my way into a spelling bee instead of a fight.

You were telling punk— you were telling us yesterday that you're doing a spelling bee.

It's a buzz spelling bee, right?

So, so how do they determine that?

Well, it starts off with everyone does a shot, and then like they— like you, you have a medallion on, and so every time You get one right, they bring around shots again and you keep going and doing shots and keep going. By the way, side note, remember, Roy, when you went to the All-Star Game in Canada? Oh yeah, Toronto. Yeah. And then we did like this thing where every time you had a note, like we had a little guitar riff.

Yes. No, no, no, no, no.

I met the dude from the band that created that guitar riff. Hey, crazy. His name's— his name's Brian. Whoa. Yeah, man. And he was like, yo, man, you guys use my thing. He's like, it's almost swerved off the road when I heard it. So I was like, oh, that's awesome. Really good. And then he got me a shot, by the way, so I was already like shots in. How'd you vet that?

I just took his word. Yeah, he got me a shot.

But, you know, but classic Brian. But he did, to be fair, it's not like he was just talking because he was the opening act, was like some live entertainment, and he was a guitarist. Could he have been—

hey, you know the Tony's Top 5, the guy that goes, hey, that's me.

Every— every—

that's— low-key, and that guy tonight, he's a— he's the bass player for the Foo Fighters, Freddie Vedder, uh, Caesar, and, uh, Pearl Jam.

Their name should be Foo Fighters.

It's been a Foo Fight. Yeah. So anyway, so, uh, they do the shots and then they go category by category, right? And so you've got anatomy, you've got, uh, diseases, you've got, uh, what, like, words that people commonly misspell. And so I get to the final round, and the final round is just— they're just throwing words. It's me and two other people, and we're going kind of like Mr. Lister. First person to mess up is knocked out. And I'm the only one who got a word that's not in English, and I'm gonna throw it out to you guys and see if any of you guys can spell this word. Bunyan, like beef bunyan.

All right, so I think to bring everything together, Zazz has to try to spell that while receiving fellatio.

Jeremy, it was there. B-U-G-N-O. N-N. Oh wow, sorry, incorrect.

B-O-U-L-L-O-N.

Close, but no cigar. Incorrect. Can you say the word for me again? Bourguignon, like beef bourguignon. I'm saying it wrong?

Who said I'm saying it wrong? Louis in my ear.

Well, how should you say it, Louis?

I think it's bouillon.

No, not bouillon, you dumbasses. That's a different word. Like the soup? Not that, you dumbasses. That's why you guys—

hey, keep it to yourself next time.

Say the word for me again. Bourgnon. B-O-U-R-G-N-O-G-N-E.

Wrong.

Perchamstradio. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. B-O-U-R-G-O-N-O-I-S. What's this guy doing? Respect the cacao.

Persian Sharania. American business leader Mark Staudt has completed a deal to become the controlling owner and largest shareholder of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA's Minnesota Lynx by buying the majority of co-owner Mark Lore's stake at $4.5 billion valuation.

Wow, guys, this is what I warned you about. It's a condo on South Beach. All of them. If the Lakers could get flipped, they all can get flipped, and we're gonna just continue flipping because that's all we are now. We're just assets on some rich guy's, like, P&L. This is stupid. You're right, you're right, Mike, you're right.

So is that A-Rod's ownership stake?

A-Rod is out of here, apparently, according to the report that we just heard.

Kind of makes you grateful that Mark Lore and A-Rod— well, yeah, well, did A-Rod sell his—

could still be minority.

I couldn't tell from that report. The report is that he's buying minority.

The majority stake from A-Rod and Mark Lore, who were the majority stakeholder. Is Lore— damn. I look— I'll be honest with you guys, right? I think— and I, I don't know if— the problem is I don't know who enforces this, but there should be a rule. You buy a team, you have to hold on to it at least for 10 years.

I like that, I like that. But guess what? We're already moving on. Jeremy, I can't believe I beat you to this. You know what this means? What's it mean, Jeremy? Eye on the ball. You know what this means?

That's what it means. That's what it is.

Attaboy! Let's go!

Wait, wait, wait, let's get Anthony Edwards and Steph Curry, huh?

Could be. So no one knows how to spell bourguignon, basically. You know why? Because it's not an English word.

I was gonna say, I'm not even sure it's a real word.

You want the actual spelling? The actual spelling is B— I still have to look it up because I don't know it— B-O-U-R-G-U-I-G-N-O-N. That's That's the word I got. Everyone else is getting things like Achilles.

Why, why was John Travolta so insistent on that being a condition when he was vetting Hugh Jackman's hacking skills?

Yeah, like you would think the gun to his head would be enough. Yeah, like that's enough pressure.

But also no pressure like that kind of pressure.

Getting your dick sucked, I would think that would actually calm me down. Sorry, sorry.

Per The Athletic, Lori will remain a part of the ownership group in a limited role. But he is stepping away from his role as governor to focus on taking Wonder, his food delivery and takeout business, public. Um, and then also A-Rod will be serving— he'll remain in a role with the Timberwolves and the Lynx.

Uh, Jeremy, put that on the bucket. Yeah, the swordfish. Host the show during— okay, all right, just put it on the swordfish. Yeah, no, you have to have the soul patch that John Travolta had.

Okay, one, so one or the other.

I mean, what the— why is this an NBA-specific issue all of a sudden? Is it the canary in the coal mine? Is it going to turn out that all the leagues are doing this, or is it because specifically Silver has deviated from the way Stern was operating that has allowed this to happen in a way that the other leagues are not?

Yeah, they did a very specific thing a few years ago, which is they changed the rule. They used to not allow private equity, right? Sovereign wealth funds to be investors in teams. And they did away with that rule. And so now there are a bunch of people who are either backed by private equity who are looking at this and seeing the constantly rising valuations and say, I can buy and apparently I can sell. There's no part of this where there's a great affinity to the franchise and to the sport. Itself. So you look at a guy like Tom Dundon, who owns the Carolina Hurricanes, he has no ties to Portland, he has no ties to the Pacific Northwest, and really he doesn't care. It's just like, yo, I'm gonna run this like a business, slashing costs here and trying to maximize every dollar. And I think he's gonna be a guy who's gonna sell in a couple years because it means nothing to him. There is no part of this where there's an affinity here. And so the news of this sale is shocking. None of us saw it coming. On the horizon because again, these guys are new owners.

They're not— they've only, they've only outright owned the team for about 2 seasons.

Is there any reason to believe that this is now also going to happen, say, in the NFL?

No, because the NFL— there's a couple of things. So I think I was talking about this yesterday. We definitely talked about on Basketball Illuminati, the source of wealth of most of the NFL owners are tangible things. Walmart, right? And like things that are around. Whereas a lot of these new NBA owners come from places of volatility— mortgages, tech, private equity. And so when you operate, when your wealth comes from a volatile business, you are incentivized— it's high, sell high, buy low. That's what they're all basically doing. So I don't think this issue is going to affect the NFL anywhere near as much as it does the NBA.

Well, why, why have NBA owners been guys who have made their money in volatile businesses like that and not NFL?

Because of what I described as far as the changing of the rules to allow this.

Also, does the NFL have that rule?

Also, the NFL, the ownership, there's a lot of legacy ownership groups, which tells me that being an NFL owner is good for your business.

No, I mean, like, think about it.

But not that many anymore, Mike Ryan. The idea of the Maras and the Rooneys and, you know, the rest of it, those those, that's a dying breed as well.

Yeah, but there's still more of those around. I think, like, if you look at the longest-tenured owners in the NBA, it's, it's not that— like, I think the Simons in Indiana are now the longest-tenured ones, but it's like, think about, like, uh, Mickey Arison, that's like from the '90s, right? Like, uh, uh, who else is a long— Jim Dolan, 2000, like, that's when Cablevision bought. Like, so, like, a lot of the longtime owners in the NBA haven't been around that long, and we certainly don't have a lot of second generation or third generation ownership in our league.

Why did they lift that rule in the NBA? Why did they have it in the first place?

And then why did they lift it? Well, they had it. I think David Stern, in his eminent wisdom, knew like, this is— this gets us into murky places where shit just goes left. The flip side is, and again, Basketball Illuminati, we did a great job of talking about this with Ethan Strauss, who got to interview David Stern before David Stern died and talk to him about like the difference between him and Adam Silver. And Adam's a guy where it's like, can we make money off of this? Alright, like, why do we hold anything sacred? So a great example is, in every NBA jersey now, what do you have in the top left corner? Used to be the NBA logo. What's there now? You have a patch. You have a patch, right? David Stern was so adamant against, like, we're not gonna sell any advertising on the person of our players. Not only that, think about this. When it was Champion, when it was Adidas, If you were wearing an authentic jersey, meaning the jersey they wore on the court, the only logo on it beyond the team logo was the NBA logo. As soon as we switched to Nike, guess what we added?

A swoosh. There's swooshes everywhere now, right? Which again, other sports have done, but David Stern was very adamant about these things. And the reason why is because David Stern, I think, looked at himself as a steward of the sport, but also David Stern carried himself as, "I'm your boss." You know, Dan always says, Oh, he's the— 30 guys are his boss, like, to Adam Silver. David Stern said, I don't care what the paper says. You won't listen to me. We're gonna do things my way. Adam's thing is like, look, you're gonna listen to me because I'm gonna make you money. That's why you listen to me. And for every criticism that we can have here, and I don't think this is good for our sport to have these flips, but the reality is there are 29 other people today woke up to that news and like, Yes, because all it means is this thing is going up. It's going up. It's going up.

But what's the tag on that? Well, what was the reported tag?

It's $4.5 billion here. And they were already a significant minority investor, according to Shams. So now you have— and this is what he just tweeted— largest sales in NBA history have all happened over the last 17 months. Timberwolves and Lynx at $4.5 billion. Celtics at $6.1 billion. Lakers at $10 billion.

Lakers at $12.5 billion.

Like if you told me the Celtics went for $6 billion, 4.5 for the Timberwolves sounds about right. I guess it—

by comparison to the 12.5.

Yeah, well, but the Lakers, again, that's the— that's what makes the Lakers so shocking because this is, again, one of the crown jewels of sports. Also, is this—

is this the full franchise valuation? Because this is just the majority co-owner's stake.

When they say valuation, that means of the entire— so that doesn't mean he paid $4.5 billion. It just means, okay, the whatever he paid for his share we can extrapolate from it that $4.5 billion.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Guys, it's Friday. You know what that means. You may have some stuff going on this weekend. You got to figure out, you know, how to spend your time. Is it a big game? Was it not a big game? Howdy folks. Welcome to Big Game or Big Game with Jonathan Zaslow. That's right, Chris Cody, why don't you get us started here? Big Game and Not a Big Game, what do you got?

My dad has asked me to come over his house tomorrow to do about what he's calling an hour of yard work that he needs help with. Oh shit. That's usually just some heavy shit he wants me and my brother to move from like the backyard to the side of the house for like bulk pickup or something, but he did not give me details. It could be weeding, and it's— I try to get out of these, but you know, people shame me, so I will be going over to help with yard work.

So does he help, or is it you and your brother do it all?

Um, well, like, I feel bad because he's old at this point, and I don't want him to croak out there. So me and my brother do try to take all the strenuous activity. He kind of just offensive coordinators it, like, just kind of sits out there and points us in directions.

All right, well, Chris going to do yard work at his dad's. That is not a big game. That's, that's terrible. Mike Ryan, big game and not a big game?

Uh, Premier League is back today. Arsenal, Coventry City.

Arsenal, Coventry City.

Promoted team against the champs.

Promoted team against the champs. This is like a David versus Goliath kind of deal. You know what? That's a big game. Big game.

I mean, big game and not a big game, Big game or not a big game in the WNBA tomorrow. The Fever visit the New York Liberty. Only 2 games separate these teams in the standings. This is big for playoff positioning as the Fever— well, it's big for— I didn't say it's a big game, I said it's big for playoff positioning.

Fever, okay, implies it's big. The Liberty, Caitlin Clark Sabrina Ionescu. That's a big game. Big game. Hey!