Transcript of The Los Angeles Lakers Sell for $12.5 Billion | Hour 1 New

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So coming up a little bit later in the show here, we're going to, we're going to talk to the founder and creator of freezing cold takes.

Oh, shit.

You know this guy.

Fred Siegel is a childhood friend of mine.

That's crazy.

Who I've known in my whole life, probably since I'm, I don't know, 7 or 8 years old. Hebrew school together, middle school, high school, college. And yeah, so he's—

Are you guys the 2 biggest success stories of your class?

I don't know. How am I supposed to answer that?

See, that are the Pouncey brothers, right?

That one tickled you, Zazz. You laughed at that one.

He considered it for a second, like, "Oh, maybe I am." So yes, he is a childhood—

maybe it is, maybe not— uh, he's a childhood friend of mine, which everybody gets a kick out of, where I'll get— so I'll get messages on Twitter where I'll say something and it's, "Ooh, Zazzle, we don't think you're gonna be right about this," and someone will CC Freezing Cold Takes, you know, to make sure they have it. And that's always funny to me, and because I think to myself, I go, he's definitely gonna see everything I do because he's my friend.

I thought you were gonna hit him up. You want me to text him? I could just text him right now 'cause you know I know who he is.

But he absolutely sees what I do, all right? Because we are friends.

Can I get out in front of this? I don't like this guest. Not I don't like him as a person. I don't like this as a guest booking because it's removed all the mystery. I used to think of this like, oh man, it's all-seeing, all-knowing. Who is this guy?

No, it's like we're not the only show that he's appearing on. He's doing a book tour right now.

No, but now it's like you know him. I'm like, ugh. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta look the guy in the eye and stuff. I gotta ask him questions. Hey, what was Zazz like as a kid?

This is like Wizard of Oz when you find out what's going on.

Yeah, man, I want the smoke in me. I don't want to look behind the curtain and see some dude that went to Santa Fe. Like, I don't want that.

It's such a weird thing because it started, it started with like, he quit. He was a lawyer. He quit his job as a lawyer. He had a job. He quit his day job to quit his job as a lawyer to do Twitter. Like, that's, that's really—

that's— we're doing this shit wrong, man.

Right?

Is this like Jason Tatum and Matthew Kachuk being high school friends?

So—

no, it's not. I just answered my own question.

It's not.

It's not even in the same universe. But, you know, forget I said anything.

It's so weird. He just started documenting— like, we had him, we had him on my show on 790 The Ticket with me and Joy Taylor. It started back then. So we're talking like 15 years ago. We had him on my show back then as a once-a-week thing. he, you know, my friend whose Twitter account has got a couple thousand followers, people locally think it's fun, where he documents when you're wrong about stuff. And we started having him on, like, you know, once a week, and he would crack jokes and whatever. And then all of a sudden, he's on Good Morning Football!

It's like, what the fuck?

He's in New York City? In studio on Good Morning Football? And it's blown up to a whole thing. Freezing cold hands.

Is there one specific post, I mean, we could ask him about this, that like took him to the next level, that went from like— We could ask him. The one viral post that got him all the followers.

Here's a question I can't ask him. I'll ask Zazzle. Is there any part of you that's like a little jealous? It's like, wait a second, I was the one, I was the star here. Now all of a sudden this guy's on Good Morning Football. I haven't been on Good Morning Football.

Are you Tatum or Kachuck?

I, uh, good question.

That's a great question.

Good question.

I don't know.

You do have two rings.

I think you're Tatum.

Uh, no, I think I'm Kachuck in this spot. Come on.

Who's a bigger star, Tatum or Kachuck?

In their sport?

It's Jason Tatum.

Tatum.

Tatum's more famous.

Yeah, I can't even do like in their own sport thing. Okay, they're, they're, they're pretty comparable to what they represent in their sport. Uh, you know, Tatum gets all the glory while someone else is the better team in the championship series.

Dad's about to get offended by this.

Yeah, I am offended by this. Okay, because in like, like, isn't as good as Barkov. I understand, but like in the Olympics, Matthew Kachuk is like the face of our country.

Yeah, he wasn't the best player for Jason Tatum.

Sat the bench. He didn't play.

That's true.

Yeah. Tatum.

No, I'm Kachuk for sure, but I don't care about that. I care about everyone knowing that Matthew Kachuk is a bigger deal than Jason Tatum. That's what I care about.

I think Jason Tatum— and this one hurts me to say—

there they go.

Look at that.

I'm not going to say it. Matthew Kachuk is a better player than Jason Tatum.

Yes, he is. Now, what about Brady? Because we have to assume Brady was at that school too. Different year, but Brady was there also.

I've long believed in Matthew Tkachuk's— surpassed Pavel Bure as my favorite player of all time. Matthew Tkachuk is my favorite. He's great. He was a culture changer. But I think Brady's better than Matthew.

Really?

Yeah.

You think Brady's better than Matthew?

Yeah.

That's going to be fun to watch play out. I hope he is. I mean, amazing if he's better. I hope he's better. Different kind of player.

Can we bring up that childhood photo again?

What do you—

the kid in the back in the glasses, what do you think he's up to now?

Doctor.

It's the GM of the Dodgers, actually.

Hahaha.

Uh, alright, so Fred's gonna join us coming up a little bit later on, which I think—

I don't like that you call him Fred.

Yeah.

Now I'm with Amin.

You wanna talk about—

I told you!

If anything undersells it is you referring to him as Fred.

The founder of freezing cold takes.

And I understand he's on TV hits, but Amin and I haven't seen him. We haven't seen him out there. So this is just rocking our world.

He better look super cool.

What do you think he's going to be dressed? I think he's going to have a cape and it's going to be light blue and he's going to have like a scepter. And the scepter is going to have like a— like a—

I thought it was like a talking version of his avatar, like an icicle.

Like the thing is, the whole scepter is going to be an icicle. I am the lord of the freezing cold. Take—

because he talked like that and said it's just good.

I don't think he talks like that.

No, that's right. Hi, I'm Fred.

He's going to join us coming up. I think we're gonna have some fun there. I'll tell you though, I want to get into this story about the Lakers, which broke yesterday in the middle of our show, where all of a sudden the Lakers were sold. And we're not talking about the Lakers were sold last year, because they were. It's not old news. We're talking about the Lakers sold again. The crown jewel franchise of the NBA is sold twice in a matter of 14 months. And they're being sold— what's, what's Buddy's name? Mark Watson?

The guy who sold it?

Yeah.

Mark Walter.

Mark Walter. He is selling the team, which is valued— this is always confusing because he's not selling it for $12 billion, it's valued at $12 billion. $12.5. And whatever it is, the 75% share that he has, he's going to essentially get 75% of $12 point whatever billion dollars.

It's not a small thing. Yeah. The half billion dollars.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

$500 million.

So, and he's selling it to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, who is the brother of Jared Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, who of course, her His father is the president. And there's a lot to this, okay? Or there's quite possibly a lot to this. It's strange enough that a team is sold, the Lakers mind you, for a second time in 14 months. It's not like the team was on the verge of bankruptcy. It's not like the owner, he didn't have the money to afford anymore.

Eww!

And then we have this conspiracy where maybe there is an actual reason why this deal came together so fast.

So there's a couple of things. So I don't know how many people realize how much funding he got last year in order to buy this. He got some investment fund cashola from a certain region of the world that may be a little dealing with some issues right now, right? So there was already that in the, hey, how did this guy able to afford this even though he owns the Dodgers? As part of consortium there. Now he got some money from the Middle East, right? But then, then you see that he's got some, uh, let's say some IRS issues, some difficulties with the Internal Revenue Service going on, and the fact that he's like, I'm going to take this thing which is only going to grow in value and sell it immediately, even if it is at a $2.5 billion higher valuation than when he paid for a year later. We still know that that is dwarfed by how much it would make if you hold it 3 years, 4 years, etc., etc. And the fact that he did this without an open bidding process— hey, do you want, do you want to go? There's no shortage of people who want in on these teams.

And the person who got to cut the line on this was none other than the brother-in-law of Ivanka Trump. So there's a lot of like, wait a second, what's happening here? What's happening here? What's happening here? On the other side of At the table though, and this is great for anyone who believes in a two-party system is actually real.

No, this was a deft maneuver to—

Because this is, in essence, this is the truest two-party system of all. The two parties in America are haves, have-nots.

100%.

And that's all that matters. Everything else is set dressing. Because Bob Iger, former president of Disney, big NBA fan, right? His wife was one of the co-hosts on Inside Stuff back in the day, right? Bob Iger had dalliances of running for president.

As what, Mike? As Dwight Will Obey?

He was considering running as a Democrat.

Yeah, he's a—

This provides great cover for any conspiracy theories that, oh, this is another MAGA wealth distribution plan.

This is, hey, let's keep it all with the riches, That's right.

That's right. You know who loves fights about trans people? Rich people. They love that.

You know why?

Because it isn't about left versus right. It's about top versus bottom. Uh-oh. Ayo, respectfully.

So that's what makes all of this very, very, very interesting indeed. As the NBA right now goes through, I would say it, another PR crisis.

And like, Adam Silver didn't have a heads up about any of this.

Well, look, it's not approved yet. The league has to approve it and the board of governors, the other owners basically have to vote. And I think it's like a two-thirds majority in order for it to get ratified. Point in.

And why would they not do that?

Well, so depends on this fallout.

Yeah.

So like, which I don't think there's going to be enough.

Mark Walter wasn't actually approved until October, so he's technically owned the Lakers for less than 12 months, for about 9 months is what he's owned them. So there's a couple things why they wouldn't, Tony. Number 1, the idea of not only reselling a team but reselling the crown jewel in terms of a brand, right, in that short of an amount of time. Number 2, the fact that it really wasn't open. Number 3, and this is, uh, Yaron Weissman did a great job of reporting this, a lot of the other owners are like, what the hell is going on? And there is a feeling of instability in our league if you allow it just to get passed around like a bottle of Fireball at Michelle Beatle's Super Bowl party.

Right, I hate that.

Know the reference well. So when this happened, we were all like, wait, is this the old sale? We did the Dave Damashek— this is weird, right? And we're going to talk to Ramona Shelburne about this and find out a little bit more, but there's no chance this doesn't go through. It increases valuation across the board in all sports. Kushner was already an NBA owner. He owned, I believe, 5% of the Miami Heat or thereabouts.

And before that, the Memphis Grizzlies. He's been vetted twice.

Yes. So he's already in that club. And Iger is incredible window dressing here and is a guy that's well-liked. He's a former league partner, really good friends with Chris Paul.

Like, he's, he's not an outsider.

No, he has a great relationship with Adam Silver. I don't see how this doesn't go through.

Looks like Ben Lyons.

But he does. But like Kushner has been leveraging great relationships that he's built trying to get into sports. He was a part of that FIFA private equity thing that just blew up. But there are things that in retrospect do give fuel to— is this another MAGA wealth distribution backroom deal, especially when Donald Trump gets gifted a gaudy World Series?

By whom?

The owner of the Dodgers. Who's that? The owner of the Lakers.

Oh, okay. So there is like a big connection.

Same way that Rolex got off of some tariffs. Like, yeah, yeah. Why don't you come to the US Open in our box? We'll give you a nice watch.

Down levitar! I mean, Trump and Madonna out there. I don't know what the hell she was doing. And then what's this? This, this boy band, K-Pop, K-Pop. What's their name? I have no idea who that is.

This is BTS.

Jennie, danseuse solo. Isn't this the big—

this is the biggest band in the world.

That's right.

Get out of here.

Not bigger than Pearl Jam.

This is the Dan Levatar Show.

Again, I, I, I urge anyone who thinks like, my politicians care about— no, they don't, man.

Nope.

They just— it's all, it's all a big money thing. And us broke boys over here, we're like, oh, I can't believe Caitlin Clark, like, that's the dumb conversation we have down here while they're up there cutting these back deals.

The thing that stands out to me, and I've obviously been super critical of the commissioner, is who are these people you keep letting into your league, man? Like, you have this right now with, you know, the guy who is selling the Lakers. I'm not even talking about who's buying.

So you're not talking about the buyers because the buyers is Iger and an existing owner. You're like, who you let in? And surely when the Lakers— that was a big deal.

The glamor franchise, the bus family legacy name in there.

For the Lakers to be sold, who are you bringing in? You could not have thought that they would be flipped inside a year of approval.

I'm talking about the seller, though. The buyers, all right, but I'm talking about who are you letting into your league.

Well, so in that case, right, you could talk about him, you talk about the Portland guy. Yeah, the reality is these are people who came from successful sports backgrounds, right? Mark Walser one of the major owners of the Dodgers. Dodgers have been incredible, right? Anyone who knows the Dodgers before the sale and after the sale are like, these things are way better. Like, working— I'm not even talking about their success on the field. I'm talking about people who work for the Dodgers. Like, things are way better since this dude came around, right? Same thing with the Hurricanes. It's like, we could kill Tom Dundon a million ways, but at the end of the day, his franchise is successful.

So the NHL's not the NBA.

I get it, but If you're the NBA, you care about one thing: does this increase values? Is this guy going to continue to invest? Are we going to make money off of this? Is this thing going to make some better? Here comes a guy who says, I'm going to buy a team in the middle of nowhere, one of the smallest markets in the league. And from there you're like—

and he's very clearly trying to move them.

Well, no, actually, I think he's very clear he's trying to leverage the city and the municipality to pay for it.

Tale as old as time.

Yeah, and he very well may move them.

He might if they say no, but it already looks like they're already starting to buckle, so that's probably not going to happen. But that's not the point. The point of it all is this dude's got money and he's got a track record of— it's not like some fly-by-night guy. Same thing with Mark Walter. It's like, okay, we know who he is. He's, he's this guy. Now, that part where he's got to involve some private equity financing from an investment fund That is like a little head-scratching, but again, at the same time, that's also something that the NBA changed the rules about and was very done very much in mind of inviting that money from that region to come in here. So they're not the only ones. So I could see why, but it is, it's all part and parcel of like, we loosen up the strings enough that all of this shit can happen, right? Like, if you keep saying money is the only The bottom line, that's all that matters, is the valuations and the revenues. Then you open it, this thing gets loose, man. It gets— look, if all it is is a financial product, is in essence what I'm saying, it allows for you to say, oh, I bought it for this, now sell for this.

It's like a house. I bought this, it's my forever home. A year later, someone offers me 20% greater than what it was, what I paid for. Of course I'm going to sell it. I'm like, I don't love the house that much. It's a nice house. Get another house. That's where we're at.

It's great for the Laker fan though, right?

Is it?

I would think the Laker fan would like these owners.

How do these transactions go typically? Um, do people pay fully upfront? How fun— how, how are these things funded? Yeah, but at the end when you sell it, do you get paid upfront or do you get those paid in increments?

Are those— I don't know. That's, that's a good question, man.

I'm I'm sure it's different strokes for different folks, but I, I think it could work like houses where, hey, I get this huge lump sum of money while I'm still financing. So while I paid $10 billion, I'm clearly financing that deal. I took out a loan to have this lump sum of cash to give to this person, but in reality, I haven't paid $10 billion yet. So this person gets to pay off all the financing debt and on top of that, lop on $2.5 billion. It's not just a $2.5 billion deal at that point.

Well, it's— yeah, you get out of the debt and you, you make whatever early termination kind of benefits you get. But also the idea is that, um, I now have this cash in hand to do something else.

Yes, this dude is getting an influx of like $11 billion.

Steve Ballmer paid $2 billion cash. It was like You want in tens and twenties, like, like, like Chris Tucker in Rush Hour, right? But for the most part, I think you're going through financial institutions. That's why you see JPMorgan very much involved in these type of transactions. We got questions. Ramona's going to be on with us. Yeah, I ask questions.

Yeah, I want to—

I want to ask Ramona what this means for the league because there's a lot of conspiratorial things out there about what this means and how this came about. But Ramona will be able to shine a light on how this is going with the league because there are other owners that ultimately have to approve this. How they feel about owners coming into their league and flipping teams inside of a year.

That's a whole new world to me. Like, that's one of those short-term— oh, I get it. You got $2.5 billion overvaluation, but long-term, that can't be good. We cannot become a housing market, right? We cannot become a league of just people park money and then flip and get out. Because, for instance, for the Lakers. So let's talk about some real-life stuff. The number of people who lost their jobs because the new owner came in, oh, we're going to bring in all our guys, right? Oh, yeah. Like they did all sorts of things. They moved the G League operation from, uh, South Bay, which is fairly local, to like Palm Desert. That's like a 2-hour drive, right? They did a lot of things that aren't just like, oh yeah, who cares, the Lakers are running this way— things that impact the lives of people who make regular everyday working wages.

I never thought the NBA would be like how AM radio was for us in, in the early 2000s, where we were seemingly switching parent companies every year.

How about Luka Dončić? This will be the 5th ownership group he's played under.

Maybe it's him.

5th!

Let's talk about that.

That's crazy, right?

Why can't you— that's crazy, right? No, that doesn't sound right without weird. That's weird, right?

You were— so you corrected us early in the show about something from yesterday, and now you also want to correct us about another thing from yesterday where Tony— Tony wasn't here yesterday, but Tony is young. Tony, do you remember there was a time when on the— on airplanes there were smoking sections? On airplanes?

I wasn't taking flights that young, but I do remember at some point as a youngster getting into an airplane and there was an ashtray in the middle of the seats.

I do remember that. So what did we have wrong yesterday, Amin, about smoking sections?

So you guys were like, in the '70s? I'm like, brother, I flew on it. It was in the back of the plane.

That's what I said.

That was the back of the plane, and there was no filtration system. That shit was just a wall of smoke. Yeah. And if you sat on this side of it over here, you absolutely could smell everything. Of course, there was no part of it was like, well, it was like filtration, like, no, it was just like here, smoke here, not smoke. They just drew an arbitrary line. Same thing in restaurants.

So is there no such thing as smoking in first class then?

There was until they got rid of like— they made it smoking, not smoking section. The other thing was that bars and clubs, in restaurants smoking indoors. Dude, I was of age going to places. I remember when they did the smoking ban and I said, "That's ridiculous. Everyone knows you have a drink, you have a smoke." Mm-hmm. Where else? I was to go outside and light up this Black Mild and smoke it, communally might I add, with my 3 buddies? Oh man, what a time that was.

I also got pushback. Not only was there smoking on planes, In flight, yes, in flight. But as a child, I used to be able to visit the cockpit in flight.

Dog, as a, like, damn near adult, you just like, hey man.

I remember before the flight it would be open and the flight attendant might walk a kid up to say hello.

In flight, I never seen it.

In flight, I never seen it.

Brother, it was a request.

Boom!

Can I see the cockpit?

You hit the button. They don't call them stewardesses anymore.

Flight attendant.

Flight attendant comes over. And my mother says, my son, he would like to visit the cockpit. Do you think that'd be possible? Sure.

They just, they check to make sure the guy's not doing some, like, if it's like during the cruising altitude, whatever. Yeah, come right up, Billy. You go up there, you stand there, you sit in the seat, sit in the seat. They give you the hat, they give you the little wings.

Yep.

Send you on in flight, send you on your way back to your seat.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's there.

Yeah. And, and you let them know that your dad thinks stronger than Game 6.

Yeah, you don't try hard until an old man with white hair asks you if you've seen a grown man naked.

Nah, man, like this. Yo, let me tell you something. Pre-9/11 travel was awesome.

Telling you, dude.

Oh, Zazz is coming to visit me. Guess where I'm waiting for him to pick him up?

Right at the gate.

At the gate, bro.

Right.

What's up, boy? Like, you would walk people up to the gate to say goodbye. All right, take it easy. Have a good flight. And you walk back.

Yup.

So all those, like, right now at airports, the exits, like, there's like security guards, like, you know, those points where it's like, no. So those just didn't exist.

You just walk in and no return, right? Well, you have to go through TSA, like the—

But you didn't have to be flying to go through.

Yeah, you didn't have to be flying.

Oh, okay. Like, they would still have to go through TSA in those days.

Yeah, you just walk through, you do the—

I mean, I don't think it was TSA, but you had to walk through security.

You watch the airport security, you go through the metal detector, all that stuff. But like, the idea is like, anybody can do it. Like, I don't need Like the boarding pass and ticket, the boarding pass.

You could see someone off to their flight at the gate.

The boarding pass did not come into play until literally I'm about to get on the plane.

Yeah.

And then it was, it was a physical piece of paper that they would tear like a, like a movie ticket, like a movie stub.

What a time.

It was, it was insane. It was insane. There were like all these shitty airlines that don't exist anymore, like AirTran, Eastern, Piedmont.

Yep.

Like, I was like, "Oh, I need to get from here to like Kalamazoo?" "Yeah, no problem, you just gotta take Northwestern or whatever." Like, it was all these other airlines that just flew these small routes.

Flying, man. I was on— I flew last week, I went to Minneapolis. And I don't know if I was right or wrong for being annoyed about this. It's before takeoff, and the woman in front of me, she's on her phone. Which is annoying. I'd rather you text.

Speaker?

She's on her phone and she's on speaker.

Mmm.

Of course. And obviously there's no self-awareness. It's terrible social etiquette. The worst. On the speaker. There's no reason to not have the phone up against your ear. Nobody needs to hear the other side of your conversation. But the part that I wasn't sure if I should or should not be annoyed is because in this case Is there any difference from she's talking on speaker so I could hear the other end of the conversation, or literally anyone else around me who's talking to the person right next to them? I could hear both sides of that conversation also, you know. So like, should I have been annoyed?

So a couple of things. The reason why I'm gonna suspect she's in front of you— yeah, I actually wanted to talk about this. The pro— the reason why she's on speaker is probably because she's on FaceTime.

Maybe.

And this proliferation of people who say, I'm gonna call you, and then they call you on FaceTime.

I don't get it, Dan.

Well, I wasn't gonna name names, but now we're here.

I don't get it.

Like, I don't— I don't—

I don't need anyone to see me ever.

I don't need anyone to see me. Number 2, Dan calls you on FaceTime, he's not even looking at the phone.

He's usually laying in his bed shirtless.

Whatever it is, it's a terrible angle. Yeah, that's— that's guaranteed.

I just like— I don't understand the desire for everything to come like we're George Jetson or some shit. I gotta see you.

It's inconvenient when someone calls me FaceTime because I want hold the phone down here, but you think I'm letting you get an angle of me holding the phone down here. So now I gotta hold the phone up. I got— I gotta hold my arm up to talk on the phone.

I'm gonna tell you right now, sometimes I put my phone like this and I'll be walking around.

This—

you looking at my ceiling. Because it's like, same thing with, with Zoom meetings. Like, not like obviously we're doing show, we're doing show, but if it's like, hey, let's get together, we want to talk about something, I'm not turning my camera on.

Please, in the beginning of a meeting, do whatever I want over here.

Nope.

Right? So that's number one. But number two, because of that, you said, is there any difference between that and two people talking to each other? Yes, there is a difference. You know what the difference is? There's an option for me not to hear the other side.

That's what I'm saying.

She is opting in to, no, I want everyone to listen. And my thing is, if that's the case, then I can jump in the conversation.

And by the way, why would she want me to hear her conversation?

That's when you jump in. She's like, I can't believe Michelle. I know she never does that. Like, uh, what? Oh, I was just saying that Michelle never does that.

That would be funny because then they'd probably look at you like you're rude.

Yeah, like what? I thought we were having a community conversation here.

It's just weird, like if somebody calls me on the phone and right before you pick up, somebody would say to you, would you or would you not like everyone here to hear your conversation? Why would you say yes? Well, if it's not yes, then put the phone against your ear, right?

The doctor said what? Oh man. You got to watch him because last time I went to him, he put me under.

I would go get a second opinion. You know who I like? Dr. McGillicuddy. Go talk to him.

Just start doing that.

Is that Dr. McGillicuddy on 75th? Yeah, that's him.

Just start doing that.

All right, so I was annoyed and I was right to be annoyed.

Yeah, man.

I don't get it, man.

It's— I don't get it either, but like, I know they're gonna be like, they're so old. No, man. Oh, we— because we got standards.

Well, who— oh, I thought you said like the person on the phone was old because the person on the phone was a little bit old, but that would make me believe Even more reason you should have it against your ear, because you come from a time when there was no such thing as speakerphone.

Now let me tell you something, having said that, my father is old, and my father is the king of not only speakerphone conversations, and this is a big issue in our house, but speakerphone conversations that end up in the middle where everyone is either sitting watching something or having our own conversation. And lest you believe the speakerphone is the loudest part, my dad thinks you gotta talk like this when you're on the phone. And I'm like, ah, just go to your room or go outside, take a walk, man. What are you doing? I'm trying to watch this.

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 this!

Lamzass, 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. You see this Jaden Daniels story?

No.

This is very strange.

That's weird, right?

So Jayden Daniels has filed a cease and desist for his name, image, and likeness to Louisiana State University. So he is not going to allow LSU to profit off of his time at the school. And that includes the jersey number that he wore, which was number 5 when he was there, won the Heisman Trophy, played only one year.

Yeah, he was an Arizona State guy.

Yeah, played only one year at LSU. Won the Heisman Trophy, had an amazing year, and ended up being the number 2 overall pick in the draft. What are you confused about so far?

Can you stop them from using your jersey number? No, of course not. The name?

No, they could stop profiting off of it. No, they can sell the number 5 jersey for $1 billion, but certainly not with the name Daniel.

Not with the name Daniel.

And certainly can't use him on like posters or whatever, I guess.

You know, I guess that's a formal request and he's entitled to that. I think we found the one person on the planet that liked Brian Kelly.

But the part that is interesting about this, we got Zazzle. All right, whatever. You know, it's a business now. All right. And he's not going to allow them to profit off it anymore when he's not there. Okay, fine. But the reason that he is doing this is because he is insulted. He is offended with Louisiana State University because they are allowing a DB, D.J. Pickett, to switch his number this year to his preferred number 5.

Okay, get the hell out of here.

So Jayden Daniels— and here it is, this is a statement from the family. The Daniels family— this is real, by the way. This is a real statement. The Daniels family is deeply disappointed and feels profoundly disrespected by LSU's decision to give Jayden's number to another player. Jayden and his family had every reason to believe that his number would remain a meaningful part of his LSU legacy and would be honored and protected in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the university. This is unbelievable.

But that's weird, right?

This is a brutal look for Jayden Daniels, and it also references how Joe Burrow, his number 9, has not been allowed to be worn by anyone since he left the school. So why is Jayden Daniels' number 5 allowed to be worn by someone else. Well, I would add Joe Burrow's LSU Tigers went undefeated and won a national championship. Now, his number hasn't been retired because only, I think, 4 LSU football player jersey numbers have been retired. It's pretty rare for teams to retire football player numbers.

Maybe I'm an idiot. I'm not a college football guy. I, I parachute in, I parachute out depending on how good Georgia Tech is doing. I thought that when someone says, "No one's supposed to wear my number," it's because my number hangs forever. Tim Hardaway Sr. gets to say Tim Hardaway Jr. can't wear 10 because 10's up there.

And then be overruled.

And be overruled by Mrs. Hardaway, which is always—

Presumably.

Yeah, well, it's not presumably. We got—

It presents a logistical challenge in that sport in particular because you have so much roster changeover.

Sure, sure.

Most schools/NFL teams even don't retire numbers.

Yeah.

It's hard to do. Yeah. What programs do is like this number means something special at this university.

You got to be like a— like a— it's kind of like 88 for the Cowboys, correct?

I like what Miami does last year, like for Malachi Tony's jersey, they had who's worn it previously. They have a patch on special, special jerseys.

But my thing is like, you can't— if it's not hanging up from there, and brother, you just got to take that out and keep moving. Yeah. Didn't Justin Jefferson go to LSU?

But at the University of Miami—

Did MarChase didn't go to LSU? Are you thinking you're the first nice player to ever go to LSU?

The statement continued with Jaden made it clear he did not want his number given to another player and believed his wishes would be respected. His Heisman Trophy-winning season and everything he accomplished on and off the field cemented his place in LSU history. To see his number given to another player is incredibly disappointing and feels like a failure. To honor the significance of what Jayden accomplished at LSU, end quote. Can I just add here also real quick? They're making it sound like Jayden Daniels did charity work for LSU.

He probably did.

He got paid.

No, that's bullshit. Okay, he might have done some charity work, but he, he didn't go to LSU, play football, and get community service hours. Okay, this was a mutually beneficial relationship.

I guess my thing is this, right? And I hate to be the guy that sides with big college over player, but this is like What kind of expectation is that, that no one will wear my number ever again? Again, for a season that great Heisman-winning season, but not like the greatest season in LSU history. Again, I just don't understand where the, the obligation comes from, where it's like no one will ever wear this jersey again. Also, he left when Kelly was still the coach.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So guess what? Whatever.

That's right. That's another reason why Joe Burrow's jersey, you could argue, is certainly more accomplished, even though Jaden Daniels went on.

Is more accomplished.

Yeah, you can make that argument easily, but Jayden Daniels wasn't a Lane Kiffin guy. Lane Kiffin also not a Joe Burrow guy, but he does have Ed Orgeron around the building still. And here's also the thing, sort of way—

here's also the thing with Lane Kiffin, they're now taking over with this kid DJ Pickett this year. New coach Brian Kelly honored Jayden Daniels' request, so the kid took number 3. New coach now, Lane Kiffin. What happens if that kid says Hey, and this kid Pickett says it was part of his recruiting process that he was told he can have number 5. So what if now with the new coach, the kid says to Lane Kiffin, look, I was promised something. If I don't get it, I'm going to look to transfer. Lane Kiffin should stand on some type of soapbox and say, nah, nah, nah, I'm willing to lose this player because Jaden Daniels asked no one to wear number 5.

Lane Kiffin doesn't honor his own word. The hell he's going to honor Brian Kelly's word?

Yeah. I made a promise long ago. No, it's like, hold on, someone else made a promise long ago, and I made a promise to make a promise to that guy's promise that he would uphold your promise. Get out of here, man. Get out of here.

It's a brutal look for Jayden Daniels.

All right. Well, you know, it goes both ways. Jayden Daniels, if LSU is good again, will probably want to show up to games and get incredible treatment. That's a curious way to go about it.

He go to ASU.

Remember how he left ASU? You remember what it was like? For Jaden Daniels when he left?

Yeah, it was awful.

Well, well, because you were from Arizona, so I don't know if you recall, like, the players in that locker room ripped off his nameplate and emptied his locker.

Wow.

It was not— it was not a good look. It wasn't. Yeah, it certainly wasn't.

The whole thing about parachuting into college football didn't just flew over.

Well, I mean, it was a famous video. It went viral, them ripping the Jaden Daniels' nameplate off the locker.

Damn.

And that's why there's the whole Brandon Aiyuk thing, because they were teammates at ASU.

Brandon Aiyuk's not going to play for the Commanders, is he?

Doesn't he already? Feels like it. He's wearing hats and telling us.

Yeah, you ask him.

I mean, one of these days in training camp, he's going to show up at the facility, right? It's like, I'm here.

Like, I— it's crossed my mind.

I go here and I would—

I would make it the favorite.

But better reference, Milton from Office Space. Or Kramer showing up to the job where he doesn't even work there.

I don't even have to work here.

Yeah, Kramer.

That's more apt in this case.

Opens up the briefcase, got Ritz crackers in it.

I use the Milton with the stapler reference more.

I'm gonna have to let you go, Kramer.

Put it on the pole.

I don't even work here.

The old man's riding my butt. Jerry throws the dishes in the sink.

Milton wouldn't leave.

I've made this for you.

They couldn't find Iyuk.

Jaden Daniels. Like, I don't understand. No one, no one a part of his team was like, okay, before we send out this statement, do we like how this looks?

I'm gonna tell you, these statements— you say no one on his team said that. These are the exact kind of statements that a team makes. That's not a guy saying that. That's the team. Hey man, they should like— I can't believe you— you should— we should put out a statement. What are you gonna say? Uh, dude, like, that's, that's how it works, man. It's a group of people who are all playing the hype man. I'm gonna tell you one thing, 90% of player friction issues come from the people around them. It's never them.

I—

this is— so I'll give you a great example of this. We're doing obviously this, this great reporting on the Kawhi Leonard, Steve Ballmer, all this stuff, right? The number of guys that I know who are like connected to players Yeah, I didn't really like that, da da da da da da da da. And I said, did you watch it? Nah, nah, nah. I said, so you're cliffnoting this. And I said, and oh yeah, the players don't like it, they're like, why is it like— Yeah, because no one's actually knowing what's happening. You're getting all of your information from a guy who also doesn't have the information, who's getting it from a Legion Hoops or whatever, like a fan. Fragment of a thing and they're surmising everything from that. And I said, how much like friction, how much misunderstanding in players' lives happens because of the CliffsNotes crew around them? I don't think that— that's messed up what they said about you. What they say about me, you know, players don't—

they don't—

they don't know. They don't listen.

Tough part is when that main person on your team is your mom.

Yeah, we're rolling now.