Transcript of The WNBA Pays The Price of Popularity | Hour 2 New

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

I mean, you see Don Nelson, 86 years old, I think, passed away. 86, man. Good for him. 86 years old. That is a, that is a long, great life that he lived. And it seemed, at least to me, The last time that we saw him, it seemed like he was really enjoying his life.

Yeah. So I think the last time you're thinking about was he was at one of these Hall of Fame ceremonies and he had his hair long and he had a great tank because he lives in Hawaii.

So you're saying you're surprised by this?

So, no, but I'll say also 86, so you can't be surprised. I'm, I'm good. It's going to sound sad. I'm not surprised by this because the last time I saw him, was during the finals last year, 2025, in Oklahoma City. And he looked markedly different. He lost a lot of weight. Yeah, it was one of those things where he was getting the Don Nelson— excuse me, the Chuck Daley Lifetime Achievement Award from the Coaches Association.

He was living like a super hippie lifestyle.

Yeah, smoking a lot of weed. Yeah, a ton of weed.

Huge into hemp. Yeah, I think his house might have been made of hemp.

Yeah, he built it in hemp.

Yeah. And so when I saw him in OKC, I was like, oh. And, and that's the sad part about this award, the Chuck Daley Award. A lot of the guys have been getting it, older guys obviously, but you see them and like, oh. It's like when I saw Rick Adleman when he won it in 2023, and, and it shook me. These are guys that I, you know, Pop's starting to get a little jarring. Oh yeah, I mean, Pop had a stroke. Like, it was, it's very well publicized. Like, he had a medical thing that literally ended his career, right? Whereas Rick Adleman, Don Nelson, they kind of disappeared from the view. Like, "Oh, they're old, they retired," or whatever. And then you see them, and for me, having worked for a team and worked in the video department, scouting department, like, basically game planning against these guys. These are guys, you see them all the time, "Hey, Coach," whatever. And then you don't see them for a couple years, and in my mind, that's not far away. That still feels very recent. But you see them and you see the effects of age, and I'm like, "Oh my God." you realize, I don't know how much longer this guy's got.

And Don Nelson, he was just an incredible basketball genius. We talk about positionless basketball, this dude was doing it in the '80s. Think about that, like when people were like, point guard, small forward, whatever. He was like, nah, just give me my 5 best players. And I'm gonna have my big man shooting, and I'm gonna have my small forward bringing the ball up and all this stuff. He created the point forward position. And then obviously that innovation didn't stop in the '80s. It continued through the '90s and the 2000s. And always kind of with a very, like, just an outside-the-box thinker, right? In terms of, I'm gonna use Eric Strickland, who was 6'3" on a good day. He's gonna guard Shaq tonight. Like, we're just gonna have these weird lineups and these weird things. And you see the influence throughout. Like, you see Dirk Nowitzki, one of the great scorers. Yeah, that's because Don Nelson said, hey, you're a big man, get your ass in the paint. Like, oh, let him shoot threes. Sure, why not? You think about the We Believe Warriors and them trotting out, you know, that was also ahead of its time, the way that they played.

Yeah, absolutely. Playing fast and also again positionless. And, and, you know, you hear Baron Davis talk about it's like he unlocked, he showed the world, allowed me to show the world what I was as a player.

Don Nelson was still coaching the We Believe Warriors?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, that was the big thing about them beating the Mavericks. It was revenge because he got done dirty on his way out of Dallas.

Oh, right.

So like their whole thing.

Oh, so he went back to the Warriors after the first time in Golden State.

And this was at a time where 8-seeds just don't do that.

Yeah.

I mean, well, yeah, I think that was the first time an 8-seed ever beat a 1 in a 7-game series.

Right.

So like we had the Nuggets in the 5 and unfortunately the Heat in the next.

So here's the crazy thing, guys. This is nuts. I remember that season. We played Dallas late in that season. And I remember them saying, we want to be the 8th seed. Like that was, you know, through the grapevine of like Nelly basically told our guys, yeah, we want to be the 8th seed because we want— because Dallas that year, if you remember.

That one had a lot of momentum. Like if there's an 8th seed that can catch a 1 seed, sows make fights and everyone earmarked the The Warriors are gonna be trouble here. And that wasn't even really a close series.

No, they whooped their ass. They whooped their ass. And that was a team that won 67 games. Dirk was the MVP of the league, right? They had just come off of the Finals appearance a year before. So, like, the idea of the Warriors wanting that matchup is kind of insane. And so the great story from that series is they end up winning, and Dirk, in Oakland Arena— I guess it was called Oracle, but whatever— It's still there. Dirk was so angry after the elimination game, he took a chair and he flung it, and it broke the wall like 30 feet in the air. It's crazy. It's a crazy distance. And they ended up hanging a t-shirt, a We Believe t-shirt, right next to it.

That's awesome.

They never fixed it. So yeah, shout out to Don Nelson, man.

Yeah.

A great— and then the other thing was like, this dude was— he'd do the press conference with the beer on the podium. They had the thing. The other day, they— barrel chest. Oh man, the barrel chest.

The definitive barrel chest.

Well, you think, well, hey, what was the NBA like in the '60s? Don Nelson, right? Like just a guy having a beer at halftime.

Him and Brian Dennehy. Just let me— should I— top 5 barrel chests?

Yes, give me top 5 barrels.

Number 1, 5 good ones.

I'm gonna— let me think.

Hey, all right. Uh, so Don Nelson, uh, yeah, that's, uh, That's a good job there remembering Don Nelson.

I mean, thank you.

I'll tell you what's not a good job is it's what, uh, that joke you wanted to make about Belichick's kid. No, whatever. Like, you just say I can make whatever jokes about Belichick and the Belichick family that I want. There's just no joke to be made right now because it's a medical condition right now.

Yeah, right now. So in time you'll think of one?

Yeah, if he's okay, you'll tell us.

Well, we find out that he had a hangnail, then I can make jokes. All right, we don't know what it is, so I'm not willing to make a joke about it. Everybody I can understand that, uh, but what is, uh, what is going on in the WNBA right now is ridiculous. Always something with this league.

What's going on?

What's going on? When is something not going on with this league? All right, and I'm not even talking about this, like, like, have you, have you kept up with Sophie Cunningham, Dijonae Carrington, uh, flagrant foul? Yeah, I mean, Caitlin Clark picked it. You saw Caitlin Clark picked up a technical foul today for accidentally bumping into a referee in the middle of a play.

Got rescinded though.

This is such a stupid league.

They rescinded it.

I know, but still, like, what if they lost lost the game by 2 points. All right, you don't get to take back loss. So anyway, um, I'm not even talking about the D'Janae Carrington, Sophie Cunningham, you know, white privilege tweet and all that. I'm not even talking about that.

No, you got more?

Well, no, it's just because, I mean, like, well, I mean, that stuff is— it sucks for the WNBA because— for the women in the league because they— yeah, like, their game, their league, their careers are being weaponized in political forums. Yeah, that sucks.

That does suck.

That sucks. But what's going on here with the whole trans issue, which isn't necessarily the conversation that I want to have here, the conversation that I do want to have is I don't understand how these guys think that somehow they come out in any kind of positive light when they're deciding to apply for the WNBA draft.

What guys are you talking about?

Because the WNBA apparently in its bylaws does not specifically define what a woman is, what a female is. So you have Enes Kanter, and I guess he calls himself Freedom Enes Kanter now, like he's changed, it's one of those—

Enes Freedom.

Enes Freedom.

Yeah.

Whatever, you guys an asshole. Enes Kanter, all right, formerly Utah Jazz, Thunder.

Knicks.

Knicks, he's been out of the league for a few years now. He essentially ended his own career because he was— I know there's a political asylum thing going on with Turkey.

I'mma be real with you. I'll tell you the Enes Kanter story. Enes Kanter was an okay NBA player, right? Enes Kanter, there's problems in his home country of Turkey. He spoke out about it and he got like his family in trouble and stuff. So he became kind of like this figure of like this guy speaking up against like this tyranny that's happening back home, and he's being persecuted for it by the authorities back home or whatever. His family has had to like denounce him and stuff. And it's like, okay, it's a regular story. This is a— all right, we have feelings for this guy, like going through a tough thing, right? And then, uh, when the whole Daryl Morey China thing happened and everyone's like, LeBron, you got to say something, LeBron's like, oh, I'm not gonna mess up the money, right? Enes Kanter was one of the loudest voices saying like, hey LeBron, like if you're all about people, civil rights and stuff, you should be mad about China. You should do something about it. Which for certain right-wing factions and Fox News is like, someone said shit about LeBron? Ooh, tell me more.

And so Enes Kanter was like, oh, this is my people here. They, they, you care about what I have to say? I'm a nobody NBA player, but you guys. So now he starts coming back on Fox and it's like, hey, when you reward someone for something, what do you think that's gonna make them do? They're gonna ring that bell over and over again. So he becomes more and more and more right-wing on everything. And the NBA is compromised, it's just this wild conspiracy theories, which again, for the Fox audience and the Fox bookers or whatever, they don't care whether it's accurate or not. They just care, he's saying the thing that we like, and we like people attacking these woke libtards, da da da. That feeds into him, so now he gets all the way. So a guy who started out speaking about a very real injustice happening in his home country.

Right, it seemed like he was doing something that felt kind of noble, you know?

Yeah, now it's like, this is where we— this is the shores that we've landed on.

Right, so now Enes Kanter, in order to gain the attention, decides he's going to ju— like, the WNBA in general is the hot league when it comes to controversy and you know, all the social cliques and all of that. And so Enos Kanter now has decided, okay, I can get my name back. I've been out of the league for like 5 years now. I can get my name back into the mix here if I jump into this transphobe issue right now.

Royce White did it too.

Wait, wait, wait, we're building, we're build— let a storyteller's world build here, man. Come on, don't jump out.

So Enos Kanter In true asshole form, he's on like a desk and he's wearing a WNBA sweatshirt and he's got the hat because he doesn't have a team, he's entering the WNBA draft. Here it is.

After careful consideration and reviewing the current eligibility guidelines, I am officially declaring myself a WNBA prospect. If simply declaring who you are is all that's required, that I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA. My team and I have carefully examined the WNBA's eligibility criteria and governing framework surrounding self-identification and inclusion. Based on the current guidelines, I can and am officially declaring my eligibility for the upcoming WNBA draft in May 2027. I am definitely not here to mock, make fun of, or disrespect any community or personal choices. I am simply asking that the current rules be applied equally to everyone. The rules that represent the very values many WNBA players and coaches have publicly advocated for. My team and I are prepared to ensure these guidelines are applied equally, consistently, and without exception. And I look forward to the WNBA honoring its stated principles.

But he's not saying that he— he's not saying that he identifies as a woman. He's just saying, I mean, as Kanter, I want to be in the WNBA.

This, this whole thing is just like such a bizarre self-own. It's and I'm not here to make fun while I have a shit-eating grin on my face the entire time. It's a self-own because you're actually highlighting that this isn't an actual issue. There are no men in the WNBA. There is no threat of a man playing in the WNBA.

Well, there is now, him.

There was a—

there's no threat.

There was an executive order written about this that keeps them out. I just— I understand because it's such an easy issue because it's a culture war thing and it's a winning position for them. And when things are going poorly, they amplify that. But this is pathetic.

Down Levitar!

For 5 minutes, I was watching everyone just like, nope, not letting you in, not letting you in. So when I got up there, I had to say something, and I said it. Cheaters never prosper.

Chris Cody!

My buddy was saying, not today. Yeah, but you're not today. I think that was what he was adding. Yeah, I'm telling you, the response I got from this guy, what I said was amazing. Cheaters never prosper. This guy yelled as angry as he could.

I ain't cheating! This is the down The Big Atta' Show!

This is just basically what's the trending topic on Twitter.

Yeah.

Okay, this is how I get back in.

Yeah.

Not get back into basketball because that ship has sailed a long time ago. Just get back into people are talking about me. Look, we're doing it now. Hey, hey, congratulations, James. Here we go. You wanted people to talk about you, we're talking about you.

But just Let's play this out. All right, you want— you, you think this is a funny bit? Let's do it.

Like, go be the guy.

Just go, go be the guy in the WNBA. See how fun that is. See, see how cool you are.

Okay, like, by the way, that's— Robin Lopez said it best, but I'll save that for later because we are world building here, guys. Know that Enes Kanter is not the only guy that did this. There's another His name is Royce White. Can we roll it?

Oh, earlier this week I made the announcement. I'm transgender. I'm a woman. I'm— I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purposes of basketball, professional basketball. So I'll be declaring for the WNBA draft in 2027 as well. Well, I mean, I think I'd be unstoppable, you know, but I'm a team-first guy, you know, I'm a pass-first kind of player. I do the little things, you know, I led my team in all 5 major stat categories at Iowa State University. So I do a little bit of everything. I'll do whatever the coach needs me to do. I'll do whatever the girls need me to do. I think the WNBA could come out and make a definitive statement about, about guys with, with a pair of balls playing in the, in the women's association. But, you know, hey, that, that, that'd be, that'd be probably too much like, right? So, and I don't want to be discriminated against. No, I want, I want fair treatment. I'm a Black, I'm a young Black, hopefully United States senator that would like a fair chance to participate as a sometimes identifying as a transgender woman athlete.

All right. So here's what I don't understand. Here's what I understand now, at least in this case, what Royce White is doing, which Enes Kanter didn't do. Enes Kanter is like, hey, I mean, it's Kanter. I want to be in the WNBA. Royce White is at least going the route of, I identify as a woman, so I want to be in the WNBA.

Which called himself a past first guy, which is it, pal?

So like, at least Royce White, I understand what he's doing. Like, he's trying to make a point. It's a really stupid point, but he's trying to make a point at least. I don't know what Enes Kanter was doing.

They're doing the same thing, which is no one's talking about us, how can I get in?

What's the trick?

Yeah, they're doing the same thing. The difference is Enes Kanter is just doing it literally just for the attention. This dude, this is the weird thing, he is running for Senate. In Minnesota.

Yeah.

Now he's run for office before.

He's done this before, yeah.

He's lost horribly, right?

And first, by the way, first let's give a little bit of background on who Royce White is.

Like, Royce White— we do have to explain it, right? Because people don't know.

Royce White was a big-time college basketball player at Iowa State. Like, should have been a top 2 or 3 pick in the NBA draft. He ended up being mid-first round because he has a very, very severe case of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

He was at the forefront of a mental health discussion.

Another, another origin story of like this is a noble thing he's fighting for, that, hey, some people deal with anxiety and da da da da da. And then it turns into something else. Don't want to give away the Weekend Observations for the Weekend Observations, but there is a Weekend Observation about Royce White that I think everyone is going to find very interesting.

World building.

So as severe a case of obsessive compulsive disorder that anyone can have, so severe that teams didn't know if they could draft him because he doesn't fly. All right, so how's he going to get from game to game?

Even though in that video he said he'd be willing to do anything for the WNBA teams except Fly?

He flies. He flew at Iowa State. Like, I'm not going to sit here and say he didn't have anxiety about it. He didn't have to, like, take some medication in order to do that. But he flew. They went to Italy or something like that in one of their seasons. Now, the—

Darryl Morey, by the way, draft— Darryl Morey stunk. My God, Darryl Morey drafted Royce White.

Royce White is another one of these guys. Again, like, he's got nothing going for him. So this is how it's like, this is how I get my name out there. I don't know if you guys saw this. There's a dude running for office, I believe in Michigan. His name is Amir Hassan. He was running for a congressional seat as a Republican. He had the backing of Donald Trump. He had the backing of the Speaker of the House. Like, he's got all the right-wing talking points. He is a former Muslim who converted to Christianity, right? And is very anti-immigrant. And anti— he's all the, like, all the MAGA speaking points. He was running against another guy who literally was, like, running a shoestring budget. I think his, his campaign budget was like a couple thousand dollars. The guy at some point dropped out of the race. I can't afford it, I'm not doing well, uh, whatever, like, I'm just— I'm out of the race, right? They get to the primary. Amir Hassan, this strong right-wing guy endorsed by Big Daddy Trump himself, gets annihilated by the guy who dropped out of the race. And the reason why is because his constituency thought he was a Muslim and an immigrant.

Everything that he ran on came back to eliminate him from the primary, not even like the actual seat. The Republican base wouldn't even vote for him. They become such a cartoon of all their isms that they would not even support their guy. I mean, excuse me.

There was also a real ugly video out of, uh, a stop in Nevada where the governor was honoring fallen police officers, and one of the names was Arabic, and it got booed. Yeah, it got booed. And he's like, no, no, no, we're not booing him. He's a—

he's a hero. Yeah, he gave his life in the line of duty.

They just hear an Islamic name and—

I just don't understand.

So to tie it all together, so Royce White, I kind of want him to go on with this. I want him— I want him to get like, continue this because I want him to lose. Because voters are like, this Black trans dude is right, I'm not voting for him. That's what I want that to happen again at the primary level, which is basically your base. There ain't no woke people voting in the Republican primary. These are your people. I want him to be rejected because that is the fate of every coon, ladies and gentlemen, is to be rejected by the people you seek desperately your, uh, uh, like affirmation from. Like, I just wanted to please you, and they still don't look at you the same. That's the best fate. For any of these guys.

I just don't understand, you know, like Enos Kanter, Royce White, guys like them, they're upset with the WNBA right now because they're not taking a stand, you know, or they're not 1,000% backing Sophie Cunningham.

Not because this is an issue that is actually happening. Again, it's just a microwave controversy.

Well, that's what I said, where the WNBA gets hijacked by these political causes. Like, it really sucks for the players, for for the league in that spot. Uh, maybe if they had better leadership at the commissioner position, they'd be able to manage this a little bit better.

Uh, just look, I don't watch the WNBA. I'm the only sports media personality that is courageous enough to admit that. All right, but it seems like it's a bit of a tire fire. Everything is bad, right?

And this is what I would say to that particular point: if it were a tire fire, we would not be talking about it. This is the— this is the price. This is why I tell my WNBA brothers and sisters that cover that league, that love that league, I said, this is the price of popularity. Your thing is it now. And so part of it is you get all the assholes who come in under the tent. You can't curate it. Look, only the cool people will like this. You know, think about every artist. What the WNBA fan base is going through right now is my favorite band that I saw at like Las Rosas play, now they're playing the Caseya Center and they sold out, right? Because like, oh, you guys weren't there when such and such song came out. That's what's happening, right? Yes, you're gonna get a bunch of casuals, people don't even care that much because it is a popular product, because it is exploding. And in a weird capitalistic way, like, this is not a bad thing. It's bad because of the political undertones, obviously. But in terms of a business, it's good for business.

But I do wanna highlight one thing. This is from Robin Lopez. Robin Lopez, who I've known—

What'd he say?

For 18 years now. I, I, we drafted him in Phoenix.

Who do you like better, Robin or Brook?

I know Robin, I don't know Brook. I know Robin better.

So you like Robin better?

I like Robin because that's the guy I know.

But you like him better?

I know him. I will always pick the person I know over the person I don't know.

Okay, so you like him better than Brook?

So, got it. You don't like Brook Lopez.

Okay. Go on.

Hate, hate Brook Lopez. Quote, biggest issue, if you're being drafted, people are saying we want you around for 4 years. And I can't imagine anybody wants Enes Kanter or Royce White around them for even 4 minutes. We've seen this illustrated whenever Ennis is near Turkey or Royce comes close to logic/reality. And that's a fact. Like, the best part about this is let them be— let them declare they're going to go undrafted and like, well, because I don't know, it's because you're a jackass.

When Royce White in his rookie year, when he got to the NBA and it started to become the problem that everyone knew it was going to be with his OCD, that wasn't the reason. But no, but I read like worldbuilding, right?

Yeah, worldbuilding.

Yeah, worldbuilding.

Very good. We— people were like, if I'm remembering it correctly, were afraid to be critical of him because it's like, whoa, you're being critical of someone who is dealing with a very serious mental health condition where it's like, no, no, we want to be critical of him because he has a mental health condition and he's also a huge asshole.

Zazz, this was Amino Hassan's introduction into the world of NBA Twitter and NBA media. I was literally fresh from— the last thing I did was like a call on draft day to one of the guys I work with, with my intel report on Royce White.

He would have been a top pick if not for the bullshit, right?

It has nothing to do with the anxiety. Spoiler alert, right? So I come into— now I'm in the media, now I'm doing stuff, and I'm thinking to myself, Wow, like these people are going to be like, oh, this dude was on the inside. He's got all these insights and stuff that are— and I was shocked by these people. You can't say that. I'm like, what are you talking about? This is real. You want to— you wonder why a guy doesn't get drafted? You wonder why a guy flames out of a league? It's because of these very real reasons that I have that I've been like kind of sharing with people. And it was— it blew my mind that there was this cottage industry of like being you gotta be a certain way, talk a certain way about things, and there's certain things you can't criticize. In the same way that Mike moments ago said, I'm the only media person who doesn't watch the WNBA.

With the courage to admit it.

No, with the courage to— Exactly. But that's the point. Like, because there are a bunch of people who don't follow.

Right.

But to say I don't watch the WNBA becomes in itself like, oh, you're one of them.

No, you couldn't be critical of Royce White in his rookie year.

No.

Dog, I was.

That's why bravery should be commended.

Yes, we're gonna pin a little brooch on you.

But also, I hate Angel Reese, and that's equality. For no reason whatsoever. No reason whatsoever.

I'm glad, I'm glad you said that.

So you were critical of him?

Of course, of course. I had the, the book on why.

Because that was a thing. So you better not say anything bad about this guy.

Really cool with Sophie. Just, by the way, you got to use the voice when you do that. Well, the bit is a bit of an asshole. I'm also workshopping a bit about how like people say, like the basketball name that people say now that Kobe's gone at the basketball court now is Angel Reese, but it's not a good thing.

Ah, shit.

What do they shout? They just shout Angel?

Well, whenever I have a putback, it's like, you know how people say Kobe?

Yeah.

Ah.

Dan 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 Sassu.

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.

If you saw over the weekend, there were some great clips going around. Uh, there was an O'Jerron family wedding.

Oh my God. Tell me they all sound like that.

I'm still workshopping it though, so I'll let you know when I got it.

Okay, thank you.

I want to play a game here.

World building.

So Ed Orgeron's son got married over the weekend. Okay. And so we have like what I think it's like 30-something seconds. It's like a montage of like him seeing his son's bride for the first—

like, is—

I never— I don't remember a first reveal with the in-law, but they do some sort of first reveal.

Okay, like his son is not in the room because he can't see her, right?

I think his son may be in the room, but like we're going to see him here.

Oh, I thought that's not— I thought you're not supposed to do that.

Maybe he already did the first look. Maybe the groom did. So like, I don't know the details here. I just know we're going to get—

you don't know shit, do you?

We're going to get a first look.

Is this another situation where you thought he just said Paul, but he said this whole name?

All right, this one I feel really good about, but it's going to start with the first look. We eventually get to his speech during the wedding. It's about 40 seconds. I want to play the game over-under. Over-under. I'm setting the over-under at 2.5 for football references, things that he is pulling from his coaching bag, anything that references football. That's what I've set the over-under at.

2.5?

2.5.

Hammer the over-under.

In 40 seconds?

It's like, it's somewhere between 30 and 40 seconds.

Hammer the over.

Yeah, I'll go over.

All right, they're all taking the over. Let's see here. Let's roll it.

Wow, you are absolutely gorgeous, Miss O'Jerome. Oh, oh, how about that? Oh, let it go. You having a blast?

You did good, son.

You can do some recruiting. Almost, almost.

Miss—

little group hug.

Group head— group headbutt. One team, one heartbeat. You make my son happy. That means a lot.

Thank you. Thank you, Randy.

That, that means the world. And we're all together, one team, one heartbeat. We're going to have a blast.

Yeah, we got the third one at the end.

Woo!

I started sweating. I was like, come on, Coach. Now, is reception at a restaurant?

Well, that what we did, that may have been the rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner.

Yeah, could have been, or the breakfast after.

The one thing you didn't hear there, if you're just watching, he gave the bride a fist bump.

Sure did.

In the middle of that, which is a rare thing, I'd say.

It is weird that he said like almost misses, so that means that was before the wedding. Yeah, but the son is in the room there.

Maybe he already did his first reveal to her. Sometimes they do.

They don't do that. I thought it was like you're not supposed to see her until like—

I'm Jewish, dude, we don't believe that.

People do photos before. You just saw White camera as much as you want.

We take, uh, us Jews, we take all the pictures before the wedding even starts.

Really?

You know why?

Why?

Because we don't want to be taken away from the party for all the pictures. We want to party!

That's what my wife and I did that too. You do a first look where before the wedding she walks up and she taps you on your shoulder and you turn around and you see the reveal, and then you do photos like Zazz before the wedding.

This is like a ceremony that they do with the tapping?

It's called the first look, I think they call it. Yeah, they do it with the father of the bride too because the father wants to see what his daughter looks like, and they do it with the groom. So it's like a—

you guys, this is—

I did the first look ahead of the wedding.

I also did a first look.

What about you, Roy? I don't remember, man.

I don't remember.

I don't remember.

It was—

it was a long day, dude.

Yeah, it wasn't that big a deal.

Roy, you don't remember the first time you saw Aneet in her dress? Was it down the aisle or was it before the wedding?

Keep in mind, both of our, uh, wedding rings were stolen, so that was top and foremost in my mind.

Stuff got stolen.

You're trying to distract us.

I'm not trying to distract you anything.

That's what happened.

You don't remember when you saw your wife, so you're like, just so you know, my rings were stolen.

I don't like what you did there. Also, you didn't remember, and so you tried to make us feel bad. Also, Anit was late to the wedding. That's the other thing, because again, the rings were stolen.

So you remember that?

Of course she was late for the wedding.

He remembers everything but the first look. You mean Mike?

I remember Joe Flacco beat the Patriots that day. I was like, man, let's get this thing going. I need— late, I'm missing this playoff game. Yeah, so was I. I was the same thing.

But if you notice, World Series was going on during my wedding.

Yeah, in that video, a little awkward, uh, when he's hugging his daughter's bride. Yeah, he like doesn't want to—

maybe he doesn't have something on her hand— on his hands.

It's a white dress makeup or something.

Doesn't want to screw up her dress, so he's just afraid to fully embrace. So he kind of like wraps his arm around her.

Excited he is to Here's the hug right here.

He wraps it, but he's like, I'm not gonna close this fully.

Uh, yeah, like, I don't know, maybe he's got someone on his hands.

Like Doctor Strange about to open a portal.

What would he have on his hands?

Edward Turan, surprisingly not on my top 5 list of barrel chest.

Wow.

Yeah, we begin with the OLI. Oh, come on, Chris Farley.

Oh dude, world building, world building.

OLI.

Ving Rhames.

Hey, oh really?

Yeah.

Oh, will I?

Chris Cody.

Yeah.

Number 5, Sergeant Slaughter.

Hey, Barrel Chest.

Yes.

Like the real one or the cartoon?

I'm talking about Commissioner Sergeant Slaughter.

Okay.

After he became— remember, there was that weird—

not when he was Iraqi turncoat.

Yeah, he was, he was a turncoat.

And not when he was in G.I. Joe.

No, but when he was feuding with DX. Okay, yeah, Commissioner, uh, Sergeant—

Sergeant Slaughter, uh, Stolen Valor. How do you feel about that?

He is Stolen Valor.

Yeah, a little bit.

Why? What? He was—

because he's gone his whole life making people believe he's a sergeant.

Well, he wasn't.

He wasn't in the army.

No, he didn't actually serve.

Colonel?

Never.

Uh, number 4, Winston Churchill.

Hey, is that barrel-chested or is that just—

okay, it's my list. I'm just building. Number 3, Paul Silas.

Hey, yes, absolutely barrel-chested.

Yep.

Felt real good about that one. Uh, number 2, Brian Dennehy.

Hey!

And number 1, rest in peace, Don Nelson.

Hey!

Why didn't Dennehy get the rest in peace?

Because he didn't just die.

Gotcha.

Okay.

I didn't know there was a statute of limitations there. All right. I like it.

It's like Happy New Year.

Ogeron was so excited to see the daughter. I like—

or—

wow!

Oh, look at you!

You turned into Al Pacino. Our son can recruit.

I'll tell you, man, all you guys here are girl dads, right? Is everyone I'm looking at a girl dad? Wow, all of you guys. Amin, are you a girl dad?

I don't disclose the gender of my children.

So anyway, wow. Uh, I, I guess like, I don't know, you guys must think about this. I don't think about this stuff at all. Paying for a wedding You're father of the bride. Now, O'Jeran's not father of the bride, he's father of the groom. But father of the bride, that has to be something you think about having to pay for weddings one day, right?

I've started thinking first about just her dating. I'll get to the wedding part later. That the part I'm scared most about now is just, you know, my daughter's going into third grade and she's already talking about boyfriends. So it's a little scary.

One of the first thoughts that went through my mind when I found out it was a girl, I'm like, damn, I'm gonna have to pay for that wedding.

Yeah, that's what I—

that's what I'd be thinking too. The Zaslow family famously hasn't paid for a wedding.

Guys, swear to God.

I don't believe this.

I swear to God.

I don't believe this.

Mike knows this because I texted Mike a week ago. I swear to God, a week ago, my other cousin, alright, I have two cousins on the Zaslow side.

Mm-hmm.

Obviously both males. My other cousin just had a baby.

Mm-hmm.

I didn't know what the sex was. All right, I just wasn't in touch. I don't know. I didn't know what the sex was gonna be. And he texted me last week, so hey, you know, invited me to, uh, or whatever. Yes, that gives it away. That's the giveaway. That's the giveaway. Yes, yes, world building. Yes, and I didn't, I didn't know. And that of course is the giveaway, another new Zaslo boy in the family. It has been over 100 years since we've had a girl. And in the last just few months, we had two more chances for a girl, and they are both boys.

I don't know if any of you guys ever watched the show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Like, he does— he goes— they do like a deep, exhaustive— not just like a 23andMe, but they go into the archives and books and like immigration records and all that to find out like as far back as they can from these people's families. And you learn all these things, and I can't believe I'm saying this. I want you to go on that show. I want Henry Louis Gates Jr. and his powerful television program to find for me a Zaslav woman that's been born, because you can't tell me for generations. Yeah. When was the last one? Do we know?

Yeah, it was my dad's aunt, so my great aunt, and it was probably in the early teens in the 1900s. Really? Yeah, it's been over 100 years. Yeah, she was the last one.

There has been a societal shift. People are breaking away from the tradition of, you know, the father of the bride paying for the wedding.

Now it's just the more wealthy family.

Yeah, it's implied. It's the implication.

It's a little half and half.

You got this. Oh, like, yeah, it's like, oh, should I put my credit card?

I'll go halves on the rehearsal.

Okay, but still, there's no scenario where the father of the groom is paying for everything. There is a scenario where the father of the bride is. There's no scenario where the father of the groom is.

I mean, Ed Ogeronzeri's made a couple million bucks.

Like, hey, I'll take care of this.

Hold on, I'm about to say, like, allow me to contribute. I, I have a friend of a friend who got, who got married to the son of, like, Ted Leonsis. There's no way Ted Leonsis, one of the richest men in the country, was like, what y'all got on it?

Y'all got it right here.

Like, okay, but that, but that's at choice at least. That's at choice.

Oh no, you're saying out of obligation.

Yeah, yeah.

Uh, no, some cultures—

like, I'm not sitting here— I have two teenage boys— I'm not sitting here thinking, damn it, I'm going to have to pay for an entire wedding on my own. Like, that's not happening.

It depends, because some cultures it's, it's the, the groom's family that has to do it.

Is that right?

Yeah, because the implication, again, from a distant time, is that like, I am coming to purchase your daughter.

Ah, the dowry.

The dowry. Yes. So in America anymore, right? Uh, who's to say?

I've started saving a little bit.

Wow.

Yeah, I put a little bit away. Yeah, I put a little bit away. I put a little, like, nest egg that I put in the money market. I'm gonna let it grow for the next 20 years and see where I'm at at that point.

But you got to do that for college too.

I'll take care of that too.

Wow.

Look at that.

I met an arranged marriage couple the other day.

Where are they from?

They're happy.

Uh, they seem to like each other.

The arranged marriages work better.

Yeah, two very different countries.

Really?

Very different.

And then it got arranged?

Yeah. That's—

you don't see that one. That's pretty rare.

Hmm.

Let me guess what the countries were.

Yeah. What are the countries?

Papua New Guinea.

Okay, that's one.

Canada.

No. This is a great game. Only on Super Bowl 95.

Guess number 2.

Let's both be from Vermont.

Suriname.

No.

Okay.

That was Brazil and Israel.

Oh, good fans.

Great fans.

Yeah, Brazil's got good fans.

Great fans.

Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

We got 30 seconds to kill here, guys. Yeah, we had a landmine there that we just— I didn't want to volunteer, but I know you could have just let me just keep guessing. I would have guessed so many more countries before I got to those.

I like that he's going around trying to figure out how to say Briss without saying Briss. He's like, I got invited to the, uh, you know, the, uh, stick foreskin ceremony, removal of the, uh, appendage.

I'll tell you, I was right there for both of my boys. It is barbaric.

He did good, sonny. He's a recruit.