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A
Everybody talked about it since I first moved to Oregon. The big one. The earthquake that trashed the whole West Coast. Total destruction.
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Officially calling it the largest natural disaster in American history.
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I just didn't know what would help me next. So I took it all. Even the gun. It was time.
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Cielo American Afterlife presented by Pair of Thieves. The number one fiction and drama podcast in America. Listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts available now. Dan Bernstein Unfiltered Unfiltered on 312 Sports DBU on 3. 12 is brought to you in partnership with my bookie. I've been trying to hint at some of the the problems that are occurring at both Hallis hall and Springfield and apparently through the mayor's office here in Chicago. But within the last 24 to 48 hours, a lot of things have come to a head here and between this show and forward progress yesterday we had been mentioning what the governor said before the league said what it said, the increasingly personal barbs that are being lobbed in the direction of J.B. pritzker by Mayor Brandon Johnson. Marianne Ahern of NBC 5 Chicago last night reported about a back channel communication, back channel being my words, that occurred apparently between the Bears and the city of Chicago, between the Bears and the mayor's office, that caused the mayor's office and his, the mayor's in group of loud allies to believe that a Chicago arena stadium project of some kind was still alive, not imminent, not the front burner viable, but at least still alive enough to make noise in the end game here and be exploited. More importantly, be exploited for nakedly political reasons. Because once, because we're getting into the ugly stuff. We're getting into the horse trading here in the end game. So here's what I'm going to present and that is what I think. I will describe this as reasonable and informed speculation based on what has been in the air for a while and what I'm hearing and the, the, the nuggets of information that we now have that have been coming out. There's a report in the Tribune this morning. There was Marianne Ahern's report last night at 10 o' clock and thanks to the NBA I ran it. I would not have seen it. I would not have been there. I wouldn't have have known about it if I still wasn't like, you know, flossing my teeth, finishing up everything as, as the NBA as I'm kind of off from that NBA experience. We'll get to that, believe me. But Marianne Ahern reported that Illinois State Senator Bill Cunningham has noted the team reached out to the city in recent weeks for what he characterized as a hypothetical talk about the stadium project if their first choice of Arlington Heights were to fall through and this all play. The reason why I'm going to give you plausible speculation here is because of how, how neatly everything seems to fit based on what we know and based on some things that I have been told, some things that I have been that have been indicated. And this is from Capital Facts, Rich Miller, who's doing a lot of the best work here, putting all of this together and using what the Tribune has reported and NBC 5 reported. I would just say that Rich Miller and I may be talking to some of the same people here. So from NBC 5, Cunningham says the team reached out to the city in recent weeks concerning what he believed was a hypothetical reunion on a stadium project. Cunningham said the outreach from the Bears has strengthened the opposition of Chicago lawmakers to the bill that would relocate the team to Arlington Heights. In other words, this is Miller, the city's general counsel disclosed a confidential hypothetical conversation with the Bears general counsel. Not a smart move by the team to even hold that meeting. And now I doubt they'll ever do that again. The general counsel reached out to the mayor's office to solve a problem with the current lease, and the Johnson administration used that to their advantage. Now that's what they're saying it was the Johnson administration, I'm told, says Miller, which broached the subject of what would happen if the megaprojects bill didn't pass. So I seriously doubt there will be any more such meetings, the Tribune said. Cunningham said talk of resurrecting a Chicago stadium has created a roadblock in ongoing discussions among lawmakers trying to meet the May 31 deadline to hammer out a deal before the end of the spring legislative session. And the sticking point in negotiation comes a few weeks after Johnson and others visited Springfield and talked about the mayor's desire to keep the Bears in Chicago. But by virtue of the fact the Bears did outreach to the city as of late April, that has given credence to the mayor's claim that a lakefront site is still viable. It has helped him to convince Chicago legislators to move slowly to give the city a chance to to develop a new lakefront plan and not support the Arlington Heights site. Now, let me say this. The Bears are not staying in Chicago. It is not viable. This is a distraction that Brandon Johnson is trying to exploit what what his goal is other than disruption. At this point, I am not exactly sure There is not going to be a stadium for the Bears built in Chicago. As of right now, the Bears only real choice is Arlington Heights. And remains that Hammond is, is, is unrealistic for all the reasons that we have mentioned of what it's going to cost to clean up, about the lack of population in the area, population density is a huge problem. The amount of money that they would be giving away, not moving to, to where they want to move, et cetera, that, that has been a pure leverage exploitation. The question is how did this happen? How, why, why was there outreach and how was that outreach, the back door outreach to the city of Chicago late in the game after this had already been streamlined. And I think this is why the NFL keeps calling them on the carpet that these are, these meetings in front of the NFL are what the fuck sessions. And George McCaskey has had to answer for what is going on merely on his side. As far as I can tell, this is a Halas hall problem. These issues that are the communication issues that are clear now from every bit of reporting that's going on. There are a lot of things here that are true. Chicago is pretending that some misguided late outreach from the Bears makes them viable. It doesn't. But it doesn't mean that outreach wasn't a mistake by the Bears. Because if you are presenting a united front in your efforts, when you are talking to legislators, you are trying to wrangle votes here for this mega projects bill that is going to allow you to move where you want to move to the land that you already own, to actually finally, finally, finally get started on a project that with every day that goes by is skyrocketing in cost. And yet you created your own headwinds, your own headwinds here, allowing a door to be cracked open by somebody who's maybe in the mayor, not a real good faith actor at this point. I'm not exactly sure what his plan is, but the way he's, you allowed him the opportunity to insert himself into these final discussions and be a disruptive force. And a couple things could happen to the mayor here. Either there's going to be some, some political payoff to go away or somebody's going to step on his neck. And it, this, this may be when the governor brings down the thunder and I don't know what he, what cards he has to play exactly here, but let's get back to, to what happened. The most plausible explanation to this and based on my understanding is the discovery of this communication with the city this late in the game, regardless of how they're spinning it now. Because now there's a whole bunch of. Now they're in damage control mode now that that part is out, now that they're. They're saying, oh, well, they were talking about infrastructure and it was the mayor that asked the question. We didn't. The Bears didn't come to the mayor and say, hey, if Arlington falls through, let's start talking about what else could go on here. So now they're in a. In a he said, she said about what was discussed at that meeting and who brought up what. That's not really the point. Why was there communication between the Bears and the city at this late day date? And why is there a miscommunication? Why is there apparently a misunderstanding about the purpose of this communication? The person in charge of the communication from the Bears is team president Kevin Warren. This is his job. This is what he was brought in to do. This is what he was given massive amounts of money in, not just to him directly, but in his budget to hiring, amassing a staff of people just for this effort. And just for. He hired an entire communications department just for the stadium effort, outside of the football communications people. And yet when this is, this is my speculation as I'm interpolating what I see on this graph, what I see in these data points, sometimes it's my job to interpolate. And what my best guess is is that there was some communication with the city that caught the other powers that be involved in these negotiations being the governor's office and the Bears themselves, that caught them off guard. And the city kind of kept it quiet for a while because it really wasn't anything to act on. It might have been weird, but it didn't. That was, that was a card that you just have and say, maybe we'll play this at a later date. I don't know what this was, but okay. But then when somebody came back to the Bears from the governor's office, said, hey, what. Why did you reach out to Chicago? It's my speculation what's going on with the mayor's office. And the response from the Bears was, I don't know what you're talking about. We didn't talk to the, we didn't talk to the mayor's office. We didn't. There was no official communication from the Chicago Bears about what if Arlington park falls through. Even a casual conversation, we would have known about that. And then there were some. I. My speculation is that there's some questions asked internally where the Bears are like, hey, nobody was calling the city, right? Oh, somebody did call the city. What? Well, we didn't authorize that. They got to clean up their internal communication. The Chicago Bears have to figure out who's talking to whom, who's representing the Bears, why and when. This is an avoidable own goal. Their own actions and their own inability for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing for the left hand to know what the right hand is doing has impeded their effort to get what they want and that now they're trying to fix it, and they have created an opening for whatever Brandon Johnson's trying to accomplish. There is an opening here, and it does not paint the Bears in a very positive light for how they are handling things from their side. The Bears have to have some meetings. The Bears have to talk about who's doing what, about who is saying what to whom, about who is empowered to represent them officially. Because there are some people now at this stage, at the very final stage of all of this, to get what they need and get a bill to the governor's desk that he's going to sign that's going to let them get these sacred shovels in the ground and their cranes in the air and cranes in the sky. But now they've got a late snag because they got sloppy. My speculation that make sure that when everybody's in a room involved in the decision making, that they say, this is our position, we are not going to do anything to compromise or undermine this position, and we must know everything that is being said. I don't think the Bears knew everything that was being said on their official behalf. And that's not a way to run a business at all, let alone a delicate, multifaceted political negotiation. As usual, the Bears have found a way to make something much more difficult than it needs to be. So we're going to hear a lot more about this. We're going to hear a lot more about who called whom first. People are going to lie about this because that's part of the damage control and part of the spin and part of making it seem like, oh, it's just, oh, the mayor's office is completely misinterpreting this. I don't think so. I do think there's some gray area in there, but there is. There's a reason why. And I think that there was some concern. I would speculate that there's some concern at Halas hall about who's saying what to whom with what authorization. So keep an eye on that. But everything Adds up now. So what now? What happens now? There's a couple options that you can, if you, if you want to buy somebody off to make them less annoying, you can do that. I mean, what are the political options? Usually somebody's a thorn in your side. You can usually buy them off either with cash or a political favor or a promise down the line, or you go oppo and you say, hey, knock off what you're doing, or we're going to bring up this, this, and this, or we're going to take away this, this and this. You can play softball or you can play hardball. I don't know what the, what the response is going to be yet from the governor's office or from other factions within the state legislature, but they're going to have to work real fast in the next little while to make sure that this doesn't derail what's going on. I don't think it will. If I were a gambling person, I would still think that it's, it's, it's going to work its way through and come out okay, but not without some scrambling from people who feel that they are being asked to do things. At the end, that is. What's the sign you see on somebody's desk? Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part that you usually see on like the office manager's desk or the engineers or. Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. This is one of those situations where there's a lot of people rolling their eyes when they look at their inbox when they come into work and saying, oh, my, I can't believe I have to deal with this because you, you have communication issues within and outside of Hallis hall right now. Bears have to fix their stuff. They've got to fix their stuff. So that's the latest. I know there's going to be more, but we're, we're at a point right now where there are some, some, some fissures that are appearing and it's on one side. Keep an eye on it is what I will tell you
- [19:36]
C
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- [20:19]
B
Every sports fan has an angle. The team you trust, the favorite you want to fade. The player you think is due. That moment that you can feel coming before everybody else sees it. That's really the joy. That's when you're like, hey, I, I, I, I noticed something. Well, you can act on it. That's where my bookie comes in. My bookie gives you one place to turn those opinions into action. Whether you are watching the playoffs now or getting ready for the World cup this summer, use our promo code DBU for Dan Bernstein, unfiltered when you sign up. And that is going to allow you to claim an exclusive offer just because you are listening to the show. See? See the bonuses that you get. It's good for you. You can back your side before the game. You can follow momentum live and make these moments you already care about feel bigger. That's the reason to check out my bookie. You're already watching. You already have a take, and now you have a place to play it. Bet anything, anytime, anywhere. With my bookie with the code DBU must be 21 plus. Please gamble responsibly. So it's going to be interesting times here for the Bears. I will say that the. I, I needed to get away from the Cubs last night. I did catch the end of the White Sox game, too, because I saw. Oh, wait, hold on, Gritch homer. Now I got. And I was, I had, I had to get home because the games were starting and I knew when. And then I had to stop at the store. The cool thing was I walk into Mariano's. There's a huge flat screen TV right by the little sitting area next to the sushi thing. Games on. So I got to, I got to sit down and watch the ninth inning in the grocery store. That was a first for me, but it worked out perfectly. It didn't work out that well for the Sox. It was too bad. But that, that says something, though. If I'm, if I'm actually stopping what I'm doing to watch the White Sox, that's a great sign. Fun place to be. If you have baseball that you think matters, that's fun.
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D
And yeah, I've actually turned their games on outside of Cub, Sox games. Yeah, a couple times in the last week. I've been more on the radio with Lennon. DJ as of late. Listening too.
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B
Sure, why not? There's, there's. They're more interesting. They're a very interesting and Fun team. They're. They're worth keeping an ear on and an eye on. I just have so much trouble with the TV broadcast. I wish I could, I could just have Stone. I wish he could just be Steve Stone and I'll maybe just have him over. I'll make blintzes or something. And we could, we can, we can sit and watch and he can talk. Be fine. Because I just struggle. I struggle with that broadcast because it's, it just, it's too much, too much bad and too little because Stoney can do play by play. Remember when Hawk would just leave the booth to go check on people?
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D
Yes.
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B
Like Mr. Miyagi and he had to make sure Todd Frazier was okay. And I'll be right back, Stoney. Oh, you're going to go check on him. You take over. Okay. Weirdo. But yeah, I, I'd rather just have. Have Stoney there. But either way, I did. I watched the game, it was fine. And then I got home and I'm like, okay, Cubs, Cubs, Cubs. And then I don't want to watch the Cubs anymore. They make my stomach hurt and they make my ass and they get fatal taint, swelling. And every possible side effect of every possible pharmaceutical is now caused by whatever this is with Cubs baseball. So what we said on off the Ivy today, on this off day, that's it, everybody. Nobody's allowed to pick up a baseball today. Mandatory. You, you have to go bird watching or get in a sensory deprivation tank. Well, you went to those float tanks, Maddie.
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D
Yeah, it was pretty cool.
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B
Yeah, like do that.
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D
Yeah, go have a self care day. Just go or sit at a bar somewhere and drink exactly something.
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B
Or go, go, go declare it Margarita Thursday. And just. There are so many places in Chicago where if you want to sit and just, just like eat chips and salsa all day and read a book and sip margaritas and pass out at 4 in the afternoon. Wake up around 7, have a lazy dinner around 7 and then go to sleep at 9:30. That's what your day should be. If you are any, if you're involved in any way with Cubs baseball, period. Don't, don't grind. We made this decision too. I thought maybe the people should be working on Cabrera and trying to see about release point and all that. And why is velocity. No. Nobody.
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D
The only, the only thing that should be happening on the Cub side of things today for baseball is medical treatment. Stuff like don't skip anything that is part of a program right now. Outside of that, absolutely zero. Don't even watch other Baseball games. Just if you have a family, go do stuff. If you don't have a family, go get some buddies, go golfing, go fishing, go shopping. Just sit on your couch and watch movies all day.
- [25:28]
B
Yeah, that's if you, you know what's good. Get the. I've done this before. I did this on an off day once when I was much younger. I had a Tuesday off and I rented the. I went, I went to Blockbuster Video at, on, at Lincoln and Wrightwood. Not Lincoln, Clark and Wrightwood. And I, and I got the Godfather saga, which is Godfather 1 and 2 edited together. I then went to Lincoln Park Market and I bought ground pork, ground veal and ground beef. Everything else that I needed. I went back to my apartment and I made meatballs and gravy like a Sunday sauce in a big pot. And I watched seven hours of the Godfather while eating everything in that pot the entire day.
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D
It's a good day. And there are some people listening to DBU right now, thankfully, that know exactly what you're talking about. And there are others going Blockbuster.
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B
I know.
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D
Rent movies. What is that?
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B
I know.
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D
Go to the store and buy food.
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B
What do you.
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D
Why didn't you just doordash and stream it, Dan?
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B
Yeah, well, they were. Times were different. I, I, I plugged the VHS tapes into a giant contraption that would play the movie.
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D
Hand operated elevator to get down to your horse and buggy.
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B
That's right.
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D
You rode down the cobblestone streets of Clark and got to Blockbuster Video.
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B
I had to go to the local
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D
butcher, cut the beef and grind it all down for you. The veal, the pork. Yep.
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B
Brought it all. All wrapped in paper for me and string.
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D
Way home, got fresh tomatoes.
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B
I had everything analog. Everything was done. So that's, that's, that's the prescription for the Cubs today. Get away from baseball. Sit in. If you have a pool, just. Or a hot tub, lie in your pool or your hot tub on a big inflatable swan like Johnny Manziel. Just that. That's your day to day. And everything will be fine now. But what happened was that the moment that NBA game started, the moment game two began of the Western Conference finals, they picked up right where they left off. In overtime, that is. And last night, at one point, I turned to nobody in. I'll tell you who I turned to, because I was going crazy. I was in the basement and I was screaming. And not just the dunk. Have you seen the dunk yet, Maddie?
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D
I haven't, I haven't looked at. Yeah, I know.
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B
You haven't seen the Steph Castle. Look at it right now. Look at it right now. Look at it right now. Look at it right now. Right now. I want you to see, because the Steph Castle dunk occurred in a stretch in the second quarter of some of the most jaw dropping, exhausting basketball in a good way that I've ever seen. They didn't even have time because so much was happening so fast. There was so much shot making. There were so many players splashing shots in and attacking other people and just end to end effort. Bodies flying everywhere. People three feet above the rim. The rim. And that, that dunk got me out of my chair, screaming. My wife had mahjong at our house last night, which is why I was in the basement.
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D
Oh, is she?
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B
Who?
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D
Mahjong.
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B
The.
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D
The.
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B
The ladies were playing Mahjong. And I came upstairs because I had to preheat the oven. And I. And I came upstairs like, is everything okay down there? You're screaming. And I said, I'm watching the highest quality basketball I have ever seen played. Yep. Wait till you see this. That. Are you there yet? I think I'll know. I think we'll hear it when Maddie sees the dunk. But that was, that was only a part of it. Like, that was that. That was only the exclamation point, but in the middle of a larger sequence of everything else that was happening. I remember how I felt when we realized that, that Steph Curry and.
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D
Oh, Jesus Christ.
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B
But remember when Klay Thompson and Steph Curry and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what, what are we watching? I had one of those moments last night that was seeing the future. One of these two teams is going to be your likely NBA champion for the next 10 years. Everybody on that floor for the spurs is 22.
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D
Grief.
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B
Yeah, it's. And the stuff Wemby is doing is, is insanity now. Now the injury to Dylan Harper and the injury to de' Aaron Fox, that's gonna matter. And even though I'm not a huge fan of Oklahoma City, I don't deny the fact that Oklahoma City is the best engineered basketball team I, I've seen in the NBA. They are a mechanism. They're. They're a ruthless, heartless basketball mechanism. Good luck. But I even, I call my dad. Like, he's not a huge NBA guy. I called him at the end of the first quarter and I said, are you watching NBA? He's like, no, you know, I don't really say. Just. He's like, yeah, I don't really. I Don't keep up. Do me a favor. Turn it on. Turn this on. And he texts me, I got to find it. So he's, he starts watching just at the start of the second quarter last night.
- [31:48]
D
I mean Dan, he, he was outside the restricted area dude, when he, when he dunked that ball and he was out. He's free. He gets it behind the three point line, makes a move, goes left and he, he dunks it. He's outside the restricted area while getting pummeled in the chest.
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B
Yes. And look how high above their. Freeze it when he's got that thing. Like with a pitcher, they talk about scapular loading. They talk about like getting power from, from, from loading. Pulling your shoulder blades together and bringing back like that. And that is, that was, that was just raining hell on someone.
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D
Yes.
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B
And that is putting a guy in the rim and well, that's a highlight. But you have to watch more than just the highlights. It is unbelievable. Like Reggie Miller multiple times with Wemby was laughing. You see Wemby block a shot with an offhand or get his own rebound and stick it in because he reached all the way over here. And Reggie Miller was literally laughing with. Because you're. It's beyond and above analysis. This must have been what it was like when Wilt arrived and everybody's. And everyone's two feet tall and yeah, you had Bill Russell, but all of a sudden this guy's not six eight. This guy's seven one and faster than everybody. You know, champion hurdler who's seven foot one and 275 pounds. This must have been what it was like when people saw Wilt.
- [33:27]
D
He was, he was 275, something like that. Around that. I mean, close to that.
- [33:31]
B
That huge, isn't. He's huge. Enormous.
- [33:34]
D
Funny, because what's Holmgren 7:1 in like 215.
- [33:38]
B
Well, and Holmgren played great.
- [33:40]
D
Oh yeah. The stuff I did, that's another thing like, like that.
- [33:43]
B
The point is the quality of the basketball. When we, when you talk about the Bulls and slap about like size, length, athleticism, physicality and it's. Everybody on your team does everything. Come on, man.
- [34:00]
D
When the Cubs ended, I turned on the game. It was third quarter and I don't even know what the score was at. But Holmgren had a. He made a nice move like one of those Euro steps and kind of threw it up with his right hand and he got that to bounce in. I saw a couple sequences with, with him that looked like he was a little more active than in game One. But then I just, I could, I was so drained from that Cubs thing. I just, I needed to get out of sports competition.
- [34:24]
B
I get it.
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D
Yeah. I just. And I knew you were, you were all over it and you're going to be.
- [34:28]
B
It was breathless, it was breath. Do you know what Mike Tirico comped it to in the fourth quarter?
- [34:35]
D
What do you say?
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B
In the fourth quarter? Because the whole broadcast team, Jamal Crawford, Reggie Miller and Mike Tirico, these are, these are, you know, at least especially in Miller and Tirico veterans, they've seen everything. Tirico's called everything. And in the fourth quarter there was a, there ever. There was, there was a finally, finally one of these breaks in the action where everybody's like this. I was like, holy, what are we seeing out there? And, and Tirico says for you youngsters, ask somebody with you to go to YouTube and look up Hagler versus Hearns. Oh God, he did. He comped it. Mike Tirico comped that matchup. What's going on in this series to Hagler Hearns.
- [35:30]
D
One of the best boxing matches, one
- [35:32]
B
of the most furious athletic events. But like ever seen your life saying
- [35:38]
D
that you're physically drained. And that's what compared this NBA game.
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B
One of the, that he compared it to Hagler Hearns. It absolutely. If. Have you shown your boys Hagler Hearns? I have not. No. Okay. So yeah, I showed him Tyson stuff, but that's about it. Yeah, I, I showed. When Jason was very young, I showed him George Foreman and Ron Lyle and we looked at a lot of boxing stuff, but I showed him Hagler Hearns. I'm like, look, I don't care. You get. You're sitting here and you're watching these, these rounds and his response. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Oh, he's what? He's. Yeah. Yes. I mean anything. Gotti Ward. Gotti Ward to this, the, the. This is an athletic event makes I gotta, it makes 90s basketball look like you're getting it out of the peach basket. It makes all, everything that we glorify.
- [36:38]
D
And I don't want to, I don't.
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B
This is, I don't want to turn into some, some reductive argument, but all the stuff we glorify about the old timers and all that, man, piss on Eddie Shore. Old time hockey. This is another world of basketball and another spot species of of ball player on making up the entire team of both of these teams. Right?
- [37:03]
D
And that's fair and that's fine.
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B
But. Oh My. We don't need to.
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D
On the past of any sport because it's as.
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B
It's all developed different.
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D
It's all different.
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B
Yes, football is different today than the
- [37:13]
D
football that we watched as kids.
- [37:14]
B
Correct. But the point is different. If you know, but you, but, but, but you have to know when there are marking points. You have to know when you can plant a flag and say, this is not that.
- [37:27]
D
Oh, yeah, in game one, in our lifetime with, with, with, you know, Bird and Johnson, that was okay. You're seeing something different. Jordan, you're seeing something different. LeBron, you're seeing something different. Wemby Curry.
- [37:41]
B
Curry and Thompson Curry. Yeah. The last time, the last time I had this feeling of, oh, oh, and you know what? And we're going to talk to Julia Poe on organizations win championships later today. Bryson Graham and, and the Bulls. You got a lot of work to do, man. You, you got a lot. This is not. So I, Let me finish the other story too. So I tell my dad, I said, I know you. You're not an NBA guy. Just do me a favor. Give the second quarter a chance. Turn the game on. So after that, the first break, after that sequence that included the dunk. 31.
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D
31.
- [38:23]
B
And included everybody just sort of looking at each other like, are we, are you seeing this? Are we all. Is this, this is a thing? Right? And it was what I said in my, in my text to people. I, I called it basketball crack. Like, I've never done crack, but I imagine that's what it feels like. It has to feel awesome. Obviously. It has to be awesome. I'm not recommending you go do crack.
- [38:51]
D
Yeah, let's not do that.
- [38:52]
B
I'm not, I'm not. I'm certainly hyperbolizing and using that as, as, as a symbol or a metaphor, but that's got to be close because, because if I was just like, you're, you're, you're, you're, you feel like you're on a ride or something watching that. It's not possible. What. When everybody on the floor, every single person out there is massive and fast and multi talented and these are deep into these rosters and everybody on the spurs is a child. That's what's incredible. Even the coach is a baby.
- [39:35]
D
Yeah, he is.
- [39:37]
B
What are we doing? The Bulls are chasing that.
- [39:41]
D
Well, that's what we were talking about the other day. It's like just to even compete in the east, the work the Bulls have to do. And then you, then you get there and it's like, well, man, now you got to compete with these guys.
- [39:52]
B
Yep. You. You got to find people. You.
- [39:55]
D
That's what I'm saying.
- [39:56]
B
There's job opening in the West.
- [39:58]
D
I'm not even interested. If I'm a coach and there's a job opening in the West, I'm good.
- [40:03]
B
You got to compete with that. I've never seen anything like that. That was. And the more I thought about, like, am I being stupid here or is. I got to be honest that this is the highest level of the sport I've ever seen played over an extended period of time. This matchup, these eight quarters. We're going on eight quarters now of the full rosters out there playing. It's not. We're not just saying, Wemby's awesome. Shea is awesome. Caruso is amazing. What he can do. It's the everything, all of it. How hard they're playing, how they're responding. Okay, we're going to double Shay now. Here it comes. We're going to double him. What are you going to do? And they answer, and you get to see exactly how they're answering. Or, oh, they're going to use an Allen Iverson cut here and try to move Shea with that little, you know, kind of a slicing action. And then, boom. You get the gravitation to the corner. Ball moves top to bottom, ball moves side to side. And then Wemby does something like, oh, my God. How can a human being do that? It's. It is. My dad calls me middle of second quarter. He's like, I understand why you wanted me to watch now. I said, yeah. He said, this doesn't look like the Bulls. No. No, it doesn't. I think it goes. Caruso was on the Bulls, right? Like, yes. Yes, he was. And he was doing some of this then. And then I figured, all right, he was going to go to bed. And then I get a text, like, at 10 o'. Clock. One word and two exclamation points. Exhausting. Yes. Yes. And the cool thing was when the game ended, even the spurs, like, all right. Okay. All right, we got a split here. We got an injury here. We got two injuries here. We fought. Not our day. We're all right. We. We got the. And. And then you heard SGA after the game, talking about the Hartenstein's defense on Wemby's. Like, I didn't think it was very good. Like, what'd you say? No, it was good. Come on, man. You can't. He didn't like something. I thought Hardenstein played really well. Their offensive Rebounding made the difference at the end.
- [42:19]
D
Their.
- [42:19]
B
Their physicality, their offensive rebounding made a huge difference. And their understanding when Wemby left the game, that period of time when he was out, and they just went at it the whole time. You had Holmgren dunking on Cornett that rather than settling for the Baseline 3, it was a fake and put it on the floor. Because when Wemby's out there, you can't. Because what's the point? What are you going to do? All right, congratulations. Your guy closed out too hard, and now you have a shot. No, you don't, because Wemby's there. What. What are you going to do? He. He's like playing with your dad in the pool when you're five. So I.
- [42:58]
D
It.
- [42:58]
B
It was. It was just spectacular. And it took my mind off the Cubs, and I thank them for that because thinking about the Cubs is no fun right now because they're bad. They're not going to stay bad at the moment. They're bad. And it's hard to watch that happens in a baseball season. You know what's coming? The World Cup. And more on that as we. As we get going. I've got a little story regarding the World cup and what it's promising and what is the early indicators about what it might be delivering economically. Here's a. Here's breaking news. Going to be less than expected. That the economic impact studies. Are you kidding me? That the. That somehow that the economic impact of a sporting event was overstated. Really? Could that possibly happen? Just really, just bizarre. When it comes to the World cup, however, it's going to be some terrific soccer. I know that, and I know there's a lot of strong opinions. And when you have strong opinions about it and all this rooting interesting. Do something with it. The country you're rooting for or you want to bet against a favorite that you think is getting too much love. That's why this tournament is a blast and everybody in the world is watching as a new player. When you go to my bookie to act on all of these feelings and you use the promo code dbu, when you sign up, you are going to get as a new player an exclusive my bookie offer. The World cup turns eight every match into a conversation. My bookie lets you turn that opinion into action. Back your side before kickoff. Follow the match live. Stay locked in from the opening whistle to the final kick. The World cup only comes around once every four years. Don't just watch it from the sidelines. Get in on the action at my Bookie must be 21 plus. Please gamble responsibly. We have been loath to mention that we have giveaways for you. We have things for you that we have and you can find them when you download our app. The 312Sports app is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play. And then you create an account and then you register your account and then you can go to the rewards page where we have a whole bunch of stuff going on here. And then at the end of every month, we give out rewards to you when you register. Our promo code for any reward right now is, is his name Matt? That guy right there, two T's. Two T's Matt. That dude that you see in his fishing shirt even though he doesn't fish, Matt, Enter that promo code on any reward for a chance to win. And what we have, we have dinner for two at Giordano's. That's authentic Chicago deep dish pizza serving Chicago style deep dish stuffed pizza since 1974. Capital Grill dinner for two. Capital Grill is an upscale, nationally renowned steakhouse known for its dry aged steaks, extensive wine list and elegant setting and Antigo Posto, a cozy Italian restaurant and wine bar tucked away in Oakbrook Center. So we have all those and you can find these@312sports.com. But the best way to do it app, app, app. We also have tickets for Weezer. It is Weezer the Gathering tour with special guests the Shins and Silver sun pickups. Sept. 22 at the United Center. She want to go see Weezer. Let me guess, hold on. A man in his 30s, 40s or 50s. Yep. I think you probably want to go see Weezer or maybe older or younger. So enter that code, Matt on those Weezer tickets for a chance to win. And while you're on the app or while you're at312sports.com visit the pro shop because it's up now with stuff with 312 sports swag and things. And yes, we there's going to be more. This is just the very, very beginning. Why don't you do a DBU thing? Why don't you do OWC stuff? We're gonna have show specific things. We're gonna have everything there available to you as you, as you want and whatever we can do. We're getting everything set up. But for now we've got 312 sports things for you. So go to the pro shop in the app and buy some stuff. And I've said this is, this is controversial. One of My many, many controversial things. I said, if I see you in the wild wearing 312 sports stuff, I'm gonna give you a hug. Run. Yeah, you're gonna want to run because it's gonna be me and, you know, flying at you from across the restaurant coming up. And what. Why is this. Why is this guy humping my leg? Well, I'm just excited to see 3, 1, 2 sports stuff out in the wild. You know, we put a lot into this. This is. This is our thing. This is our effort. So then to see, like, hey, all right, you're representing feels good. So I reserve the right to do that. It's one of the old sort of prima nocta declarations that I can make. Like, when we used to do remotes, we used to do remotes, and I said that I'm allowed to eat off your plate. Yes. If you're. If you came to a remote to see me, I have. You have to tithe a chicken wing. I can just walk up to your plate and take a chicken wing from you. So if you're like, what. What is this guy doing? I'm paying forward. What Eddie Kenison did to me, and I never forgave him for at Bola Rama, when I was having a perfectly perfect breakfast of a grilled cheese with bacon and tomato that was made on a bowling alley griddle. So, you know, it was good. And Bears wide receiver and kick returner Eddie Kenison, as I'm taking a bite of it, he said, man, that looks good. And he just took it. I. I took a bite. I was holding it here, and he pulled it out of my hand and ate it. And I. I've. I've never forgiven him. Find Eddie Kennison somewhere, Maddie, okay? Because I. That. That. That needs to be avenged by Grab Thar's hammer. You will be avenged. So do that. Find all that stuff. Find everything that you need. One last note. I brought this up on oti, which Matty says not to say. Don't call it that. Call it off the iv. I'm not supposed to call it. I know. Yeah. Off the IV is Chicago Cubs podcast. That's what I'm going to call it, because that's better that way. Thank you. And it has to do with Pete Crow, Armstrong, all the stuff we've been discussing and all the difficulties he's going through and how tough things must be for him right now. And, man, you said that you saw the video of how he talked about, and he was. He was. He didn't hide from Anybody last night? Yeah, I saw that he was, he was right there in the locker room laughing at himself. And it's got to be hard to do. He has to feel miserable. And he had to feel incredibly alone. After another error last night. A little League home run, a three run Little league home run because it went under his glove as he charged in. And he just flat missed it. He was in between. He missed it. I heard Craig counsel's explanation. Single E8, three runs. And a lot of. There's been a lot of speculation that his, that this. Well, he's unraveling and he's in his head because of the woman at this, at the Sox game, because of the Sox fan woman. That. That's it. That, that he, he, he unloaded on her. And that outburst after that, now, it broke him somehow. I don't believe that. But I'll tell you what I do believe, and this is based on personal experience. I do believe that perhaps his short fuse, perhaps a raw emotional nerve that that woman was able to touch, and that was her goal. She said that was. That was her stated goal, that she wanted to get to him. She did. But I think his reaction may be indicative of something larger. Leon is getting larger. It may be his. That he's. He's a little tightly wound right now or a little unhappy, a little troubled by things that are going on and he's under some pressure. And I say this from experience, knowing that I was the victim of bad judgment and a short fuse and a lack of awareness of my own mental health tension level. I want to be very clear that I don't want to diagnose anybody with anything. Anything. I can just speak from my experience that when you look back on certain behaviors and you see things that fit a pattern that maybe you didn't appreciate until afterward. Sometimes there are some signs there. Sometimes there are some things to say, oh, I wasn't myself for a while, or things. There was some aspect of my life that I wasn't controlling. Well, that was getting to me. For me, in large part of it, a big part of it was social media. And what I've talked about, and that is the dopamine outrage cycle. That's a real thing that can be exacerbated, especially by. By bad faith. Social media, like what used to be Twitter has become where it is. It is specifically algorithmically designed to exploit the dopamine outrage cycle. And it's bad for you, and it's insidious and it, it can cook your brain where you don't know what's happening until it's too late. Some of that stuff is real. And what happens to, to some brain chemistry and, and in the, in the dopamine outrage, very complicated stuff is, is very real and we all deal with it in one way or another. But that was just what I was wondering that, that maybe there are some other things that I hope the Cubs have in place that can say it wasn't causal, but it's all part of something else. And maybe the fact that it was that easy for her to get under his skin and we don't even know what else she said to him.
- [54:14]
D
Yeah, you know, I want to, I want to pause you there real quick too because I don't want to pin it all on his, his blowup at just that woman because. And two things very clear what you just said that we don't know all of what she said. And the second part is it wasn't just her. And he's on the, on deck circle hearing very vulgar and awful things about his mom being said to him. And that's gonna, that's gonna drive anyone to a certain breaking point to explode. So it wasn't because there's a lot of narrative on online, on social media, oh, this woman got to him. This woman got. It wasn't just her.
- [54:49]
B
Right.
- [54:50]
D
It wasn't only the things that she was saying. There were other aspects to it. Now it doesn't justify his behavior, his response at all. He shouldn't respond at all. And I hope he learns from this and, and moves forward in a different direction with a different response of just ignoring those idiots who can't do the very simple things that he can do. So ignore those people because they're not worth it. But it was more than just this woman getting after him that brought him to this point.
- [55:17]
B
Well said. And I think it is reasonable to look at some of these things that are occurring and think that maybe there are, there's, there's more of a global way of looking at his, his, the mental side of the game right now and how you approach it and, and look at things from a, from a larger drawn back focus than just the baseball and just this play or this ball or that just he needs to be in a headspace where he is capable of being himself. Well, it's hard. It's hard to do.
- [55:59]
D
I think he gave some insight last night too after the game when he said that he is just, he's pressing because of his lack of production and he's not performing at the plate like you want. So he's going to press. And when you press out in the field that you see result of, like, last night's game, I think he just needs to. It could be very as. As simple as I've gotten this contract. I know my future is just. Just relax, man. Relax and stick with your work. Now, one thing that is a positive is something that Alex Bregman said about PCA yesterday. He says, I've gained a lot of respect for pca. Being around him and watching him go about his work. I couldn't care less about the results. I care how he goes about his business, and he does it the right way.
- [56:44]
B
Well, that's a guy who knows that part of the game, right?
- [56:48]
D
And these guys are, you know, for the most part, are so mentally tough, and they understand the roller coaster that they're on. And, you know, I think when Pete said last night about pressing, it's like, dude, you got to stop. All you can do is your next at bat, your next play in the field, flush it when it doesn't go right, start over again at your next opportunity, you know, and it's. It's such a hard thing to do mentally. It's so hard. It's so hard to do.
- [57:15]
B
Yeah, he needs a break. He needs to go take. Take a walk.
- [57:18]
D
Today's a nice day off.
- [57:20]
B
Everybody else, enjoy the day off. Enjoy. Enjoy the day off.
- [57:22]
D
Caleb, go get some pizza, call Modest. Go watch some movies, play video games. Go hang out. Do something in Chicago and just get your mind off baseball for a bit and just chill.
- [57:33]
B
Good advice. I think we should all take that advice. Indeed. That will do it for Dan Bernstein. Unfiltered. Today we are brought to you in partnership with my bookie, Dan Bernstein. Unfiltered. Unfiltered. On three. One, two, Sports.