← The Dan Le Batard Show
The Dan Le Batard Show
Hour 2: A Rather Melancholy Footnote (feat. Jessica Smetana & Jemele Hill)
00:36:33
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A
Close your eyes. Exhale. Feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today.
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B
Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast.
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A
And breathe. Oh, sorry.
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B
I almost couldn't breathe when I saw
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A
the discount they gave me on my first order.
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B
Oh, sorry.
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A
Namaste.
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B
Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-contacts.
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A
This is the Dan Levator show with the Stugats podcast.
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C
Jessica is going to join us here in a little bit. Jamel Hill as well. We are going to try to not talk Bam with Jessica and Jamel. I will put a little bit of a ribbon on some of this with Bam Adebayo and how it's being received nationally and in Los Angeles. This is a tweet from Jorge Sedona in June of 2017.
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D
Yo, how many times I got to tell you.
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C
According to scouting reports, Adebayo is said to project to be a poor man's Tristan Thompson. And now he is the record. Or he's not even the record holder. That wilt is at 100. This is a, this is an unusual thing. Second place usually isn't. Second place by 17 points isn't usually celebrated this way. Or making people in Los Angeles sad. The Lakers last night. There was a fun basketball night last night. If you're watching Boston and the Spurs, Wemby goes crazy against Boston. Jalen Brown is ejected in a way that you really shouldn't be ejecting him.
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E
I mean, he got pushed like he obviously got pushed and they called the other way.
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F
He went out of bounds. He went nuts. The other team, the other guy gave him a tech.
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C
But it was shocking though. The Lakers juju told us recently that the Lakers stink with a capital H. And they don't actually stink. They're about 10 games over.500 and they're a little bit confusing. They do stink at defense, but they beat Minnesota last night. And during the game, the public address announcer for the Lakers announced Bam Adebayo's record setting night. This way, ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. This evening a rather melancholy footnote in NBA history occurred. Miami beat Washington 150, 120. Miami forward Bam Adebayo scored 83 points.
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D
Get the hell out of here, losers.
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C
That's shocking.
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D
That's real.
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C
A rather melancholy footnote is how BAM83 points.
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E
Melancholy footnote. That's crazy.
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C
Bam said after the game. That. That's the best he's ever felt after a game. And it is a rather melancholy footnote in Los Angeles. That's sh.
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E
Man, just the quickest thing on how this could possibly be melancholy because Bam Adebayo is a guy who, when at Kentucky, would stay late after practice. And John Calipari said that he would. He would go up to him and be like, why are you still here in the gym? And what Bam would do is just turn his phone where his phone background was the trailer that he and his mom grew up in. And when he got his first big contract, he bought his mom a house. She was there last night. Asia Wilson was there last night. A fellow record holder. This was anything but melancholy. What a cool moment for them to shit on.
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D
Kobe didn't have the record. He was second.
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C
A rather melancholy footnote. Jessica joins us now, and we are going to change the subject matter around here because we've been talking about this Bam thing for three hours. But before we get into the meat of some sports topics, Zaslo is out on Quentin Tarantino now.
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D
Well, no, not out. No, not out. But I do have thoughts on.
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C
Well, yeah, I mean, I say you're out because you won't watch Django Unchained. You won't watch it again. You're. That's out.
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D
We represented his feelings accurately.
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A
So.
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D
So Quentin Tarantino, I, you know, has been getting for years, gets, like, very famously, a long time ago, Spike Lee, like, took him to task on his use of the N word in his movies, and he writes the N word into his script many, many times, says
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C
it himself when he puts himself in his movies, is very comfortable as a white man using that word and has defended it at every turn.
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D
I mean, that scene, like his scene in Pulp Fiction, which is my favorite movie, his scene in Pulp Fiction is hilarious and also really over the top with the use of the N word.
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E
Okay.
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D
As are some scenes in a lot of his movies. I will tell you that Django Unchained, which obviously is the N word a lot and is like, you know, we're dealing with slavery here and has some rough scenes. He's my favorite director. His movies are my favorite. But I will tell you, I've seen. I've seen Django Unchained. It's a really good movie. I've never watched it again. Like, every time that I pass by it on television and I'll see it for a few minutes. Like, this movie's kind of a tough watch, you know, and not just because of the N word. Like, it's a little bit rough to watch. So the most recent, I guess, actress to come out and be critical of Quentin Tarantino here is Rosanna Arquette, who worked with him in Pulp Fiction. All right, and so Roseanne Arquette, you all remember, was Eric Stoltz. He was the drug dealer. She was his girlfriend. All right? And very famously, in the scene with the od, adrenaline shot with Uma Thurman. And Rosanna Arquette, in a magazine piece about her career, talked about Quentin Tarantino saying, quote, personally, I'm over the use of the N word. I hate it. I cannot stand that Tarantino has been given a hall pass. It's not art. It's just racist and creepy. And so obviously Quentin Tarantino is going to respond to that. And he writes, dear Rosanna, I hope the publicity you're getting from 132 different media outlets, writing your name and printing your picture was worth disrespecting me and a film I remember quite clearly you were thrilled to be a part of. Do you feel this way now? Very possibly. But after I gave you a job and you took the money to trash it for what I suspect is very cynical reasons shows a decided lack of class, no less honor. There is supposed to be an esprit decor between artistic colleagues, but it would appear the objective was accomplished. Congratulations.
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C
Q. Jessica smiling because of how you just pronounced spree decor. I can see her face.
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B
Dan, that's not fair.
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C
Is it wrong, though? It might not be fair, but it's not wrong. What are your thoughts on everything that he said there, Jessica?
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B
I mean, I think she's entitled to change her opinion over the span of, what, 30 years since the movie came out. And I think that her criticism, like you mentioned, is something that has been said many, many times about him. And creepy and racist is. Yeah, I mean, that's certainly things that
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C
people have called him before, not just creepy and racist. Also affiliated with Harvey Weinstein in a way that hasn't blown back on him the way you think it might. And look, man, his arrogance is earned. He makes great films, but he care buries himself as if he knows that he makes great films and he's untouchable because he's doing something there that no one else is doing. No one else is comfortable doing that in 2026. No white man is comfortable doing that.
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B
There's been a lot of controversy this week regarding the movies. Dan, I know that the Oscars are coming up this weekend. There's been several just bad PR moments. So I Would like to take this time to transition to one of my favorite controversies of the week, which was something to the Chalamet said in an interview with Matthew McConaughey. Have you seen any of the blowback to Timmy Chalamet's comments to Matthew McConaughey? I think we might have. Roy. Do we have the clip?
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G
Yes, we do. And I don't want to be working
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D
in ballet or opera or, you know,
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G
things where it's like, hey, keep this
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C
thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore. All respect to the ballet and opera people out there, I just lost 14 cents in viewership, but damn, I just
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G
took shots for no reason.
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D
That's not a shot. I hear what you're saying.
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A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So sorry.
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B
Tried to save it there with the little operatic note at the end, Dan. But this clip went platinum viral on the Internet. And the opera and ballet communities were so mad because in this clip, it appears as though out of nowhere, Timothee Chalamet is taking a shot at ballet and opera for not being relevant in the mainstream. And he has been just. People are very, very upset at Timothee Chalamet. So I was like, that's interesting. I would consider myself a fan of Timothee Chalamet. I'm gonna watch this interview. I would also consider myself a fan of Matthew McConaughey and especially the film Interstellar, which is what they spent a lot of this interview talking about, Dan. So I watched this entire hour long interview with Timothee Chalamet, and, man, it's not that it got taken out of context, but it's. It's almost as if, like, no one who reacted to it cared at all why he brought up ballet and opera and what he was trying to say. What they were talking about was that the younger generation, apparently directors, are making films where there's a shorter first act and they want more action sequences earlier in the films to capture people's attention. And he was sort of talking about that, and they were kind of talking back and forth about that, and he was saying that he doesn't. He wants to younger people to go to the movies, and he doesn't want the movies to become like ballet and opera, where they're not part of the mainstream. And you have to beg people to go see your movies because they're only watching, like, short form videos and things that capture their attention. So the other, you know, I understand he probably shouldn't have used that as an example because it was kind of mean and dismissive. But the Other side of that, Dan, is like, I don't watch the ballet or the opera, so I can't sit here and be like, well, he's an asshole and he's wrong. Because I would have to agree. It's not like a mainstream form of art anymore like it used to be.
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D
But based on what he said there to Anthony Chalamet, like, do we take into consideration at all that opera sucks?
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C
No, it's not surprising.
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B
Okay? That was way meaner than anything.
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C
It's not surprising that people who love opera and ballet would be defensive and protective of opera and ballet. The more interesting thing to me is, doesn't Chalamet, in these times that we're in where no one gets to be universal, universally popular, and everyone is polarizing. He never has bad public moments, does he?
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E
He's a bit. It almost feels like overexp exposed here. Right, Jess? Where it's like he's been talking and talking and talking and talking and was eventually bound to put his foot in his mouth. I mean, he's doing podcast. He's doing podcasts about putting his foot
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F
in his mouth about.
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E
Well, what I was gonna say 1837. But you're proving my point, which is that, like, if this is the worst thing that's been said, if this is the big controversy, you're doing a pretty good job. If, when you're going on podcasts with LeBron and Steve Nash and Break It Down Ball or Carmelo and doing that as well, like, the. He is everywhere right now. And this wasn't really intended to be a shot at the art form. It was like, hey, I don't want to have to put the whole team on my back to get everybody to the movies. We need to be able to create stuff that gets kids to the movies. Right, Jess?
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B
I think it's also. It kind of proves his point because I think it's way easier for people to see the 30 second clip and have a really strong reaction to it because it was mean and dismissive. And he shouldn't have said, like, no one cares about this. I would argue that, like, fewer people care about ballet and opera than, you know, cinema and film and movies. And that was kind of what his point was. But it's a lot harder to, like, sit down and watch a full hour long interview and actually get a sense for what the context was, Which I really. I think it kind of proves his point that, like, our attention spans kind of suck right now. And so, like, people just want to watch short videos and get outraged by them. Without taking the time to actually read what the conversation was about in the first place.
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C
Mike Ryan came in here crushed today because Stanford lost to Pitt in the ACC tournament, which has now begun in on both sides, women and men. Your thoughts? The most interesting things you've seen so far, not that there have been that many. As March Madness gets ready to start trembling.
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B
First of all, the ACC tournament is so funny, Dan, because only three teams don't make the ACC tournament because the ACC is too big for every team to make it now. And yes, Notre Dame was one of those teams. I don't know how Pitt made it. Well, I do know, because they beat Notre Dame like two weeks ago and Pitt is a terrible basketball team, but good for them. Gotta, gotta win. But the most interesting thing happened during the game, which was that some random fan was loudly and obnoxiously singing the Goo Goo Dolls during the game.
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C
Held to three in the first half, B was minor. Second A, Corey hits the free throw despite the presence of the really loud guys singing the Goo Goo Dolls behind us. Not sure how that didn't throw him off. This is some list to be on.
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G
Duke, Duke and Duke. Freshman 30.
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C
Mike loves a quarry. That's all. Mike. Mike was just staring at a quarry and talking about the 7:30 point game.
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G
Yeah, I regret not having the sound on for that game as I was dialed into it, just standing up to a second TV because let's say what needs to be said. Goo Goo Dolls. Iris banger. That's great. More of that. More people randomly singing at the 12 o' clock tip off games of conference tournaments.
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D
It's a great guitar riff. You know, the bridge.
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G
And Zaz, thank you for your bravery. Somebody with the guts to say the ballet and opera, not their thing.
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C
Oldies. Oldies.
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B
That's definitely an oldie.
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F
Not even oldies. Ancient.
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C
Ancient. So Goo Goo Dolls. So you guys are putting oldies. Goo Goo Dolls, Jay Z, you're putting them in the Frank Sinatra crooners class. Yes, the big band class. If. If those are oldies, what are songs from the 1950s?
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G
If.
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C
Dinosaurs. Moldies.
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G
Yeah, I mean,
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C
Jessica, what were your thoughts on the NBA turning around and canceling Magic City Night because of the public pressure? And I'm going to say it's just the sponsors because of the sponsor pressure.
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B
First of all, did you guys see what Asia Wilson's boyfriend did last night?
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C
Yeah, we're not talking about.
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E
Thank you very much.
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B
Yeah, Dan, I was, I was, I guess, not surprised that they canceled Magic City Night, but maybe a little bit surprised. And I read A really good interview with a woman who works for a, like, workers rights group for strippers and dancers and entertainers. And she was like, basically saying, I wish I remembered what outlet it was in. But it was a good interview. And people should. People should read it if they can find it out there, but they're not
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C
going to be able to find it based on the way you got Women's worker for strippers.
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A
Search strippers.
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C
See how that goes for I'll find it.
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B
I bookmarked it. Anyways. She was like, you know, pushing dancers and entertainers and strippers into the margins is not actually looking out for us, Luke Cornett. And I'm paraphrasing there, and I thought that that was very well said because there's been a lot of conversation about this whole promotion, and most of it has just been from the perspective of, you know, basketball players and media people like me and you guys, and not from the actual women who work at Magic City who thought that this was kind of a bummer.
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C
Check out her weekly Notre Dame podcast, the echo Mike Golick Jr. Yes. This is not, not, not an echo chamber. The Echoes with Mike Golick Jr. Jessica, thank you. Good seeing you. Appreciate the time.
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B
Bye.
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C
Not enough bam out of bio talk with her.
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E
There will be none nearly enough bam out of bio talk on this show today, Dan. Not nearly enough.
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C
There will be none of that with Jamel Hill. Maybe there will be some of it with Juju Gotti. But I am making this a Bam Adebayo free zone with Jamel Hill.
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G
Next quick break to tell you about a special Miller time I had with my good buddy Mochetta. Mochetta texted me the other day. He said, hey, what are you doing for the game? I said, I'm just on my couch right now doing nothing, enjoying it. He's like, hey, do you want some company? I said, from you, Mochetta? Absolutely. Mochetta comes over to the house and I pull out the Miller Light. Miller Lite made that casual hang. A memorable good Miller time with my good friend Mochetta. Because Miller Lite brought us together. We took that first sip after we toasted our beers, and we knew we made the right call. We watched a game. All of a sudden, we're standing up on our feet, Big threes are being drained and white cans are being clanged. See, times like these, that's exactly why Miller Lite is my go to clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients. The original light beer since 1975. And it still hits different for yours truly and his good friend Mo Chedda. Cheers to legendary moments made with Miller Lite. Great taste. 96 calories. Go to millerlight.com dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Co. Milwaukee, WI 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.
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F
This episode is sponsored by Better Help. March is one of those months where we talk about celebrating women. And it's very, very deserved. Because when you actually look around, a lot of women in our lives are carrying a ton work, family, relationships, expectations nobody notices or sees. I start thinking about the women around me. My wife, my mom, my sister, my friends, my co workers, people who somehow take care of everybody else while still trying to hold it together themselves. And it's a ton to carry. Therapy can be a place to put some of that weight down. It can help you figure out what's yours, what isn't, and how to set better boundaries so you're not running on empty all the time. BetterHelp works with fully licensed therapists in the US and they handle the matching process for you. You fill out a short questionnaire and if your therapist isn't the right fit, you can switch at any time. With more than 30,000 therapists and over 6 million people served, it's the world's largest online therapy platform with an average of 4.9 out of 5 session ratings. Your emotional well being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com DLB that's betterhelp H-E-L-P.com DLB love
- [18:33]
A
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B
Zinn After Dark Bring on the Night.
- [18:58]
A
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D
Don Lebatard I don't think I ever
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A
got that many roses in my whole life. Stugats Certainly not from your lovely grandfather. God, may his soul rest in peace.
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D
This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugach.
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C
Walk me through what you found most interesting about the Atlanta Hawks having a magic city night. Trying to frame it as this is about chicken wings and cultural identity. An iconic establishment in Atlanta. Luke Cornett objects to it and soon after sponsors object to it, and then the NBA ends up canceling the night. What did you find interesting there?
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A
What I found interesting, and I will be totally honest, I say this as somebody who has thrown plenty of money up in Magic City. In fact, the last time I went, I think me and my husband went, it was New Year's Eve. We went to Magic City and had a blast. What was most interesting to me, notice most of the objections weren't from women. They were from men. And this really surprised me. And I think a lot of it is the fact that we don't put Magic City, culturally, or even from just a pure strip club standpoint in the same category as other strip clubs. I mean, you all have something pretty similar in King of Diamond, even though King of Diamonds. Even though I would say King of Diamonds is not. Not necessarily the same cultural fixture that Magic City is in Atlanta. Now, I'm probably pretty biased because last summer in Miami, I hosted a panel that was about Magic City, the docu series that's on stars, which is very good and really takes you inside how this club became such a cultural fixture in the city. Could every city get away with a Magic City night, something after a famous strip club? No, but I think Atlanta could have pulled it off. But it was really interesting to me that most of the objections were coming from men and not from women.
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C
I'm gonna make you feel even older. King of Diamonds is now a Cadillac dealership.
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A
I know you lying.
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C
What?
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G
It had a run.
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A
What is happening to my youth?
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G
It had a run.
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A
What is happening to. It did.
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G
It was a short run, though. It was really. In retrospect, a star streaking across the sky does not have the kind of legacy that tootsies would say,
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A
gee, this is. This is an all around depressing conversation. Thanks, Dan. The other thing I will say just really quickly about Magic City is, you know, people raise their eyebrows when I say this, but it's true. The reason women enjoy strip clubs is it's the safest place for a woman to be. You can get good food, you can get great music. You can see women who are very athletic dance and have conversations with them. And the men leave you alone because you're not the naked ones. So it's like the best place. You get all the things that you want to enjoy about a nightclub experience without being hassled by men all night.
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C
I'm serious when I ask this question. In Atlanta, what is a bigger cultural fixture, as you say, Magic City or the Atlanta Hawks themselves?
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A
Magic City. I don't know if I have the right to say that as somebody who's not from Atlanta. But while certainly the Hawks have had their moments, obviously the Dominique Wilkins error is a pretty big one in Atlanta Hawks lore. But I'll put it this way. If one of those institutions left, which one would people be more heartbroken about? And I would argue it might be Magic City.
- [22:50]
C
You and Ryan Clark spoke to writer Ellen Briggs recently about this extremely dangerous trend you both have faced and countless others in sports media have faced of having fake quotes attributed to you and then going viral. How often are you experiencing this and how bad is it?
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A
It's pretty bad. And I would say, and I'm probably being conservative by saying at least monthly, and I just don't. I understand how people are able to get away with it because once most of the social media platforms, if not pretty much all of them, dropped any kind of safeguards around false information and vetting that out, and not that what they had in place was perfect, but at least it was something. But once they decided to drop all, all kind of, you know, these safeguards and guardrails about, you know, profiting off of false information, it has led to not just me and Ryan Clark, but I'll just say people that they know will create a reaction, and especially if it involves race or gender. Like the number of fake quotes I see supposedly coming from Angel Reese is astonishing. And that's because for she's polarizing in many ways through no fault of her own. So we know, based off research that the people most abused on social media are women. We also know black women are right there, maybe even higher than just women overall, just black women in general. And so if you could take somebody like me who often speaks about racial and social issues and you could throw my face on a pretty looking postcard and a pretty looking graphic and have a quote that's totally made up, the engagement goes through the roof. And I have had to encounter this at least five times. And I don't know even what else is circulating, but I just know that when the vitriol shows up in my inbox, something somewhere has contributed to that. And probably like maybe one of the worst cases is when speaking to Angel Reese, they found a way to put us together, like combining their polarizing Voltron to get maximum engagement. And there was this fake quote that was circulating that said that Angel Reese is the Michael Jordan of the wnba, something I've never come close to remotely saying. And the level of vitriol that that generated, I mean, I honestly hadn't been called the N word that many times since I said what I said about Donald Trump. That's how bad it was. And I'm just like, it really blew my mind because let's just say in some crazy universe, I did say that it's still a basketball opinion, certainly nothing worthy of me receiving that kind of very dangerous and horrible feedback. And so it's been a real problem. I've been threatened many times because of these fake quotes, and I just wonder what the legal recourse is for myself, for others who have had to endure this because it's not right, and then they're able to profit off of it. And I don't know if it's bot farms. I think according to the article, you know, a lot of these sort of mechanisms are operating overseas, and they're just doing it for clickbait and engagement and monetization. And it's it's really, really horrible.
- [26:22]
F
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- [26:48]
D
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- [27:13]
G
clocks, big shots, upsets aces TGL playoffs are here. First Atlanta drive starts their repeat run against Los Angeles Golf Club. Then Rory's Boston Common Golf and Tigers Jupiter Links face off in their playoff debuts. Who will Advance? Keep up it's playoffs. Tune in Tuesday, March 17th at 6:30pm and 9:00pm only on ESPN and the ESPN app.
- [27:34]
D
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- [28:03]
G
Don LeBatard are the stakes that high that if Angel Reese loses to Caitlin Clark, you need to start over again as a race? Stugats.
- [28:13]
A
I don't know that we have to necessarily start over, but it might have to be. It will be a black people's meeting, an important one that will be called the next day. We. But we might have to put some things on the agenda and get it on the table.
- [28:24]
D
This is the Dan Levatar show with the stugats.
- [28:34]
C
You and I have talked on south beach sessions and elsewhere about you being in the office of John Skipper after a controversy that now seems quaint instead of poisonous. The idea that not that long ago you were calling Donald Trump a white supremacist, and now all of a sudden we see everything that's happening. You were crying in Skipper's office. If I had showed up next to you at that moment and said, here's where we're going to be in America in 2026, and it looks like it presently looks right now, would you have believed that things would have gotten this crazy?
- [29:16]
A
No. And I often have said to people that it's the one. It's, it's a time where I wish I would have been proven wrong, where I wish, you know, a year later or three years later or five years later, people would have looked back, look back at what I said or, you know, said, hey, remember when you said this? And it's, he's totally not that way. This is completely different. And I just would have had to wear a little egg on my face. As opposed to us being in this very dangerous moment, being led by somebody who is a danger to a lot of people's existence and frankly, to this country. And so I've never wanted to be more wrong about somebody than I was about Donald Trump. But even in my wildest imagination, I didn't imagine this. And the only reason I didn't imagine it getting to this level is because despite who he has surrounded himself with, and we saw this in the first term, is that while I had similar thoughts about the people he surrounded himself with, these are people who sort of grew up in government and believed in the functioning of government, the people around him now don't believe in that. They want not just chaos, but they want to break government. They want to completely break people's faith, faith in the institutions. And what it has exposed is that for a long period of time, maybe throughout our entire history, we have operated as if these institutions that we revere and learn about in our history books were simply going to be able to stand for themselves. Well, democracy is only worth it if the people actually defend it. The Supreme Court only means something if somebody is actually willing to defend it. The three branches of government only mean something if someone is actually willing to enforce it. And so what we have seen is not just his behavior showcasing our weakest and most vulnerable points as a nation. We've also seen that the political cowardice really runs amok throughout our government to where even the people that say they want to protect these institutions actually really don't. And so it just really teaches you how much people will lean into the most grossest things in order to have comfort.
- [31:42]
C
You mentioned Angel Reese, you've covered a lot of work stoppages in your time as a journalist. What do you think is going to happen with the WNBA negotiations?
- [31:51]
A
I always believe that a deal will get done. 11:59 59. I don't know what the back and forth is like at this point point. And I know for a lot of people they are, you know, thinking this will be a doomsday scenario because the players are pretty dug in. But I think a deal still will be done and I think the season will start on time. It will be rushed, a lot of it will be thrown together. It'll be kind of chaotic. But I think both parties realize even though the players, they have a, you know, they, they went through, I think it was a few months ago where they, you know, they pre authorized the strike, which over 90% of the players were in favor of. If it got to a point where they didn't get some of the things that they, they want to get. And I know some of that has changed a little bit because they're sort of concerned and there's anxiety there. And it's anxiety that I believe that the league purposely created. I mean, we had Neko Ogumike, who's the president of the Players association, on, on flagrant and funny. And you know, they gave the league a proposal, a counter proposal, and the league sat on it for six weeks. And I think they did that. I agree with Neca that they did that on purpose so that the players would then start to second guess what they were standing for. I mean, everything I've seen has played out in so many labor negotiations in the past where the goal of the league is to break the union. And by break the union, meaning, create enough anxiety so that the things that they need to stand and hold firm on so they'll back off those things and just basically creating division and friction. And so hopefully the players don't go for it, because this CBA could really set the table for the future generations of the WNBA. We see the money coming in. It's $2.2 billion media rights deal. They have multiple franchises now that are valued at over $300 million. I mean, the Valkyries, they just started two years ago, and that franchise is already valued at 500 million. The New York Liberty, valued at over $400 million. The players see this, okay? And so they know if they don't stand firm on certain things, they'll never get them in the future. It'll always be weight. And I think as the money is coming in, as they're building the business business, they deserve to reap the rewards of building that business. Especially when you consider how many L's they've taken to get to this point of having some kind of leverage in the negotiations.
- [34:24]
C
You are a biased homer on behalf of Michigan State. Certainly you cannot defend Jeremy Fears out here kicking people in the junk.
- [34:35]
A
I can't defend it. I was watching the game live. Then I will say live. It didn't look like that. And sometimes. Sometimes slow mo can sort of cast a different perspective on things. Look, Jeremy Fears. You are defending it very.
- [34:54]
C
You're defending it.
- [34:55]
A
I'm not defending it.
- [34:56]
G
You're defending it.
- [34:56]
A
I'm not defending it. I'm just saying that it didn't look that way. Live on the slow Mo. I understand. But here's the thing. Jeremy Fierce is a hard competitor. And I know that people will probably look at the fact that Draymond also went to Michigan State and tried to draw some kind of correlation and say, oh, is this the kind of player that Michigan State produces? I will say this as an unabashed homer of my university. You talk to any coach, they would much rather have to tell you to take the edge off than have to teach you how to have edge, because they feel like you. They can't teach you how to have edge and play with a certain type of grit. I do think that the complaints from Michigan, our rival, now that they had from the previous matchup that was in East Lansing, were overblown and a little whiny. And now that that put a target on Jeremy's back to some degree. And I thought that was wholly unfair. But I understand why people have a Problem with it. Had no problem with the call that was made. I think Jeremy is a really excellent player. He's got a competitive edge and he's got a nasty streak. And he's just got to learn as he matures how to get a better handle on that.
- [36:12]
C
Stop kicking people in the junk. That's what he's got to learn because he's a serial offender.
- [36:18]
A
If you watched it live, you would have never thought that. You would have never thought this.
- [36:22]
C
Not his first time doing it.
- [36:23]
G
I mean, it kind of looked like one of those old school Ric Flair ones where it's just like he's facing the referee and then a leg goes.
- [36:29]
C
It wasn't the first time he's done it.
- [36:30]
A
No, it wasn't the first time. He is. He. He. He has created a lack of doubt. I understand this. That people look at the reputation. They say, of course, that's exactly what he intended and wanted to do. And I, I don't know if he did, but I know that his reputation isn't going to do him any favors.
- [36:51]
C
Hold on.
- [36:52]
A
To some degree that's undeserved.
- [36:53]
C
All right, hold on a second. We've got a, A, A list here. A top five list. Top five, Jeremy Fears. Are you ready? Go ahead. Number five.
- [37:02]
E
My top five, Jeremy.
- [37:04]
C
We got it. I already. Number five. I already said that. Number four.
- [37:08]
E
A baseball lockout.
- [37:10]
C
Number three.
- [37:10]
E
My wife realizing she's so much better than me. Number two, Dan.
- [37:15]
G
Number one, Lee being removed from streaming services.
- [37:19]
C
You could watch new episodes of Flagrant and Funny with Jamel and her longtime friend Carrie Champion, as I mentioned. And it's Jamel Hill on YouTube politics on her YouTube channel. The YouTube channel is. It's Jamel Hill. Always nice seeing you, Jamel. Thank you.
- [37:36]
A
All right. Good to see you guys.