LeBron James: Cleveland Or Miami? | Hour 1

Summary

The Dan Le Batard Show: "LeBron James: Cleveland Or Miami?" | Hour 1

Date: July 6, 2026
Location: Live from the Elser Hotel, Downtown Miami
Host(s): Dan Le Batard, Ethan Skolnick, Mike Ryan, Jeremy, Chris, Jonathan Sasslo

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Episode Overview

This hour of The Dan Le Batard Show focuses on the major NBA free agency storyline surrounding LeBron James—will he choose Cleveland or Miami for the twilight of his career? The crew dives into the media circus created by Rich Paul, LeBron’s agent, and the performative elements swirling around LeBron’s impending decision. Interwoven throughout are reflective discussions about player empowerment, team management styles, and legacy in the NBA, complemented with pop culture references and digressions into ongoing sports headlines like Jaylen Brown’s recent media scrutiny and Euro football drama.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jaylen Brown and the Media’s Portrayal

• Smear Campaign Concerns: Dan rails against how Jaylen Brown has been criticized, especially by Colin Cowherd referring to Brown as having the “disease” of thinking he’s the smartest in the room (07:11).
• Smart Athlete Stereotypes: Dan objects to dismissing athletes as “dumb”, noting:

  “Generally speaking, when you’re good enough to be better than the top 1% of the top 1% at something, you have an intelligence for that.” (08:00)

• Reputation & Value Debates: Ethan Skolnick emphasizes that the negative press around Jaylen is being driven more by his perceived trade value than any real behavioral issues (09:06).
• Social Dynamics: The show compares Jaylen’s dynamic to Aaron Rodgers, stating both are being scrutinized for simply defending themselves or being outspoken (11:00).

Notable Quotes

• Dan Le Batard:

  “Jaylen Brown now has a negative connotation he does not deserve. … This is a smart human being, and he’s getting dragged in a way that’s just not reasonable.” (08:33)

• Jeremy:

  “There’s so many different forms of intelligence. … In sports … the bar isn’t that high.” (07:11)

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2. The LeBron Sweepstakes: Cleveland vs. Miami

• Theatrics & Legacy:
  LeBron’s pending free agency is discussed in the light of spectacle: “...at this point in his career…he really cares about being the story and having the punctuation be the nice story.” (24:00)
• Return Scenarios: Dan believes Cleveland is the likely fit for the poetic ending, even if it's “not an imperfect fit,” and that Miami, for many reasons, is much less probable (25:06).
• Behind the Scenes—Power Dynamics: There’s deep reflection on how LeBron’s experience in Miami (more control and structure) differs from Cleveland and LA (“He gets his run of the place” in Cleveland) (29:00–32:00).

Notable Quotes

• Dan Le Batard:

  "I’d personally be stunned if he goes to anywhere but Cleveland, because I think that that is clearly the best story." (24:59)

• Dan Le Batard:

  “He comes here, he’s behind Giannis. … He’s already done this for Dwyane Wade in Miami … but if Miami’s interested … he doesn’t want to sign up for something that is a less good story and comes with a whole lot more rules.” (32:19–34:59)

• Mike Ryan on basketball fit:

  “Here, LeBron James would be the point guard … in Cleveland, he does get his run of the place...” (31:02–31:38)

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3. The Max Kellerman and Rich Paul ‘Whiteboard’ Segment

• Show’s Influence on the Discourse: The crew pokes fun at their own influence, claiming Rich Paul and Max Kellerman copied their “whiteboard” concept to visualize potential LeBron destinations (23:31).
• Breakdown of ‘Serious’ Contenders: They analyze the teams listed by Rich Paul, with emphasis on how only Cleveland (and to some extent Miami) are truly viable.
• Comic Observations: The crew hilariously critiques the randomness of ‘pros’ listed (e.g., “oil” for Dallas), and the whiteboard’s limted substance.

Notable Quotes

• Chris:

  “Rich Paul stole our idea … Boom, you got LeBron in the middle with the lines. The same exact thing Jeremy did.” (23:31)

• Mike Ryan:

  “If you look over at the Dallas Mavericks, it just says oil, which is just a remarkable thing to have as a pro on the periphery.” (24:37)

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4. Reflections on LeBron, Pat Riley, and Team Culture

• Miami’s Reluctance to Relinquish Control:
  The Heat’s management style—and Riley’s tight hold on team culture—remains unchanged. Dan: “Pat Riley’s changed. No, he hasn’t.” (32:32)
• LeBron’s Legacy and Appetite for Control:
  The panel discusses whether LeBron would willingly give up the autonomy he’s had in his later career for Miami’s controlled environment, compared to the freedom in Cleveland.
• Team-building Lessons:
  Dan points out that in Miami, LeBron saw player development done better than in Cleveland or LA, but also that LeBron “had to leave because his only experiences were Cleveland and Miami” (29:59).

Notable Quotes

• Dan Le Batard:

  "There are things here [in Miami] that he would have to sacrifice that he does not have to sacrifice in Cleveland." (33:15)

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5. Other Sports and Pop Culture Moments

• Quick World Cup Reaction:
  The crew comments on England’s resilient win over Mexico at Azteca, the rarity and grit of the event, and the emotional interviews afterward.
  • Notable England quote (Harry Kane, 42:03):

    “It was a crazy game. We had to fight, we had to find something. What, all the occasion, the team, everything against us, we found a way.”

• Recurring Segments and Banter:
  As ever, the show features friendly ribbing, Miami and pop culture shout-outs (e.g., imaginary Oprah run-ins, Miller Lite ad jokes), and references to previous show bits.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Jaylen Brown’s intelligence perceptions (07:11):
  “I never told anybody, like, look, I’m the smartest person in the room…in sports…the bar isn’t that high.” – Jeremy reading Jaylen Brown’s response.

• On LeBron’s pending decision (25:06):
  “LeBron James as the oldest player in the league…Still having the attention currency that makes it so that most people are going to get the alerts on their phone and go to their friends and say, hey, LeBron is going here. Can you believe it?” – Dan

• On team control in Miami (32:32): “Pat Riley’s changed. No, he hasn’t. No, he has not. And so that rules us out.” – Dan

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Jaylen Brown Media Discourse: 04:54–16:51
• LeBron Free Agency—Rich Paul’s Whiteboard & Showdown: 23:31–27:59
• Miami vs. Cleveland Fit—Power Dynamics & Control: 29:00–35:00
• World Cup Reaction (England vs. Mexico): 39:32–43:04

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Summary Flow

The hour starts with wide-ranging commentary on athlete perception, focusing first on Jaylen Brown’s rocky reputation and the underpinnings of media narratives about intelligence in sports. The heart of the episode is an in-depth, often satirical, discussion of LeBron James’ free agency, the motivations and optics behind his options, and the machinations of NBA player empowerment led by agents like Rich Paul. The show’s cast lampoons the copycat nature of broadcast media—particularly the “whiteboard” trope—before digging into the underappreciated complexities of team management styles and legacies. The episode wraps with a lively take on the grueling soccer showdown at Azteca, showing the show’s seamless ability to weave between sports, culture, and comedy.

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Bottom Line:
This episode encapsulates Le Batard’s signature blend: sharp and fair sports analysis, irreverent humor, cultural awareness, and a keen eye for the story behind the story—whether it’s LeBron James’ next chapter or the way we view athletes’ intelligence and agency.

Transcript

[Dan Le Batard]

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[Mike Ryan]

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[Dan Le Batard]

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[Mike Ryan]

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[Dan Le Batard]

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[Jonathan Sasslo]

You are listening to the Dan LeBatard

[Jeremy]

show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App.

[Jonathan Sasslo]

Now live in all 50 states,

[Dan Le Batard]

This

[Ethan Skolnick]

episode of the Dan LeBatard show is presented by DraftKings Sports. DraftKings the Crown is yours.

[Dan Le Batard]

I have asked Pat Riley and Alex Rodriguez about this and they both deny it. I have been told that both of them are the only people who have Armada privileges that allow them to walk into any Armani store in the world and grab what they want because of the kind of customer they've been. When I tell you that the goalie, the 40 year old goalie of Cape Verde ends up getting lifetime accommodations in his country, what does that look like exactly? Like, is there a card? Do all the hotels know about this? How do you imagine the execution of this goes where they're able, where he's able to get lifetime accommodations for free anytime he wants to stay anywhere. And if you had that, would you just not pop in every once in a while to a hotel and just take a quick shower and use the room without paying and just leave? Because it's closer than your house and you can just use. You can use the entire country as if it is your home.

[Ethan Skolnick]

Okay, so the question you're asking isn't does everybody know it's him? It's how does everybody know that this is allowed?

[Dan Le Batard]

Well, is every person who owns an establishment that usually charges to have people stay there, do they all know that they have to give it to him for free? Or is there a card involved? Or is like I've told You the story before, okay, there was a Guns N Roses was beginning its reunion tour, and I was with Carrot Top, and he's like, do you want to go? And I'm like, well, I don't have. We don't have tickets. We don't have parking. Like, what. How do we. How do we do it? And he just does this where he circles his face. And then sure enough, he pulls in and he just puts his window down. And all the doors and gates in Las Vegas open everywhere he goes, because his face is the ID in Vegas. He's been playing in Vegas for so long. I'm. I'm really asking you guys about practically. And we'll get to the games in a second because there's a lot of good World cup stuff to talk about, and I want to talk about all of it before we get to what is obviously the biggest game in more than 20 years. But we only have drunken Cody imaging saying two decades worth of drunken. Biggest game.

[Ethan Skolnick]

Biggest game in 20 years.

[Dan Le Batard]

You imagine that looks how lifetime free accommodations in your country seems like you

[Chris]

want a real answer here, so I'm going to give it to you. I would.

[Jeremy]

You don't know Cabo Verde logistics.

[Chris]

I would guess that it's some government worker that is now like his person. So anytime he wants to do something, he reaches out to this government person and this government person will just happen. That's reach out to the hotel, wherever you want to go, how many nights, how many you want. Four rooms. All right. Your limits.

[Dan Le Batard]

Two.

[Chris]

Unless you're going to a cheaper place. Then we can get you three.

[Jeremy]

Dismiss it. Say it's not good enough.

[Dan Le Batard]

I like it. Good choice. Excellent work by you, Chris. Before we get to the World cup stuff, though, there are three basketball things that I want to tackle with you guys. The first, Jalen Brunson's dad, Rick Brunson, says that the greatest Knick of all time is Patrick Ewing. Still. And I say that's not true. I say that he is wrong. And the reason that he's wrong is when you average in the playoffs as 30, when you average 30 and then close it out with 45 and win the championship, that makes you golden forever. I think that's where he passes Patrick Ewing, who never won a title. Your thoughts are what they're.

[Ethan Skolnick]

My thoughts are he agrees with you and he cannot actually say with other people listening that his son is the greatest Knick ever.

[Dan Le Batard]

Put it on the poll at Lebatar, Joe. Jalen Brunson averaging 30 and scoring 45 in a clincher. Greatest Knick ever, yes or no? I want to get to LeBron in a second, but I want to. One thing that I didn't mention last week because of just the nature of how stunning the Jaylen Brown stuff is. First in the history of the Boston Celtics. They've never been laughed at like that ever. In the history of Boston sports, you're going to have a hard time finding anything other than, you know, Babe Ruth and Mookie Betts. Basically, you're going to have a hard time finding anything in the history of Boston sports that gets a franchise laughed at like this. But the part that's made me uncomfortable, I don't know if you guys have seen Colin Cowherd. He credited Darrel Morris for making that trade. Even though Darrell Morey hasn't been with the Sixers for a few months now, he was the first to get out there with Jaylen Brown, is of the belief that he is the smartest guy in every room and that basically he has a disease. He called it a disease of being the smartest guy in every room. Now, that's a step from uppity. Like, it's a couple of notes from uppity on where the smearing of Jaylen Brown goes. Jaylen Brown, I'm guessing, is very often the smartest guy in every locker room that he's in. He's a really smart human being. And the smearing of him has started in a way that makes me uncomfortable, because this is not a person who deserves to be smeared based on what his resume of credentials is, public behavior. And play like this. This does not qualify as earned. What's happening to Jaylen Brown in the way that he is being smeared. But let's listen to him react to Colin Cowherd because he is fighting with media members one by one.

[Jeremy]

There's so many different forms of intelligence. Whatever you value is whatever you value. I never told anybody, like, look, I'm

[Dan Le Batard]

the smartest person in the room.

[Jeremy]

That may be they took it, but let's keep it a buck. Like in sports. No offense to everybody in sports, but the bar is low. You know what I mean? Like, the bar isn't that high. So I think that's what people need to take into consideration. It's like, okay, he's one of the smartest athletes, but, like, a lot of athletes. And, like, you know what I mean? How high is the bar really?

[Dan Le Batard]

You know what I mean?

[Jeremy]

And that's no diss. We got a lot of smart athletes.

[Dan Le Batard]

He's basically saying, yeah, I Am the smartest guy in most of the rooms.

[Jeremy]

Look at these idiots.

[Ethan Skolnick]

No diss, though.

[Jeremy]

Look at my colleagues. They're dumb as rocks.

[Dan Le Batard]

Notice I agree with what he says at the beginning there, because this is something I object to all the time in sports, okay? You dismiss someone as dumb in sports even though at what they do, they might happen to be a genius. Like, generally speaking, when you're good enough to be better than the top 1% of the top 1% of something that the world is competing at, you have an intelligence for that in a way that might make you a little lopsided and might keep you from other intelligences because it's hard to stay there. So the genius for that is, to me, not unlike whatever your genius is in making Tesla, or whatever it is that you assign intelligence points to based on how you define intelligence. But do you understand what I'm saying? Jaylen Brown now has a negative connotation he does not deserve. Like, this is not based on his behavior. There's nothing on this person's resume, a really impressive resume of all manner of accomplishment, not just basketball accomplishment. This is a smart human being, and he's getting dragged in a way that's just not reasonable. It's not fair, and it's just because people want to laugh at Boston.

[Ethan Skolnick]

Well, which. Which part do you think has hurt his reputation more? What you're talking about there, and, you know, the smear campaign, you know, his behavior, smartest guy in the room, that kind of stuff. Or is it what I actually believe has been the most hurtful to his reputation is what his value was in this trade. That, to me, is what has really hurt his reputation is all the stuff coming out about how nobody really wanted him. No one was willing to give up what Boston was looking for. And look, they just had to trade for Paul George's corpse. That's apparently what Jalen Brown's.

[Dan Le Batard]

I've read a lot about this over the weekend, trying to understand it, and it seemed. Because the Boston Celtics are not run by dumb people. And what this is is basically them getting out ahead of something that changed over the last three years, which is you can't have 70% of your payroll tied up in two guys. And that all changed in the last three years. You could do it three years ago. You can't do it anymore. And so they're getting out in front of, okay, we'll do the unpopular thing right now. And you're right. His. His value, his greatness has taken a hit without a game being played. His Greatness has taken a hit this off season. But when you say what's done the most damage to his reputation, I don't think it's even that. I think it's this. He won't stand down. Like he's fighting everybody. And so you fight everybody. You're in the news stream every day in a way you weren't and in a way that no number two player in the league on any team gets. Like, there's no such thing as what's happening with Jaylen Brown right now, where he's now gone from popular to unpopular to polarizing. And he hasn't really done anything like what's he done. He's just on the Internet saying, hey, don't treat me unfairly. I'm not gonna keep quietly taking the fact that all of you continue to treat me unfairly.

[Jeremy]

He is occupying a piece of Aaron Rodgers real estate, though not understanding why he's in the news stream when he injects himself into the news stre by adding on to the story, giving something that the talking heads he's openly fighting with more to discuss and then pointing the finger at everybody else. Like, why is everybody talking about me?

[Ethan Skolnick]

Rogers is a great, great example.

[Jeremy]

Also a cow guy and also a

[Ethan Skolnick]

guy who I think most of us would describe as smartest guy in the room.

[Jeremy]

It's a Berkeley thing.

[Dan Le Batard]

Oh, but wait a minute though. Aaron Rodgers did something Jaylen Brown didn't do, which has opine on an assortment of different things that don't have anything to do with either sports or the media. Like Jaylen Brow rounds keeping it classified to one area. He's not giving you a whole bunch of disagreeable, polarizing opinions on an assortment of different things.

[Jeremy]

Understood. But that's why, I mean, he has done some social justice stuff, which has been really, really good. But that was years ago. But that's why I said he's in that class, because that's not the only thing with Aaron Rodgers. He's several years removed from that. And yes, it applies some context to how we frame what Aaron Rodgers does. But Aaron Rodgers also makes news because of his sports takes.

[Dan Le Batard]

Aaron Rodgers made news because of his dating history. There was an assortment of things there. With Aaron Rodgers making weekly appearances, not on a twitch stream on a mainstream platform where he was saying things that were politically divisive. Jaylen Brown's keeping the subject matter to himself. He's just defending himself. That's. It didn't start with Jaylen Brown, I guess. I guess it started with him being on a Twitch stream and saying he had a lot of fun this season. But I mean, really, like, that's the starting point on tearing down a finals mvp.

[Jeremy]

I think let's give Jaylen Brown some credit for being smart. That's exactly how a smart guy would force his way out of Boston, by opening that door. We all knew what he meant. We all knew what that opened up. We knew that the chances dramatically increased that Jaylen Brown would not be a boss in Celtic once he framed it that way.

[Dan Le Batard]

I understand that you think, and most people are going to think that they are. They have it right and have a right to their indignation. And I'm telling you, you got it wrong.

[Jeremy]

No, no, no, no, no. I'm not indignant. You're asking questions, I'm answering them.

[Dan Le Batard]

This is one of the good guys.

[Jeremy]

I'm being helpful.

[Dan Le Batard]

He's being framed as one of the bad guys, and this is one of the good guys.

[Jeremy]

Well, he's being framed that way because he is literally taking on other people in a I'm right, you're wrong type of way.

[Ethan Skolnick]

But it's not that he's been framed as a bad guy.

[Mike Ryan]

Ooh.

[Dan Le Batard]

I think that Jaylen Brown, right now you say his reputation has taken a hit. And I'm like, why and where and how? It's not. It doesn't have anything to do when I say. When I say this is a couple of notches away from uppity saying that this black man, a proud black man who has accomplished a great deal, is always in the crosshairs on something when whatever it is he's talking about isn't actually that divisive. It's not subject matter that everyone's fighting over whether he had fought fun last season or not. Cuz Jayson Tatum was there. Like, it's just. It's silly. If you're discerning in any way, you know that what this person has accomplished puts him at the very top of accomplishment in competitive fields in American sports. He doesn't deserve what he's getting. Like, it's. It's outsized and it's unreasonable compared to the credentials.

[Jeremy]

I appreciate how fair we're being. We also have to be fair and point out that he didn't disagree with the notion that he's the smartest guy in the room.

[Dan Le Batard]

I understand. But it's not enough to get someone gone. Like, it's not enough to get to undermine all the other things that he is and has accomplished because he is smart.

[Ethan Skolnick]

I don't think it is what Made him gone. I think he's gone from Boston now because, A, you mentioned the salaries and you can't have two guys making that much money on the same team moving forward in today's salary cap landscape, and B, they know this player's personality and they don't believe that they're going to be able to put the toothpaste back in the tube with Jason Tatum returning next year.

[Jeremy]

Also, we're playing a semantics game with Jaylen Brown by saying he never asked out. He also never said publicly, I want to stay a Boston Celtic. He just works through his agents like they should. Hey, I never formally requested out of Boston. No, we know. We saw the twitch stream. We got what you were trying to

[Ethan Skolnick]

say, that it's all semantics. It's like when Giannis. Giannis never asked for a trade out of Milwaukee. Your agent did. Like, that's totally semantics.

[Dan Le Batard]

Yeah, but Dominique laid it out on why it is that he would be bothered by that. Slight by slight, item by item. It's not unreasonable for him to arrive at that position either. When you say that's not the reason that he's gone from Boston, you can say that. But Coward saying it is the reason. He's saying he's quoting an executive and a scout anonymously saying he's got a disease. His disease is that he thinks he's smarter than everybody. And Colin Cowherd is citing it. It's what. It's what Jaylen Brown is objecting to.

[Mike Ryan]

That's the thing here, is that it's all the reports after the fact. It's the fact that we can have the discussion about whether analytics is a part of it, whether the. The disagreements on being the guy are a part of it, whether the contract is a part of it. But now, after the trade, all of the things that Jaylen Brown has been saying about us in the media and the way that things get portrayed after are all of these leaks of smartest guy in the room, smartest guy in the room. He's condescending, he's this and that. When, by the way, like, by all intents and purposes, he is the smartest guy in the room, even compared to the executives.

[Chris]

Look at the degrees he's had.

[Mike Ryan]

Look at the lectures he's done at Harvard.

[Jonathan Sasslo]

Right.

[Jeremy]

He's a smart guy. He's objecting to Collins take while not denying and being condescending to his contemporaries.

[Chris]

He should have said second best year.

[Ethan Skolnick]

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[Mike Ryan]

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[Jeremy]

on this show we've debated the greatest athletes of all time. Who's the goat in football? Who's the goat in soccer? Who's the goat in hoops? One thing that we all know is Dan's the goat of finding the worst possible take. But there's another kind of MVP goat that doesn't get enough credit. The friend who knows to show up with enough Miller Lights plus extra ice because they just know the one who already has seats at the bar when you walk up. That is a Miller Time mvp. I've been on this show long enough to know that Dan is going to make everything about his feelings and Jeremy is going to push back on whatever I just said. But here's something nobody on this show will argue with. Miller Lite is the summer beer. The original light beer since 1975. This summer, recognize your MVPs. We all have that one friend who makes every game better. Now it's time to give them their moment. Head over to Miller Lite's social media pages to learn more about being a Miller Time mvp. You can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces down levitar. God, I would love to see that interaction. Lord, let there be a day. Hey, Oprah, let there be a day. Oh, the color purple.

[Jonathan Sasslo]

You like these glasses?

[Ethan Skolnick]

She would see these glasses. She'd be like, this is someone I'll take a picture with. He looks sophisticated.

[Jeremy]

I love big game, not a big game.

[Jonathan Sasslo]

Jonathan Sasslo.

[Ethan Skolnick]

She would say that to me instead of me having to go up to her and say, I'm a big fan. She's like, I love big deal. Not a big deal.

[Jeremy]

Huge fan of your work. Yo.

[Chris]

One time or two time championship broadcaster.

[Ethan Skolnick]

Two Oprah. Two.

[Dan Le Batard]

You think Oprah would say, like, hey, know about that book club?

[Ethan Skolnick]

Well, and I would say, yes, I do, Oprah. Yes, I do.

[Mike Ryan]

Have you seen weapons?

[Jonathan Sasslo]

This is the Dan Levatar show.

[Dan Le Batard]

You guys saw at the All Star Game, right? That he had an incident and he is feuding with Beverly Hills because Beverly Hills, in terms of their police force, I've never seen anything like it. In terms of a police force that gets someplace quickly because that's where the money is. Beverly Hills. The police arrived very quickly because of anything happening in Beverly Hills. And during the All Star Game in Los Angeles, he had a party in Beverly Hills. And I'm assuming what happened is just people didn't like that there were a whole bunch of black people that were there in the neighborhood. And then all of a sudden it ends up with Jaylen Brown fighting the system and fighting Beverly Hills and fighting everything else. You do understand, right? I understand why we all feel entitled to take Jaylen Brown and just make him an avatar for whatever it is that we find disagreeable in sports. And money is at the top of the list, ok? The seventh highest paid player in the sport, and nobody believes him to be the seventh best player in the sport. So Boston is getting out in front of a money decision. I believe money is the root of all of this. But having the proud and defiant black man with the bank account now fighting with the entirety of the media item by item and step by step on. You're not going to keep doing this to me where I have to just take it Quietly, because you're the only one with the microphone. To me, it signals that change on two fronts. It's not just that the Boston Celtics have never been laughed at like this, and they're doing something to get out in front of what is probably coming for the sport in a variety of different ways, where they have to get the finances different, because what worked three years ago doesn't work anymore. But still at the top of the sport somehow, as July makes the rounds and free agency is now held up with whoever it is that's left, because everybody is waiting for LeBron James. I'd personally be stunned if he goes to anywhere but Cleveland, because I think that that is clearly the best story. And at this point in his career, based on what it is you're seeing Rich Paul do on a podcast, he really cares about, really cares about being the story and having the punctuation be the nice story. He can win in Cleveland without winning in Cleveland by just going back to Cleveland, and it's the only place he can do that. And so I believe that that's. Even though it's not an imperfect fit, I believe that that's where he will end up and that all of this is just a show because they want attention on Rich Paul's podcast and because they're making a show, and they want LeBron James to be still part of the show. But let's go to the whiteboard that Max Kellerman and Rich Paul stole from Jeremy Tache. They're going to steal the puppets next. Let's listen to what it is they had to do.

[Chris]

This is just a hilarious example of they're listening to our show. Rich Paul stole our idea. Jeremy did the board last week, and then you see a couple days later, Boom, you got LeBron in the middle with the lines. The same exact thing Jeremy did.

[Ethan Skolnick]

Suspicious. I like how you could tell which teams are the most serious, because there were five teams, and the starting lineups were listed, and then, like, on the periphery was just team names. You know, I don't need to take the time to actually put the lineups together.

[Dan Le Batard]

You know, would you guys be surprised if he went anywhere other than Cleveland at this point? Are you not?

[Jonathan Sasslo]

What.

[Dan Le Batard]

What is it in terms of betting favorites at DraftKingsports? What. Where are. Is it the Cavs that are ahead of everybody?

[Ethan Skolnick]

Yeah, I think the Cavs are the heavy favorite, matter of fact. And I think. And I think for. I mean, I say for some reason, because it's really not going to happen, but Philadelphia is like, the next Favorite. Even though there is no chance he goes anywhere but Cleveland or Miami, I have no chance.

[Jeremy]

I have lived long enough to see Stan Kroenke be a positive.

[Ethan Skolnick]

That's right. Cronky's name's listed on the periphery there.

[Jeremy]

That's wild.

[Ethan Skolnick]

That's right.

[Mike Ryan]

My favorite part, if we put the board back up, is not just that he puts a star next to Tyrese Maxey and mentioned that the Cavs losing Darius Garland is a big issue for him, which I thought was hilarious. Yeah, he has Davion Mitchell listed on there, which is great. And he keeps referring to him as off night. But if you look over at the Dallas Mavericks, it just says oil, which is just a remarkable thing to have as a pro on the periphery. This is a perfect whiteboard by Rich Paul Oil.

[Dan Le Batard]

How do you guys feel about LeBron James as the oldest player in the league? I'm going to say by miles. Oldest player in the league, by miles. Still having the attention currency that makes it so that most people are going to get the alerts on their phone and go to their friends and say, hey, LeBron is going here. Can you believe it? And I'm assuming that Cleveland is the one that would feel most anticlimactic. Correct. Like, because it's so obviously the coolest story, the going home. He has spent a lot of time over the last 20 years framing the narrative. Okay, he regrets some of what he did in coming to Miami, the way that he did that announcement. And when he left Miami, the way that he did it was more quietly by just calling a Sports Illustrated reporter and writing an article with him, ghost writing an article with him that announced to everybody through Sports Illustrated instead of a TV show that he was going back to Cleveland. But that's going on 12 years now. He played for the Lakers longer than he played for any of these other teams. Didn't particularly want to leave Los Angeles. Has said before he doesn't like going back to Cleveland. Has said that recently that he does not enjoy going back to Cleveland. But there's no what is the second best stories? As this is like, it's very obviously and clearly, if you want applause at the end for something that has gone the rare route of he went popular, unpopular, popular, popular, unpopular, popular. And when he got to popular, it's because bringing Cleveland the championship and coming back from a 3:1 deficit makes him golden forever in Cleveland. Coming back one last time at the end, what's the second best story compared to that?

[Ethan Skolnick]

I think the second best is it's definitely Not Miami. All right? Everyone hates Miami. Everyone's going to hate if he winds up choosing the Heat. I think. I don't know that there's a second best. I think it is Cleveland that is the good story. But if I had to choose a second best, I think there's a lot of people who would like the idea of him and Steph Curry playing together, even though, again, he's not going to Golden State either. So if I had to pick a second, it'd be Golden State.

[Dan Le Batard]

The Knicks would be a cool story. But it's really strange to say that I don't think the Knicks want him anymore, because they would have to. They'd have to move some pieces in order to make room for him. They can't just put him on the. On the payroll and expect to pay him what he expects to earn and not lose other pieces.

[Jeremy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, Jeremy, but I believe Rich Paul said it would have been the Knicks had they not won the title. But he didn't like the optics of him going after they won the team.

[Ethan Skolnick]

He said that we wouldn't even have made a whiteboard. It would have been the Knicks.

[Dan Le Batard]

So let me ask you guys this question, because in the reporting that I've done around this over what is now 16 years, I can tell you that both pat Riley and LeBron James have learned some things after they broke up. One of the things that LeBron has learned, because initially when he got to Cleveland, they were really mismanaged. He did feel when he left, like my, when he left Miami, that he could go wherever it is that he wanted and take some of those lessons with him. And he wasn't wrong. But the Lakers were run pretty poorly while he was there, even though they won a championship while he was there. And it is something that he trusts here, which is that he knows they can get the players around him to complement him. And what he also knows, in all of the places that he's gone, there haven't been any places that develop the people around him the way this place does. Cleveland didn't do it, and the Lakers did not do it. The place that developed the players around him, where he saw how they grew, right? He's seeing from. He's seeing from the first practices how Patrick Beverley can't make the team because they get rid of him and end up keeping Eddie House. The things that they did in Miami. He had to leave because his only experiences were Cleveland and Miami. And Cleveland's famously mismanaged before and after they had him but they're mismanaged throughout. Like Dan Gilbert. Everyone knows Cleveland's not. Not run. Well. The surprise wasn't that Kenny Atkinson blew it. The surprise was that initially Kenny Atkinson did it correctly by using Evan Mobley correctly. And then everything ends up falling apart in Cleveland because they're Cleveland. Like, the same people are in charge there. He had to go to the Lakers to see, oh, the Cleveland Laker things. This isn't like Miami at all. This is a different. This is a different way of treating how it is that we make players better. But I'm not sure how much appetite he has for being under Pat Riley's control. Like, why would. Why would he want to be more controlled now, as he's older than he would be in Cleveland? Because in Cleveland, he does get his run of the place, and he gets to go there and knock Donovan Mitchell and James Harden and Evan Mobley to the side. He's not.

[Chris]

He's not.

[Dan Le Batard]

Not actually coming to play second fiddle in Cleveland. Here he is coming to play second fiddle.

[Ethan Skolnick]

So you don't think that if he were to choose Miami, that there would be an understanding of, hey, we're not giving you the run of the place that, you know, we haven't changed that much since you left 12 years ago. It's one of the main reasons that you left, because we weren't going to allow that. But we are willing to meet you a little bit closer to the middle because we've learned to think or to.

[Guest/Interviewer]

To.

[Mike Ryan]

And SPO has more influence now than he did at that time of being a coach. They're. And they're much more of peers now after the work they did during the Olympics. But the thing about playing second fiddle, like, here, LeBron James would be the point guard. Like, he would run the offense here in a way that if he was playing with both Donovan Mitchell and James Harden as a basketball fit, it would be the same thing that he was dealing with in Los Angeles, playing a ton off ball. And at the end of games, those guys are going to be the guy with the ball in their hands. The Heat, we specifically said, need a wing playmaker who can get his own shot. That's not Giannis OR Bam. That's LeBron James.

[Jeremy]

Is it safe to say that Miami would ease up this second, go around? The power dynamics is totally different. Part of the selling point to LeBron was, you don't know how to win. We're going to teach you how. Now. LeBron is proven, I know how to win without you guys. I'm an old man here. I'm helping you get into that conversation because let's be real, barring something totally unforeseen, if the Miami Heat don't add a LeBron James, they got their work cut out for them, at least for the next half season or so.

[Ethan Skolnick]

Like, look, a main reason that LeBron left in 2014 was because the Heat wouldn't allow him to do everything that he wanted to do. And then, you know, years later, the Heat allowed Jimmy Butler all of that. And they're not going to allow LeBron

[Dan Le Batard]

a couple of things on that front, because the point that Jeremy is making, when he was talking second fiddle, he was doing that on the court. I was not. I was doing. He comes here. He's not. He's behind Giannis. Like, it's giannis's team.

[Chris]

He's LeBron.

[Dan Le Batard]

Yeah, but he's already done this for Dwyane Wade in Miami. That's not the part I'm talking about. The part I'm talking about is you guys thinking and him thinking, oh, it'll be different this time. Pat Riley's changed. No, he hasn't. No, he has not. And so that rules us out.

[Jeremy]

So what ends up happening, better learn growing emotionally.

[Dan Le Batard]

What happens here is, like, the girlfriend coming back to the boyfriend who says he's changed in order to get her back. And then you're under contract, and then you're unhappy because the rules are a little tighter than they've been in Los Angeles and in Cleveland. You guys, I've told you all the stories about he's not allowed to just take the plane to Las Vegas with the team here. In a way, he was allowed in other places to just say, we're going somewhere else. I'm the star. There are things here that he would have to sacrifice that he does not have to sacrifice in Cleveland.

[Chris]

But the fact that they kind of bent for Jimmy Butler the way they didn't for LeBron, that implies that Riley has changed. Maybe on that front a little.

[Dan Le Batard]

You guys say they kind of bent for Jimmy Butler, but they did what they did there reluctantly. Like, whatever was done there was not done with their arms around Jimmy Butler. Hey, come on, let's. Let's do this together.

[Chris]

And they got burnt.

[Dan Le Batard]

It was. Yes, that's correct. They made some concessions for Jimmy Butler, reluctantly. And at the end, it didn't buy them. Them much of anything. I. You guys do understand, correct? When you. The last 10 years, LeBron has been making the rules, and that probably changed a little bit with Don Chich. But that's about the only time in the last 10 years, like, he went and got what he wanted in terms of freedom and championships by leaving in 2014. And so I don't know what his appetite is. If Miami's interested. Miami would like this to happen. If it does not happen, it will not be happening because of what I'm telling you that LeBron doesn't want to sign up for something that is a less good story and comes with a whole lot more rules than would that he'd have anywhere else that he played. Anywhere else that he played.

[Jeremy]

There's a lot of plugged in people that I'm talking to in the industry, far more plugged in than I am that say this is a foregone conclusion that he's going to Cleveland and he's just stretching this out because it's fun to be talked about this way. Tony, you know that moment at a party or at a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks? I know it.

[Ethan Skolnick]

Well.

[Mike Ryan]

It's usually when I show up, everybody goes crazy.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. You usually take all the credit for it, but it's because Tony usually walks in with Cuervo. Walk in like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it. But again, it's the Cuervo of. In fact, it's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hootin and hollerin'. Keep it Cuervo.

[Dan Le Batard]

Keep it Cuervo, baby.

[Chris]

Bonjour, compadre.

[Ethan Skolnick]

It's the Priceline negotiator.

[Chris]

How do I negotiate so many great travel deals? My greatest gadget, the Priceline app. It's got hotel deals, flight deals, rental car deals, all of those deals in a bundle deals, game day deals, concert trip deals. No one deals more deals than Priceline.

[Dan Le Batard]

Hold your horses.

[Chris]

There's more. The app lets you filter hotels by neighborhood vibe, star level, and amenities like pools and spas and beach fronts and. Wait, I'm not done. Stop cutting me up.

[Dan Le Batard]

Dan Levitar, I don't think.

[Ethan Skolnick]

Strange for me, but like Mike Ryan, oh, boy.

[Jonathan Sasslo]

This is the D. Levatar show.

[Dan Le Batard]

I think that that's what's happening, too. Do you believe that that's. Do you believe that that's what the nation at large is looking at here and saying that there's not any actual intrigue here? It's just a play for attention?

[Jeremy]

Reputably, though, Ethan Skolnick did report yesterday that the Miami Heat have not been told that they are out of it.

[Ethan Skolnick]

I mean, Utah Jazz probably not been told that they're out of it.

[Dan Le Batard]

No one's been told. I mean, Rich Paul is enjoying the promotion for his podcast. It's a fairly unusual thing, I would say, to go from 2010. You've got a televised special. An MVP in his prime is changing teams through free agency and changes the entire balance of power in the league, gives more power to the player and also befriends somebody who now represents, I think it's 94 players in the NBA and like 600 people overall. Who also wants attention in Rich Paul, fiance of Adele, who wants the attention of having the sports platform to himself. And now you have an agent on his own podcast. Go ahead and show me all the examples you have of this in your lifetime. An agent on his own podcast with Max Kellerman, going through the entire whiteboard of possibilities, naming players, naming teams, just to bring attention to what it is that he's doing on his platform. It's just not something you see. It has no precedent in American sports. What Rich Paul is presently doing on his podcast with whatever this free period is, to just grab publicity and attention.

[Mike Ryan]

It's because they'd never watched me before. Like Rich Paul clearly watched everything I did and said, that's as good as content gets around LeBron. I need to take that and make it my own.

[Dan Le Batard]

Your. Your whiteboard is empirically better than his white.

[Mike Ryan]

Nobody does it better than me.

[Jeremy]

Oil was a bad. Oil was a bad. Oil's really can golf down here too.

[Mike Ryan]

But I put Jazz. Nobody had the Jazz up there.

[Ethan Skolnick]

I think Mike's right, though. My favorite part is in parentheses. Cronky.

[Dan Le Batard]

It's a flimsy whiteboard and it doesn't. What is that on the lower left? What does it say?

[Ethan Skolnick]

Brad and Tatum.

[Dan Le Batard]

Brad and Tatum. Okay, so Boston doesn't.

[Ethan Skolnick]

Brad.

[Dan Le Batard]

The order there. The order there. Putting Brad in front of Tatum there for Boston. Look, this. This whiteboard is super limited. I mean, oil, oil, some lifting there. But the rest is just an assortment of names and just a galaxy around LeBron.

[Jeremy]

How about Spurs? What could be the selling point there?

[Ethan Skolnick]

I don't know.

[Jeremy]

Let's leave that one blank.

[Chris]

When I was looking at all the teams though, that what would be a cool story like him going to the spurs to put them over like that could be a nice story.

[Guest/Interviewer]

Spurs.

[Jeremy]

We'll get back to them.

[Ethan Skolnick]

I do like on the top right. It's under Cleveland. You got Garland. No, Garland. And there's, there's a, you know, negative in parentheses and then right above it, it's weems. So just LeBron's friend is there. Weems.

[Dan Le Batard]

That's right. Getting back to the World cup for a second, I was bummed that Mexico didn't advance. England. England is making the case and is not wrong, that that's a big. As big a road victory as England has ever had as a country. Going into that place and winning that that way where you're down to 10 men and you're fighting the last 36 minutes in a hugely hostile environment with 10 men against Mexico.

[Ethan Skolnick]

Mike, I saw that correct that last night. It's just the third loss in Stadium Azteca in 90 matches in competitive matches.

[Jonathan Sasslo]

What the hell? No.

[Jeremy]

And it. I, I've seen that place a little crazier because that's a more affluent group of people. But once, once Mexico got that first goal because it looked like for a 90 second stretch there that England was going to run away with this. And it might get ugly because Mexico is not built for that. That goal from Quinones was so great in terms of establishing, okay, we got a banger here. And then the red card happens. And that place was vibrating, pulsating, and it was, it was amazing. And a huge gut check victory, second in a row for a team that is often questioned in terms of, do you have the guts for this? Are you mentally tough enough for this? Because we know you have the talent, talent. But can you push through the weight of that badge? What happened in Atlanta against the Ar Congo tested their metal, that tested their minds, body and spirit, their position quite well here. Now that they've answered those questions.

[Ethan Skolnick]

That was awesome. Last night I was watching my boys. We were so into that game and, and, and the final, what, 25 minutes, it was just a power play for Mexico. Like they had the ball in, in their offensive third for like the final 25 minutes straight, chance after chance. It was awesome.

[Chris]

Jordan Pickford, the goalie for England was amazing in that game.

[Dan Le Batard]

Well, listen to Harry Kane, England star. If you can hear his voice, it's a little bit hoarse. And on the front end, I should tell you, he's talking about a player who injured himself, who wasn't playing, who broke his arm trying to. Trying to jump over a railing.

[Guest/Interviewer]

Well, Harry, huge congratulations. What a contest, what a win. But I just firstly wanted to ask you what's happened over there by the England goal, because there looks to be some concern.

[Jonathan Sasslo]

Yeah, Jordan, my voice is gone. Hello? Just fell over there. I think it's okay, just something to do with his arm.

[Guest/Interviewer]

Okay. Well as for the performance, I think it says it all. The fact that your voice is gone, that was some contest to watch. What on earth was it like to play in?

[Jonathan Sasslo]

Yeah, it was a crazy game. We had to fight, we had to find something. Yeah, I've just been sitting there really talk. But yeah. What all the occasion, the team, everything against us, we found a way.

[Guest/Interviewer]

I was going to say. Is that what pleases you the most? The resilience today? Cuz even your penalty. A word on that as well. Not the one you scored, the one you conceded. What did you make of that?

[Jonathan Sasslo]

Yeah, I thought I got to the ball first. It was one of those days that the ref gave a lot against us and in the end, in the end it doesn't matter. So yeah, I'm happy.

[Guest/Interviewer]

I'm going to try. One more question. If your voice holds out, what can this do for England going forward? You've got a quarterfinal in Miami against Norway to look forward to. What can the England fans look forward to now?

[Jonathan Sasslo]

Well, just look at them here. Incredible. Unbelievable support. Ah, speechless. I can't even talk.

[Guest/Interviewer]

So go and rest that voice. Rest up. Thanks Harry.

[Dan Le Batard]

Hahaha. Let's get the video of Jordan Henderson trying to just, you know, be athletic and climb over something and clearly just breaking his entire arm.

[Guest/Interviewer]

No.