Local Hour: The Sports Equinox & A Horrifying Deadline (feat. "Levi McCathern")

Summary

The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

Local Hour: The Sports Equinox & A Horrifying Deadline (April 7, 2026)

[Host: Dan Le Batard, Stugotz | Guest appearances: Mike Ryan, Jeremy, Chris Cody, and others]

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Episode Overview

In this unique and intense Local Hour episode, recorded from the Elser Hotel in Downtown Miami, Dan Le Batard and crew juggle an extraordinary convergence of sports and global tension. As Miami’s Marlins, Heat, and Panthers all prepare for games that evening—a rare “Sports Equinox” for the local scene—they simultaneously process the unprecedented reality of the President of the United States threatening a nuclear deadline with Iran at 8 PM. The show interweaves comedic bits, Miami sports anxiety, ongoing NBA drama (with particular focus on Giannis Antetokounmpo), and commentary on the state of news media and national leadership in 2026.

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Major Discussion Points & Insights

1. Global Chaos Meets Miami Sports

• Historic Livestream Planned: At [01:55], Dan introduces the main tension: a simultaneous Miami sports trifecta (Marlins, Heat, Panthers) and an unprecedented U.S. presidential deadline to “nuke a civilization,” both happening at 8 PM.
  • Quote (Dan, 01:55): “We could not plan for an 8pm war deadline. We could not plan for the Panthers not being able to defend their trophy... and we could not plan for the Marlins coming off of a shutout loss.”
• The crew wrestles with normalcy and dread, joking about coping with sports as the world feels like it’s on fire.

2. Satirical Critique of Politics and Media

• They criticize the U.S. leadership, with Dan repeatedly referring to the President as a “deranged lunatic” ([03:12], [03:34]).
  • Quote (Dan, 03:12): “We are being run as a country by a totally deranged lunatic who needs to have the keys of the country taken away from him because he’s going to get everybody killed.”
  • They read and mock Trump’s fictional apocalyptic statement, comparing the war deadline to American Idol ([03:58]).
• Reflects on the sadness of traditional journalism’s decline and America’s need for a strong press ([11:06]-[12:00]).

3. Miami Heat & Giannis Antetokounmpo Drama

• Shams’ New Report: Dan and Mike break down Shams Charania’s latest on a nearly completed Heat-Bucks trade for Giannis—ultimately nixed by Milwaukee’s ownership ([08:22]-[16:18]).
  • Trade involved Tyler Herro, Khalil Ware, and draft picks.
• Discuss “truth” in modern NBA journalism, noting that many of Shams’ stories are agent-planted or agenda-driven.
  • Quote (Dan, 12:03): “What are the facts that’s real when everyone is compromised in some way?”
• Player Empowerment & “Friends & Family” NBA: They call out how NBA stars leverage their status to get family jobs—Giannis’ brothers on the Bucks, and compare it to LeBron’s influence ([13:37]-[16:18]).

4. Critical Analysis: Giannis’ NBA Legacy and Milwaukee’s Dilemma

• They debate what is owed between player and franchise after years of mutual benefit, focusing on Giannis’ outsized impact on Milwaukee ([13:55]-[16:18]).
  • Quote (Dan, 15:55): “Take [Giannis] out of Milwaukee, I have gutted your franchise. I’ve gutted you.”
• Dissects the “breakup narrative”: No NBA superstar has ever had a clean split; everyone fails at it except maybe Russell Westbrook ([19:51]-[21:29]).
  • Quote (Dan, 19:51): “The only guy who actually came close to getting this right... is Russell Westbrook.”

5. Media Spin, Image, and Athlete Optics

• The crew analyzes the PR “spin cycle” as Giannis’ camp tries to control the narrative but the public sees through it ([26:29]-[29:44]).
  • Argue whether Shams’ article is flattering—most think it backfires, making Giannis look worse.
• Quote (Mike Ryan, 39:46): “This is a breakup. Giannis is especially struggling with how to do it right.”
• Explores how Giannis is torn between maintaining a “humble”, team-first brand and protecting his legacy as he contemplates a move ([40:13]-[44:01]).

6. Meta Commentary on Sports Fandom and Ego

• Reflects on fans’ frustration with star player departures, athletes' desires to be beloved, and the impossible optics of modern superstardom ([40:13]-[44:48]).
• Quote (Dan, 40:13): "The optics on who do I have to be so Americans will love me... This guy's been very good at the optics until now, right?"

7. Local Hour Bits & Humor

• Cowboy Lawyer Costume: Chris Cody shows up dressed as attorney Levi McCathern (Puka Nakua’s lawyer), trolling the idea that you can look absurd and still win big clients in Texas ([06:08]-[07:53]).
• Voice Punishments & Sexy Polls: Jeremy deals with a hoarse voice, discussing whether he sounds “sexier than usual”, prompting an informal (and hilarious) poll in the chat ([24:34]-[25:11]).
• Banter about NBA players getting family members "rostered,” including references to JR Smith's brother, Jokic's intimidating siblings, and LeBron's Miami Heat era asks ([22:46]-[24:24]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Global Crisis and Historic Livestream:
  • Dan (01:55): “If you’re walking around life depressed or angry... we are solving it tonight by at the same time... an 8pm deadline where the President is threatening to nuke a civilization... and we’ll be watching the Marlins, Heat and Panthers. That’s a first in the history of media.”
• On Political Absurdity:
  • Dan (03:35): “I don’t know how else to put plainly the lunacy of America behaving this way...”
  • Mike Ryan (03:58): “Why is he treating this like American Idol?”
• On NBA Journalism and Giannis:
  • Dan (12:03): “What are the facts that’s real when everyone is compromised in some way?”
  • Mike Ryan (39:46): “This is Dwight Howard all over again. He does not have the guts to do what is necessary to force his way out, because that burns some bridges...”
  • Dan (41:26): “He’s an ego monster... but he wants it to look to America like he’s sweet.”
• On Sports Culture and Miami:
  • Dan (15:55): “That’s Giannis being in a different country, being a superstar with monster temptations at every turn, surrounding himself with the closest thing to family that can be...”
  • Dan (31:33): “Giannis gets left behind and he’s waving his hands—get me help.”
• On Media Spin:
  • Dan (26:29): “Shams passes as a journalist... this is an orchestrated thing meant to—‘Hey, Giannis still has the commercials. Let’s go protect all this. Shams, go write this story.’”
  • Mike Ryan (39:04): “It helps make him look good, which is what Giannis’s camp went into this doing. And yet the entire thing collapses when you apply a modicum of scrutiny to it, which has been the deal this entire season.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:55] – Opening discussion of sports-world chaos and presidential threat
• [03:58] – Satire of Trump’s nuclear threat statement
• [05:52] – Costume day & “Levi McCathern” attorney character
• [08:22] – Miami Heat–Giannis trade almost finalized; breakdown of Shams’ report
• [11:06-12:00] – Decline of print journalism & media landscape critique
• [13:37-16:00] – Debate of NBA stars getting family jobs; player value vs. franchise
• [19:51] – Discussion on Russell Westbrook as cleanest “break-up” star
• [26:29-29:44] – PR spin & Shams as “agent with a by-line”; is the story working for Giannis?
• [31:33] – Giannis’ narrative in Milwaukee; impact on city & fanbase
• [39:04-41:26] – Breakup psychology, public relations, athlete image vs. ego
• [44:48] – Judging Giannis for prioritizing optics over rings

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Episode Tone

• Language & Tone:
  The episode is fast-paced, irreverent, deeply sarcastic, and self-aware, with the usual “Le Batard Show” blend of sharp commentary, inside jokes about Miami, sports tangents, and existential dread about the outside world.
• Overall Feel:
  Equal parts dark-humor lament about world affairs, critical dive into the madness of modern sports media and fandom, and classic lacerating Le Batard banter—this episode offers both catharsis and chaos to fans who crave sports as refuge amid real-life insanity.

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For listeners:
Expect a wild ride of gallows humor, deep skepticism about politics and media, and a brutally honest, if zig-zag, look at the business of superstars and the anxiety of sports fandom in 2026. Even in the face of apocalypse, the Le Batard crew can’t help but make you laugh, roll your eyes, and question who the real adults in the sports world actually are.

Transcript

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[Dan Le Batard]

Zootopia 2 has come home to Disney. Let's go get ready for a new case.

[Unidentified Speaker 1]

We're gonna crack this case and prove

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

we're victorious partners of all time.

[Dan Le Batard]

New friends. You are Gary the Snake and your last name the Snake. Dream Team Hidden Habitats Zootopia has a secret reptile population. You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home. You're clearly barking. Zootopia 2 now available on Disney Plus. Rated PG. Tony thinks he just soothed me by whispering in my ear I'm gonna be better today. Low bar I thought to myself as he said it. It's not possible to be worse.

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

It's possible to be worse. But I'm gonna be better. I promise. Okay, I can't talk about later on for the live stream tonight. Today though for show I'm gonna be better.

[Dan Le Batard]

Well, today is an awkward day because things in the world are moving a little bit too fast to be sane. And if you're walking around life depressed or angry or scared because the world seems like it's on fire, we are solving it tonight by at the same time and this has to be a livestream first in the history of sports media. I don't believe that anything this pioneering has ever existed during an 8pm deadline where the President of the United States is threatening to nuke a civilization at an appointed time. Tonight we're going to be watching the Marlins, Heat and Panthers. That's a first in the history of the media. These things have to be planned out weeks in advance. We could not plan for an 8pm war deadline. We could not plan for the Panthers not being able to defend their trophy. We could not plan for the Miami heat being a 10. And we could not plan for the Marlins coming off of a shutout loss.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

I think you're short changing the heat a little bit because the season tiebreak is on the line with the Raptors.

[Dan Le Batard]

They're two games from the six, right? Like if they were to win out, they could get really good positioning and get you excited all over again. Not that they're going to win out with two games against Toronto and Atlanta, but again, 8pm tonight because this continues to escalate somehow. We are being run as a country by a totally deranged lunatic who needs to have the keys of the country taken away from him because he's going to get everybody killed.

[Mike Ryan]

Here's the post from this morning.

[Dan Le Batard]

I don't know how else to sort of put plainly the lunacy of America behaving this way, that at 8pm we're setting a lunatic deadline where we're just going to say we're going to nuke a civilization because the guy in charge is clearly crazy and out of control and somebody needs to put a stop to this because we are in great peril as a people.

[Mike Ryan]

That wasn't the statement. This was a statement from Donald Trump this morning. A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have complete and total regime change where different, smarter and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen. Who knows? We will find out tonight. Why is he treating this like American Idol? One of the most important moments in the long, complex history of the world. 47 years of extortion, corruption and death will finally end. God bless the great people of Iran. This is a couple words after threatening to destroy the entire civilization.

[Dan Le Batard]

So the Marlins, the Heat and the Panthers is the livestream tonight.

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

I'm going to try to be better for that one too.

[Dan Le Batard]

We're going to start at 6:30pm and then we're going to be on at 8pm and the president is threatening to extinguish a civilization at an appointed time.

[Mike Ryan]

But God bless them,

[Dan Le Batard]

the Panthers, the Heat and the Marlins are what we'll be watching together at 8pm a historic broadcast tonight.

[Mike Ryan]

Cyclones also have a big one.

[Unidentified Speaker 4]

This is the Don Levator show with the Stugats podcast.

[Dan Le Batard]

We've got a basketball championship in college. Basketball. Basketball to talk about. Chris Cody, you're already in character because you're already tipping that cowboy hat to the champs. You all right, so that was the tip of the cap to the champs because you today are what? And I'm sorry about this. Jeremy, what were you yesterday? I never commented on the punishment you were paying. Your voice was hoarse, you couldn't talk, and so we basically ignored you. But you were dressed as something. What was the punishment?

[Jeremy]

You were paying Randall Cobb.

[Dan Le Batard]

Okay, so you were corn on the cob and it was the Randall Cobb punishment.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, it wasn't a punishment. I just. It was self imposed. I figured if I couldn't contribute with my voice, I would contribute visually by being literally corny.

[Dan Le Batard]

Yep. So, Chris, what are you doing?

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

I'm proving how much better I look than Levi McCathern, the attorney Puka Nakua.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

That's really good.

[Dan Le Batard]

That is pretty good. And yeah, that is excellent.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

So much better.

[Dan Le Batard]

But you're not serving a punishment either.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Maybe 25, younger. I think I was wrong saying 20.

[Dan Le Batard]

You don't look that much younger, but you do look better. You look cleaner. I assume that that suit.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

What are you looking at?

[Dan Le Batard]

You look cleaner than that man, but not necessarily. You look better, but not that much younger.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Can I ask, seriously, what's up? How is that Puka Nakua's attorney?

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

How he went to law school.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Like, I don't want to judge a book by turning cover, but how's that his attorney?

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

You want this guy on your side?

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

No, I don't think so.

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

I do want him on my side at least. Maybe not representing me, but I want

[Unidentified Speaker 4]

him on my side.

[Dan Le Batard]

You don't want this guy against you. And I am sure he's an excellent attorney. My guess is. Well, instead of guessing, please. I'm sure he's very expensive. And my guess is he gets stories in the press. And my guess is that he is one of the most successful attorneys anywhere to be found in that region.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. He is both the Dallas Cowboys lawyer and Jerry Jones family's personal lawyer.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Now I'm in now. You instantly think more highly of him.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Yeah, yeah. You have to when you hear that.

[Dan Le Batard]

No, but you don't. That's the thing about that, is have you not noticed that our juris system is a clown show? Like, have you not noticed that our government systems are failing throughout and that the judges can be jerry rigged? And you don't actually have to be the smartest. You could just be the guy who's

[Jeremy]

next to Jerry Jones on McCathern Law.com it says Levi's down to earth approach makes him uniquely effective both in the courtroom and in media engagements, where he's often called upon to represent clients in high visibility.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Matters does look down to.

[Dan Le Batard]

I'll get back to that in a second, cuz I can't talk about this guy enough. Cuz, as is correct, how do you hire that guy? Because that guy can't get up in the morning, dress like that, go to work and be a lawyer and consider himself looking like a serious person. It's not down to earth. He looks ridiculous. It doesn't mean he's not a good lawyer. He looks absurd. You can't walk that way into a courtroom.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

It's the cowboy hat.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

I mean, that guy so obviously owns a car dealership.

[Dan Le Batard]

He makes cheesy commercials. We'll get back to that in a second. We have serious things going on in America at 8pm tonight. We have a deadline with Iran because we've got a lunatic running this country and he's threatening to extinguish a civilization. And we will be doing a livestream of Marlin's Heat and Panthers. That's what we're doing at 8pm tonight. What we're doing right now is checking in on a Shams report as some details are coming forth for the first time, really about everything that's happening with Giannis and Milwaukee. And what Shams is saying is the most toxic, through quotes is saying is the most toxic environment that there is in the NBA. The freshly reported details are confirming that the offer for Giannis from the Miami Heat was the most seriously considered, that the Heat and Bucs felt like they were pretty close to a deal. Less than 24 hours beforehand. And then ownership stepped in and a different decision was made. And then everything changed in 24 hours. A deal that centered around Tyler Herro, Khalil Ware and draft picks. Now, what else was interesting in that story? Before we get to other matters locally here, Zaslow, because this Shams, this is an interesting space that Shams is traveling in, right? Because he's an information broker and he's also a journalist, but his sources clearly very often are agents with a story to tell. And so you get a distorted version of the truth from an angle, depending on what his relationship is with which camp. So this doesn't represent the truth. It just represents the truth through Giannis's camp, as far as I can tell from reading it. But Shams also writes now he's one of the few still writing. Mike, where are those newspapers you found? You never found a Miami Herald yesterday, but you found. I don't know what the Epoch Times is. What is the Epoch Times write about?

[Mike Ryan]

That is a basically a once a week national newspaper, I think. And the Miami New Times. I did. My plan of going to a hotel concierge did work to get a newspaper, just not today's paper. They told me over at the Intercontinental, which is a serious hotel.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

That's very surprising.

[Mike Ryan]

It's where the Indiana Hoosiers stayed. They told me that they stopped having the daily Miami Herald delivered around Covid. I did find where you could reliably count on being able to pick up today's paper, though. This was after the fact. If you want today's hard copy paper, your best bet is a local Publix. And I did bump into a payphone on my walk back.

[Dan Le Batard]

A working payphone.

[Mike Ryan]

A working payphone with a dial tone right around this corner.

[Dan Le Batard]

This may be a stupid question. I hesitate to ask it because I think it is so stupid. Are there kids who don't know what a dial tone is?

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Definitely like that.

[Dan Le Batard]

The dial. So because the dial tone. If I say dial tone to a kid of what age, that child is looking at me and saying, I don't know what you're talking about. What is a dial tone?

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

I'd say 12.

[Dan Le Batard]

Because Mike Ryan finding a payphone, a landline, surprises me. I would have thought that those would have gone extinct. Him not being able to find a newspaper, a daily newspaper, makes me profoundly sad for both the state of journalism and the state of our country. I would say, as more than ever, we need a strong press to challenge the lunacy happening at the top of someone trying to break the government and make America his seventh bankruptcy. And now brings us to the brink of something that is war. But they're not saying is war. They don't want to say is war because then they're going to be accused of crimes that are war crimes. And beyond that, we've got a president who's guilty of all of the major

[Mike Ryan]

crimes, like the military, operation crime.

[Dan Le Batard]

You understand what is happening in this country right now and it is scary to all of us. But the shams report as it relates to journalism in our small little playpen, what do you believe? Who do you trust? What's the reporting that's real? What are the facts that's real when everyone is compromised in some way. And as you read that story, you can tell that's coming from Giannis's camp Yes or no?

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Almost all of it is coming from Giannis. Absolutely. Especially when you read stuff like. Because, you know. So this part I find interesting. After back and forth discussions, including a meeting in Greece in late July, the New York Knicks became the only team that Giannis said he would play for other than Milwaukee. And then you have, quote, giannis has wanted to handle this professionally by being very upfront with the team. One source with direct knowledge of this situation said this could have been a happy resolution, but instead might end up being a nasty breakup. And, yeah, it's obviously coming from Giannis's side, because I'm sorry, handle it professionally. Like, you're not handling it professionally if you're telling the team, hey, there's only one other team that I would go play for. Like, I understand the perspective of Milwaukee. You know, you want to do right by Giannis because, hey, he did so much for you. You won a championship in 2021. But it kind of works both ways a little bit, doesn't it? Like, there has to be, like, a mutual respect between Giannis for the team and everything they've done for him. I mean, Dan, you've seen these highlights of his two brothers running around the court together. These are not NBA players. All right. Like, Milwaukee's done a lot for Giannis as well, and it doesn't seem like there's respect being reciprocated.

[Dan Le Batard]

Oh, this is an interesting one, though, when you get into that, because quiet as it's kept, that part he just said is ridiculous. Like, truly absurd. Those jobs are really coveted. The world is fighting for the jobs at the end of that bench. That's a friends and family plan. They work hard in Milwaukee.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Those are not NBA plans.

[Dan Le Batard]

But that's a friends and family plan that. Look, man, that's Giannis being in a different country, being a superstar with monster temptations at every turn, surrounding himself with the closest thing to family that can be to protect. Look, Giannis is worth more than what the Bucks are like. I know he's not worth more, but Giannis as a figure right now, I take him out of Milwaukee. I have gutted your franchise. I've gutted you. Miles Turner is going to be an albatross for years like that. What? When I say he's more valuable, the franchise has its value, but the Bucks become irrelevant the moment that he leaves and will be there for a very long time. Even if they. Even if they had Khalil Ware and Tyler Hero, which is the best that they were going to do in this incarnation, but when it comes to how it is that these breakups work, there is no good way ever to do this. This. This has not been done well by anybody. There have been a great many different forms. No one knows how to do this correctly because not everyone's going to agree with how any of this is done. So now we enter the spin cycle of. Yeah, as far as optics go, this person's story is crazy in terms what of a. What a star he's become in a different language. Okay. We don't really allow that in this country very much. Your commercial spokesman speak English. They're the ones who connect with the audience. Jokic is excellent. As best as I've ever seen. Not a real star in this country. Basketball star. Basketball star. This is a foreigner who is a superstar in this country. That franchise has protected him by keeping his family there. His family will move with him. The next place will have to do for him. Man, Dragic got this done. Like, this is a real power center. They changed the worth of your franchise. This person moving. The reason LeBron's underpaid is because every city he's come to, he has increased its value. While salary captured the economy around the stadium by tons of money. There are how many guys in this league who have this kind of value, this kind of interest, this kind of story is worth writing about them right now?

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Probably like half a dozen.

[Dan Le Batard]

Maybe they are the league. The league isn't. Whatever they're going to put in Seattle, this league made a star league. They've got a star problem. Your franchises aren't your franchises. He's Milwaukee. When he leaves Milwaukee, the Bucks cease to matter.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

So in that sense, that's why I'm saying the respect doesn't seem to be reciprocated, because what you're saying is true. When he leaves, that franchise is going to cease to matter for a very long time.

[Dan Le Batard]

So why?

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Why can't it be? Let's both come up with a resolution that's good for each side instead of Giannis. It only matters what I want here. Like, shouldn't we allow the Bucks to talk to other teams besides the New York Knicks so that I don't leave you floundering forever?

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[Unidentified Speaker 4]

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[Mike Ryan]

hey Roy, buddy.

[Dan Le Batard]

Yo.

[Mike Ryan]

You know that energy shift when the game gets good and everybody all together in unison knows to stand up on their feet?

[Unidentified Speaker 4]

Oh, absolutely, Mike.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah? You've been at many big time sporting events. You know that moment quite well. That's what it's like when you take your first sip of Cuervo.

[Unidentified Speaker 4]

Oh, delicious.

[Mike Ryan]

It's the signal that says we're not checking the time anymore, pal. It's when small talk turns into stories. Cuervo, man. It's that high five. A random stranger effect. That's right. The game is popping. You're hugging people you never met before. That's the kind of energy that Cuervo brings. It's so smooth, so delicious. That's the Cuervo effect. Keep it Cuervo.

[Dan Le Batard]

Don LeBatard. Mike Ryan's in there and he's the one with a baby. He's the one who's gotta, like, worry about what the future is. And Mike Ryan bet on DraftKings because Mike Ryan bet on us. This is the bet you're afraid of doubling down on? Putting up a billboard in Edmonton. Stugats.

[Mike Ryan]

I care more about Matthew Tkachuk than I do my daughter.

[Dan Le Batard]

This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugats. Here's what's funny about how many different ways this gets contaminated, though, by the bias of whatever it is or whoever it is that's looking at it, whether it's shams, whether it's the media, whether it's the betrayed fan. Of all the personality types because Giannis cares about his image, about the optics, how things look, how things look in the commercials, the only guy who actually came close to getting this right, not fighting with the franchise, is the personality type of Russell Westbrook. That guy figured out how to get out as triple double MVP of the league. Oh, they're losing anyway. Oh, Russell needs a new home. It's okay. Let's break up. What are the odds you would have gotten five years ago or 10 years ago on Westbrook being the only one to be able to get this right?

[Mike Ryan]

It's pretty amazing. Jeremy and I were laughing about it. He was left at the altar by Paul George and so OKC fans kind of understood his plight.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, it was. It was kd. That leaves Oklahoma City.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Right?

[Jeremy]

And Paul George ends up in Oklahoma City. And when he wants to be traded to the Clippers after extending an OKC because of Russell Westbrook, that sets up for sga. Then you have all of these big men that he made look better over the years. Guys like Enos Cantor and Steven Adams and Sergio Baca at different points of his career, who all gather picks. Then Russell Westbrook himself was flipped for Chris Paul and two more first round picks. And Chris Paul at the time was a leader for a young team that was needed.

[Dan Le Batard]

He really set them up for the future. I'm drinking tea. He's playing hurt, though. You guys can hear the knot in his hamstring as he tries to run the base.

[Mike Ryan]

I thought the pain in his voice, I thought you meant the pain describing how a franchise turns the page and rebuilds.

[Dan Le Batard]

Jeremy, I am looking forward to you being your strongest self this evening during the live stream. When we are going to be eager about the Marlins with you if we don't have to go off the air at 8pm Because America has done something horrible and criminal.

[Jeremy]

Well, don't worry. At 8pm we'll be going to the youe Song, you, Choice selection, setting up the songs we'll be able to listen to later in our program, as well as our first look at the Levitard AF merch alert.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Also, have a 5050 raffle, but save

[Dan Le Batard]

your voice, please, because it's not doing well. It's not doing much better than it was yesterday. And I hear the hurt and it's distracting. I can't. Like, I don't know if this is happening to anybody else, but. But you were making very good points. I couldn't understand because I heard the knot.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Yeah, I found it sexy.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, I've been told it's sexy.

[Dan Le Batard]

Okay. But that's not what I'm telling you. I'm. It may be their own. May be indeed sexy, but what it can't be as audio is distracting to me when I don't understand what he's saying because I'm listening to the knot in his hamstring. Thank you for telling me that it's fair how it is that I try to do an audio program.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Speaking of Giannis's brothers playing for the team, who's the star in the league who thought he was good enough to get his sibling or cousin on the team? And they're like, hey, sorry, buddy. LeBron picturing Tyrese Halliburton being like, hey, guys, I got a good cousin.

[Dan Le Batard]

You don't know. You don't know how funny it is that the media got so mad because LeBron put his kid on the team when Giannis's entire family is on the payroll. Like, it's an absurd guy around the

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

league that's like, I want to do this. And the team's like, now you're you.

[Dan Le Batard]

I'm assuming the Jokic brothers have some sort of management position, ambassadors or something that. Wasn't there a controversy involving one of the Jokic brothers this last weekend? Didn't one of them try to fight an old man or something?

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Or Dan, the one. I mean, both of them are obviously super big, but one of them is, like, significantly bigger than the other one. Just a. Like, he looks like the mountain in Game of Thrones, like an incredibly giant, scary man.

[Dan Le Batard]

That is correct. He's about 300 pounds, and you don't see but 5% body fat on him. He seems like he's Made. Made all out of his skull that the skull just runs the entire base of the skeleton. And it's 300. Sturdy, muscled pounds.

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

315. He's about 610, 350, all tatted up, all complete muscle. I'm not going to try and say his name because I'm trying to be better today.

[Dan Le Batard]

Okay. How's that working out so far? Okay. Okay. I'm looking forward to your contributions this evening. Again, when we're doing a live stream unlike any I believe, ever done in sports history. We're gonna be watching the Marlin, the Heat and Marlins, the Heat and the Panthers, as there's a deadline for the world literally burning.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

You may remember at one point, Chris J.R. smith's brother was signed by the Knicks.

[Dan Le Batard]

Wow.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Now we're talking. I would have thought that would have got a no.

[Dan Le Batard]

Jeremy just whispered to me cuz he wants to win the argument. While you guys are doing show and I'm trying to listen to you, people in the chat are saying my voice does sound sexy.

[Jeremy]

It does.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

I see you put in the chat on the poll.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah, put it on the poll.

[Jeremy]

Does Jeremy sound even sexier than usual?

[Dan Le Batard]

That's what I asked.

[Mike Ryan]

And guess what?

[Jeremy]

They all said yes, you would represent

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

it as the chat is saying. When I saw you, I provoked it.

[Jeremy]

I asked the question, I was mad at Dan and I said, do I sound sexy or do I sound sexy? And the answer was sexy.

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

I hear the knot in his hamstring.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah.

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

Like he was making great points. I heard like Paul, George and Chris Paul.

[Mike Ryan]

And I was like.

[Dan Le Batard]

It sounded like.

[Jeremy]

What do you use? Dance phrase.

[Dan Le Batard]

It's. It sounded like he was wildly informed.

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

It sounded like, you don't call me out.

[Dan Le Batard]

But I was distracted because he was hobbling down the baseline. And so everything he was saying, I'm like worried about his health because something doesn't sound right. From that story. Zaslow. The most interesting details. And I want to ask you again, framing it in the journalism of our times. He's writing it. That still means something. Okay. He can't do that on television. What he just wrote there, where it's reported, it's framed. That takes many hours to do. That's not just getting on television and gas bagging for. For 90 seconds. He's got to do substantive reporting. That takes him all night. That takes him several days to put together the information there. He doesn't just spit it out. He's not a typewriter. What is in there? That is meant like just, I want you guys to watch this part, Giannis just got his guy to do the story. Giannis is at the height of the. With the union and the league's gonna investigate. Giannis is getting out. This is what it looks like at the beginning when you go get your gatekeeper, you tell him the story and you put Shams to work on. Tell my story to protect my family's economy. Like the machine has kicked to work here and Shams passes as a journalist. Journalist or not a journalist.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

No, he's a journalist.

[Dan Le Batard]

Okay, Because. But we've got some. Adam Schefter's guilty of some breaches here journalistically that would. Would make somebody in a previous time no longer be allowed to be a journalist. Cuz the information guys are compromised. Shams is telling a story here on behalf of this entire agency. This might as well be a press release. It's got details in there, but what I'm telling you is this is an orchestrated thing meant to. Hey, Giannis still has the commercials. Let's go protect all this. Shams, Go write this story.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Well, but there is, there is some other stuff like, you know, you have this one quote here where the crux of the issue is feeling Giannis doesn't want to be here on any given day. One team source said, like, quotes like that are not coming from Giannis's agent. Most of the story is Giannis's agent.

[Dan Le Batard]

Oh, listen, I'm not. This is the thing about the dance that these guys are doing. I. Look, man, I've been, I've sold my soul to the entertainment vehicle over the last 20 years where I'm watching what's happening here in journalism. And this is the best there is right now. He's got all the contacts, all the sources. I did not believe that this job could be done by anybody in the world the way that Woj did it. Like, I literally thought there was no other personality anywhere walking the globe, seeing everyone who's come through journalism as uniquely qualified to be as cutthroat, as nuts, as 20 hours a day talking to every single person as Woj. But this guy is that this guy learned at that tree. And I didn't think anybody can do that. And he writes the stories. And when I tell you that right now Giannis and his family need protection on the optics of however this goes next, when nobody gets this right. But Westbrook, what do you do with the information that this person is writing? A story that I'm telling you is part of an orchestrated plan to clean up whatever it is that Giannis needs cleaned up here, and it doesn't mean that he can't put in the other side here and there as well. But that was a wildly flattering article

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

to Giannis, you think? I don't think so. I didn't think it was very flattering.

[Mike Ryan]

Can you clear up for me what you think is very flattering to Giannis?

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

I thought the agent wanted it to be flattering.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah. I didn't seize on that. I was interested in the machinations of the deal, but I didn't come out reading like, oh, Giannis looks really good here.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

I think it looks bad.

[Dan Le Batard]

Okay, so go ahead, explain to me why you think that it looks bad as they're trying to the. Okay, so you're not making the jump that I am making, that. The team of Antetokounmpo and Giannis are in the mode right now preparing for and in the middle of a public relations fight. I do believe that they don't have the apparatus to execute themselves, so they have to summon somebody who wants the story and then give it to the person who's going to disseminate the story to give it more reach than it would have under any other circumstances.

[Mike Ryan]

You can color in the lines here. I don't doubt that that's the intention.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

I do.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah, that's PR spin 101.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

And I think that it's backfired.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah, but they didn't control the narrative. They're subject to whatever Shahms applies to it.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

But I also. I also think they think their story makes them look sympathetic. And I think they're wrong.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah, it's just a miscalculation. Go ahead.

[Dan Le Batard]

You think that they're wrong because the audience is predisposed, I believe, to think that the money grubbing athlete is doing the wrong thing, behaving the wrong way, when in a system that doesn't allow that athlete the freedom to ever do this with a way that will be met with grace from a public that's not already ready to be outraged. Giannis is a sweet person. He got to that superstardom the best ways. His story is crazy. The way he performed in the finals was nuts. He won a championship and that buys you forever. He won a championship for a market and did it the right way. As all the other guys were fighting each other, he did it as the one guy. You could get me Middleton and Jrue Holiday, but it's gonna be Middleton. Me, I'm gonna be the star. I'm gonna do it the old fashioned way. It's not gonna take three guys it's gonna take one. And his story makes it so that he's a bigger star than Jokic. Who's a better player. He's a bigger star because he's in the commercials. He let us get to know him. Books have been written about him and his connection to the city, the details of which are him jogging through the streets to practice because he came from such humble beginnings that he just ran to the. To the practice facility, didn't have a car and would run miles to the facility because he could run for miles. Turned himself into an amazing player when he was super raw and never considered to be this, like, worked his way to that. Giannis. I know we see it now and we're like, wow, what amazing gifts. Yes, of course. Wasn't drafted in a way that would suggest that people knew that that was going to be this. Nobody knew that was going to be this story. Has worked his way to it. Wins the championship perfectly. Humble pillar for everything you want. Here come the commercials. Here comes the connection to Milwaukee. Here comes the parade. Milwaukee hasn't felt this good as a city in a long time. Hey, time to break up Middleton, go to the Wizards. Drew, get out of here. Win it for somebody else.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Hey.

[Dan Le Batard]

Giannis gets left behind and he's waving his hands. Get me help. Get me help. Miles Turner. Get me help. Get me help. Ooh, they got you, Damian Lillard. Ouch. That one hurts. That's the one that's supposed to work. All this plays out differently if Dame Lillard comes into camp and shape and doesn't get injured because he was sad. Because this hurts. When you've got a genuine connection with the city. Damian Lillard gets. Gets there emotionally broken and then physically broke. Like, got there fat because whatever that stress was, didn't want to leave the city. Goes back to the city now. Because these connections matter to people like Giannis. I don't believe that's fraudulent. Like, I don't believe. I don't believe that Giannis ever thought that the love with Milwaukee was going to be temporary.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

I. Obviously, the player is by far the most important in this scenario. But why don't the Bucks get any crap credit? Like. Like, the Bucks did draft this kid who no one thought was going to be this.

[Mike Ryan]

He was a project, no doubt, Huge project.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

They helped nurture that. Like, if we want to talk about heat culture and the way the heat developed, players like the Bucks, at very least helped Giannis get to the place that he got to. The Bucks did get pieces, including trading for guys like Drew Holiday and helped him become a champion. The Bucks put his family on the team. I'll tell you who wouldn't have done that. The Heat. I mean, if LeBron James had brothers that weren't NBA players, they wouldn't have been on the Miami Heat.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Not so sure.

[Dan Le Batard]

LeBron tried that. Look, this is drafted Shabazz Napier. This is known within Heat circles. What all the things LeBron and his camp wanted. Look, they were right to want them. Why wouldn't they want them? Give us a ton of season tickets. We're coming to Miami. Of course they knew what they were worth. They were trying to change and shake the system and get the skyboxes for themselves so that they could turn Miami into the party that I'm sure Los Angeles became. In some ways, where his kids on the roster.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

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[Dan Le Batard]

Required K Pop Demon Hunters Haja Boy's breakfast meal and Hunt Trick's meal have just dropped at McDonald's. They're calling this a battle for the fans. What do you say to that, Ruby?

[Depop Advertiser]

It's not a battle.

[Dan Le Batard]

So glad the Saja Boys could take

[Depop Advertiser]

breakfast and give our meal the rest of the day.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

It is an honor to share.

[Dan Le Batard]

No, it's our honor. It is our larger honor.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

No, really, stop.

[Dan Le Batard]

You can really feel the respect in this battle. Pick a meal to pick a side

[DraftKings Advertiser]

and participate in McDonald's while supplies last.

[Dan Le Batard]

Don LeBatard, what is the worst part of the life? Stugats.

[Jeremy]

The worst part of the life of what?

[Dan Le Batard]

This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugach.

[Mike Ryan]

Says. I read this article and I just see more of the same. More the same half measures from Giannis's camp up, who never really actually has the balls to say he wants.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

That's the interesting part. Right. If he would have said that before the trade deadline, I don't think Bucks fans would have been angry. I think they would have understood. And now we have this story and all this.

[Mike Ryan]

Yes, we have the whole drama. That is. It's still. It's still unclear. Like, okay, come back and play. You don't like that we're waving the white flag? Oh, you don't want to do the things necessary to actually come back.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

He just wants to play with his brothers, which was. Which Amin, you know, told us yesterday. And that's a nice sentiment, but can you give the team a little bit of credit where. All right, they. They need to watch you practice one day at.

[Mike Ryan]

At every turn with this Giannis drama, there are obvious questions to ask. Well, then why aren't you going to practice and working your way back here if this is so important to you, if you take such offense to waving the white flag. But he's along for the ride. It seems like this is part of his plan, them tanking because him on the court helps them win and he doesn't want to be on the court.

[Jeremy]

It wasn't just the playing with his brothers. It was also apparently, according to the sources within this article, that not playing 41 games cost him a significant bonus in his Nike contract.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Okay. Like, he's been hurt.

[Jeremy]

Well, right. But if he wants to come back and get to that amount of games and the Bucks are telling him, no, we don't want to clear you. No, we don't want to clear you. No, we don't want to clear you. There are multiple reasons he wants to be back that have nothing to do with competition. The team claims, hey, we wanted you to play three on three. And he wouldn't do that as a

[Mike Ryan]

part of the game.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

He didn't even see him practice before. It's just a show up from not even play room. Hey, guys, I'm ready to play.

[Mike Ryan]

Put me in the game again. It's always the most obvious follow up and the entire story from Giannis's camp, it just cracks.

[Dan Le Batard]

Okay, you say that, but we really are over here is the biased. Everyone is gathered around, tired of the athlete leaving. Like, who likes this? This is all broken. And it's like this was a lovely relationship and now it's all. It's all busted up and he loved Milwaukee. Now he's going to leave hurt and

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

the league is investigating the team and he want.

[Dan Le Batard]

And again, he wants to play and isn't being allowed to for whatever his reasons, whether it's the Nike contract or he really cares about winning three more games.

[Mike Ryan]

One correction. He says he wants to play.

[Dan Le Batard]

Okay.

[Mike Ryan]

I think scrutiny should be applied when they're very clear and obvious benchmarks. Too clear here that he is practice one day. He's just not interested.

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Do it.

[Dan Le Batard]

He. He. He says he wants to play. And here is a detail offered up for your perusals on. I don't know what the amount was, but he wants a bonus from Nike. That's. That sounds like the truth because it's just cold and no one better. Like, just follow that trail. Follow that trail at all times. I don't know what the bonus is.

[Mike Ryan]

Giannis will be okay without the bonus.

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

I was going to say, plus he'll be all right. He's one of the biggest sellers for Nike. He doesn't play 41 games and all of a sudden people stop buying Giannis shoes.

[Mike Ryan]

Bold prediction. He'll be made whole.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Yeah, I would imagine Nike takes care of that.

[Dan Le Batard]

Okay. And that is all well and fine. The detail is in the article. Why? Why is the detail in the article? Why do you know?

[Mike Ryan]

Because it helps make him look good, which is what Giannis's camp went into this doing. And yet the entire thing collapses when you apply a modicum of scrutiny to it, which has been the deal this entire season. This is a breakup. Giannis is especially struggling with how to do it right. It's beneficial to the Bucs that he actually doesn't play because they know how good they can be when Giannis is on the court and they don't want to be good this year because they want a higher pick. This is just all posturing and half measures and anybody with a brain can understand what's going on here. It's a guy that wants to be. Well, like this is Dwight Howard all over again.

[Dan Le Batard]

That's a good comp.

[Mike Ryan]

It is Dwight Howard all over again. He does not have the guts to do what is necessary to force his way out, because that burns some bridges and he doesn't want to be unpopular, even if it's just for a few months.

[Dan Le Batard]

But this is. This one's. God, this is so interesting, right? I watched a rod sort of collapse under the weight of this and rebuild himself from there. But the optics on who do I have to be so Americans will love me?

[Bucked Up Advertiser]

Me.

[Dan Le Batard]

The optics on not who am I? And then America loves me. And he'd walk around and he'd ask Michael Jordan and he'd ask Cal Ripken Jr. What, like how do I shake hands? What do I need to do so that America will love me? This guy's been very good at the optics until now, right? Like there's that. I remember the flames climbed real high on Dame Lillard when we all love Dame. And then it was like, mm, we're sniffing around cuz it's near the money and the relationship isn't as pure as I thought it was. Oh, I thought that was love. No, you're the businessman. Only you get to be the businessman, the customer, the media, everyone here is aligned against this guy being able to do this correctly. Cuz you guys are wildly full of shit. If you think somebody who comes out and just says, yeah, I wanna leave, get my ass outta here, isn't gonna be perceived as arrogance and him shaking the system. That guy doesn't care about team. When everything he's shown you optically and has been trying to prove to America for the last 13 years is. Do you know how much I about team? It's not about me, it's about us. I'm the humble superstar, I'm the best, but I'm pure. It's all about team.

[Mike Ryan]

That's what he wants people to believe, no doubt. And we know from the summer of reporting how serious he was in his flirtation with the New York Knicks. I have no doubt how important it is to Giannis that people have a good opinion of him. And he is afraid to go all in on fully requesting a trade and being that bad guy because he doesn't wanna navigate what few weeks that might be in the newspaper.

[Dan Le Batard]

Everybody forgets about this is a less bad opinion that people will have of him than the. Than the prospect that you're telling him to do. That would go more poorly for him than this, right?

[Mike Ryan]

In terms of maybe Milwaukee. In the eyes of the basketball world, he's a chump.

[Dan Le Batard]

But that relationship matters to him. Is that relationship allowed to be real or is it always gonna be a business transaction?

[Mike Ryan]

It's always gonn. Even if he forces his way out, he can open up a car dealership in Milwaukee whenever he wants, provided he waits six weeks and the fan base gets over it.

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

On top of that, Dan, like, is not the humble and his humility nature just part of the ego.

[Dan Le Batard]

Right?

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

Like, you're going to tell me Giannis has zero ego whatsoever?

[Mike Ryan]

No, man.

[Unidentified Speaker 3]

Like, this is part of who he is. He's the alpha top tier athlete on the planet. And the way that he's built is like nobody else. His ego is hurt right now. And the way that he fixes by being humble, that's got to feed into it.

[Dan Le Batard]

Okay, but what I would just tell you is the way he got to be a super star in America through all the obstacles I just said is because it was always well camouflaged. Whatever his ego was that got him to excellent always was shrouded in the humility of. This guy's not one of the assholes. He's not one of the arrogant ones. We're gonna allow him to be face of the league for a little while here because he's one of the good guys. Just like we made Steph one of the good guys. And it's because he's hidden that from us. Like, yes, you do not win the championship coming back from what I thought was a career ending injury unless you are an assassin of ego who knows you're better than who you're playing against. That is cutthroat. That's a cutthroat buzzsaw. Like, that guy is absolutely an ego monster in that furnace will bite anyone's face who comes at him with that kind of ego. But he wants it to look to America like he's sweet.

[Mike Ryan]

Yes. There's no. We don't have our wires crossed here. What's going to happen this summer is he's going to get to position himself as like, look, the franchise is going in a different direction. They have this lottery pick. I wanted to play, things didn't work out. And he's gonna get to play up to whatever narrative and he'll do all the profile pieces and you'll get to smile and take out a huge article in the newspaper. He'll get his way. And it takes time. But I do think that people are right to call BS on it as it's happening.

[Dan Le Batard]

You guys are just mad because he nuked it. Like, everything that's happening, it's happening because

[Mike Ryan]

it's like Dwight Howard phoney stuff. We all know what he wants.

[Dan Le Batard]

But you guys are mad here because the other detailed story, the one that Miami cares about is this was 18 hours from done. Yeah. Like this was.

[Mike Ryan]

Yeah, no, I'm mad about that. And the Kalshee stuff, no doubt, because he's taking. He's actively perpetuating this trade drama. Meanwhile, he has a minority stake in a prediction.

[Unidentified Speaker 2]

Adam Silver's all over it. Don't worry.

[Dan Le Batard]

That's an. You have to admit that all of that is an amazing evolution of the superstar story. In the places where you say, well, Giannis has got enough, there ain't no enough. These guys are competing on money the way that they're competing on the court. Like, if Nike takes. If Nike takes $1,000 from Giannis, someone's in. His family's gonna notice.

[Mike Ryan]

Another place where I judge him is Giannis. You're in the prime of your career, right? We don't know how long that frame at that level is gonna maintain itself. And the optics meant so much to you that you'd rather the good optics than force your way out and compete for another ring? And that. We judge everybody in that sport on rings. And he just didn't want to have that mentality here. He'd rather have the optics.

[Jeremy]

There ain't no enough. You sound like Chris Looks.

[Unidentified Speaker 1]

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