Local Hour: Pat Riley Needs to Kill Someone
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Cuervo. The tequila that invented tequila. Proximo. Cuervo.com. Please drink responsibly. I don't know if we're ever going to do a game show, sort of a couples game show with me and Stugatz, but I'm going to ask him a question I've never asked him that I should know the answer to that I don't know the answer to. Interesting. What kind of cigarettes do you smell like right now? Marlboro Silvers. Shorts. I like the shorties, you know.

The 120s, it's like you're smoking two in one sitting. Healthier option. No. So I go with the shorties, which are the healthiest of the options. Yes. Of the bad options. Have cigarettes come out with a light? Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's marble lights and all the lights. I don't do cigarettes. They all kill you. Yeah. One does it lighter than the other. Marble lights. Slower, maybe. I don't know.

But you have had an evolution here over the years or has it always been, what, have you always smelled like that brand of cigarette? - That's the only brand.

Yeah, that's the only brand I've ever smoked. Yeah. Not too harsh, you know? Nice and smooth. Loyal. Brand loyal. Yep. Like it. I want to make a comment now while we're on audio only because I will not be under-promising or over-promising, I should say, when I tell the

television audience that they're in for a delightful visual surprise because once again, as is the case always with Stugatz and Greg Cody, Greg Cody and Stugatz always win. So a punishment that was supposed to be a costume that made him look bad, instead he looks like today more than ever, he's straight out of the 1919s. Ha ha ha!

He could not... That costume looks great on him. I would want to be led somewhere by him. He looks like one of the ghosts coming out of the cornfield in Field of Dreams. What costume? This is my uniform. I'm...

I'm the manager of the Boston Americans. It's 1901. I'm trying to get the new century started off right. We have a big game against Cleveland later today. We got McGillicuddy on the hill. It's baseball time. Somebody just told me that the hockey season just ended. What is hockey? Who's playing sports on ice? I've never heard of such a thing. It's baseball time, America's pastime. Oh, he's got material from the night. He's here from the past. He's here from the night.

Hopefully that's the end of it. No, it's not quite the end. Hey, don't get me started. I got a young kid on my team, Ebenezer McDavid. He's supposed to be the next coming. He's supposed to be all this, the next Honest Wagner. He's overrated at this point. How method is this? Because I don't want to talk about integration with this guy.

It's 1901, baby. Stigatz, I have an important question for you. Okay. We went around the horn yesterday. Do you remember where you were when Paul George got traded to the Clippers? Ha!

Where was it? Dan was at the Clevelander. Who? It was at Las Rosas. I don't remember. Most people land there. Why would you? Is that true? I have a very vivid, like, oh my God! Because remember, Kawhi was leveraging the Lakers, so it was a shocking thing. No, but it wasn't just that. It was that Kawhi was super quiet, mysterious, and Uncle Dennis is involved, and all of a sudden...

ballmer is negotiating with uncle dennis and next thing you know paul george the notion that kawai was going to the lakers was going to break the sport because this was kawai at the peak of his powers and we all thought the nba was going to be ruined and then kawai saved everything by in the shadows negotiating paul george to be his running mate in la thus making the nba wide open it

really was a where were you type of moment. Do you believe based on the way Greg Cody looks that we could simply say of him racial profiling this person was a racist? Yes. Back in 1901. Yeah, everybody was. Put her on the pole. Back in 1901 was everybody a little racist? This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stukas Podcast. Music

He looks great. He really does. He looks like somebody who was throwing a knuckleball in 1924 as the Great Depression approached.

He looks the part. What was that hand signal? What pitch was that? That was my knuckleball. That was your knuckleball? The knuckler. All right, ladies and gentlemen, a 50-year chronicler of athletes thinks the knuckleball, after 50 years of covering baseball, is thrown with two fingers. The hook-em-horn sign is how you throw the knuckleball. Charlie Huff taught it to me. It can't be.

It can be thrown with two fingers, just not your middle and ring finger. Eh, technicality. That's how it used to be thrown. Hook him. Thank you, Billy. It's his knuckleball. Thank you. I invented the knuckleball. Yep, you sure did. Damn right.

So Greg Cody's in character today. He's pretending like he's from 1919 because he's ushering in baseball season. Why are you making faces, Billy? He's pretending like he's from. I mean, I feel like Greg has just come into the room from the past. I don't understand. This isn't a costume. This is Greg. Yeah. Why are you calling it a costume? This is my uniform. It is a Greg Cody Tuesday. Do you have it back in my day? I don't. Doggone it. Right.

It's typically the first appearance of the week if it's on a Tuesday. Yeah, exactly. Right. But you're wearing a costume today. You are selling a recycled book of back in my days, but you haven't had a fresh one in years, right? You're just selling old stuff. Months, I'd say, not years. It's been months. The book is flying off the shelves today.

and and the part of the line we're still really proud of uh... somebody uh... fed for the only the second time ever somebody at the panthers of beach celebration sunday came up to me instead of must enjoy reading the pride of alliance so i really appreciated that who that your parade uh... correspondence that you could you given us any of this yesterday just give a sunburn yesterday and said you're out there for hours and now you're reporting is that someone complimented your book right i had a video other i did but uh... it was not played

by your show, so I can't, I'm not responsible for that. I availed it to the show. They didn't play it. Was it not good enough? Did it not meet our standards? Was it not funny enough? I am told that you took very poor selfies all weekend, that you don't know how to take selfies. Well, the problem was I should have gone like this and gotten a panorama in the background and instead I just went like this

So my infamous Cody nose is front and center on the video, which I'm not real proud of. All right, let's see that video that Greg Cody thought we should have played yesterday of his parade correspondence. By the way, he looks in this photo, I'm just going to say, like Fort Lauderdale. The elbow room has looked something like that for 50 years, and many, many things have been snorted up nostril tunnels like these.

I'm Greg Cody from the Greg Cody Show podcast, reporting live from Fort Lauderdale Beach, where the Panthers championship has been celebrated. The Panthers have been celebrated. The Panthers have been celebrated.

Trying to get the commercial music out of here. Wow. Very close. Oh, God. The schnoz. Yeah. That's too bad.

It's too bad we didn't get to that yesterday. Talking out of the side of your mouth. You having a stroke? Nailed it. This is the inception of his narcissism. He leans back in costume and just enjoys his... Uniform, not costume. He leans back in uniform and just enjoys something from yesterday that is self-involved, not interesting, and just his nostrils. Right. Yeah, we didn't... Back in my day, we didn't have any of those newfangled phones that served as cameras. What's going on?

All right. There are sports things I want to get to, including Inter-Miami having the most amazing and wonderful weird ending that didn't feel like a victory, even though it's the most historic moment in the history of South Florida soccer.

I think that's what we witnessed last night. It's a low bar. A tie is the most famous. Yes, well, they gave up the two-goal lead late. They scared everybody, but all they needed was a draw and they advanced. So it was a good tie, huh? Yeah, it was. Ha ha!

You want to poo-poo a tie. No, but finally Stugatz has been safe. Stugatz has been waving around that Bengals tie from seven years ago. It's important. It hasn't been since 2005 that the last, that was the last time an MLS team didn't lose to a team from South America in a competitive match.

Inter-Miami also was the first team from the Americas to beat a European team in a competitive match. They went undefeated in a very difficult group. I do think it's the greatest achievement in club history, getting to the knockout stage of this tournament. That being said, it should feel a lot better. It didn't feel good after they blew a 2-0 lead to Palmetto. And the end of the game kind of felt...

like you were on a razor's edge because you weren't really aware of what was going on in the other match. So it left a lot to be desired in terms of feeling fulfilled. But for a club that is only five years old, to make it to the knockout stage of this tournament is incredible. Can you explain, though, Cody, as someone who's covered soccer in this market since the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of 1978, can you give me a feeling comparable to that mess from last night where you get a wildly unfulfilling fulfillment?

Well, if I'm going way back, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers went to the soccer bowl, the Super Bowl equivalent of the NASL. Wow. Soccer bowl. Was that on Sunday? In 1979. And Bulletin, Lionel Messi wasn't the first big superstar to play down here. Hold on a second, Greg. Hold on a second. Soccer bowl Saturday? I mean, it should be on a Saturday. We'll get back to that later, but it should be on a Saturday. Let your son get situated here so we could talk.

1978 Strikers, please, and the Soccer Bowl. Thank you. Okay, it's not that far back. I mean, I lived it, as you can tell by the way I'm talking. Yeah, we got it, we got it. Keep it moving. No, that 1979 Soccer Bowl team of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers

They had Gerd Müller from Germany, one of the all-time great players. They had Neni Cubillas from Peru, one of the all-time great players. One of the first Hispanic words you ever learned, correct? Neni Cubillas? It could be. I don't know. I don't chronicle it. Cubillas. I don't catalog that. Cubillas. Cubillas. Cubillas.

Who's that to you, fellow Cabillas? Your glasses are fogging up. I know they are because I'm not used to being in a heavy wool uniform. And now you look like Joe Zagacki with the sunglasses again. I can't win. They're either fogging up or I'm not. No, keep your glasses off. Give me the glasses. Just keep doing back in my day as Zagacki and please video, find the Zagacki sunglasses and put it in picture in picture, please. Okay, I just don't like to act.

Like, this is the first time that we've ever had anything special happen in soccer in South Florida because it isn't. But to Mike's point, this is the biggest accomplishment for Inter-Miami by far. I mean, winning the League's Cup, it's an oversized trophy for a new tournament. It means very little. Winning the Supporters' Shield, you may...

disagree with this, Mike, but it's a consolation prize that's only bittersweet if you follow it up with a first round playoff exit. So this accomplishment is by far the biggest. And I also love the fact that by far the biggest what? Finish the thought historian, please. By far the biggest what? By far the biggest accomplishment for Inter-Miami thus far in the messy era. And what does it mean within the context of 50 years of

covering soccer in this market when I'm calling it a wildly unfulfilling fulfillment. Oh, you're totally wrong. You're totally wrong. And now what's ahead is also fascinating because Messi goes up against his former team, played there a couple of years coming out of the pandemic. He played for Paris Saint-Germain and...

It could have been the Brazilian team. Botafogo. Yeah, and everybody would make fun of that, if only for the name, but they won the Brazilian championship in 2024. It's a great name. And they also just beat PSG, which is the reigning Champions League winner. So it would not have been an easier match, but I think it's a sexier match for Messi to face his former team. Great for storylines. But look, no matter, over the course of 50 years...

you had an MLS side beat a two-time Champions League champion and Porto had won most recently in 2003 a Champions League so they're a club of prestige it's a difficult group you have European blue bloods in Porto you have a

a club that's 125 years old from Sao Paulo that's decorated. You have the most decorated club in the history of the world in Al-Ali from Egypt. Not a lot of people had them coming out of this group. And for a moment there, they looked like the class of the group. It looked like they were winning this thing easily. To go through it undefeated and get to the knockout stages and set up this incredible matchup, which will be

undoubtedly very difficult for them against PSG, for the storylines alone, it's incredible. It's a dream matchup that you only see in FIFA. Why are you saying blue bloods so much?

I said it once. I mean, to try to explain it in American terms. Do you know about Porto's early 2000s Champions League victory with Jose Mourinho at the helm? Yes, thank you for the reminder. Well, they're always in European competition. I know they're from Portugal, which may not be perceived as like the Bundesliga here. The only reason I'm stopping you or slowing you down, okay, because...

You have been talking blue bloods since you bought your way into the University of Miami program. You have been just... He loved blue bloods. You've been using the phrase a lot, and it's usually something you were doing only with college basketball. I'm trying to explain it to the Americans in the room. Okay. Yeah.

And I appreciate it. Because you're poo-pooing the accomplishment. And I would say, like, I reached out to people at the club and they're like, yeah, this is the biggest thing that we've ever done. I think they've made $20 million to this point through this competition in advancing to this point. From a business standpoint, it's a huge success. From an achievement on the football...

ball pitch. It's an incredible achievement that many people doubted. For Messi to be doing this, he just turned 38 years old, to be carrying this team of a couple of old, you saw that Suarez goal. I mean, form is temporary, but class is permanent. Brilliant. He has his old running mates from Barcelona and a bunch of journeymen and young guys from MLS to do that, to go toe-to-toe and beat the likes of Porto and come back.

If I can correct what it is when you're saying that I'm poo-pooing this by calling it a wildly unfulfilling fulfillment, ultimately it is a fulfillment. But try to explain to people that a tie where you cough up two goals late and you end in a tie, try to explain to them how it is that qualifying, that it means something historic because of the

difficulty in the class of people when you're trying to sell this over a paywall to tomorrow's fans for the World Cup because you've already got soccer fans. It's not like soccer fans. The reason Messi is here is because everyone understands in soccer around the world where genius is appreciated, that there are some things only he can do. And my God, what an honor to be able to get him to do them in Miami for a team that we can care about here. So

I don't mean to poo-poo what the accomplishment is. I just mean when you're holding on for your life at the end as a viewing experience, you don't feel great about the game. No, and it should feel better. If Inter-Miami had either come back from 2-0 down or they exchanged goals, it would feel a little bit different. Leaving that stadium, you would have thought Palmeiras won...

a world title of some sort. But I would say, and I've talked to people that cover MLS, you could make a solid argument that this is the most impressive achievement that a professional soccer team from America has ever accomplished in getting to this stage. Look at what MLS has done in this tournament. They haven't exactly covered themselves in glory. Inter-Miami is standing toe-to-toe with Titans from Brazil, Titans from Portugal, the most decorated club in the history of world football, and now they get to the knockout stage of

against the reigning European champion in PSG. It's, like I said, a dream match, and they should be very proud of that, despite how last night felt. What do we think? 5-0 PSG? PSG's been difficult to read. I do think that they'll clobber Inter-Miami. Inter-Miami, defensively, just... We saw it late in that game. They don't have the defensive personnel to...

really, I think, say, organize, not make a mistake, and hold off, and keep PSG at bay. PSG kind of struggled a little bit with Seattle Sounders yesterday, and they lost to Botafogo, so it's not like they're riding high on great form either. Noon start, but it's in a dome in Atlanta. Inter-Miami did win their lone match of the group in Atlanta, so we'll see.

You'll have incredible theater. You'll have Messi rising to the occasion because he's shown in big time matches he will turn on an effort that you're not used to seeing. So we'll see this. A lot is on the line in terms of optics and there's this whole narrative that PSG got better once they got rid of Messi and Messi...

isn't exactly beloved by PSG fans because of how he left. So it's a cool matchup. It should be said that they knew going into last night's match that a tie would still advance them to the round of 16. So they knew immediately that they were advancing, which was the big prize, even by losing that late lead. And to Mike's point, even if they lose to PSG, and I don't think it'll be 5-0, I think 3-1 or something like that, but even if they lose that match,

It's still a massive accomplishment for Inter-Miami to get this far against this type of competition. Can the goal today be somehow to get Greg Cody into the world in this outfit with no commentary on his sunglass sunburn and his Joe Zagacchi? Jeremy, you were trying to get in here as Billy zoned out on soccer. We cannot get him into hockey and soccer. I was locked in. Inter-Miami PSG.

Saturday. I cannot get you. I can't get you in doors. I was just looking at the table as we speak. Yeah. Jeremy, you were saying the etymology of poo pooing something comes from the 1590s as a vocal gesture expressing the action of puffing anything away and being dismissive. Poo pooing something.

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Don Levitard. I want to address Tony and all men who would wear that shirt in public. Stugatz. Don't do it. This is the Don Levitard Show with the Stugatz.

We want Greg Cody to say something looking like this. So think of things that perhaps are your best and hottest takes, because there is chum in the water around Pat Riley. Our show was very disrespectful yesterday, making a lot of old jokes.

Yeah, not me. Well, I've just sort of seen this. I saw it happen to Don Shula when there was a better replacement. Jimmy Johnson was available. Don Shula never forgave me for not respecting what he thought would have been... He thought he deserved more grace in this market. Do something after 1973. Jeez. It's fair. I think Pat...

Pat's largely gotten a pass for his age. Pass Riley, some call him. It was a pretty shocking stat that I said he's presently the same age that Al Davis was when he said Mortensen. Yeah. Ha ha ha ha.

He doesn't seem that way. He's a young soul, and we don't think of him as old. Well, he looks great. You guys will concede that you were flagrantly ageist yesterday, yes? No, I will not concede that. We were based on results, not on age. I don't think at any point we really brought his age into it. And I think, well, I'm pointing out that he's the same age as Mortensen. When the optics of that Mortensen thing were, man, the game has passed this Titan by. Mortensen. When you have a highly public...

incident the way that he had with Jimmy Butler in which his pride got in the way and he seemed out of touch with today's player it's fair to question we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't at least mention that our show has been so pro Pat Riley over the course of two over the course of a full score okay okay the fact that we come out and just highlight the fact that maybe

Just maybe this old guy is losing touch with the game. He even said it himself on South Beach Sessions. Maybe I'm washed. We question Shams' credibility just because he reported something that may look like Pat Riley might have dropped the ball on this one. Well, you say that I did that. I said we. You did say we, but you meant me.

And because you were in the other camp yesterday and what I was saying is when player names are involved, I just kept asking, I don't know what is true because I could not believe that it would be true that you would deny yourself Kevin Durant.

because you needed to keep either Highsmith or Jovic. It didn't seem like it could be true to me. And so I just wanted to verify it for myself. I have not and do not question Shams's credibility. Ultimately, it was clarified by Shams because what happened was in the article, the phrasing of the sentence that ultimately included the names of Highsmith and and Hawkeyes was

It made people interpret that as individual pieces that wouldn't be included in the trade. What ultimately he went on McAfee's show and said was that if the Heat were going to make the trade, it either needed to be Kalel Ware, and if it wasn't going to be Kalel Ware, attached to the trade.

to the Wiggins and Rozier part of that trade was going to be Jovic, Jaquez, Highsmith, a first-round pick, and multiple pick swaps. That was what the Suns were ultimately asking for. The Heat seemingly drew the line not just at, we won't give you all of those pick swaps, but also, we don't want to give up Jovic, and they had a hard line on what that deal was going to be. All right, and I would just tell you guys, I know everybody wants the superstar, I know you want to get the guy, but I will just say, if you're objecting to the Heat not trading, where?

a twenty-year-old with a future any fixed contract uh... who plays like that

Might not be as valuable as one year of Kevin Durant, but that's a bloated Durant contract and you're now no longer working with salary cap efficiencies even as you get rid of Rozier and Wiggins in order to onboard him. I understand the Heat not wanting to trade where and I understand the Heat not wanting to trade where unless it's in a package for Giannis. But that works against what Riley has done his entire time down here. Yeah, it's different.

It's win now. Go get Durant. I'll sacrifice Ware. Go get Kevin Durant so I have a chance to win next year. And going off of what Jeremy said, it seems as though they did have an option to not include Ware and just simply include Jovich in that other package. And they drew the line at Jovich. What I will say to that is no matter what, the Rockets were going to have more to offer. Now, the Rockets would have had to probably step up their offer from where it ultimately ended up.

had the Heat included Jovic? Sure, make them do it. But if the Heat sort of viewed it as, hey, you know what? This is the line that we want to draw, then it's where they drew it. Either way, they were ultimately going to be outbid if the Rockets wanted Durant bad enough. A lot of DMPs for Jovic down the stretch.

Pat Riley needs to kill someone, right? Like there's no fear of Pat Riley and being the Godfather anymore. Right. There used to be a thing where like you would go in and you'd be like, oh, you'd be like quivering. You're like, I don't want to cross this man. And now yesterday people were making jokes that he was dropping pills on the floor and you had to pick them up because dogs might get them. So like I'm just saying we need to, Pat Riley needs to put the fear of God in these people again. I don't know if he goes and he sits down in one of these negotiations, just slaps the person across the table in the face or does something.

He needs to do something to get them afraid of him again. You should start it off by saying he has to kill someone. Now he's slapping them in the face. Well, I'm just saying if he doesn't have it in him anymore, then maybe just a quick... You should get an overhead projector and call out Shams. Put those rings to use. Don't just drop them on the table. Drop them in someone's skull. You know what I mean?

So you want us to create the CGI that makes Pat Riley Robert De Niro in The Irishman where we have him kicking someone's ass at 80-plus years old? Not CGI. I want him to do it. I want him to deck someone across the face with those rings. Imagine that sham zone.

Lose a diamond in someone's forehead, you know what I mean? Imagine the report. Riley slaps opposing GM. Then when you sign the guy that you punched in the face and the diamond is encrusted in his head, you take that diamond out of his head, you put him in his championship ring. You say, you know what? I promised you a ring. Here you go. Boom. With my diamond. Ace Ventura? Did that happen in that? Yeah.

My life, I'm starting to realize the way that I see things should work ends up being a lot of movies. Like yesterday, I was saying how we should inject a virus into AI to kill it. Yeah, it was just a plot of the last two Mission Impossible movies. I haven't seen the last one yet.

Now you don't have to. Is that what happens for you? Oof, you saved me by two hours and 50 minutes. Yeah, but it's the thrills along the way, man. This airplane stunt is crazy. It looks amazing. I can't stop watching the trailers. I haven't even gotten to it yet because I didn't want to have to go to wherever it was. I think it was Paramount Plus. I couldn't find my way through the thicket. I couldn't find my way through it.

That one's a problem. I wanted to get there, and so I just got stuck in trailers and making of the movie, and I feel like I've seen the movie. Trailers for sale or rent. He's right. Rooms to let everybody sell it.

No pool, no pens. None of you know the song. No cigarettes. How do none of you know the song? Man of means by no means. King of the road.

All right, let's do this better, please. If you're going to interrupt the show, when is that song? Why should we know that? No, because he expected you guys. Look. He sings it all the time. He expected. Chris, the funniest part about this is he doesn't have the rest of the words, and he was mad at you guys for not knowing words he also did not know. Right. Because he did not know. You didn't get there. It was just, eh.

Well, I know the lyrics that are like, I'm Greg Cody and that's how it was. Back in my day. I know those lyrics. But Dan is right. We all turned into Eddie Vedder. Man of means by no means. Enough. Enough. Your glasses continue to fog up.

Can I ask you guys, this is a thought exercise, and we'll see on where the Miami Heat land on this. I would say as half the Eastern Conference tears its Achilles, it's a good time to get better. And I think it's irrefutable that Kevin Durant makes your team better. I can't believe we let Jonathan Zaslow get away with that bullsh**.

Well, what happened to you yesterday? So Zaslow's feeling more and more confident these days in a way that's not really explainable. And he got a bonus that kicked in when the Panthers won the championship. So he's going to be around more. But you came in today and I haven't seen this from you before. Usually you're okay saying someone's full of shit right when they're in the room with you. But you waited a full 12 hours before getting mad at Zaslow and calling him full of shit. No, I called him on it like a little bit during the show, but it kind of sat with me. I'm like this guy of all people.

If they traded for Kevin Durant, he would be hanging from the ceiling celebrating the move. He's a good player. He's a good player. Awesome player. He's a hell of a fan. He might be hit. He's a boy. Kevin Durant. He's a boy. Pat Riley. He's a boy. Don't talk bad about Pat Riley. I'll take Durant at 50. I'll take him. He'll make that shot until he's 66. He'll make that shot

I mean, what is he talking about? Make me care. Make me care about Kevin Durant. What? Are you serious? Something's up with him. He thinks you just come in here all willy-nilly, say whatever he wants. You got to punch him in the head and let him know. You can't just come in and say whatever you want. Let Riley slap him. Exactly right. Across the table. Okay.

Let him know. Billy, he's 80 years old, so whatever you imagine that move to be. Dazzle? He looks horrible. He looks good. I guess for 80 he looks good. He looks horrible for 28. He looks good for 80. He looks bad for his age. He looks good for 80. He really does. He looks like 10 years of morning radio.

He used to be a vibrant person, and now just what happened to him was 10 years of don't work in this business in the morning. It'll gut you. So he was vibrant. I never believed him to be vibrant. I think he was always that, right? He was. Known as for 20 years. He's pretty much been that. At 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 3 p.m. He was Boog's producer. Yeah!

It's an act of cowardice that you would wait until the next day to break out the fake Zazz at him and call him full of shit the next day when he's here tomorrow again and you won't say any of it to his face. I mean, I would say it to his face. Jonathan Zazzle knows how full of shit he's being there, and that's cool. That was his role yesterday. Jeremy's playing that role today. So let me ask you this question. Here's the thought exercise that I want to do. I'm sorry, Jeremy.

You and I have had reasonable discourse today. And I think you also would admit that if Kevin Durant were acquired by the Miami Heat, for any one of those packages, you'd be a boy. I wanted Kevin Durant. Let's go!

I can acknowledge I wanted Kevin Durant. The Kevin Durant trade was announced before Tyrese Halliburton goes down. We all admit Tyrese Halliburton tearing his Achilles opens up what we all perceive to be a pretty wide open East even more. Do you think... Making you wonder at the time if it's better for Giannis to just stay in Milwaukee. Right, even though they have their own Achilles injury to deal with and he's on the books and it's difficult for them to improve on their roster. If we just shift the order of events, Halliburton tears his Achilles.

Does Miami ramp up their trade efforts to get Durant, thinking that now this East is even more wide open, us merely improving gets us in a position where I can talk myself into Hero, Bam, and Kevin Durant being the best threesome in the Eastern Conference? It might.

It might change the way that they view it. I think that the reason you saw the Heat draw a line in the sand where they did and not make the decision to give up every available asset that they have. And I think the conversation that gets sort of diluted is comparing their assets to others. You can't do it that way. You're one franchise that has a certain amount of assets to improve your team. So where they drew that line was, do we think...

that Kevin Durant, Tyler Hero, Bam Adebayo, and Kalel Ware alone, with a bunch of guys who were picked up in the margins through minimum contracts, essentially, is enough to not just win the Eastern Conference, but win a championship. Because what you're doing is sacrificing your ability next offseason where you have everybody

everything available to you, including what would be going into the final year of a Tyler Hero contract, a guy that several teams would probably want to trade for and extend in the final year of a deal. Or if they didn't, a huge number that would be able to fit into a window. And you could do anything that you want next offseason. So they go into this with Kevin Durant and they say,

Is that going to make us a championship winning team? Because just going hasn't been good enough.

If their answer to that is no, that's why you have to draw a line at keeping Jovich because you would need to be able to use him and Duncan Robinson, who can be cut for 50% of his deal, as a way to upgrade at other role-player positions. Why are lines drawn in the sand? Find out for me, please, because you were really drawing a lot of lines in the sand while Billy wants Pat Riley to slap someone with a fencing glove. It's been 10 years. No, a ring. I want a diamond in someone's forehead. It's been embedded.

It's been 10 years since Pat Riley told Danny Age of the Boston Celtics through a spokesman to shut the bleep up. Do it again. You're saying he needs to do it again. Yes. Yeah, no. Like, actual. Guys, look, for the record here, let me be crystal clear. I would never encourage...

physical violence. However, I'm not known as the godfather. You know what I mean? Like if my name was the executioner and I've gone 20 years without executioning, then all of a sudden people start wondering why is he still known as the executioner? Exactly right. He's lost an execution step. Exactly right. Someone needs to kind of, you know, you go in there. I'm not saying the biggest person in the room, maybe Donnie Walsh is in there doing something. Who knows? And you just go and boom.

Knock him off his chair or something. Is Donnie Walsh still at it? In fairness, the Godfather doesn't do the dirty business himself. He sends his lieutenant. But he does enough that you're afraid of crossing the Godfather. Yeah, but what you need to do is you need to have Andy Ellisburg with some brass knuckles taking care of business. Andy Ellisburg. With brass knuckles.

Because when that guy walks into a room, that's a presence. He's menacing. Come on. No, no, no. He's right. Thank you. Andy Ellisberg looks like the guy, and this is very specific, but Andy Ellisberg looks like the guy in Ocean's Eleven that takes you into the back room of that casino and you're not coming out. You're going to meet Benedict. You sit down and then it's an empty table with some metal chairs.

And it's Andy Ellisberg there with some brass knucks made out of championship rings. Two walk in, one walk out. I appreciate, Billy, that you guys, after a lifetime in South Florida, have an appreciation for what Andy Ellisberg looks like. You have created him as the muscle in Casino.

And it's not exactly how I think of Andy Ellisberg. He is their chief accountant. What are you doing? You're doing this. We haven't done anything. You're being the muscle. See, nothing but muscles. None of us have done anything for the record. This is going to fall on us. We don't like it. It's going to fall on you guys for a reason. And that reason is you summoned Andy Ellisberg as strong. You're not showing the brass knuckles. No. As Pat Riley's muscle when all he needs defense from is your disrespect.

The only thing, the only... Who's disrespecting him? All of you guys. Look, Chris, Cody, Greg, I don't know how you feel about this. As someone who's a longtime columnist in this community and someone who upholds righteously the idea that the columnist is a standard bearer for having grace about how you criticize people, your son...

Chris Cody, your son, yesterday made jokes about Pat Riley spilling his rings on the floor now and dropping pills on the floor. Chris said that. I don't think I said pills. I said marbles. I said he lost his marbles. Instead of purposely dropping the rings, it's now like, oops, I dropped the rings. We've given him plenty of grace. This show is not called for his head. This show is giving voice to...

barely given voice to a narrative that has been out there about Pat Riley for a very long time. We are not the hypercritical Pat Riley show. You were doing senility yesterday. You guys were doing ageism and senility yesterday. No, I am calling into question something that is out there, which is why has this guy not been able to pull off a big deal when his whole thing is I pull off big deals?

What is it? And we're looking for reasons. Billy, you are condoning violence here. I keep seeing you condone violence. No, I'm not. I'm not doing so. We're grabbing at reasons. And one of the reasons that people often grab in this situation is, well, has the game passed this person by? We highlighted a couple examples of which he'd probably admit he misstepped. And us pointing to his age is just a piece of data for you to chew on. I've often said he gets to write his own ending.

That's a full stop for me, but it doesn't save him from criticisms. On the subject of Kevin Durant, I was telling you, I've abstained from reporting anything around Durant over the last couple of months. I've not asked any questions of anybody. But the last time I checked in on Durant, I told you guys they want picks. Picks is what they want. The Suns need to rebuild everything Ishbia did there. That's what they want. They want picks.

I can sit here now and say as a transaction, I believe South Florida would agree with what I'm about to say, which is no promise of Giannis. If I can get KD for a package that does not have wear in it,

and gets rid of Rozier and Wiggins, I want to make that trade and have this year of Kevin Durant. I think we can all agree on that. That's part of where it is the anger resides on some of this. I think you'd have consensus there on how could Pat Riley not have done that? And when I say to you guys, well, what am I missing about the reporting, okay,

What am I missing? I'm not questioning Shams. I'm just saying, like, it doesn't make sense that you wouldn't trade Jovic and Highsmith and dump those contracts for Durant. Like,

I wonder about the picks and again, what Phoenix actually wanted and how high Houston was going to keep going if Miami's offer kept getting better because Houston didn't have to give up its assets, which is the reason we're having this whole conversation of how couldn't Miami outbid Houston? And what if I tell you Phoenix wasn't going to let Miami outbid Houston? Phoenix wanted picks.

But if you're Miami, you make Houston give as many picks away as possible, as much as possible. But that might have been the case when you were doing the reporting on this. Shams and the Miami Heat, via Barry Jackson, have come out and said what the deal was and what the tipping point was for Miami. There weren't that many picks. It was mostly players, and they drew the line at Jovich in one package, or they had an option to go down the where path.

That's what the deal was. Those are two very reputable reporters that said that. It's not this bounty of picks that it was last year. The data changed, and I think Jeremy made exceptional points. I'm not going to sit here and argue getting Kevin Durant is a championship move. I will argue it makes you better. It makes the East way more competitive, and it may be a move away from being championship contending.

But has that been the standard for the last three years? Because what I would say is getting better should be the objective. Or go the other way and get a hell of a lot worse because we have a shining beacon of an example that presently has your first round pick, by the way, that doesn't want to drink any of the beer in the locker room that seems like they're going to be around for 15 years because they did it the other way.

So are you going to tread water for three more years? What's the decision that we're making? Because is this move making us championship good? Has that really been the standard for three years? Because I don't think so. I think they've been trying to upgrade it at role player positions around the core they had because they saw that core go to championships and...

thought that they could extend more out of it. The misstep we know was that they extended the core that existed with Jimmy for too long if they weren't going to extend him for the long term. So now the question just becomes, what is your best and most pragmatic move? Because like you said, if you don't think you're a championship team with just Durant, you need to be able to make some other moves in the margins. That's why you keep Jovic. But if Jovic and...

pick swaps are part of where you're ending up breaking up this deal because you've decided you're willing to give up one pick and you're willing to give up Jaquez plus some other pieces and

You're drawing a line in the sand, which goes back to biblical times. John 8, where some have perhaps erroneously interpreted Jesus writing in the sand as drawing a line in the sand in order to address those who were about to stone a woman caught in adultery. All right, excellent. This is not a time to be pragmatic. No.

Shams' writing was confusing. It was his fault. Barry saying there was nothing remotely conflicting about the reports, but then admitting the writing was confusing. That was rich. Your information, guys, Barry Jackson and Shams, I simply want the most accurate of information, please. That's all I was asking for.

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Jeremy, you know something about me, right? You know when I'm grilling outside and it's summertime, you know how I supplement my summertime? Of course I do. I make a Miller Time. Of course. That beautiful white can. Oh, when it's so hot outside, I just put it right to my forehead, right there, and I just roll it sometimes right on the forehead, cool my body down, and then I crack it open and...

instant relief, and then that first sip, brother, does that first sip? That is a top five sequence of events that you can possibly go through. I'm just serenity now when I just imagine that first sip of Miller Lite. Just thinking about it, it's making me happy. Dude, the sun is out. It's nice. You have your friends showing up. You got your family there. You just had your first sip of Miller Lite, and you know what? You're happy.

You're blissful. You're fulfilled. I've been stocking my cooler with Miller Lite for years and for good reason. It's brewed for taste. Only 96 calories and 3.2 grams of carbs. This year, Miller Lite turns 50.

There's five decades of cookouts, laughs, and ice cold moments that never miss. It's the original light beer, and it's still my go-to. Miller Lite, great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlite.com slash dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Cheers to 50 years of Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.