The Big Suey: Known Buffoon James Dolan
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Welcome to the Big Suey, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Levitard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching band to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar.

This segment is presented by LinkedIn Jobs. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash DLS. Terms and conditions apply. I asked us to pace ourselves over these playoffs. I don't know if we have. Greg Cody does look a little bit relieved to not have had to do heat at the same time as Panthers. He looks better at the end of this run than he looked at the end of the last run. But he just spent the entire break with pretty righteous indignation at both me and

And at the disrespect of White Hat, because he's still saying Greg is still saying that this is an act of cowardice and of great insult to be someone who doesn't have his journalistic pedigree and is very comfortable being disrespectful enough to call him a senile old man.

Yeah, I mean, unless you're my age and hear somebody without credentials referring to me as that, someone who's never met me, by the way, and probably has never read me or never heard me in his life, to be referred to as a senile old man, it cuts on a very personal level. 50 years a writer, 50 years covering sports, a half a century covering games. But he's a senile old man.

That's just disrespectful in plain fact. Now, the cowardice comes from those two doing a show yesterday talking about me and about what I wrote and not having the decency to have me on, which I was under the impression they would have until White Hat didn't want to because he said, I would rather put knives in my eyes or whatever it was. Which they pointed out, you'd still be able to hear the podcast. You'd still be able to hear it. I hope he does. As he heard it, he would be screaming, which wouldn't be all that bad. But he's a senile old man.

People should have to follow through on that. You'd rather put knives in your eyes and have Greg Cody on. Well, you didn't have Greg Cody on. Knives out, baby. That's right. By the way, I have yet to write an entire column calling McDavid McOverrated. Last year and again this year, I wrote about four paragraphs in a longer column. What is the record you want to set straight? You were talking throughout the break. You wanted to set the record straight on two things. Okay, I think superstitious...

hockey fans like Mike and others, and they referred to this on the hockey podcast yesterday. They're like, why would he do it now and rile everybody up? The bulletin board is dead.

Okay? Nobody is placing my headline in the Edmonton locker room. The most pathetic athlete on earth is the one who can't really get fired up for the Stanley Cup final, and he needs something outrageous that was said by a Miami columnist to get all excited about it. The bulletin board has been replaced by the group text. Now it just gets sent around to their group.

But again, the point is, there was a big article out of Edmonton last year that McDavid apparently was aware that somebody in Miami had called him a go-go. His dad! Okay, well guess what? How'd that work out for him? He didn't get all riled up enough. He won the Conn Smythe. Yeah, yeah. Did he win the Stanley Cup? I understand your point, but the guy can't do more than be the most outstanding player in the playoffs. Yes, he can, actually. Somebody should write the McUnderrated column.

That's also the league and the media trying to kind of cover their own asses on that one. Like, oh, look, he lost again. Here's a participation award, the Conn Smythe. And I'll go a step further. If he wins a Stanley Cup...

The narrative might well be, now he's got to win another one and another one. And here's why. If he wins one, if you're McJesus, you win one Stanley Cup in your 10th year, that's not enough. All of a sudden, you're Aaron Rodgers. Better to win zero than one if you're him. Well, no, I would never say that. Thank you.

Put it on the poll at Levitard Show. Is the bulletin board dead? And I just don't think that we can say in this particular story, Greg, that you can say the bulletin board is dead when...

You, as a media personality, were the epicenter of last year's finals because of what you said. So silly in saying it that it reached Connor McDavid's dad, who was at the elbow room and was telling others that he had no use for you. And this was the highest of indignance that was being expressed by a classy Canadian person to be held.

to be enraged by how classless you were, it got to McDavid's father. You don't think it becomes personal then? You can't say the bulletin board is dead when your words wounded his father so much that he's spilling drinks over at the elbow room and crying his heart out about why is this, you know, quote unquote, senile old man. But he's a senile old man. Going after my great son, who's clearly the king of all kings. Have you met Conor McDavid's dad?

I'm just curious how you know he's classy. Just Canadians. You don't know that. Okay, I just wanted to make that clear. And it's not a silly opinion. It might be an outrageous opinion that nobody else agrees with, but it's not.

a silly opinion. Look, I'm using an American standard here. I don't know how they think in Canada. You did that in the column. I don't know how you guys do it over there. Here in the United States, you have to win something. It was like last week when David did the three days a week podcast. You gotta win something to be a goat. You have to win something to wear a crown. All I've ever said was he's a great player who hasn't won the big prize yet. Win it and then you can be McJesus. Imagine I old man

Imagine had America lost World War I, but then they get Best War Participant Award. David Sampson's Nothing Personal podcast is now doubled the David. If you have not seen, he is now starting at 7 a.m. because he is a maniac Eastern going 7 to 9 and giving you...

Sports business lane, he is doing it stronger than anybody. I think I can make that argument. I don't know that even Ravel would have much objection to the idea that David Sampson is owning the sports business lane right now, but his podcast is a lot more than that. And now it's twice the size. David, how is the first week of that experience gone? Because now you're talking to yourself two hours a day and that'll make a human being crazy.

ten hours a week. You will be an echo chamber inside of your own head. You will be insufferable to people who love you. You will talk too much all the time.

what's different um it's twice the david nothing personal and uh he has uh he has gotten a great gig have any of you seen it he's doing a great job it is thank you but i don't feel like do you feel like you have the support of the company i don't feel like you and pablo feel in any way connected to the shows that uh that you guys are doing in our network i'd say pablo and i connect more often than anybody else within the company as we're talking about topics and shows and what's happening

But no, I feel very much a part of Metal Ark. I feel very much that Nothing Personal is a part of your network, your lineup. Really, really happy to be partners with DraftKings. They've been amazing as we've gone to two hours, just totally supportive. And they have me doing a bunch of other things related to like Club World Cup. And I just I love being a part of your team. So no, I'm enjoying it. It's a weird thing to toss out there, Dan, during his weekly hit.

Greg Cody is still indignant before anything else. And it's taken me too long to get here and forgive me for this. So I think if you were to tell me what could be the most talk piece firing that could have happened in employment yesterday, where you would just get people talking about the importance of a coach and the value of a coach is fire one guy yesterday and give me,

you guys might have another, but if you do it to Thibodeau, when he's made your team better than it's been in 25 years and anyone can assemble the argument that doesn't deserve to be fired, it's better than you have ever been. It makes for just a classic New York sports radio argument of was this unfair or is it not unfair when the new standard in sports is you better get it done within five years, man. Like,

They've sped up the curves on, it was a long time ago with the Knicks and that Derek Fisher and Steve Kerr were deciding who we're going to coach that team. And they set a standard of $5 million a year of a coaching standard on the Knicks. Derek Fisher chose the Knicks. Steve Kerr went on to greatness. Thibodeau is the best thing that team has had at the top of its food chain since Pat Riley. This is their best coach, Jeff Van Gundy included. His success speaks for itself, but the criticism is fair.

on no bench and stubborn about minutes for the six guys, and then they burn down at the end, and management is entrusted with fixing the future when they've given up the five first-round picks for Bridges, so the only kinds of changes you can make are at coaching positions because you're locked in with 93% of your salary on six guys.

And Dan, you said the most important part. He got five years, right? Like the Knicks were getting better every season. But with getting better every season, the Tom Tibbitt away grinds on you and grinds on you and grinds on you until your best player is like, hey, this is kind of a lot, right? You've got his dad also lurking in the background. You've got World Wide West. You've got Leon Rose. You've got all these different players, James Dolan at the top. At a certain point, it's like the Mike Malone situation in Denver. You grind on people so much that it's like, you know what? It's better –

Okay, thank you for taking us to the Eastern Conference Finals, but we're going to try and move on to the next coach that can probably take us over the hump. David, his dad, his son, like what are we doing? I have a top five list if you're interested because I've been thinking about it a lot. What announcement yesterday would have been more surprising or more newsworthy than Tibbs getting canned when he did?

and I've got a top five firings that would be even more shocking had they been announced yesterday. All right, so you're undercutting my point. You have five. I'm an idiot. I've said this was the most shocking. You thought one? You fool. I'm a prisoner of the moment. You've got five better than this that could have happened yesterday. All right, let's see. Number five.

Number five, Rick Carlisle on the eve of the NBA finals. Okay, fair enough. Good point. You got me. I'm cornered. Gotcha. Wait till I'm just getting started. I know, you're just going to get started. Okay, very good. Number four. Mike Tomlin gets fired yesterday without Aaron Rodgers having signed. All of a sudden, they can't him.

Maybe not. It's not New York. It'd be a much bigger story. Bigger sport, but not New York. Not New York. Not the beloved team coming off the bench. Okay, but fair enough. He's Tomlin. Number three. Andy Reid getting fired by the Chiefs yesterday. Okay, very good. Oh, yeah. All right, you know what? What are we doing? Like, leap off. No, he's being an idiot. Do you want to switch to drafting Oilers and Cats? Hold on. You know what? I do. I have a top 50. Two more. Is it Mark Dagonal next? No, no. You know what? Guys, David's been waiting for like 10 minutes. Hold on. You know what? Okay. I've been waiting for an hour and a half to get to this draft. Major asshole.

Yes, David gets five minutes. We are going Panthers-Oilers draft. David gets five minutes for being an asshole here. Absolutely. Go ahead, Panthers. So, Dan, this was impossible because I'm doing it based on current form. The Panthers have been so...

even in terms of stat distribution this season, that it's really hard. So I'm going to go based on current form. These are the best 15 players in this series. In order. In order. Top to bottom. Roy, have you notarized this list? I did not get to see it. I would love your opinion on this. Wait a minute. Oh, now after the fact? No, no. I'm busy over here. There's been no collaboration. I approve of this list. I haven't seen it yet, though. I ran it by the Duke. I ran it by the Duke, and he gave me some feedback. Oh.

I trust Mike. He didn't like where Sam Bennett was placed. Bob better be top five. Based on current form, you might be right. Number one, Connor McDavid. Yeah, obviously. You would even acknowledge that, correct? Yes. He's had more two-point playoff games than zero. It's debatable? What's debatable? I think it's debatable because he's not an all-around player in the way that Markov is. Would I draft McDavid first? Yes, but I don't think it's a no-brainer.

Okay. Well, he leads the playoffs in points and has more two-point playoff games than zero-point playoff games. Anyone can get hot, yeah. Greg, are you simply, anytime, anyone, says anything positive about Conor McDavid going to be there with, yeah, but, so that you can become Skip Bayless to LeBron? No, I respect Conor McDavid's game.

But they just asked you to acknowledge he's the best player in the series, correct? And you're like, do you mean complete player? He said he'd take him number one. I won't give it a shaky yes. Really wasn't expecting pushback from number one. A shaky yes. I agree. For this number one. I sanctioned.

Drafting him first overall. Well, then you're going to be mad about number two because number two is not Sasha Barkov. Number two is Leon Dreisaitl. This is where we disagreed. The former Hart Trophy winner. Look, Dreisaitl is a very underrated defensive forward. And I don't believe the gulf between, even though Barkov is a once-in-a-lifetime defensive talent, especially with smooth skating and all that.

but the gulf between their offensive games is pretty wide. Drysaddle is a more complete, better, well-rounded offensive player, and that's not to take a shot at Barkov's game. We're talking about a former MVP of the league in Leon Drysaddle. That's fair.

Okay, notarized. Sanctioned. Wait a minute. Is Greg Cody sanctioned better than a confirmand? Is there a level higher than confirmand where we can get Greg Cody's sanctioned action? I vote no on that. I think confirmand is better. So far so good on the top two? Shaky. This isn't even the best confirmand. I think Ethan's confirmand is number one, and then Mike's, and then whatever's next. Number three, Sasha Barkov.

That's fair. Yeah, that's good. Number four, Sergei Bababka. Yep. You're going to get a lot of Panthers here, folks. All right, now this is based on current form. Roy, can you please get for me, just Barkley, can you knock these through? I just want to hear Bababka every time as a note as he goes through 1 through 15. Sergei Bababka.

Number five, Sam Bennett. That's a shocker. Ahead of Rhino, ahead of Chucky, ahead of Bouchard. He's a team leader in goals. I agree with that. In this postseason, Sam Bennett has been a force and he's making himself a lot of money. Hopefully not too much. Maybe take a little hometown discount. Sam Bennett is built for the playoffs. His hand does not shake. I watched The Departed last night. Yeah, Sam Bennett's great. Also, do you know during the NHL Combine, zero pull-ups were accomplished by Sam Bennett.

Zero. Don't need him. I took Odin over Durant because Durant couldn't do 185 on a bench press one time. I think it was 135, by the way. Not 185. 185 is a lot. I think it was 135. Dan, I'm curious. Your feedback. This has worked out really hard for me, but I know he's battling an injury, and he's not been the same player in that high slot offensively, but defensively, Sam Reinhardt has been a titan, so I'm going Sam Reinhardt, number six. Then number seven.

I'm going Evan Bouchard. We got an Evan Bouchard. The Bouchy Bombs are just so important to what it is that they do. They have guys over there cleaning it up. Now Zach Hyman isn't there to clean it up. It'll be interesting. Hyman probably would have made this top 15. He's a series changer. He could help, certainly. There's a lot of movement I'm noticing. There is because... There's some back and forth there between 7 and 11. There is. Number 8?

Anton Lundell. Sergei Babanka? Oh. Yeah. How about that? Baby Barky. Baby Barky, two-way player. I mean, you want to look at Brad Marchand's success and Lucy's success. You look at the centerman on that line. Anton Lundell has been super consistent. Folks, we haven't said Chucky yet. Haven't said Chucky yet.

Number two, David. Number nine. This is going to be shocking because I'm still not going to say Chucky. Aaron Boone. He's been incredible. A little bit of a down series towards the tail end of that Hurricanes series. You could have said he's been Florida's best player entering that Carolina series. Then we're going to go with Matthew Kachuk.

At 10? This is not projecting for their future career. He's very clearly hindered by this injury. He is not the same player, but he's still top 10. A lot of cats in a row. But he's not the person that has probably fallen off the most based on current form, because if I was doing this last year on current form, Gustav Forsling would have been a top five player. I'm going Gustav Forsling, number 11. We're going Ekholm, 12. We're going Swaggy, 13. We're going Nugent Hopkins, 14. And this may shock you. Nugent.

Brad Marchand, congratulations. Whoa! A shocker at the end. I get the dirt line in, Stan. Samson, what is fair on Thibodeau? And for the record, that's five Oilers and ten Panthers. Yeah, don't care. Just wanted to bother David for five minutes. David would only look more annoyed right now if he was theatrically looking at a watch. Thibodeau, your thoughts. He did that already. Samson, you already did this for two hours on nothing personal. This is the talk topic of...

of the day. You have a couple of exceptions, but Thibodeau being fired, your thoughts? Well, number one, don't believe that it wasn't Jimmy Dolan who did it. Obviously, Leon Rose, the president, is saying in consultation with James Dolan, but that's just horse hockey. The owner makes this call, not Leon Rose. The fact is the Knicks are doomed unless...

James Dolan stops making the decisions. And I could argue he has not stopped with the trades they made, including Kat, Randall. Everything is done with Dolan. He is super controlling, super meddling, like many other owners. The problem is he's never won a ring of

any kind. And to get rid of Tibbs is fine. You look at Tibbs, he looks angry, grumpy and despondent on the sideline. You question their defensive schemes. You question the fact they couldn't deal with Indiana's full court press. You look at the makeup of the team and realize that Leon Rose isn't doing his job either as they were outmatched by Indiana and certainly would have been my Oklahoma City. As far as I'm concerned, move right along, find someone else. But

If it's still Jimmy Dolan running it, the Knicks will never win a title in my lifetime. And that bothers me. How do you know all of this? How can you speak with such absolute authority? Can I let me just I used to run a team that had an owner just like it. All right. So let me let me. So I get it.

OK, so I want to ask the group here, though, when I say that that David Sampson has an uncommon sports business lane, he is talking about things with an authority from the insides of a sport in a way that are super cold, but also accurate. How can you say with such conviction all the things you're saying when that requires reporting, David? It requires reporting.

In order to know that James Dolan made that decision is to know the inner workings of the Knicks, and the Knicks have changed how they were doing management. The new management of the Knicks was being allowed by James Dolan to do what it is that they wanted to do. I'm sorry, where did you get that information? Is that from Pablo Torre? That's what's been reported.

Reported, David. What do you mean from Pablo Torre? You understand that I could get anything reported. All I have to do is get it out there. Hey, George Steinbrenner let Brian Cashman and Joe Torre run the Yankees, and that's why they got successful after my suspension. And that's when everything changed. Oh, wait a minute. We had Jeter, Posada, Pettit, et cetera, and a few guys doing steroids.

There is not one owner out of any of the top owners, top leagues who is not involved in a coaching change. It just doesn't work that way. And did I report it? No. I'm going to call up Jimmy. Hey, Dolan, that was you, not Leon. No, they're going to say it's Leon so the owner can have plausible deniability. But I'm here to tell you there's not one coaching change that's ever happened where an owner was like, oh, I didn't know that you were thinking that.

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Don Levitard. You have some hot takes today. Joe Chestnut's a fraud. Oh, he's on fire. He called Connor McDavid overrated before the show. What the hell was that, Greg? Yeah, no. I love it. Stugatz. Roy, let me explain it to you. You know more about hockey than I do. And this is coming from a guy that's watched Connor play six times. Right. If that. This is the Don Levitard Show with the Stugatz.

How are you feeling, David, about the fairness or unfairness of firing Thibodeau after five years? It is absolutely within the owner's right to do anything he wants. Fairness. Thibodeau's been a coach. He did five years. It seems like he could be the Patino of coaches where stick and move, stick and move. Five years in Chicago, three in Minnesota, now five in New York. There are a bunch of managers and coaches whose voices get drowned out

after a certain number of years because they come in hot, stay hot, and leave. But more success than a Knicks franchise has had in 25 years. That's not up for dispute. Is it the results business or is it not? Well, exactly. To me, it's the results business. And I don't think about the money, which I certainly could have. You guys haven't even mentioned the fact that Jim Dolan is willing to give Thibodeau $30 million on the way out the door.

He just got extended, which shows you how extensions that are given to coaches and managers are really meaningless to owners. But Samson, what happened here? What does this mean that somebody with more success than a Knicks coach had had gets bought out at the end when most Knicks fans could say that's not the reason they lost?

Like that's you think that most Knicks fans today are happy that Thibodeau is out. There are plenty of Knicks fans who look at the way that he got out coached by Rick Carlisle in the conference finals. There's plenty of Knicks fans who look at the makeup of the team and say, listen, you cannot run your guys ragged and expect to lead the league in minutes.

with two guys who don't play defense, Brunson and Cat, and end up on top in a playoff round where defense matters and the coach is supposed to be defensive-minded. I think there's plenty of Knicks fans who look at it that way, but, frankly, I don't care the way they're looking at it. Jim Dolan looked at it and said, hey, I hear the noise.

We came one home game short of the maximum in the Eastern Conference, and then we still could have had three more home games where he prints millions of dollars by loyal fans who don't care about mediocrity and losing. And at the end of the day, they actually reward him for his behavior because they continue to pay and pay more and more money. It's the most profitable home game there is in all of baseball, in all basketball. David, do you think Thibodeau is now a hot,

higher in the NBA at age 67 or do you have doubts about that? I think, and this is going to be a little ageism and I don't want it to be given who I'm talking to and me, Greg. I would like to believe that he would be able to have one more run with the team, but it

The way that coaches are being hired now, like managers, it's not as many retreads. You know, the Ron Washingtons are really drowned out by some up and coming bench coaches who like a Joey Espada, who gets an opportunity finally, or a Brandon Hyde. Obviously, he's been fired since. But I think that the Knicks will be very telling. Jim Dolan will want a name. He'll want to retread.

If Leon Rose is good as his job, he'll find the next Oklahoma City Thunder coach. And I don't want to butcher his name because I do it every time. But someone who you've never heard of who likely will be a way better coach for a bunch of guys. But impatient owners normally don't want that. Way better. Way better. A way better coach. Than a retread? I mean.

Oh, they're going to go get somebody who's way better than Tom Thibodeau. Oh, I think that just somebody different is what they want. But that's not the same thing like that. How much better changes get made? OK, but David, yes. Can you explain to me why you'd get such glee out of the fact that James Dolan is one of the worst owners and he has this power and he flings it around and he continues to make money and win, even though he's a buffoon?

Well, you say I get glee. Remember, I started my life as a Knicks fan in 1974. Uh-oh, I missed it by a year. And I've gone my whole life without seeing the Knicks win a title. So I don't know what glee you have in them losing in the conference finals. It seems like you like that, James. You're taking a certain delight in telling us, hey, guys, this is just the owner wielding his power all over the place, making a mess, being sloppy.

because he's going to remind everyone that he's in power and there are never going to be any consequences even though he's a buffoon because he's got the most expensive ticket in sports. And Thibodeau, honestly, great for business the last couple of years. Like, spectacular for business. The Knicks, people cared about him. Hey, Thibs, get out the door. Like, you can't say that's results-based. You just can't. I'm sorry, did you say he's a buffoon for having the most expensive tickets in the sport? No, James Dolan is a known buffoon.

Okay, so that's two different things. He's doing great business at the Garden and he's got fans who are loyal and who pay money to see him. Now, notwithstanding the network's going bankrupt, but that's not actually his fault. So I would just argue this on behalf of Dolan. And it's hard to argue on behalf of someone who is like perceived the way he is.

But he looks at that and says to the fans, I want you to have a title. He doesn't really mean that because he wants more home games than himself to have a title. But he says we failed. Therefore, a change is coming. I'm not going to fire Leon Rose because it makes us look too disorganized. So we'll fire Tibbs. We'll bring in someone with the hope of we're going to get you where you want to be next year. It makes perfect sense to me.

And from a basketball standpoint, it happens quite often where you let go of a coach who did well and then another coach comes in, creates a different culture. Look what Steve Kerr did. Mark Jackson, I brought this up on the alley-oop a couple of weeks ago or last week. Is this a situation where we could see...

Tom Thibodeau get to the Eastern Conference Finals, lose, and then get fired the way Mark Jackson did where he took him to the playoffs. He was right there at the edge. They have the same identical record, 51-31, Mark Jackson's last year and now Tom Thibodeau's last year. Where you look at that and say, can another coach get us to the next round

echelon and get us to the NBA finals. They worked with Steve Kerr. They went on a dynastic run. Now you're looking for the next guy. Could it be Johnny Bryant, the guy they have on their own bench who they blocked from having Phoenix take a look at him? Could he be the next name? Could Jay Wright come in and be the savior for New York? There's a lot of options there. So this is Cat on the second team now that Tibbs ends with, right? This is the second time this has happened to this particular pairing. What are you smiling about, Samson?

Because that's a funny narrative that the media has. It is not that Kat is the downfall of Tibbs because he's been there, Minnesota and now New York when he got canned. It's just that's just a coincidence. David, we're not going to be doing a lot better than Tibbs. We can agree on this. Like we can argue in the margins. And I'm not saying there can't be improvement. And I'm not saying in the results business, you can't go cutthroat about getting improvement.

And we can say voice is tired in the locker room and can only change so much of the players. But you can change the players. Cat could be available. They do need to get better, but you're looking for five more wins. I think that's the way that teams look at it who lose in the LCS or lose in the ECF or WCF is you try to figure out how do you make up the increment between

or if you win you figure out how do you stay it on top and you don't know how many opportunities you're going to have you look at the construction of your team the way the knicks are put together they are not able to win those extra five games you start with a new coach but you can't stop there you got to change out those players in some way shape or form because otherwise you will not ever get those five games with this group the

The other thing, too, is I think the Mikkel Bridges trade was foisted onto Tom Sibito. There was internal issues between him and Mikkel Bridges throughout the entire season. And now you're looking back and saying, OK, the front office gave five first-round picks to get this guy to figure to be their piece, their missing piece to beat the Celtics.

to go on to the finals, and that never gelled with Thibodeau. Let me get, David, let me get some sound here, not just of J.D. and the Straight Shots, James Dolan's great band. I don't know if I can play that music without getting in licensing trouble. You can't. When you talk it out, the answer's there.

Okay, so in the absence of that, perhaps I can borrow just some Mad Dog talking about this firing in a way that if I had to guess, my guess is that Mad Dog is not going to agree with David Sampson at all. This makes the Knicks a laughingstock. You don't fire this guy. How do you fire a head coach who took the team to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in a quarter of a century? The team needs a new voice. How the hell does Jim Dolan know?

Dolan doesn't know anything about basketball. What are you kidding me? Jim Dolan? I mean, come on, Jim. Let him go build spheres, you know, in Vegas, in Paris. That's what he's good at. Let him go figure out a way and, you know, rip us all off with optimum. How about we have Jim do that instead of sitting there worrying about who his head coach is going to be? This is a guy who's run the Knicks since, what, the mid-'90s and essentially has done absolutely nothing.

Nothing. And then he sits there with this dopey hat on, you know, on the baseline. And he sits there and because they lose to Indiana, because Towns and O.G. miss free throws with big leads in the fourth quarter of game one. And that's the reason why they lost the series. They lost the series because Nate Smith went crazy in the last minute of game one. And O.G. and Anthony Towns miss free throws. If either one of them makes both free throws, the game is over. And the next part of the year, still play it.

Known buffoon. That's who you want to side with in the legend of buffoonery. It is a dopey hat. Yeah, stupid ass hat. It is a dopey hat. Put it on the Poll at Levitard show. Is it a dopey hat? Again, known buffoon, James Dolan. The man does not deserve any kind of sports respect. He shouldn't have firing power over anyone in sports. Known buffoons. He's the owner. Known buffoons win. They can.

It can win in sports. You can get lucky. Jeffrey Luria. If sports were fair and business weren't dirty, known buffoon James Dolan of J.D. and the Straight Shots would not get to win by saying that Tom Thibodeau is not good at his job when Tom Thibodeau is only miles and miles better at his job than James Dolan has ever been at

anything other than the dirty politics of how you make money in New York even if your product actually sucks because you just have an arena in the center of town that will make profit forever because people want to love the Knicks so much that they don't care that their owner is a buffoon. They tolerate it. A known buffoon. You're the greatest, Dan. You're the greatest economist I've ever come across. You just made the exact argument for why Dolan is not a buffoon. You made it word by word.

Yeah, but the closest he's come to winning wasn't even with the Knicks. It was with the Rangers when they lost to the Kings in the Stanley Cup final. He's never won anything and is again. He made the sphere, which was a win. A known buffoon. Billionaire is a win too. Can I give you my number one that would have been way bigger news today than Dibs being fired? He's a nepo baby.

I mean, how did he win? What did James Dolan do to become a billionaire? He won the Gene Lottery. What are you talking about? You don't want to be James Dolan? He acquired his dad's team. Okay, and? But you said he's a billionaire as if he achieved something. He just climbed out of the womb. Achieved or not, that's still a win. Okay, all right. Thank you. Cool. It's not easy being a billionaire, guys. There's a room full of people that think that billionaires are losers and Pete, whatever the hell his name is, is a big winner. Oh, I forgot my button.

White hat. Put it on the pole. Pete White hat. Nice hat, asshole. Ass hat. Y'all had to get in with the ass. You just heard the word ass and everybody was like, I've got my signature for that. Ass hat.

The Suns are aggressively looking to trade Kevin Durant. I'm ready to get my heart broken one more time. Really? Yeah. I am. I'm like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. I need you to trust me. One last time. You want Durant for the Heat? Yes, I want to see one of the game's greatest scorers in the history of the game play in a Miami Heat uniform as I've been asking.

edged by this franchise for 17 years on acquiring this guy. My information is I'm going to say two months old or three months old, but the only way you get Durant is it's got to be picks. It's got to be picks. We got some of those.

Let's make it happen. Come on. We've seen this team. Not enough. 4.0. Give me Kevin Durant. I want to have a franchise that had LeBron, James, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kevin Durant play for it. That'll be cool. David, your thoughts? He is old. He's not the Kevin Durant that he was. He's not the centerpiece of a championship team anymore. You signed him, too, right? He can't be the third piece with Bam and Tyler and form a threesome that in any way would get Miami a title. It's dangerous to overpay for a name that's

That used to be you want to pay what he's worth. I think and what he's worth is not the package that the sons want. Because remember, you're dealing with an owner there, Ishbia, who doesn't want to wear egg on his face, who created this team in Phoenix that has failed. And now he wants to get out of it, but without looking bad.

This is a team that very clearly needs a player better than Tyler Hero and Bam Adebayo. And I think today, at his age, Kevin Durant strolls in with that head coach and is that. Yeah, I don't know that you will get Durant without giving up one of those two, however. No, but that's, no, I'm telling you that it

that's not what the sons wanted two months ago. I'm not, I know you got to make contracts match up, but what they wanted two months ago was picks. They did not want players. They look, I think you've seen enough in Pablo Torrey finds out and elsewhere to know that Ishbia, when you talk about meddlesome management and whatever Isaiah Thomas is doing in the shadows there, it's a giant Epic fail for one of these owners who spilled money all over the place. And now like I,

I can't tell you how epic a fail that Beal contract is, and they went for it, didn't come close, and now it ends with Durant slinking out a side door. This is not what you want for an all-time great scorer. This has been a disaster, and they've got to, as of two months ago, the information I had is that they were going to rebuild it with picks. It's not about getting Bam or Hero, and the Heat didn't want to go down that path.

path because that's what it was going to take and there are other teams that will have enough to Kevin Durant's an economy whether he's old or not we can agree yes that Kevin Durant this we can agree that he's old but we can also agree that he's still good

I think a lot of people would say terrible at defense, and how good is he really if that Suns team can't even get into the playoffs? Because he can get—yes, of course. Sounds like McDavid. He'll be able to score 28 a game on 48% shooting for the rest of his life on jump shots, but what else? Dude, the best player right now is atrocious on defense. Your all-star is atrocious on defense and would get picked on more than Kevin Durant would because Kevin Durant is a seven-footer, even at this age.

I'd rather have Kevin Durant's long ass out there than Tyler Hero. It's also just a name, right? The Heat just need to sign a name at this point in time after swinging and missing so many. They just need a win, whether or not it's going to lead to wins on the court. We need to say we're going after someone, and then we get them. Yeah, exactly, Chris Cody, and Wild Bill's right on the money. We need a player that is better.

We need better players. Well, no, then you also have him forever as part of your franchise's history moving forward. And then when the Heat are in another downswing, oh, guess what we're going to do? We're going to retire Kevin Durant's jersey and we're going to sell the nostalgia stuff. And one of the all-time greats was wearing a Heat jersey. Like...

That's what they need him for at this point in time because the fan base is kind of out on what they're doing. I mean, does Kevin Durant, at his age, make you a championship contender in the first year or two? No. If the answer is no, then why would you go for him? I like the ingredients better if he's a part of it. Well, they're not a championship contender in the first year or two now.

All right, hold on. No, they're not, but they have to be. David Sampson, before we get to the review, this part is new information. And you're going to have to look up for me this because I wasn't prepared to say this and I was meaning to check up back on this. But now that this is going to heat up a little bit, I can tell you that and you guys are going to have to explain what this means to me because I don't know who the five guys are.

But the Heat would believe to be in play for whoever the five guys are that have had, that would have to reach out, however it is that these things happen, where Antetokounmpo's people or Joel Embiid's people, I haven't even asked who the five people are, but you guys could probably tell me who would be the, Anthony Davis would be among them. We're ranking disgruntled superstars? Just five.

I got Zion Williamson fifth. Stars that would want out? The block is a little hot on that one. I don't know if you've seen the news. Yes, that one, I didn't think it would have been Zion. But whatever it is, what would the five calls have to be? Because Embiid would be one of them, would they not? Man, I think we're ready. Giannis has to be number one. Are we ready to call that Joel Embiid thing? Are we? It's cooked? I think the call is cooked. Wow. All right, we've got less than a minute left here, Samson. What are you reviewing for us this week?

Oh, less than a minute. We needed to talk about Brett Favre. There's an untold that you can watch on the fall of Brett Favre. Stinks. My God, it doesn't happen often. I hope somebody out there watched it. It's only 63 minutes and it goes into pretty big detail that as good as you can be on the court, if you are a complete buffoon off the field and you commit crimes, take advantage of people and do things that

basically ruin your reputation permanently, then you're just Brett Favre. And he's spending the rest of his life trying to make good for not having stolen money from people who are on welfare, trying to prove that he didn't do any of it. But he's going to have a hard time proving it. And it's quite a story. It's called The Fall of Favre on Netflix, Untold. It stunk. Oh, yeah.

63 minutes. It wasn't a great documentary. I'm talking about the story, Dan. I'm asking people to learn the story. It's been told. No, it was untold. No, it wasn't untold. New series, been told. We didn't get David's number one. Done, been told. And Dan, not that you need help with five guys in your life, but I got Greek freak Katie, Joel Embiid, Trey Young, and Zion Williamson.

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