Local Hour: Larry Bird's Offseason Program
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The tequila that invented tequila. Go to Cuervo.com to shop tequila or visit a store near you. Cuervo. Now's a good time. Trademarks owned by Bechle. SAB the CV. Copyright 2024. Proximo. Jersey City, New Jersey. Please drink responsibly. This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz Podcast. There are some fun things that I want to get to, Stugatz, including... Yeah? Yeah.

That I drove in today and it made me, like it filled my soul with something really sweet that I heard Solomon Wilcott and Ryan Leaf on a show called The Opening Drive. Wow. Solly. Yeah, I heard their big voice announcer say, take your morning coffee with a side of football. Ha ha ha ha.

And I just got into my day the way that I wanted to. But before we get into talking with Juju and Tony and Mike and Chris Cody about the events of the sports weekend, the big story of the day today. Happy birthday to him. I don't care. Good luck. In every way, Stugatz has never been older. Yeah.

This is the oldest he has ever been. He has sort of shaved four days ago. I don't know what the gifts are for his birthday. We have a gift for him today for his birthday that we're going to surprise him with. Do you really? Wow. I'm very excited. The first time the show has gotten me a gift. I think, guys, you know what the surprise gift is, right? Everybody knows except for Stugatz. In terms of gifts...

Where would this rank on greatest birthday gifts that we could just give Stugatz to make him happy? Number one. Really? Hmm.

Tony, hold on. Tony, you're aggressively knowledgeable there where I've got a show full of people who know Stugatz for a long time. You're promising the number one gift that we could possibly get Stugatz to make him happy today. I know my guy Stugatz. I know my guy Stugatz. I know what he likes. Obviously, he's done a lot of things. He's gone to the sphere. He's done God knows what with the dead. If we could do one thing for Stu today, it would be this. Mike, do you know what the gift

is or do you not? It'll be a surprise for me. Do you know what the gift is or not? Happy birthday, Mike. Okay, so this is not a great room to ask. I know who it is, but based off Tony's guess, I'm thinking the dead. It's a person. Chris, go sit in the penalty box. Go sit in the penalty box. Well, Tony was very smart to clarify it's the best we could do today.

If you were telling me, perhaps, that in a few weeks you were sending me back to the Sphere to go to three more Deadly Company shows, that would be great and probably number one on my list, but that is not today. Today is today. But it seemed to you and the audience like we were getting you an actual gift, and no one likes the guy like Chris Cody who ruins the surprise right off the bat. Ha ha ha.

Like, already the surprise is ruined by making it a who. He gave him too many details. You would have ruined it in like 30 seconds. I still don't know if it mattered. Neither does Mike and neither does Juju. Yeah, I'm actually, given the punitive measures that we've just taken, don't tell me. I'm not going to tell you. I'm just going to tell the audience, and I'm telling Stugatz right now, that I really do think it's going to make him happy. And it's hard to make Stugatz happy these days as he ages. Yeah.

He's struggling with his age. It's always, I've got my right arm hurts. You know, this is wrong. He's become full-blown old person who complains about everything. He's always been that, but it's now older person that does it. I try my best to make him happy on his birthday. We got Nadal and Djokovic on the red clay for possibly the last time. It is not delivering right now. Thank God that clay is red because it is a bloodbath. Well, it's making me sad because Nadal is finished.

I asked you who was winning, and you gave me a look like, duh, Nadal is getting crushed. And so I am sad today because, Mike, we are seeing the very end of what is one of the greatest runs in the history of tennis. Yeah, the achievement here for Nadal was to get his body ready to actually be here for Paris because it wasn't looking like he'd have this send-off. We kind of already said goodbye to him at Roland Garros, but he was trying to get his body ready for this game.

this Olympics and we got that. And so in many ways, the victory for him was just getting out there. Let me stop you guys for just a moment because I don't believe, yeah, no, I want to talk. No, I want to talk about this with you. Nice old rally going. And I want to get to the stories of the day as well, because I didn't expect to start with this, but Tony, just please find for me, because I think we overlook this shit all the time in a way that infuriates me and under respecting the people in sports and what they put their body through.

Nadal's not going to walk right the rest of his life because of what he's done to his feet and because of what he's had to do in terms of taking medicine shots to stay out there because you have no earthly idea how tough this human being is whose left arm is a thigh, a human thigh bigger than his right arm because he's distorted his body to play tennis that way. He might give us a moment. We got a break point. Oh, boy.

Look up for me, Tony, please. Just the pain that Nadal is in when you say get his body right for one last run because we saw three Michael Jordans dominate tennis for 15 years and he happens to be the third best. Yeah. There's no not on that. But not on clay. But not on clay. Well, he's the best ever on clay. But not on clay. And so we got...

do want to celebrate this for a moment because it is rare that we have sporting events going on while how nice has it been to get up in the morning and you've got at the Olympics that are there to the the peacock coverage has been

Unbelievable. This is the first time we've had a streamer like this have these rights for the Summer Olympics at a reasonable time. So you're watching all these things pretty much live as they're happening, and it's so easy to follow. And plus, you got the Gold Zone, which has gotten tremendous reviews. I watched some of it. It's a whip-around show like the Red Zone before Olympics, and it'll only get more exciting as you get more and more people

games of consequence here as we get into the metal rounds. I think Nadal has won 22 grand slams, if my math is correct, and yet he is the third best of that generation. That's crazy! It is, and what's even crazier is that there are so many guys like that are fourth, fifth, and sixth, and seventh, that if they played in any other generation would probably be talked about as all-time great. This is a show that we did two weeks ago, but I

I think Nadal is kind of... He's entered that Tiger Woods territory. And I don't know if you guys saw a photo of Tiger Woods' leg without a leg sleeve. His legs are just totally mangled from that. But whenever you see Tiger playing in a tournament, and he's good for the birdie on the first hole. And it always gets you excited. And you always kind of hope, like, this guy's got one...

He's not as good as he once was, but he can be as good as he ever was just one more time. No, no. Stugatz has been saying that about Tiger here for the last three years. Predicts he wins every tournament. No, and then he misses cuts. He won the Masters. He did. But that was before the car crash. Five years ago. Well, the other car crash. But I was saying he had one more rhythm before that.

for five years and then he won the Masters. He's got one more. You've been wrong on Tiger Woods for five straight years. Every tournament, wrong. You always say he's going to win, misses the cut. Tony, what do you have for me on Nadal? So obviously there's been a lot of injuries with Nadal as in any pro athlete who's been playing for so long. But since 2005, he's had a...

called the Muller-Weiss syndrome, which is a rare condition that affects the adult navicular bone, one of the most crucial bones of the human foot that connects the ankle to the bones of the foot, and there's no cure for it. So he just basically plays on it with no cure, and it's debilitating. He says he can't walk out. For 20 years, he's been playing in that kind of pain because you have no earthly idea how hard it is to be tough enough to be third best of that era. An injury that I think has made worse progress

On this surface. And probably it became a thing because of this surface that he excelled on. All right. But this is where I wanted to start with you, Stugatz, because we're talking seriously here about pain threshold and recognizing greatness, measuring greatness, valuing greatness. Because the two stories today coming in here are the Olympics in general, and I put it front and center at that.

Team USA basketball, because it's the great connecting point. And I want to talk about LeBron, even though people are really tired of LeBron, because I don't think we understand how unfair we've been to excellence during an era.

Over the last 20 years, social media mocking people. He was always chasing Michael, always chasing Michael. To see him holding that American flag and that flag means something different than it did 20 years ago. But the thing holding it doesn't. It's still excellence for 20 years. Today's Ali. You better appreciate it because it's today's Ali that he could be the oldest player in the league holding a flag that doesn't mean what it did.

Over the last 20 years. And that he, I asked you all now, all of you, give me the greatest controversy of his career. Cause you just mentioned Tiger Woods. Nobody does that. Social media age, 20 years. Give me the greatest controversy of his career from 16. He's been exceeding expectations. I think some people listening right now, they probably say China, uh,

To me, I think the greatest controversy in his career was a business decision that he made. Miami? Yeah. Deciding to come to Miami, and he became a villain. Changing teams, exploiting free agency, and changing the entire power structure in sports. But throughout the time, chasing a ghost...

in Michael Jordan and he would never be more first than Michael Jordan and you know how hard it is to tackle Michael Jordan as America's ultimate winner? Not even Brady could do it because he wasn't first. So Michael Jordan is the winner.

Not Serena Williams. Of all time, you're saying. Yes, not anyone. He won the game. But we have watched for 20 years somebody who holds that American flag in the middle of the Olympics and once upon a time, right, because we don't treat Team USA this way. We don't treat anymore what it is that we're watching of this team and make it feel like it did when it was Jordan and Barkley. But imagine Michael Jordan at the end of everything, not shooting jumpers for the Wizards, trying to make Abe Poland some money, or...

than any athlete out there and still deserving of holding the flag, how emotional you would have been watching it because you're so much nicer to him because the last 20 years have been so much crueler to athletes and he comes out on the other end of this a different person. But before I get into the all of that, Stugatz, because I do think the other story here locally is how it is that you measure a quarterback's value.

And Tua has just signed a contract and it pains me the way that sports and sports coverage have changed so much

I really don't know when this happened, when we cared so much that it was 53.1 million, that the dollar amounts are so important to us where we don't do this anywhere else in entertainment. Not like this. We might say, look, Deadpool is the biggest opener for an R movie ever, but we don't care.

I don't care what Ryan Reynolds makes in that movie. Nobody's talking about that. But in this case, we care because we're not certain if this particular quarterback is worth the $55 million for whatever reason. We don't have these concerns with Joe Burrow. We certainly don't have them with Patrick Mahomes.

We have him with this guy. He did it for a year. They haven't won a playoff game. They were 1-6 against teams with winning records last year. There are a lot of questions and a lot of concerns, so I understand why we're doing it with Tua. Plus, the Dolphins did not have to sign this quarterback right now. They didn't have to do it, Dan. I want to have the macro conversation, okay? Because the micro conversation is absolutely, is he worth every penny right now this year's salary cap sport?

I want to have the bigger conversation of how the sports coverage has changed in 20 years that contaminates and corrupts the way we view someone like LeBron because when you know what everyone is making all the time, you're perpetually in sports media assigning value to them and then Skip Bayless makes a career of saying you're not as valuable as you think you are. Making us all more valuable. Like,

the criticism game of 20 years that LeBron James has survived to hold that flag. Kaepernick couldn't survive it under that flag. And I tell you again, look at what happened when the temptation arrived for Tiger Woods.

A lot has changed over the years, audience. As you've been so kind in pointing out, my shirt size has changed over the years. Look, I started this show as a 19-year-old boy, and now I'm a 38-year-old dad. But along the way, one staple of my life has been Miller Lite, and those of you that have been listening to us know this. I've been a Miller Lite guy since day one. I have been pretty honest about that. So let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

What is the best thing about the original Lightbeer Miller Lite? It sparked this debate way back in 1975, and we still haven't settled it. For me, it's the undebatable quality. It's

It's great taste and it's less filling. Whether you're out with your friends, at a game, at a bar, in the shower, Miller Lite delivers Miller time every time. You don't have to choose what's best about Miller Lite. It has great taste and is less filling. Tastes like Miller time. To get Miller Lite delivered right to your door, visit MillerLite.com slash Dan, or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories per 12 ounces. Fewer cows and carbs than premium regular beer.

Don Levitard. Chris Cody does an impression. Just be careful. Dangerous game. This is a dangerous game. I don't want to play this game. No, he was saying, man, I could do such a great Kendrick. Oh, I don't want to play this game. He's like, man, I can talk to you. This is who we're going to trust with this. Let's let Amin do it, I think. Stugatz. I think you could do it, Chris, because you did a great Charles Barkley. You're one for one there. Did no one just hear the segment we just did with Amin? We cannot be taking counsel from the

local drunk on whether or not you should do the impersonation of a black man stumbling over his words. Like, you don't see the bad joke in that. There was. Moses Moody? Moody Moses? Moses Moody? You need that

It sounds worse. Be careful, man. We cannot do this. It's too close to the line. This is where the line is. Something legitimately funny can't be funny because we're scared our ginger's going to do something racist by accident. Carry the hell on, Dan. Rachel. Dan, the line is where we feel alive, though. This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugats.

LeBron James' greatest controversies are he was his own man in a way that was publicly vocal in a way Tiger and Michael never would. And when he carries that flag, it means something different. He's not doing it just to sell sneakers, but he will. But it means something to him to be the oldest athlete in the game and to have survived 20 years of our endless bullshit about you're great but not great enough.

Well, I think people are obsessed with money, particularly because it's a cap sports, and you kind of have to, in the day of sports takedom, you have to get that in. Look, Phil Mickelson probably has the worst sports contract in all of pro sports, but no one cares, primarily because it's golf, and it's live golf at that, but it's not a cap sport. His ability to make that money isn't stopping his team from signing anybody else. So you have...

I know there's Hollywood budgets assigned to movies, and even in Deadpool, they kind of make fun of how cameos affect the budget, but that's why people don't care so much. Mike, that's a neat rationalization for now. We've been obsessed with the money of athletes before the salary cap. You are right. The Olympics got you charged up, my man. Yeah. It came in hot. I got a cool stat for you. LeBron James is four years older than Larry Bird was when Larry Bird was on the Dream Team. Stat of the...

Do you remember how old? There is old. There's Wilford Brimley old. Yeah. But pro sports old, to me, is Larry Bird on the dream team. Yeah. Where his back got wrecked by repaving his mom's driveway. That Larry Bird. Yep.

LeBron is four years older than that Larry Bird. And still a shining example for our culture. Like our culture, we used to see in our superstars and our heroes take a big dive after a while. Like Dan said, it's been 20 years of an unblemished resume for an example to be made for children to follow him, for an example for players to follow him. And now he got his son. He's going to be in the history book. So to do all of that and whenever it's too, everybody on the NBA or the USA team is the man.

But when two minutes left, everybody know, pass the damn ball to LeBron. He got a look in his eyes. And so with that still being like he said, older than Larry Bird, come on, man, you are a legend. I don't know, bro. Michael Jordan is the ultimate winner. But this, I think LeBron is the ultimate example.

Example of what? Not winning, though. No, example of a black culture being able to follow a black example without a blemish on his record. To Juju's point, he spoke to it, too. When he was being interviewed as he was there holding the flag next to Coco, he mentioned for a black man to be holding this flag and set that example. He's always been aware of it. He's always aspired to be something, in some respects, sometimes...

something greater, more impactful on social issues than he can be. But he's also shown in his career that he can be super impactful. Just look at his time with the Heat and wearing the hoodies and the statement. If you look back at the reaction to that, now we see political statements made all the time, even though that's more of a social rights issue, a civil rights issue. But he is always

always keenly aware of what the goal should be for a role model. And he's never slipped up to Dan's point. His only slip up was a business decision. Right. No, he's great. And Dan, he has received over these 20 years a lot of praise as well. I mean, all we're saying is he's not as good as Michael. That's it. There's no shame in that. Stugatz, it has always been delivered well.

As there is shame in that. And for 20 years, a lot of people have profited off of how much crueler the coverage is of everything. Because we know everything about how much these people make. And we have an access to them that we didn't have during Michael Jordan's more mythological time. But with the money, you're talking about actors. We don't care about what they make. If movies had a cap on them, we would care.

Stugatz, listen. If we had a $100 million cap for a movie and Reynolds took up 80 and we couldn't get DiCaprio because Reynolds took up too much money, we'd be blasting Reynolds. The thing that you guys do to rationalize the bad behavior of how often you spend putting a dollar amount on these people. This has been a total change in sports media, Stugatz. This has happened over the course of our lifetime and it's before the salary cap that it started.

The salaries in the paper, in the newspaper, knowing what everybody makes. When I'm watching Tua and you're talking about the micro of whether he's worth, like, this is funny, Stugatz, that he's, Tua's 53.1 million and Goff is 53 million. That's on purpose. Like, that's absolutely his agent doing that on purpose.

purpose no give us a hundred thousand more than golf when we do it that way it's not because everyone's saying how much does that hundred thousand dollars keep us from paying jalen ramsey next year that's not and everyone's a capologist we're just busybodies who want to know exactly every dollar that everybody makes and be okay with wanting to know it like we want that information it's a total change in the way we cover these people how much of the salary cap is robert downey jr

eating up for doom. It's Dr. Doom. Yeah, he didn't spend seven years in evil medical school for you to just call him doom.

You hit the stat of the day music, Chris, and I aired last week and giving a stat that was wrong. It ended up being wrong. I had said that Mark Sanchez had won more playoff games. This bothered me all weekend. Really? Yeah, well, yeah, it did. It stuck with you? A stat of the day. You got to let it go, man. No, it's a stat of the day. It's got to be right. The stat of the day has to be right. It's all it's got to be.

And I said that Mark Sanchez had won more playoff games than the combination of Dak Prescott, Kirk Cousins, Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, and somebody else. And it turns out that Lamar Jackson won his second this year to make it so that that group of people has five instead of four. And so the stat, you understand what the point is. What's happening with Rafa? Rafa, he gave us a moment.

Oh, he's back. Oh, he's broken Joker twice. It's 4-4 in the second set. All the feels. I got Goosey's talking to you right now. It's Rafa. It's Joker. It's Roland Garros. And he's back. He wants to go five sets, right? He always does. I don't think they can do that in the Olympics. It's kind of like boxing where I'm worried about the boxer's health and then I find out, oh, it's just three rounds. Go crazy, folks.

I just want to, and I know this happens every time, Stu Gatz, that I talk about LeBron. Every single time it happens where somebody is out there saying, you are giving too much praise to this person. He doesn't deserve the praise. And all I'm telling you is as close as someone can be in sports in the modern age, to the degree we'll allow it, because Ali was first. Right.

to the degree we'll allow it. He is a combination of the modern Michael Jordan and the modern Muhammad Ali in the way that he is represented overcoming what the body must to be Rafael Nadal and him and to get to...

a game yesterday that you're watching that he still Stugatz great at his age. That's amazing. I want to talk about the physical aspects because we saw Brady into his mid-40s do things we'd never seen before, but the way that he played the position, he doesn't, look, if it's a

foot race, we know that Tom Brady probably, if he had to lean on his athleticism more, he probably would have been out of the league sooner. But faster at 45 than he was at the combine at 22 because of medicine and science. Understood. And he totally changed and warped our perception of how quarterbacks should age to the point that we're still struggling with it. LeBron plays a different sport and at a different position where he is fully reliant on

his athleticism. There's mental IQ stuff too. He's a basketball genius, don't get me wrong, but he still has to drive the lane. He still has to be strong. That Larry Bird shit is not a joke. And he is a case study for how far sports medicine has advanced. I was talking about this with Chris Whittingham in a group chat the other day specifically about Larry Bird. Larry Bird's off-season training plan one year was to stop drinking Miller Lights. Yeah.

Which you should never do. Which you should never do. Never do. Never do. There's ways to manage your training now and still enjoy a nice Miller Lite. Larry Bird, I've lost respect for Larry Bird. What? Yes, I've lost respect. This is brought to you by Miller Lite. Well, it clearly didn't work, so it was a bad plan for him. But that's not a joke.

He really hurt his back repaving a driveway. So LeBron is doing things that are probably going to be super unfair for the generations that follow, the same way that Tom Brady just totally warped our perception of what the quarterback position should age like. He is unlike anybody else.

And we will only know how to really put him in the proper context until his career is over or he's long gone. I'm telling you to do it now is what I'm telling you. I'm offering you the opportunity to do it now because a step beyond what you're saying, Mike, is you could say all you want about science and use the extraterrestrial Tom Brady. But I listened last week to Carmelo and Dwayne Wade trying to tell me what their history was, change it in podcast while he's still out here doing it.

Science didn't do for them. Science didn't get them to holding this flag still playing for Team USA. Just want to make sure I'm clear. Your lost respect for Larry Bird is brought to you by Miller Lite? Yes. That is correct. A shot of Miller Lite for your life. That's right. Larry Bird, I have lost respect for you because the way that you said that you got in shape is by stopping drinking Miller Lite. That was his claim. We don't know if it actually happened.

The insanity, Stugatz, okay, in a sport that changes so quickly that Embiid in international play looks a bit lumbering.

It looks like a seven-foot-old bit. What are we doing there? Jason Tatum can't get on the court. No, Kurt just made a mistake there. He's like, oh, shit, I forgot. Why do we insist on playing Joel Embiid, like our third-best center for international basketball because there's no three-second rule? And every game starts the same, like, well, we've got to feed Joel. We've got to worry about Joel. Meanwhile, Tatum's feelings are being ignored.

I think Steve Kerr did a great job explaining, like, no, I'm the coach and Kevin Durant looked like Kevin Durant yesterday. He ain't look like Kevin. He look like the God Kevin Durant yesterday. And on top of that, brother, if my decision is to sit your ass at the end of this bench the entire Olympics, that's my decision. I'm the coach. So...

Sit over there, NBA champion. Sit down. Hold on. That's not exactly how he said it. I'm the coach, though, Dan. That's the law, though. He is the coach. Let's get his sound, though, because I think what he said is, I feel like a total idiot.

Yeah, it's tough. But Jason handled it really well. I talked to him today before the game that it may play out this way, just with Kevin coming back and the lineups that I wanted to get to. But that'll change. You know, Jason's going to play. Every game is going to be different based on matchups. He's a total pro. He's first team all NBA three years in a row.

I felt like an idiot not playing him. But in a 40-minute game, you can't play more than 10. You really can't. So I think he's an amazing guy, great player, and handled it beautifully. And he'll be back out there next game.

I was shouting at my television on a steel and dunk, Drew S.A., Drew S.A., and just so you know, Stu Gatz, so that you're clear on this, the reason that Tatum did not play is because that's the best half Kevin Durant has ever played. The Dan Lebitard Show with Stu Gatz is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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Don Levitard. Greg Cody of the Miami Herald is writing an article and I'm reading it. Moss, Miami sold out. Miami artists, Miami culture. And I'm reading Moss, Miami is sold out. And I'm reading about digital podcast network and I'm reading about us. And I'm like, this is our dreams coming true. Stugatz. A thousand people come out and we see the shipping container and they're on a stage and they're like rock stars.

You and me both had tears in our eyes. We're like mom and dad of sentiment, and it's hard to get you to sentiment, man. That was a very emotional moment for us to see those guys. I'm telling you guys, you were on stage. Dan and I were both crying. Are you guys aware of this? Crying. Like crocodile tears. No, crocodile tears are fakes. Crocodile tears are fakes. I thought they meant big. This is the Dan Levitas Show with the Stoogats.

What birthday is this for you? Is it 52? It is 52. I don't feel day over 75, but it is 52. How are you feeling about things today as it's your birthday? Will it be a celebratory day? I don't know what age birthdays stop feeling like something you feel like you should celebrate. About five years ago? Yeah, I don't know. I'm not going to celebrate much. It's a Monday. I don't like birthdays on a Monday.

I just want to get through the show, have fun during the show today, get through the show, go home, take a gummy, maybe play some golf. I mean, it's what life is all about, Dan, at this stage of my life, you know, gummies and golf. How was the New York experience you spent last week there around your dream scenario? How did that go? It seemed like it was very polarizing. It seems like it was volatile.

It was a bit uncomfortable. I don't care. You know, at this stage, I go in there, I throw a couple of grenades. I have everyone saying out loud into microphones that they too want Evan Roberts' job. And, you know, mission accomplished. I walk out. They talk about me today. They bash me. Some people liked it. Some people didn't like it. You know what, Dan? What can I do? I'm not going to stay up at night worrying about pleasing everyone because you know what?

I can't please everyone. I can only go and do these things and try to have as much fun as I can have. And I felt like I had fun, except for that one hour where my stomach was in such shambles, I almost crapped myself on the air. What happened? Was that when you were confronted by that guy in half a hood? Oh, tyranny? No, this was just bad food the day before. Yeah. Oh. Yeah.

You just didn't feel good? You were just going to crap yourself? There was a good hour where I left Gio hanging several times because I wasn't really listening to what it is he was saying. I was focused on trying to keep everything inside. Oh, that's not great. It was not. That's not a great situation. And my back was sweating. It's sweating just talking about it right now. About your stomach? Has that ever happened to any of you where you can't not? I'm talking about on air. On air. Of course this has happened to me.

No, I'm talking about on air. There's a lot of time we've put in over the years where a bathroom situation makes it so that you can't concentrate on what you're doing for a full hour.

I don't think that that has ever happened to me. I think adults generally have control of their bowels better than that. I think this might be a you problem. We've been doing this a long time. Did you just blame Indian food? I didn't say Indian food. I just said the food I had the day before. I went out. I had a nice brunch with Diana Rossini. And I noticed that we were at a place. I noticed that she took a single bite of what it was she was eating. And I ate my entire thing. And we ordered the same thing. It was an omelet.

She took one bite, stopped eating. I ate it all. I asked her, why'd you only take a bite? She never answered because her face is always in her phone.

But it dawned on me as I was thinking back to it in the moment. Oh, you think you poisoned yourself? You think you ate something? I think she ate something. She knew it was bad. She forgot to tell me to not eat the thing that she wasn't eating because she was reporting. If that's not the life of an NFL insider right there in a nutshell, doesn't have time. Put it on the poll, please, Juju, at Levitard Show. Does an NFL insider have time to tell their friends they might be food poisoned? No.

And I was so hungry, I ate mine, and then I took a bite of hers. I mean, I reached over, she wasn't eating it, so I cut a little piece off, and I had a bite of hers. But it was fun. I had a good week. You know, it was a little frosty up there, I've got to be honest. Frosty. Just, you know, people aren't happy with me for whatever reason. I didn't take the program director's job. I want everyone else's job. I'm vocal about it.

There were some people in that building who are not big fans of mine, and quite frankly, I don't blame them. I was surprised that you rolled over when that guy confronted you. He's big. He's physically big? Yeah, he's on my list of top five sports radio goons of all time. It's him, Dan Cilio. I mean, Sal Licata's also on the list, but I like Sal a lot. But those guys are big, man. They intimidate. Dan, I'm 5'7". I'm 52 years old. What am I going to do at this point? Well, not say things that offend them. You're right.

I apologized to him. I did. We love you, Stu, guys. You got a building full of folks here that's going to ride and die for you, brother. Thank you. Salute to those big brothers who are quote unquote big, but we got your back. Uh-oh. Somebody's flexing. Nowhere else. Come on, bro. You are our partner. We ride or die. Bad boys for life. I love you, man. Thank you. I feel your love, Juju. I do. I do.

Kevin Durant had never dropped 20 points on 100% from the field in any half of his NBA career, including the postseason. He went 8-for-8 against Serbia. The part that was funniest about that game is, oh, look, when Jokic is out there, Serbia and Team USA are exactly even. And then Jokic has to go sit for a little while. No, there goes Team USA, 29-3.

We're forgetting the play players. It's just one right. Well, they forget. If it had gone deep in the game, we would have tried to wire down Jokic. But he could have beaten all of them. He's done it before.

He can be out there just a cement mixer because this part's amazing, right? Joel Embiid looks... I mean, come on, man. So Joel Embiid doesn't fit in this game? Look at him. What do you mean he doesn't fit with every kind of basketball I've ever seen? Oh, but Jokic can dominate no matter where I put him? No.

No matter where I put him, doesn't matter who's guarding him, doesn't matter how you want to play the game. You want to play it on your knees? He'll beat you that way too. Everyone's got to play on their knees. It's all in here, Dano. Right here. The heart. Joker got more heart than damn near the whole Serbia. And B got less than Philly. Salute.

I want to get to Stugatz in about 10 minutes. What Mike is saying about the gold zone, the broadcast. So good. I was watching and I didn't realize because I didn't read much of the coverage. When I heard Mike Tirico's voice for the opening ceremonies and my wife and I were just spending the entire time laughing about how French it was. Um,

I'm thinking to myself, is that Peyton Manning? That sounds like Peyton Manning. Why would it be Peyton Manning? It was so funny. The very first Mike Tirico hit, they pan out and it's just, here's Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning. No, but I hadn't seen Peyton Manning. I was just listening to his twang and I'm like, that's clearly Peyton Manning, but why would it be Peyton Manning? Why not? He's an Olympic hero. Right. I mean, duh.

Flag football, next Olympics. What do you mean? Legitimately, I never bothered to look it up. The information just came to me over the next two days that yes, that is not only Kelly Clarkson, but it is Peyton Manning. But to recognize a quarterback by his accent

When most people in America can't recognize any of the wide receivers if they walk in and sit in your living room. I think it's a fairly amazing thing to have a voice that you recognize because it's been a part of your life for 15 years and you're confused as to why it's there. And then when you think about it, you're like...

Nah, it should be there. Why? Because I recognize that voice. It's everywhere. Djokovic has done this occasionally in his career where he does not take a hostile crowd well, and he shows his true self. He's a heel.

He's a villain. He eggs him on. So Nadal was making a run here. Fought off break point after break point. It's a best out of three in the Olympics. And Nadal had tapped in, turned back the clock, tapped into his greatness, and the crowd really rallied behind a Roland Garros hero in Rafael Nadal. They were booing Djokovic. So when Djokovic finally broke Nadal, he chirped back at

the crowd who was booing at him and he was talking to them and now he just won the match. In his celebration, he took his tennis racket and started playing it as a sad violin. That bastard. The Joker. And that's how it ends for an adult.

The Joker playing like the villainous Joker. Did you guys, I saw this the other day, Stugatz, the trailer for the Penguin. Have any of you seen the trailer for the Penguin? I have, yeah. And do you recognize, Mike, don't spoil it. Do you recognize who that person is? Because it's not, if I can show you a picture. Is it a spoiler if the movie already came out? Like it's a continuation of the Batman movie. Is it Ron Say? It is not. What?

The third baseman, the former third baseman for the Los Angeles Dollars. Is it Minnie Driver? You can put that picture in front of Stugat of the Penguin, and he could give you a thousand guesses and not be able to tell you. Let's throw it up on the screen. I have the video department find a video or a still image of the Penguin from this upcoming Max series, which is supposed to be a bridge to the next sequel in the rebooted Robert Pattinson movie.

franchise, which I guess is independent of the DC universe. Is that Sidney Crosby? Sid the Kid. It's Martin Straka. Oh, let's please play this game. All famous penguins is all we're going to do? Tom Barrasso? Stu Barnes.

I don't remember him with the Penguins. Oh, dude, it was arguably the worst trade in Panther history. They got back Chris Wells. I know that they traded him. I didn't realize it had been to the Penguins. I'd forgotten about that. What a glorious time that was when we were heartbroken by hockey trades. We haven't even gotten to the Marlins trading their only star.

The only player anyone recognizes. That statement. I have no connection to Jazz, but when he, in his statement, mentioned Miami Blue and Caliente Red...

I felt that. Chris Cody, how did you feel about this? I take it that Billy is taking some earned vacation. He has been ground to a nub by all things happening around here. How did you feel about Jazz Chisholm being traded? Because he goes to the Yankees and I have not had this reaction before, Stu Gatz. This has not happened to me in the history of this market in baseball, but

this market again and again. And Stugatz, I will tell you, baseball was my first love in this market. It's the first thing that I covered professionally in this market. The 1993 Marlins. You were on the beat. It's what I grew up on before University of Miami football or anything else. I have cared about baseball in this market and baseball again and again in a way that makes me get into an argument with the commissioner of baseball is treated like

South Florida as a brothel. They can't make the business work here because a bunch of thieves and greedy people come in and ransack our local baseball team pretending to try and make baseball matter down here when all that matters is the business of it. So you can't get attached to the players.

But when they traded Jazz Chisholm, like I've been mad at them. I've been indifferent. I've been like just ravenously, ravenously angry in a way I don't get about sports. Sure. Because of how brazen it is that they just keep using a street I care about.

A street where my grandmother grew up to just ransack South Florida. They traded Jazz Chisholm and I was happy for him because now he'll get to play baseball in a place where people will be seen. We'll watch him and get to play meaningful games and care and his personality can come out because he he escapes the prison that is this this haunted franchise.

I'm good with it. I want Peter Bendix to get a chance to do his thing. If we're going to criticize every move he makes, why did we bring him here? Jazz is a good player. I don't find him as a guy that we needed to keep. He was one of the few people we could move, so I totally get the move. I'm going to let Bendix do his thing. That's where I'm at with the moves. But I think Dan is tired of getting the move. No, I know. I am too. I am too. I'm exhausted with the whole process. But of course you get the move. It's because they're never good. It's not just that.

No, they made the playoffs last year. It's not just that. It's what, man, look, the lifeblood of sports, man, is do you care about the people? Like, you can care about the team, but you can't just keep sending people off that fan bases care about without really betraying your customers. You can't do it so many times that you're not going to actually kill the business. Where I'm at the point already, after being rabid, to say, you know what? Good for Chaz. He doesn't have to rot down here.

A lot has changed over the years, audience. As you've been so kind in pointing out, my shirt size has changed over the years. Look, I started this show as a 19-year-old boy, and now I'm a 38-year-old dad. But along the way, one staple of my life has been Miller Lite, and those of you that have been listening to us know this. I've been a Miller Lite guy since day one. I have been pretty honest about that. So let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

What is the best thing about the original Lightbeer Miller Lite? It sparked this debate way back in 1975, and we still haven't settled it. For me, it's the undebatable quality.

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