Local Hour: The Fire Starter

0:00Tony, you and Mike were pouring over the advanced metrics. What were the final stats on Greg Cody yesterday in terms of production, number of carries, number of targets? What can we say is the final stat total on Greg Cody? So before I give the final stat line, we did talk about it here in the analytics department that when we scripted our first 15, he was great. We had the right blocking assignments. The offensive line did their job. The quarterback called the right place, called the mic out. Greg was able to understand where his blocking assignment was and hit the gap and hit it hard. After those first 15, we kind of fell off a little bit. Yeah, they stacked the box and brought the safeties down. Honestly, you should have utilized him better in the play action game and you didn't do that. You let him down. He's often up the defense for you. You did. I do appreciate that you guys are really getting into the press conference explanations on this. And you're right, I will accept the criticism. I should have used him better. Any failures of Greg Cody are my failures and my failures alone. I like that. But the thing that I had asked you was,

1:00I asked for a number of carries we had yesterday and just some general advanced statistics. Yeah, yeah, 22 for 78. Okay, so that's not bad. Not great. 64 in the first half. We said we were going to say committed to the run game. And 22 carries, when they stacked the box, a 10 of those carries came when they stacked the box. Do you feel like we're going to do better or worse today because he's come in today and said, he's proclaimed himself a fire starter. He wants the nickname as a running back of fire starter, which is a good, it's a good nickname. We would agree that any running back in the league would like, if a running back, if we started calling H&N fire starter and got it off the ground, H&N would love to be called fire starter. In Greg's case, I think it's appropriate because he was amongst the first to discover fire. Yeah. I like that. I want to adopt that as my official nickname, by the way. I want people to start calling me FS, fire, fire. Fire starters a little on wieldy. But in terms of the carries and the yards, I'm more concerned with carries than yards.

2:00It's a Cesar Tovar. He's a baseball player that's not a running back. Okay, listen to his, all right. He's been doing this to me for 40 years. Stuffed at the line. 40 years. Do you guys, Tony, do you know what he's referencing? Does anyone there, does his son know what he's referencing when he says it's a Cesar Tovar reference? I've heard it. It's the guy batting average. Go on. Is this drop of fire starter sound effect? No. Oh, I like that. Tony, do you know what he is saying when he is saying Cesar Tovar? I have that. No. Roy. Roy? No. Mike. I think I've heard it on the show before and it was a guy that was like, boom, bust. Well, Cesar Tovar was a former Minnesota twin. He may have played for other teams, but I'm thinking 60s and 70s. And he was notable because he once had over 700 at bats in a season. He was a guy who was just prolific. And I like the idea of a lot of it bats.

3:00You know, you give me 700 at bats. It doesn't really matter whether I'm hitting 241. Matters a little bit. Or 278. No, because the at bats akin to carries by a running bag. You know, I'm the kind of guy who would like 31 carries and doesn't particularly matter if it's only for 68 yards, you know, because I'm putting in the work. You know, I'm doing the lifting. You also did have a fumble here. I didn't know. I see the Packers versus Steelers situation was a fumble. We're in the red zone there. We're getting really close to coming home and you did fumble. But I recovered my own fumble, didn't I? I don't think so. Oh, I thought I did. I'm afraid we've started three and out. And you know what that means, Greg. What's that? Punt. Nice. I like that. Cesar Tovar, not even on my catchphrase count down. Cesar Tovar, can you guys give me his career average place? I'd like to now go through it. Thank you, Cesar Tovar. What do you have? 278 career average. Solid. So you're saying that you're going to take 10 swings on jokes. And if you fail at seven or eight times, you're good with it.

4:02Yeah, yeah. If I get two or three out of 10, I've succeeded. Did you yesterday? All the fame material. I think so. You just heard that from the statisticians. I, yeah. Did he, did he succeed or fail yesterday? Did, did, did we win yesterday? I think, I think we won despite Greg Cody. OK. This is the Don Levittar Show with the Stugat's Podcast. Professional basketball may indeed stink, but I'm finally ready to do it. I'm here to announce it. Yochich is a better offensive player than Michael Jordan. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry it took me a long time to get here. I am now here. Everyone should capitulate. There has never been a better offensive player than that loaf of bread. And you're not comfortable with it because you want it to be a wing guy and you want it to be somebody who soars through the air. And I'm sorry that this guy ruined basketball for you, but he's better as an offensive player than any that the sport has ever seen.

5:05OK. So if I asked you, you have one game, Michael Jordan and Nicola, Yochich, you're taking a look at that's not what I said. But I'm asking a different question, but that's not, it's not what I said. I said he's the best offensive player I have ever seen. I could give you all of the numbers and metric of how champion the nuggets are when he plays offensively and defensively, because he's also good defensively clogs everything up. They're not the same thing defensively. But I don't want to start there. He just did. Dan, I was willing to follow you into the breach. You're my captain. I'm going to follow you into the breach. Even if it's just me and you, well, the reason there are a number of things that I wish to get to today, and I want to put that over to the side for the moment, because I do think it's though it's one of the worthy things to talk about in basketball when everyone is that sport. The excellence is unprecedented at the top of what these people are doing. Like you can take the MVP from that guy if you like, but there's never been a better offensive player.

6:07And you can argue on behalf of Michael Jordan. And you can say one game, all the players that ever played, but we're watching one right now, who's a multi top. You could argue for Michael Jordan being a good basketball player. You could. But you can make the argument on the other side, and it'll be hair splitting. Like whatever it is, you're doing to reduce my yokich argument. You're doing it by this margin. We are watching genuine mastery in basketball, but everybody's mad at basketball. For an assignment, for an assortment of very good reasons. But we've got the fire starter in our midst. We've got Chris Cody has what he believes to be the five best sounds of the week when we have done a lot of careening into ditches this week. And I want to get some votes from you guys. But I also want to have the serious conversation. Everybody's asking me about Diana Rossini, wanting me to say something about Diana Rossini. And I'm like really uncomfortable with all of this and sort of the dirtiness of what my profession has become. Where every time I'm talking about where it is,

7:07the chapter and in shoms are compromised. Nobody cares. But then they do this. This thing that's in public that I want, I don't want to give air. You know why they do it though? But I don't want to give it air because I haven't talked to my friend. And I'd like to talk to my friend, not text my friend. I'd like to see how she's doing because this seems deeply unpleasant no matter who you are. True or not true. It's like, ooh, this is a foul thing to go to as hard as that person has worked for her credibility and that pit of sewage she works in to have this happen to her doesn't feel good. But I don't know anything. And I don't want to gossip and I don't want to bother her. I just like to know how she's doing because this seems awful. Like it was so hard for her to come by her credibility. And now we're going to do this. But so I don't want to give it oxygen but everybody wants to talk about it. And so I ask you guys genuinely what to do in the modern age. And I had this conflict 20 years ago with dead spin of all things. Dead spins came over to threaten newspapers. And it did so with gossip and things that people wanted and the internet became popular and the man is fear

8:10and everything's happening with podcasts because the rules are different over here. You don't have to apply a journalistic standard. It doesn't matter what you say. If you want to gossip in the sewage, you can do that and you can get listeners and viewers and it's the currency of the day and newspaper dies and so do those standards. When this thing happens, you're expected to talk about it because everybody's a gossip. And I've got somebody in the middle of this that I can sound like I'm white horsing on or this is too close a front for me not to be biased on it but I just feel for a human being in the middle of something like this because it's like you're going after her and not him, huh? That's interesting. Like that's super interesting. You know how hard it was to come by the credibility that she has as a person who has relationships in that sport because you have to have relationships. You will fail at that job because seven people can do it and they know all the other people who trust them who believe in them. And so they walk the line between friendship and conflict of interest and how do you get your information? So I ask you guys sincerely as I'm rambling here

9:11because I'm troubled by this and I don't know how to address it with being fair and just human, what do you do? What am I supposed to do? Because easier was to ignore it here and just see how untry to see how she's doing because this seems unpleasant. It seems like a really unpleasant thing to go through, especially if it's untrue. And it's not journalism. No, no, it's greeny photographs that are in you endow without substance. And I think at this point, I just give all, not that there's any doubt in my mind or not much, you know. No, no, no. See, I don't want to do that though. I don't want to do that. Like that, that, what? Yeah, that was a good job asking for help and shutting them down. It's, it's what I'm saying is. You don't know what you want to do and then someone offers something to do and cut them off at the pass. Because of how this is going to work, because of how he's doubting, he's sitting here,

10:12what he believes in, what he doesn't believe in. Well, we haven't, in fairness to Greg, we didn't let him say what he wanted to say and I think part of what he wants to say is something that you omitted, which is a very strong denial from the athletic, from Diana, from Mike Gray. And from, Raible's incriminated here as well and he's had to respond to all this. Oh, and nobody cares about that part, man. It's always about the women. But that's the problem. But a headline I read noted, salatiously, that they're both married as if that proves anything. When I say benefit of doubt, I have no doubt, but maybe some people do. I believe Diana Rossini's strong denial and I believe Mike Gray was until there's any proof otherwise because the proof was not in any of those photos. But I'm asking you, what am I supposed to do? That doesn't help. That just allows us to talk about it. I think what you did is fine. Now, speaking for the audience here a little bit, like when you say, when I talk about where shums and shifter are compromised, nobody cares. Well, Dane Levitard cares. That's why he's talking about those things.

11:12And you were showing a human side here by saying, well, I don't care that much to have that conversation here because I have a conflict here. That's human that there's gonna be people in the audience that call us out for our hypocrisies. And I'd say humans are allowed some. And I think you laid the cards out on the table why this one's uncomfortable. I think this one has a pretty strong denial attached to it. I side with Greg here. Like, I wanna see more if there is more. Actually, I don't wanna see more. All of this is really, really icky. And the denials are strong. The athletic really came to bat for Diana in ways that we don't typically see. I don't think it has to be labeled as an hypocrisy where, and I've seen the same comments from listeners too where, oh, you know, Dan's hypocritical. The show's hypocritical. Why won't they'll talk about this but they won't talk about Diana here. I don't know, like, it's okay to be a good friend. Like, it's okay to support your friend. And I don't understand why people wouldn't understand that part of it where, okay,

12:13she's a friend and we wanna support her and the way that we know we're choosing, not that we've had this conversation but the way that we're choosing a supporter is by not getting involved in this and lending more comment to this situation. Like, yeah, like, she's a friend. So, wouldn't everybody wanna stand up for their friend? No, but this is, this one's. And I mean by standing up, I mean not talking about it. No, no, no, but that's, no. Yeah, there's some cowardice in that and especially given what it is that we do. Can we establish some ground rules where people are trying to answer your question what you should do. You shouldn't just dismiss them with saying no. Okay, you can establish those ground rules but you guys are talking about something as if you're not understanding the journalism at the core of it. No, when our friends or people we cover in sports become news, that's different journalistically than it's been for a really long time. The reporter is not the news. We've distorted all of this.

13:15The reporter's never the news. Just because what Stephen A Smith now is, what he's turned this into with ego and flat chillance and everything else. Like over here, he's still a journalist. He's still yelling at my barns, pot head. You're, you're an influencer. I'm a journalist. I have standards. I have standards. I have friendships and relationships throughout the business, but I'm uncompromised. I'm objective. I know what my biases are or I try to be objective about things in people and truth and news when we're talking about this stuff. So the reason I'm knocking you down on no is because this woman is at the height of sports journalism. She got there the right and the hardest way, fighting the other information people to get to the top of information that is credible, that like is rock solid reported, stronger than the opinion maker. She's not an opinion maker. She's a journalist and she has good relationships in the business. And I sound here like I'm simply blindly and emotionally defending and riding for a friend.

14:17I don't know what the hell happened here, but this is a journalist who came by her credibility, honestly, the hardest way. And harder than all the other people that have to do this stuff of getting and fighting for the information who don't have to deal with this. This would not happen to Shams. This would not happen to Woj. This would not happen to any of these people. And so, yeah, nobody, she doesn't want to be at the center of this, she doesn't want any part. This is not why she got into this business. One note, when you say like the news people don't typically become the news, there is a head coach of a conference champion here that's involved that might be playing into why this is also new. But this isn't a story if it was Mike Frable with some random woman that we don't know. It's about her, man. It's also just gossip. It's also just gossip. She's been gossiped about before. There's also like a weird New York post athletic thing going on here too. So, I appreciate, okay, that you're trying to talk me

15:18down on my tone because I know what, where I can be strident here. And I don't know where my blind spots are here. I really don't because I came up in a man's business too. It's people like Diana who taught me, ooh, God almighty, we made this a lot harder than it had to be for women because there were so few of them around and because, look, even after all this, our progressive woke machine, look, all dudes in the room, all dudes talking about this because still we fail here. In a million ways. And I know my tone's bad. And I know that nobody wants to hear this message. But what do I do when I'm simply emotional about, ooh, I can't reach somebody who's got to be under it? I'd like to talk to her before talking about this and there's pressure from every angle to you. And fraud, you don't talk about the real things. Look at how you protect others when, when now you're attacking that journalistic thing that I care about where it's like, no, what's responsible here? What's right? Is there a clear answer? Like, because I don't think there is. And I don't think silence is it. Like, I don't want to give oxygen to it.

16:18Man, I don't want to go give oxygen to that bullshit going on between Whitlock and Stephen A. And I could drive it for clicks all day. All day I could sit here and talk about all the shit that happened between those two friends of mine. But they were trying to do something journalistically objective once upon a time and then this business distorted all of us. Turned us in, in preening peacocks. Like, we are the news. We are the news makers. We open on the news and when you don't talk about your friend, you're fraud. Okay. Folks, this episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Listen, money stress. I feel like nobody really teaches you how to deal with it. You just kind of wake up one day, you look at your bank account and you go, oh, cool, that's not ideal. And it's not just the money. It's everything around it, the overthinking, the bad sleep, the all deal with it later, which never works. A lot of people feel that, but don't really talk about it. And it can start affecting you, your mood, your relationships, just how you show up every day. Therapy isn't about financial advice. It's about handling the stress that comes with it, understanding your habits, where that anxiety comes from

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18:20That's the kind of energy that Quarovo brings. It's so smooth, so delicious. That's the Quarovo effect. Keep it, Quarovo. Folks, listen up, quick break in the action. Are you counting down the days until payday? Instacash from Moneyline can help you access up to $500 of your hard-earned pay early. There's no interest, no credit check, and no monthly fees. So you can manage those in-between expenses with less stress. Download the Moneyline app and link your qualifying bank account to see what you qualify for. Moneyline, make money easy. Instacash is subject to terms and eligibility requirements expedited to deliver your cries of turbo fee. See MoneyLion.com. Don't Libertard. This guy comes in as the next Wayne Gretzky. His nicknames include the Chosen One and MacJesus, okay? He's a great player. He scores a lot of goals. He scores a ton of assists, but it hasn't translated to making Edmonton a powerhouse in the league. They're in the final. Stugats. What's your nickname for him? McOverrated.

19:20This is the Don Libertard show with the Stugats. But no, when I ask you guys, do you understand what I'm in here when I'm saying, how do I do this right? But fair by her. Fair by her standards. When I can't talk to her. When I haven't, because I don't know what she's under. But then you can see who criticize the Gatchet journalism on this tabloid who's sole effort here is to destroy lives. You can do that. And you can't reach out to her. It's probably not the way that you want. I've reached out to Diana to offer the support. I don't want to do the text thing. See, this is another thing though, okay? And this is about communicating in the modern age. My wife's father just died and everybody's texting. That's nice, but they're texts. I'd like to talk to somebody. I'd like to see if somebody's okay. Like, yeah, I could check in by text. That's how we're communicating now. Yeah, I think the text is like feeling it out a little bit. I understand what you're saying. You don't think she's got a lot of that right now? I think it's like a respectfully.

20:21It's a bit of a boomer thing to be like, well, just the text, where's the call? Where's the letter? It sounds like where's the telegram? A little bit. People text to kind of see how people are doing if they're receptive to it, then the conversation can spark from there. Just testing the waters. I think the text right now to Diana is conveying, hey, I know you're under it right now. You've got a million texts. Everybody's reaching out. I'm sorry for what you're going through. Just wanted to let you know I'm thinking about you, support you, believe you, and that's it. I'm surprised by your combat of tone on all this then, because I don't think any of us disagree. I think the reputation Diana Rucini has well earned is a reason for benefit of doubt. And the only reason I even used the phrase benefit of doubt is that a lot of people out there infer what they see from those photos as guilt. I don't. I have relationships with female friends. We hug each other. She's allowed to have Mike Ravel as a friend beyond their professional relationship. There is also moralizing attached to it

21:23because of what's being discussed. And I think, true or untrue, a message of support for Diana Rucini should not be a controversial one, especially when you attach. That's pretty much what I'm saying. I think it's okay to blindly support a friend. I do. That's really where I come from. I think it's okay to blindly support someone as a friend. Isn't didn't like Ash and Kutcher do that with his, but they're not accused of rape. No. I'll set that aside. Oh, Danny, Danny masters that. I could, you know, like I think there is a distinction. Yes, and I don't like what Ash and Kutcher say. You shouldn't have said blindly. I didn't think you'd go for DJ Mom Jeans, but he went there. I mean, but blindly is when. No, no. You know what he says. Yeah, I feel like it's implied. You're the fire starter. He can't be the fire starter because you've been the fire starter for 20 years. The tone is shitty, undisputable. Cannot, cannot argue it. The thing I'm asking you, all bad tone and all,

22:25cutting you off and all, is the very serious question with everything you see happening in America and all around the globe, fairness, like wanting something to be fair, fighting for something to be fair, to have a standard, to have a journalistic standard of you talk about this when you know what you were talking about, when you have facts reported details, when you are aspiring to objectivity, the times and when you talk about this, not a radio podcast ESPN, the printed standard of how do you do this? Fairly, does it matter? Because I ask you guys sincerely, I did not want to talk about this. Greg, Greg, it's the thing that Greg was interested in today. And he thought it would be interesting. I didn't even know about that I was being criticized by anybody, it's the thing Greg found interesting and I'm conflicted with, well, what do I do with this? It's just a cheap thing to talk about. Like, it's just, it's a cheap thing to do

23:27because people want you to talk about it. And so when I ask you, what's fair? I think it's fair. In this case, Diana Rossini is a frequent guest on this show. If you believe her, her denial about this controversy as much as I do, I think it's fair. It's simply to say we support her. We believe her, you know, and two months from now, if we're proven wrong, that'll be regrettable, not for us, but for the parties involved. But right now, all benefit of doubt to Diana Rossini because she has earned it, she's earned the respect, she's earned the education. The employer knows her and that's why the employer's statement was as strong as it was. I mean, we've seen things like this in the past, so that's about as strong a statement in this. But they know her, they know what she's about, they work with her every day, they know what she does there and how hard the specifics of that job is. I'm sorry enough on that, the thing that I wanted to talk to you about after we killed all of the local teams and now, I don't know, it's terrible. What's happening right now is terrible

24:28and that Zaz is now the guy who just complains about the league. He loves this league. He loves this league and right now, Zaz is kind of broken. I don't like what it's done to me. Oh, because the conversation around this league is around all the dirty things money is done to the sport the last 15 years where you're like, oh, wait a minute, none of these games are going to be close. Everybody said, what, what just happened to this league? I don't, yeah, I don't like what it's done to me because, oh my God, it used to be my favorite. God, I loved the NBA and I miss feeling that way about the NBA, but everywhere you turn, it could be radio, it can be television, that we're a week away from the playoffs starting and all of the discourse around this league is just not all of it in the places where people still care about that Hawks' next game. Like, there are two, there are two different generations and things happening here, people who really love basketball because you're not, you're not going to convince Tony there that watching Yokeuch every night isn't a pleasure

25:28that he, that he doesn't appreciate. And we don't even have to look at like the mountain top of the NBA, which is Yokeuch and Wembee and SGA right now. Like, you're talking about the Hawks who've had a bunch of great games. But that's not the big story in the league. I hear you, okay, but it's not. I agree, the problem is in three games, we'll start talking about the NBA playoffs and everything will be, you're right. No, you're right. But great games, all the bad teams are going to be done. And then we hope that we'll have great games, which is why I think it's an important playoff for this league in this moment of time. Cultivate new stars, have highly competitive series. Let's stay away from the national TV windows being blowouts because what Zaz is saying is not a controversial opinion. And I don't think we do this as much as other shows out there because that is the narrative around the NBA. And we have a mean on our show and a mean defense the NBA at every turn. And it's merit and why we are where we're at. Because the greatness in the NBA is all time great where you're watching real excellence and we're not appreciating it because what's happened over the last 15 years is the narrative has been distorted

26:32by the way we cover this league. It's gotten worse and worse. It's not just Barclay and Shot complaining about everything, complaining about all the threes and everyone else. It's everyone talking about the garbage, how the games are bad and how 10 of the teams aren't trying. I could offer up a lukewarm take that collective mastery of the sport isn't great for a sport. Maybe it's fine in individual sports, but when every team has the sport down to a science and is tried to expose every single mathematical. They all play the same. Then you become baseball and baseball realize, okay, when we invented this game, we didn't account for the loopholes that math might provide. And that's where the NBA is found itself in. And hopefully like all the other major sports seemingly, they will listen to overwhelming fan feedback. They are at that impasse. But to Tony's point, it's a pretty gnarly postseason that we have set up here with a lot of great story lines with a league and transition, desperate for new stars. And I think those guys are ready to deliver.

27:32There's going to be a tipping point at some point like there was for baseball, hopefully without him silver if he's not in nothing. Well, he'll look around and say, all right, baseball did it, NFL did it. We got to do it too. And there's going to be a moment where that math is not going to math anymore. We got to turn the tide. No, but I just look, man, this, this part's a bummer. Like it's, this is the best time of year in basketball. Tony is right. The playoffs will erase some of this. Some of these people will be amazing. The stakes will get really high. You'll care about what the nicks are doing. But what you guys are doing in reflecting our show and our market is, oh, the heat stink and now Zaz is out. The heat, the heat don't have a real chance. And so Zaz isn't going to be interested in all of the other good teams. Because look, it hurts to watch Boston kick your ass because they got better at the threes than anybody. I don't want to watch that. This stinks. Oh, that was a huge part of it for me. But I, I am receptive to what a mean says. And it is a fair criticism that it's awfully convenient for me to bail on the NBA when my team is no longer relevant.

28:33I'll be locked into the playoffs for sure. But the part that bumps me out is in the other sports that are not like this. Our other major sports in this country are not like this, where just I find that the majority of the discourse you put on any TV show or any radio station right now. And for the most part, if they're talking NBA, they're talking about two things. They're talking about tanking and they're talking about 65 game rule. Those are the stories at Broughton. But it's real. It's not illegitimate. I mean, if you have a great NBA playoffs, it allows you to forget for a month that there is this overarching problem in the NBA. Other major sports don't have the tanking problem that the NBA blatantly does. Well, you say, you say they don't, but there are a lot of bad baseball teams and baseball can change some of this. You guys are seeing what's happening, right? Like it's not been unclear to you that over the last 15 years of sports reflecting everything in our market and in America. In 2026, the black league feels like this before the playoffs and hockey does not.

29:34But you guys don't have the panthers this year and you will not be as interested in the playoffs. Oh, I will definitely you will not be as interested in the you will be. I've seen this burn out of him. Like he loves the panthers. I do not believe he'll be watching the late games out west because his team's not in it. I hear you and I do. I'm not going to dismiss that some of the criticisms of the NBA when it comes to spoiled athletes, not paying. Like, yeah, there is a racial aspect to that too, but it was a decade of baseball discourse, a decade. And that's old and white when it comes to that's as old and white as sport, major sport as there is. Folks, you know the place. Everything can turn in a moment at Augusta, one swing, one hole, and the entire leaderboard shifts. And that's what makes this the perfect week for live betting, Draft King Sportsbook, America's top sportsbook for live betting has action from the first tee to the final putt. So you can react in real time. And with same game parlay, you can combine finishing positions with player props

30:37in one bet. More ways to play, the moments that matter. New sportsbook customers bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets instantly. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now and use code Dan. That's code Dan to turn $5 into $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. In partnership with Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem called 1-800-Gamber or 1-800-My Reset, New York call 877-8 Hope and Wire, taxed Hope and Why, Connecticut call 888-878-977-777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Kansas, wait your tax pass through, may apply in Illinois. 21 and over in most states void an Ontario. Restrictions apply, bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days, minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com slash promos, limited time offer. Dan Libertard. I'm not going to apologize. I wouldn't expect you to apologize. Then you're a giant infant. Okay. You have no control over your emotions. You have no control over your emotions. When you're calling someone you know an idiot,

31:38I don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. And you're a fool for saying it. Okay. Stugots. You're a fool. I was kind of following. Oh, you're locking in right now. You're locking in on eyes. Right. Let's drop the gloves, pal. Let's rock. You should be thanking me for what? Every day. For what? You've done around this character. And the second shit gets real for you. You want to come at me and call me a fool? Ha ha. Oh, seriously. Seriously. Seriously, pal. I've added 10 years to your career. This is the Dan Libertard show with the Stugots. And the NHL does not have anything close to the thanking problem if you're going to compare those two sports. And look at what the Panthers this year for most of the season at least, they had a winning record or close to it and they're in last place and their division.

32:40You guys don't find this funny though, like I'm not even saying you're wrong. Yes, that's how it's played out. Yep. Absolutely. The basketball guys get hurt. They get assigned lazy. Don't care enough. Load management. That's not the hockey guys. The hockey guys would never do it that way. That's correct. That's how that happened. It's a cultural thing. It's not. I. We've had this discussion and sometimes it viewers in a race. I don't know, dude. There's a lot of Europeans. There's a lot of Canadians. Hockey players are just different. It's a different culture around the sport. And by the way, that culture is perpetuated top down. If hockey, all of a sudden in the front offices wanted players to rest up the way that NBA front offices do, you might see that more, but culturally, it's just a different thing. But when you say that basketball is becoming baseball, when we talk about the macro of this, like you guys have been marveling, I'm sure, right? Yesterday we were talking about this. Francisco Lindor uses a glove and batting practice machine as shooting the ball at him.

33:42The way it would come off a bat at 100 miles an hour, the glove is two inches shorter than a normal glove. He's got to get better. Francisco Lindor. That's the science of what we're doing. Basketball has been distorted because all of these people and athletes have bent the limits of science on the bodies to we can defend this much. We can defend this much all the way out to here, out to here, ligaments are going to break. These people are 7-7. This is crazy. And here, 53s beats you. If you make 30 of them, beat you up. And if you miss 40 of them, you're probably going to lose and look, the Celtics figured out, wait a minute. This isn't that fun to watch. Oh, it's interesting. They're winning. It's a spaceship that shoots from everywhere and it's going to get assigned to. They improve the culture. But they'll shoot 53s and they'll make more than you and that's how they'll beat or won't beat OKC. And you're going to be watching a final that leaves you if it's Boston, OKC. Not feeling very good because they're decided by 20 and 30 points and it's Shay getting 25 free throws and it's who's going to make more threes and everybody's going to complain about the league again. Yes, I've got the story right on what's what's about to happen here.

34:42Like, maybe, yeah, Shay's stuff is, but that is something that the league can address. But maybe a four or five sneaks in because maybe when we beat SGA, it's when we get incarnated. Right. But we'll, so we'll follow the entirety of the story to the end and it'll be about the merit of the basketball and then there may or may not be good stories in there that make us care. But Zaz isn't wrong when he says the way that we talk around this league now, not Tony Diehards and there are many like the Twitter verse and a meme will buck on you at every point. This is majestic athletic excellence. We're watching at the limits of science, the people who are doing this well, but they are two math machines sort of buzz sawing toward each other and oh, look, OKC's defense is also good. So if they don't beat you with the threes, they'll also smother you. It's just in a valley right now and rather than just pour more dirt on it, I've poured my fair dirt on this grave. And I want to be optimistic about it. I am encouraged by some of the things that I see in terms of stars. I don't think there's going to be load management in the NBA playoffs. That's not a complain.

35:43I'll have. I'm excited to see these matchups excited to see what these stars do with this incarnation of the NBA. And I'm almost resigned to the fact that the point we're at the point right now that the changes that need to be made with this sport are so painfully obvious that even Adam Silver will wake up and smell the call. Oh, no, man. I don't know. I get to believe it. I think the part that bothers me the most and I feel like I've talked about this before where for me and it's like this with all the sports. It's just as much about the journey as it is the destination. And OK, we're getting close to the destination with this NBA season. And it's going to be really good the destination. But the journey is sucked. The journey sucks. Like the journey has been the last six months and it sucks. And to me, you know, the sport isn't just about let's get to the championship round. It's about the entire season. And like the journey sucks right now. Of course, that there is damage to cheapening and devaluing a regular season, but also just the business of this. All of these things have to get to the 83rd game with all of these players healthy because we're testing their ligaments because the way they're being asked and fly and everything

36:46else. You saw how good the basketball was in the bubble. These bodies aren't meant for what we're presently doing to them. OK? And I think it's an important thing too. Like we talk about tank and we talk about the 65 game rule and those are the two things that across the entire season we've been talking about. I think it's important to hammer home just like we do in other aspects of life where we need to speak truth to power. We need Adam Sover to turn on the TV and see 65 game rule sucks. Tanking sucks. But do you guys understand my, how are we the show where Mike is howling, wake up and smell the coffee, fix the game before the playoffs when the playoffs are always the best? Like, how are we the show that's come like you just said, well, I might be in position as the anti NBA. I don't know. So like actively trying to not be on that guy, no, that's as I don't mean to put you in the position. I'm saying when we're doing the show of how do we fix the sport when I'm about to tell you know, these next six weeks fix the sport like that's yes, what we do every year. Where we're aligned there, thumbs up, double thumbs up.

37:48We want to see a good play. Nobody cares about 65 game rules, the moment the NBA playoffs and if OKC runs through the playoff and SGA makes it to the free throw line 30 times because he does the bull. We all know what I'm talking about with the bull. Then we'll have an off season of all right, enough, enough talking. Let's go ahead and fix this and I hear you bodies are made for this. I mean, they've been playing this sport for decades, all right. The excuse is to why the bodies were made for this was the pace of play. So legislate slow in the game down, bring back hand checking like make it harder for people to go to the free throw line. Make it harder for there to be a three, make the three point line further away in the courts bigger. I don't know. Do something. Yeah. You're not wrong. And I don't want to rail against the three point shot overtaking basketball because then I'm volunteering myself as what I am, the old, funny, dirty. But the three has overtaken basketball. That's one problem. But everybody sees the NBA through the lens of their team, particularly if you're a fan, you're a fan. They love the NBA in Detroit, no KC right now.

38:50They got no complaints about basketball. They love it. But if you're a heat fan, as an example, you're saying to yourself, we're not going to, we averaged 120 points. When was the last time a 120 point scoring team didn't make the playoffs. It's ridiculous. We're the second highest scoring team in the league and we're not in the playoffs. Yeah, but that's all tempo and it's sort of the way the game has shifted. Like the science of this is interesting to me. I think I've proven that over time, boring you with how amazed I am by the evolution of that sport. I think people are tired of hearing me talk about like the thing that Steph Curry does. It's never been what Yokech does. It's never been. What do you mean there's going to be a wimpy that's that's both of those things like they've never existed existed on earth, the human bodies that you presently see doing that in that sport. Nobody's ever watched something like Yokech happened before. It's never existed. That's what's at the center of the playoffs. And it's a three or a four seed because you got an all time score in Houston trying to be the old guy winning one punctuated thing.

39:53So he doesn't soil the rest of his career hanging on for the old guard. You know already LeBron's gone. His team's not healthy enough. It physically broke under like not going to get to load management 82 healthy for the playoffs. They have no chance. They're broken. They couldn't make it to the finish line protecting their thing. The whole league story lines are going to come roaring back where you get the fight over, you know, who gets to be next. You guys are saying the bullsh** on the MVP who wants Yoke, it's champion chips and you're calling it the bullsh**t. Are we really going to reverse this where shake you'll just Alexander's not going to be allowed to be Michael Jordan because we're going to say the white loaf of bread is the one who does it more fairly more cleanly, the giant guy, not the guy who gets 24 free throws doing that. Really quick, if I can talk about the loaf of bread, give me the start of the day music.

41:07According to ESPN insights with three games left, Nicole, the Oak, which leads the league in both rebounds and assists per game is averaging a triple double how to triple double last night and three quarters against the Memphis Grizzlies. No player in NBA history has ever led both categories even across different seasons. So nobody has ever led the league and assist and then had another year where they led the league and rebounds really led the league of rebounds and then came back and had another year where they led the league and assist. He's averaging a triple double leading all of those right now. Big time underdog to win the MVP. Yeah. Chris, can he's having the best season we've ever seen? I know. It was offensive to Nick Wright to mention him in the MVP race. I told I told Nick Wright. I was like, how are you going to not going to mention Yoke, when he's having a better season than he did any other, any other is three MVP seasons. Chris, can you please get for me? Please, the board, Yoke, and imaging because I have a different stat here and you tell me if it's better or worse than Tony stat, but we could rename this the Yoke itch daily stat

42:08of the day because it's an unprecedented player. We're not properly appreciating. So I'm about to give you some numbers here. Give me the board. Yoke itch music. Please. Yoke itch stat of the day. So the nuggets have won 10 straight games. It's the longest winning streak they've had since 2013 and it's the longest in the Yoke itch era. There have been over 1.4 million total 10 game spans by players in NBA history and playoffs.

43:10In none of them, I'm going to say it again, over 1.4 million total 10 game spans, including playoffs. In none of them did a player have as many points rebounds and assists as Yoke itch during the current 10 game winning streak, 250 to points, 145 for rebounds, 127 assists. He's a better offensive player than Michael Jordan. It's also his first 10 game winning streak in his career. Will history agree with you 15 years from now when he's retired? I don't think. Oh, no one will agree with me because he looks like a loaf of bread and isn't from this country and we want wing, wing assassins who dunk on your head and it can't look like that. It's not going to be allowed to look like that. I mean, time's change. It's hard for us to see that right now. But a lot of the Jordan versus LeBron people are going to die, Dan. Yoke itch is invisible Michael Jordan. He is Michael Jordan every night because he plays in Denver and not West.

44:12Most people don't understand that he is an uns... And by the way, no load management out there all the time unless he wrecks his knee. You know, there were debates like this. There were a lot of people arguing willed. You know what happened, Dan? They died. Yeah. Will versus Russell. Thank you. Thank you. Rings versus stats. The wheelhouse. The Greg Cody stirs to life. Wanting to talk about basketball when they did it at the American way. The fire starter. Yeah. It's a will to Russell. Before there was a three point line. Come on. Basketball. Give me a 91 to 87 game like the heat in the mix in 1991, whatever that was. Come on now. Look at that. The 50s. Damn right. Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right? Don't place parlays on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is one when it hasn't hit triple zero. Always drink your gig or myster ice cold. That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion. Everything else. Everything else. Wearing clean underwear every day.

45:13Well, that's just a personal decision. Brushing your teeth. Obviously smart, but not a rule. Never pee pee on an electric fence. Okay, maybe there are two rules. But the one that is 100% that I insist on completely. Yeager Myster must be drank ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it. Drink responsibly. Yeager Myster Likor, 35% alcohol by volume. Imported by mass Yeager Myster U.S. White Plains, New York.