The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Share & Cool & Tell with David Dennis Jr. and Mina Kimes
Fri, 30 May 2025
In another episode of Share & Tell, Mina Kimes (who peaked in college) and David Dennis Jr. (who was Steph Curry’s original Splash Brother) join Pablo Torre to define what “cool” even means, for present-day athletes and fans. Are athletes like Tyrese Haliburton and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander trying too hard to generate “aura”? Is Aaron Judge too big to be cool? Is a decidedly unc wardrobe an asset or liability for Jalen Hurts? We conduct the inaugural PTFO Coolest Athlete Draft to find out. Further content: • Toward a Unified Theory of Uncool (Ock Sportello) https://www.neverhungover.club/p/toward-a-unified-theory-of-uncool • Subscribe to the Mina Kimes YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@minakimes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What does it mean to be cool in sports?
Hmm.
When did you peak in coolness?
Probably like third grade.
Third grade.
Yeah. Wow. Mina, what are you—you're picking college?
It's definitely college for me, 100%. But a lot of that is because how cool you are is a product of your surroundings, right? And so going to college for me, my cool factor on a relative basis skyrocketed from high school to Yale. David's nodding like he had a similar experience.
Absolutely. Davidson? I went to school with a bunch of dorky white kids, a small liberal arts school. I was the coolest guy around. Am I cool now?
Yeah.
The pendulum swang so drastically from high school to college, I didn't know what to do with myself.
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Chapter 2: Are modern athletes trying too hard to be cool?
All right, fine, let's start the actual show. So the thing I wanted to start with, guys, is, in fact, a case study in Cool. And it started on Substack, which is not the coolest place for things to start. But there's an anonymous author who goes by the handle of Ox Portello, which is, I believe, a reference to Inherent Vice. Already setting sort of like the highbrow kind of illusion standard here.
We know we're harkening back. When we asked David to read this, David, your initial review of the piece was, in brief?
I don't. know like half the references that he made in the article so there's i had to look up what is uh what's the the vape thing that everybody's internet i don't know what that was i didn't read the cut article that was referenced in there it was like a subsection of the internet that i'm not familiar with at all you know white people have culture too david Thank you, Mina.
That's sort of where I was.
It was a very much like... All cultures matter. All cultures matter. But the thing that got this going viral around the NBA internet, at the very least, was one statement in particular that I think is consensus. And it was articulated thusly, quote, For as long as I can remember, the NBA has served as a cultural North Star. These NBA playoffs portend a crisis of cool."
And he goes on to analyze Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Halliburton and Shea Gildress Alexander, categorizing them as uncool, which I would like us to discuss. Anthony Edwards sort of sticks out as, quote, the exception proving the rule.
of cool, that actually he is somebody who is so alone in his coolness that the others who are variously, I would say, try-hard meme lords who seem to be imitative of previous imitations even, there was a bunch of that. And so I just want to start, Mina, by actually articulating What do we mean by cool? How do we even define this?
Because yes, it is one, I believe, white blogger's opinion that the categories flow as such. But I do think there's something he's getting at here that's worth talking about.
So cool is a perfect… debate subject because no one can actually define it. Cool is truly in the eye of the beholder. However, when he says something like, Therese Halbert and Jalen Brunson are not cool, Anthony Edwards is cool, I imagine we all nodded as we read that because it immediately reads as correct. So, starting from that point, it's not just about play.
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Chapter 3: How do college experiences shape perceptions of coolness?
He is a joy. He's an amazing player. He's a joy to watch. He seems like a legitimately awesome dude, but he's funny. And he, to me, is the closest thing in spirit to Griffey in this generation.
He's also really good at bowling, and I want to unpack whether that makes him cool or not. Because he is like a professional caliber bowler. He's bowled a perfect 300. Also, another wildly attractive person.
He knows to keep that hat on, you know? He's playing the right sport. That's true. I am taking only hotties. I wanted to say, speaking of hotties, Julio Rodriguez, but I can't. The Homer allegations would be too strong.
Are we saying definitively, because Mina brought us to the team in question, like Shohei Otani, not cool.
I think he's cool.
I think he's cool. I think Shohei, he was my pick. Shohei was my pick. Don't want to skip over you, Pablo. He's my pick. I think just virtue of being, I think that sometimes it's virtue of just being good as hell. And the dopest at your sport, like, goes a long way. And we also have a barrier. We don't know that much about him.
His mysteriousness.
His mysterious dude who just goes out there.
Does he have a crippling gambling addiction? You know, these are ongoing mysteries. Yes.
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