The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: The Iguanodon (feat. Lucy Rohden)
Thu, 30 Jan 2025
Can anyone on our staff guess how many games Joel Embiid has missed in his career? Then, Lucy joins us to help determine what she'll be doing to get to the Super Bowl as part of Venmo's #LucyChallenege, and Greg has the perfect suggestion. Plus, crowdsourcing NIL, and Bill Belichick suggests changing the name of the Lombardi trophy. Also, do we owe Bronny James an apology or do the Lakers owe him a demotion? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Welcome to the Big Sui, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Levitard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging.
I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there.
That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar.
This episode of the Dan Lebitard Show with Stu Gatz is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours.
We can agree, right, that the greatest thing produced by the process of losing in Philadelphia for a decade or so on purpose, it felt like a decade anyways, even though it wasn't, is Joel Embiid, correct? Like, that's the best result, and then whatever is second place is a distant, distant second.
250.
I'd go way higher. Way higher than 250? Yeah. How much? Where would you go? I'd go above 350. I'd go... 400. It's exactly 400.
Oh, my God.
400?
400.
400. 400.
Lucy joins us now. Lucy Rodin. She is the creator of Off Rodin, which is not Rodin. It's Off Rodin, but that doesn't make sense, so we've made it Off Rodin. She joins us now. It is nice to see you, Lucy. You're in New York. And we still haven't gotten the correct challenge in front of you to see if you will do a challenge by Monday that will allow Meadowlark to send you to the Super Bowl.
So where are we on challenges that have met your approval because the listeners are being challenged? What is the hashtag? How are we doing this contest to submit challenges to Lucy to see if she does one of them, whether or not she's allowed to go to the Super Bowl with God Bless Football?
Hashtag Lucy Challenged. It's the Super Bowl challenge. It's presented by Venmo. But yeah, we haven't really nailed down the exact challenge yet, Lucy.
Where are you with this, Lucy?
I thought we had. I went through, I looked at all the responses. Half of them made me incredibly uncomfortable, and I think it's inappropriate for a lot of you to have asked me to do the things that you did, but there were some good ones. Like, Lucy goes to the bookstore, has a nice day. Okay, sure, I could do that. Lucy goes to the spa. Okay, sure, I could do that. Lucy goes to the mall.
Okay, sure, if that's what the people want me to do, then I'll do it. There was one. Dan pays off Lucy's student loans. Okay, sure, I'm fine with that. That seems like a good challenge. People are giving good ideas, and then I bring them to you all, and then you get mad at me because you don't like the ideas that have been given.
Not my fault. How about Lucy reads Stugatz's book live on YouTube?
Mom.
I love that one.
I think that's a good one. And it's like a low lift, no? No, that's a lot of reading. You're going to spend hours and hours doing that. I like how Lucy does that, though, in her casual laissez-faire way. Not my fault. It is 100% your fault. You're choosing the ones that aren't challenges or punishments.
You're not choosing the ones that would be somewhat arduous because they've got to be a challenge in order for you to go there. We're not just going to pay for a trip for you to go to the Super Bowl and give you another bonus before that by having a lovely day at the spa.
If I go to the bookstore, then I have to walk to the bookstore, cold outside. What if they don't have the book I want? That's a problem. There's so many things that could go wrong going to the bookstore that it's honestly kind of even reckless and dangerous for you to ask me to do anything, but I'll settle for going to the bookstore.
I wonder if the people listening to this have the ability in the modern age to even find a bookstore, like not using any computer equipment, just you have to go find one. We used to have one on Miami Beach. It's no longer there. It's one of the most culturally symbolic things I can say about Miami Beach, that it doesn't have a bookstore. Put it on the poll, please, at Lebitard Show.
Could you find your local bookstore without the help of your phone?
Because there aren't the books. Wait, are you asking if people can just wander around and find a bookstore?
No, I'm saying, do you know where your local bookstore is? Because so many of them are closing. Because where your local bookstore used to be is not where it is anymore. Because all over, since the pandemic, all I see more than anything is quarantine buildings and empty offices.
While I appreciate the point you're trying to make, I don't think you're making it in a correct way. Because if I could say the same thing, like, could you find your local dry cleaner without... the use of your phone. I don't know where a dry cleaner is.
I don't know how anybody found anything before the phone. I don't know how people found each other outside of a stadium. The phone book. When they were lost and didn't have cell phones.
I don't have any grasp. You said we're going to meet in front of the statue, and then you just waited by the statue. And if they didn't show up within like 20 minutes, you'd think, well, let me call. Let me get their pay phone and call. Did Greg leave the house? Yeah, he left an hour ago. All right, OK.
Yeah, that's the way it works. That was it. I, by the way, still have a B&N in my neighborhood, a Barnes & Noble. Oh, yeah, that's what they call it. I go there a lot. I haunt the place. And, of course, Books and Books in Coral Gables is a legendary local bookstore that carries the Back in My Day book, by the way. So how about that?
You only said all of that so that you could get there at the end. You had no other goal when you started all of what you were saying than to get to the promotion of your book.
Speaking of the promotion of the book, my favorite part is that Greg has the book propped up right in order to be like product placement, except it is completely not in your shot, Greg. There's no shot where the book shows up. Not the wide, not your single.
How about reading Greg's Back in My Day on YouTube, Toilet Reading, a much shorter book than Stu Gatz's. Chris Cody, how do you feel about that as a challenge for Lucy? Because we have to do this by Monday. By Monday, she has to execute on the show the challenge if she's going to go to the Super Bowl. I can't have yet more spoiled behavior around here where she gets a spa day and the Super Bowl.
Everybody here wants to go to the Super Bowl except me. Spoiled? Yes, spoiled. Spoiled, yes, in a way that's uncomfortable for me.
Dan, my parents are divorced. I can't be spoiled.
I've been through things. Or you could be double spoiled.
Double spoiled.
No, not how it worked.
Let's play some video here. I mean, were you fooled by this? Who was fooled by this? People who are not familiar with alligators and crocodiles. and who are now getting fooled in general by everything happening on the Internet that passes for misinformation.
This story, Amin, that involves the very real fear that people have that alligators and crocodiles have evolved to a point where they could fake stuff. These are very small-brained animals. These are not... This is the stugats of the animal kingdom. Like, this is not an animal... that can trick its prey under any circumstances, but were you fooled by this with the species?
I wasn't. I was secretly trying to entrap you into being fooled, and apparently I failed. I failed because Dan Levitard unlike the alligator, is wily. He knew. He's like, oh, I got this one.
Well, tell the people what it is that this is meant to look like here. So it's supposed to... It's so ridiculous. It's an alligator in a river.
It's got tiny hands, and that looks like tiny hands that are drowning meant to trick somebody. Help, I'm drowning! It's basically doing that with its arms. Jalen Milrow hands. And it's supposed to lure unsuspecting people into the river to try to rescue it, only to be eaten by the alligator. That's not how alligators operate, but I was praying that Dan would fall for it.
I'm sorry that I didn't. Those look like the, and this is how people get tricked by it, the arms of a baby. It doesn't even look like the arms of a crocodile that is drowning. It is toddler arms, and then you jump in, and next thing you know, you're being eaten.
Yeah, those are the arms of me reaching for a check after dinner. I would identify that as alligator arms and still swim out there to save the game.
I don't agree. I don't agree. I think he gets points for accuracy because I've seen his arms become that small when the check comes my entire life. The next check that Greg Cody picks up will be the first. I have thousands of dollars spent at Sweet Tomatoes.
He does that with me even at bowling. You'd think, like, in this hierarchy, he's supposed to pay for shit, no? No. At bowling, he's always like, you got these beers? Good. I just pick up the tabs.
Anytime I do anything with my father that requires money being spent, he doesn't even reach. He just walks away.
Yeah.
He just wanders away.
That's the play, is to time your bathroom break when you think the check's about to arrive.
Are Chris and Greg the only bowlers that we have among us? Lucy, are you a bowler? When was the last time that you bowled?
Oh, am I still a part of this segment? We just went to Alligator. I don't know what happened there.
What was that thing that you were saying about divorce?
Look, it makes you a little cranky. I'm not much of a bowler.
I don't know.
I wonder why it didn't go to you. Listen, you just cut me off and I had another good point. Now I forgot it. No, just kidding. I didn't. I think bowling is really expensive in Miami. I remember Taylor was telling me that if you wanted to go bowl downtown, it was like $100. Okay.
Well, it's a rave. Yeah, that's a problem. He's talking about a very specific bowling establishment that is not far from our studio, but it is not where Greg and Chris are going. This is like Miami's answer to like, you ever wanted to bowl with beautiful people while music pulsates and the lights are low? That is not where the Codys are bowling.
No, we bowl in a real bowling alley. Yeah. You know, real lanes. You got the shirts? No, but, you know.
Lucy, why are you looking with the face as if a boulder is rolling toward you and there's no escape? Boulder.
I'm just confused by the idea of a bowling rave. I would like more details if anyone has them.
There's a DJ in there. There's a DJ. Ew.
I've had enough of DJs lately.
Whoa. I've had enough. You are blaspheming against the musical drug culture that permeates our entire society. All of this music that's only good if you're using drugs.
Drugs?
What are you? How dare you disrespect the entire Miami music economy?
I'm sorry. It should be.
By the way, when we talked about alligators, it reminded me of something. I have a challenge suggestion for Lucy. You mentioned walking through a mall. You would do that. Everybody loves a mall. I suggest you walk through a mall dressed like an iguanodon, which is an upright walking dinosaur that's just a little bit bigger than a human being. Like eight feet, nine feet tall.
What are you doing? What in the world? What are you doing? No, no, no. Let's follow him. Let's hear him out. Go ahead, Greg. I have questions.
How does one dress up as that? Is there like a costume? Do I like... You go on Amazon right now.
You Google Iguanodon. And it'll be on your doorstep.
What does an iguanodon explain this? This is something between an alligator, I'm sorry, an iguana and a dinosaur that walks like a human?
It walks upright. It's roughly human-sized. Yeah.
If you've ever watched Disney's Dinosaur, the family that they focus on. Where did this come from? Where in your mind? Just because you guys are embarrassing yourselves with your lack of dinosaur knowledge doesn't mean Greg's not making a great point. This is one of my favorite segments ever.
Listen, initially I was thinking of Lucy dressed as a stegosaurus, but that would require her to be on all fours and move as if she were an antelope or something. Inconvenient. Yeah, very inconvenient. An Iguanodon, you get to walk upright. You're walking proud through the mall. Good posture. Hey, look at that dinosaur.
Wave, waves back. Yes. Put it on the poll, please, Juju. Do you know what an Iguanodon is? Because I do not. Is there any more information that you wish to give me on this creature that would explain to us a little better how it is that you arrived here?
I'm googling right now to see if I can get an iguana don on Amazon.
You've explained it pretty well, but I'm imagining an iguana that sort of runs a crime family of iguanas and is the don. That's what I'm imagining.
That's also what I thought. I'm going to make Lucien off. She can't refuse also. It's really cold in here.
that's right collect the prehistoric life at guanadon vinyl oh that's a toy we don't want that no we want the real thing it's only a thousand dollars too yeah it's but it's on the screen and it's wearing a hat like you guys are making it a full human you're making it a full human being i still don't understand greg how you ended up there like why and how did you end up there you seem to think it's totally logical can you explain to us how
your mind works.
Because I'm trying to think what is an upright walking dinosaur that's roughly the size of a human being. Lucy, when you see that picture of an Iguanodon, would you accept that as a challenge and walk through a mall like that? It's a lesser known dinosaur.
I can make it work.
Okay, so we've got a bid. We've got a bid on a challenge. Not a very good one.
Which mall? Because I feel like the mall you pick really, really dictates how interesting, how funny.
How long does she have to walk as an Iguanodon through the mall in order to make this work as a challenge?
It has to be a very popular mall in prime time, like on a weekend, like a midday Saturday. 2 p.m. In a dolphin mall or whatever they call it. And how long? I would say a minimum of one hour. Okay.
How do you feel, Lucy, about Jeremy revealing the other day that sometimes he will just wander around the mall as an exercise to meet people because he wants human contact? He wants...
Wow. Creep. I just like talking to people. I like going into stores and talking to salespeople and purchasing things.
And hey, how's your day going? Being social. You having a good day? He's not bringing negativity and acid to the relationship.
Thank you so much for helping me with this. Your picture is posted all over that mall. Absolutely. I'm calling the authorities.
What are your thoughts there, Lucy? Are you judging that or are you saying good for Jeremy? Let him live his freest life.
I'm judging you because you made it sound like Jeremy's at the mall going up to people and be like, oh, my name's Jeremy. You want to be my friend? That is what he's doing. I cannot judge.
It is what he's doing.
Thank you, Lucy. No, because he's going up and talking to salespeople. That's completely different. I cannot judge that because when I lived in Miami and I couldn't make friends, I got so desperate at a point that I was going up to people on the street asking them to be my friend.
Yeah, you were dating friends on the internet, yes.
Not well.
That was a time, right? Yes, it was. Not well.
Had none.
Didn't work. Before we get you out of here, what do you have for us on Jim Knowles? We've been talking about a variety of college sports upheaval. What do you have? What are your thoughts there?
Honestly, good for Penn State. We saw last year that Penn State really made some... You're only going to get as far as James Franklin can take you when you're Penn State. So bringing in good coordinators has already made such a huge difference in bringing Andy Kodelnicki in last season.
It made a huge difference with the Penn State offense, with Drew Aller returning, and Penn State has so much talent coming back to go poach the defensive coordinator for the national championship winning team, arguably the best defensive coordinator in college football behind Phil Parker.
it was just such like a we are taking this so seriously move like this is what exactly what i think penn state needed to do now jim knowles will probably be the highest paid coordinator ever in college sports because he is just they really really wanted this move and so it seems lateral to people sometimes it even seems like okay you're taking a lesser job jim knowles is gonna make so much money and penn state has really just positioned themselves to be sort of a favorite going into next season
Mike and Lucy, the coach that is going to command the most money and deserve it as an assistant is blank. Like that is going to make such a big difference because we're going to make that person the highest paid assistant in one of the places that you don't have to worry about marking a ceiling on what you're paying people. You can just pay them whatever you want.
Well, I'll go with someone that I think kind of got demoted last year. But in terms of the talent acquisition game, I think very few people actually realize how integral he is to Ohio State's success, and that's Brian Hartline. I think Brian Hartline's one of the best recruiters in the nation.
The track record, once again, in the pros is a little hit or miss, but everyone in the high school ranks knows that if you want to be potentially a wide receiver that is headed towards Canton, that is a program that you want to be a part of, and Brian Hartline's done such an amazing job of conveying that.
If his agent isn't shopping him around telling people, you want talent? You better call the heartline. That guy deserves it.
It's just like a hipster pick because he's not a top assistant.
No, but it's a good pick to get someone who's good at recruiting. I just am surprised that you're going with a former wide receiver of the Dolphins and a former wide receiver of Ohio State being better at recruiting than everyone else is. How the hell did he develop?
Miami's gone head to head with him in a lot of battles with a lot of local kids and Brian Hartline's won the vast majority of those battles.
Lucy, do you have a selection?
I would have gone with Jim Knowles honestly would have been my answer with, I know that some Ohio state fans aren't happy with the amount of time it took for him to really get Ohio state to the level he wanted to, but he's a game changing coordinator.
Like he can really take your defense from, from something that's solid, from something that's average to a national championship winning defense where obviously Ohio state had a great offense this year. Obviously they had some of the best receivers in the country. But their defense was really what solidified them as the best team in the postseason and the best team in college football.
So I like what Penn State did. I really, really think that the decisions that I'm seeing Penn State make, which I never would have thought I'd say this, especially about James Franklin, but good move.
Lucy, I want to ask, have you heard of Fansteak? Have you ever heard of this company, Fansteak? So you and Mike, because you guys are college people, there's a company called Fansteak. They do NIL crowdsourcing. So basically they say, hey, I'm Miami.
Is this a Kendrick Perkins thing?
I don't know if he's behind it or not, but it's basically, I want to go after the number one athlete is Roy Bellamy, right? And so I create a crowdsourcing thing where all the UM fans can go out there through $5, $10, whatever it is that they can put in.
and then if Roy Bellamy ends up committing to Miami, he gets that money that all these people pledged, but if he doesn't, the money's released back to the people who donated, and I'm assuming the company makes money by taking a transaction fee or a cut of the play.
I think Kendrick Perkins had something that was adjacent to the space, but he's not with fan stake. I need more data on it. On the surface, it seems like a pretty novel concept, but I can also understand how certain kids would kind of feel take advantage of. To me, it kind of feels a little bit like, you know, the boy bands that always complained about their management a little bit.
Like, hey, we made it. And then you have like this percentage. It's unfair. So there's a lot of hits and misses, but I'd like to see it play out a little bit more.
It sounds like a GoFundMe page for college sports.
Yeah, I mean, in essence it is, but also it's a way for fans to be like, no, I directly contributed to why this guy is coming to our school as opposed to just hoping our NIL collective gets it done. Lucy?
I don't love it. I think kind of one of my more people might not agree with takes with NIL is I kind of hate that the responsibility has come on to the fans. I will never donate to Iowa's NIL. I'm just not going to do that. I think there are better things I can give my money to. And I don't like, especially when like,
you'll have coaches come out after a bad loss i know mark stoops did this at kentucky and be like oh well you want us to win it's your responsibility to do that and i think a service like this kind of pushes that narrative that like if i want my favorite team to win a national championship game i have to go give them money
I kind of hate that a lot because I think that especially college football, where most of the fan bases aren't these big, you know, major cities, they're small Midwestern areas, you know, the South, like it's not super wealthy, wealthy areas to ask the fans fund these teams I really actively hate. So I don't love that. I think it's like a like a nifty idea. I would never participate in it.
And I think that it does sort of spread this kind of idea that like you have to give money to your team when a lot of fans are already giving money to their team. They're already buying merch. They're already buying season tickets. They're already going to games like you guys are bleeding us dry.
I wholeheartedly agree with Lucy. And I say that as someone that has the season tickets, has the merch, and also contributes to the NIL collective. I thought that things might change with RevShare. It hasn't. And quite honestly, you have people in positions of power in college athletics, be it
administrators or college coaches make these demands, but they are not actually contributing to this pot. Their salaries are not going down. The game has changed. The labor is getting paid. You would think that the administrators and the coaches would feel that a little bit. Nope. It goes directly down to the consumer, down to the fans, and they're the ones getting the guilt trips.
As the college coach salaries escalate where $10 million a year is no longer considered particularly unusual, a percentile of those coaches' salaries should go to NIL.
Well, that's happening right now. They're making coaches take pay cuts. They're doing it all over. Norvell did it. Yeah, Norvell. And that's smart. Gundy did it, too. Yeah, well— didn't win a game in the conference. He should give all his money back.
But I think your larger point is, they should be doing this as a default, not as like, sorry, I won two games, so buyer's remorse.
I honestly cannot think of a business plan anywhere that works this way. where the players are paid, but not by the colleges.
They're paid directly by the fans. They're going to be paid by the colleges now with rev share, but it's not going to be equal to what they make off of it and the people that are benefiting.
What it's been is super weird to say, look, yeah, okay, all right, we should pay players, and then go beg for it. Yeah, you got us. You got us. We should indeed pay. You guys want to take care of this? It's like going to dinner with Greg. Yeah. It's like, hey, want to go to dinner? Sure, you're paying, right?
I will say what you're seeing across the nation right now is the rev share is actually making boosters pay more because you have programs, and I explained this before on the show, but you have a program like Duke, which sets the market when they acquire Mensa from Tulane. Duke would never raise $15 million for their football program. But with RevShare, they do.
So they're all of a sudden in the game for talent acquisition. So what do they do? Out the gates, they establish the market. Mensa gets more than twice of what Cam Ward got previously. So you see how that alters. And now to make that up, okay, RevShare, I have a cap on what I can commit in terms of RevShare.
How am I going to make up that money if I talk to someone that really prioritizes NIL in the marketplace? You're going to have to go to your boosters and they're going to actually have to contribute more than they used to.
Put it on the poll, please, Juju. Do you want to hear the phrase rev share when talking about sports? And also, Lucy, I think that nifty is an old person's word. Do I have this wrong? At Levitard Show, put it on the poll. Is nifty an old person's word? Because I don't believe that that's something that should come out of the mouth of anyone who's under 50 years old.
Greg Cody seems to agree with me.
It's a great word to use. I appreciated hearing it. She's bringing it back. Jack, I mean, Nifty is from the 1960s. Let's bring it back. It's like cool. It's like groovy. Nifty.
Well, I think of it more as like Happy Days Frisky, like frisky as a as an expression for sex. It's not something that anyone's doing anymore. They were doing it in the 70s on television because you couldn't say sex in the in the 70s. Fresh is another one. Are you getting fresh with me? Yeah, my mother always used to say that.
I like that.
Fresh is a good one. Lucy, thank you for being on with us. We'll figure out this challenge. Right now, the highest bidder is Iguanodon walking through a mall for some reason for an hour. Hashtag Lucy Challenge is where you go anywhere on the internet if you want to submit over the next couple of days. We have to get this done by Monday. Thank you, Lucy. Thanks.
It was nifty.
Fresh.
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tastes like miller time you know as the football games get bigger everybody's talking about hosting parties it's always difficult everyone's got an opinion why don't you just bring out a nice cooler of miller lights and make everybody happy you could be on opposite sides of the big game but you still know that you are brought together by miller time miller light is a great unifier
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Don Levitard.
He seems like a not nice guy, and he's always been a not nice guy. I don't care for him, and I hope he has the day he deserves.
Oh. Oh. Let's see. Stugatz. I hope he has the day he deserves.
That's how I get people when they're really mean to me. I'm not like, go F yourself. I'm like, I hope you have the day you deserve. It's a great kind insult. Yes.
That's beautiful. It's leaving it to the cosmos to sort it out.
That's a less Southern, bless your heart.
This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugats.
I want to get to this sound from Stephen A. Smith, but before I do so, did you guys have any thoughts on Bill Belichick saying that they should rename the Lombardi Trophy maybe for Tom Brady? That they should just rename it the Tom Brady Trophy?
Well, when I first heard about it, I thought it was just such a spectacularly dumb idea. And then, to Bill's credit, I heard later that he was just quote-unquote joking. He was kidding.
Yeah, I must say, if it's sincere, it's too little too late, Bill. You can't come in now and try to make things right.
His point is players win, coaches do not win.
I thought it was admirable for him to say, and probably a pretty good idea. That's a guy that I've seen lift it more than anybody else. So I didn't think there were any kind of intentions there. Maybe he benefits from in the public space saying, no, like Tom Brady, I owe a lot of my success to him, but I thought it was nice. Am I whack for that?
I would have preferred if he had said they should rename it for me. There you go. Not me, Dan. Oh, him.
I was all aboard for that one.
I saw it get clipped. I'm like, you literally can't say anything. This is such a nice compliment from the greatest at his job ever, complimenting the greatest ever at his job. They just so happen to be in the same place at the same time, and then people are running and making takes out of it.
I just think you can't name something after something that's already been named, right? And by the way, if I give you winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. Right. You give me the thing that Tom Brady said that was like, oh, that's on the same level. LFG.
What if it's a body of water?
I find that you cannot do this stuff for people who have played this recently. These trophies have to have some sort of past. You can't name it after somebody who stopped playing a couple of years ago. Right.
Plus, what if Mahomes, five years, six years from now, has won more Super Bowls than Brady? Going to call it the Mahomes Cup?
But Belichick should replace Lombardi, though. Calling it the Belichick trophy, I mean, Belichick is more successful. What do you mean, no?
I mean, it's the Vince Lombardi trophy.
Are you suggesting that maybe this was his intention? I know. If there's an MVP award, that could be for Brady. But if we're actually going coaches, it's a guy who just had named it the Brady. The frozen tundra.
Not helpful. So let's play for the people.
That was my John Facenda voice. The frozen tunnel.
Less helpful even than before. Pretty nifty impression. We have even less helpful. Let's get Lucy back and see if she can be less helpful. Let's get some sound here from Stephen A. Smith here. And you guys tell me if I were to tell you. that this was a private conversation and this was not for television.
Stephen A. Smith was pulling a father aside to tell him that he should not have his son deployed to fight in that particular war that seems to be going poorly if the tone and the cadence and the advice wouldn't be comparable.
Right now, Bronny James is averaging 0.3 points, 0.3 assists, and 0.4 rebounds. You know what people are saying. You know what they're going to do to this kid. In 13 games, he has played 44 minutes. He has scored four points. He is shooting one of 16 from the field. Zero for seven from three-point range. How are you doing him favors? And I'm saying this with compassion.
I'm asking the greatest player in the game, one of the top two players in the history of basketball, an ambassador for this game, the face of the league, a four-time champion, a guy that's going to 10 NBA Finals. one of the greatest we have ever or will ever see, who is a basketball savant. You know what these numbers mean. You know what it's gonna do.
To your son, to people who are missing out on opportunities that are busting their tail on other NBA teams in the G League, in Europe, and everywhere else. What kind of opportunity they're starving for. You're exposing your son like this?
I love the Stephen A. crutch. I don't know if you guys ever noticed this. When he's making a take, it's to just start naming things off a resume. He loves going to that. Like, if you talk about LeBron James... The point he's trying to make, he has to take a sidetrack to remind you. 17-time All-Star, 22-time this, that, that. None of these things support his point or further his point in any way.
They're just words to let him kind of think of some other stuff.
Why is Mad Dog so yellow in this clip?
Can we put that back up there, please? Because this is jarring. He's listening the entire time, and I feel like we could have put a papier-mâché mannequin of... Mad Dog up there, because that lighting is so bad, it makes me think.
And he's doing a Zoolander face. For real. He looks like a Simpsons character. Oh, wow, that's a good call, Roy. It is the face of Jaundice. He looks like, what, Lenny? Lenny, yes. Lenny from The Simpsons.
That color is very poor lighting. It's doing him no favors, but that is a good look. That right there, that's how he got the job. That is the reason that he is the giant that he is in the industry, why it is that he can share a space with Stephen A. Smith. I'm gonna do it now. He invented sports radio. He started his own satellite channel. Hold on, tell me that's not a good one.
That is a Simpsons character on stage who is also on the screen who is also yellow. It is. Uncanny. It is the same thing, really. Same haircut. What do you make of this just general parental concern when Amin says of Belichick and when Mike says of the idea of any time you put content out there, what it is there for, especially in the Internet age, mostly in the Internet age, is to be made fun of.
It's to be a source of jokes. Duvall. To create a content factory around what is a parental concern that I think is a little bit extreme, right? I mean, this is a professional basketball player, son of a famous person who's been famous since he was 16 years old. The level of concern, and furthermore, Whatever you're thinking of his basketball talents, in the G League, he's been better, correct?
He's allowed to grow some, correct?
Yeah, he just had a 30-point game in the G League. I think we all owe Bronny James an apology. Uh-oh, this is the other side of the... No, as media, as people who consume and cover basketball... He's the 55th pick. No one has ever paid this much attention to a player drafted at the end of the second round.
And that player, who was drafted at the end of the second round, scored 31 points the other night in a G League game. He's averaging 23 points per game over his last three, shooting 46% from three. He's played really well at the G League level as a rookie second round pick. And now... At the big league level, in the NBA, he gets torched by Tyrese Maxey, a great all-star caliber guard.
It's going to happen. No one's paying attention to the games where Pella Larson, a second round pick for the Heat, has three fouls in the first minute and a half. But if it was Brawny, we would be losing our minds nationally. And I'm so frustrated on his behalf that he can't just start an NBA career the way that any other kid drafted in that spot would. be able to. He works hard.
I don't need Stephen A. Smith to tell me how to parent my son. If you're the son of Rembrandt, You're allowed to try your hand at painting, knowing that you're never going to be your dad. Charlie Woods, perfectly entitled to take up a golf career, even though he's never going to be his dad. It's ridiculous to not allow Bronny to try to fly on his own.
Well, hold on a second. We are allowing it, and there are a lot of stops between the parental concern that Stephen A. Smith creates performatively to create content around the guy that you're going to be talking about... and owing him an apology. There are a couple of exit ramps between those two things. I don't think I owe Bronny James an apology because he scored 30 in a G League game.
But I do want to just address, this is just another way to talk about LeBron in a way that connects with audience, correct? It's a new way to talk about LeBron.
in a way that connects with your audience that has fathers in it and now you can say on behalf of fathers you can have an interesting conversation about whether you're doing something good for your son or not by giving him a shortcut in a world that doesn't really allow those when it comes to roster spots very often.
I think Jeremy made a good point in noting that he was drafted number 55. I don't know what the history of 55th draft picks is. It can't be very good. And the idea is he came in without much expectation. He came in 55th. You don't, you know, it's not like we were expecting him to be an all-star by now or to be, you know, starting for his team. It's crazy. Let him fail.
I mean, what's real here? What's true? Between the two spots, what is the accurate basketball appraisal?
The accurate basketball appraisal is the same one it was before the draft. This is someone who right now is not an NBA player, would get very well serviced to have a couple of years of development somewhere in a controlled environment. And then in a few years, he exhibits certain traits that maybe could be polished into a serviceable NBA rotation player. That day is not anywhere soon. And so...
When J.J. Redick says I put him in a tough spot, I said, what's the spot? An NBA game? Because he looks like someone who's not an NBA player because he's not. That's real. As Jeremy pointed out, he's played well in the G League. He's only played three G League games.
He's only played three games. He's played 10 overall because there was like the tournament technically. And in that, he wasn't as good as he's been in the last few games.
I'm talking about just regular. And we're not talking about the showcase. We're just talking about, hey, I play for the team. These are my numbers. This is what I do. They've been good. Yeah. Like in three games, though. Right. Like the idea that like to me and I can't speak as a parent. I'm just speaking as a basketball person, as a basketball person. You can speak as a parent.
I can, but I don't want to do that. Right. This whole to me, that's the performative. This has nothing to do with LeBron as a parent. Right. It has everything to do with if you want this player to get better. Let him just stay in the G League. Do not have him coming up on road trips and stuff. Because here's the thing that a lot of people don't realize. NBA teams don't practice a whole lot.
There's not a lot of practice time. Guys get shots up. We watch a lot of film. We do maybe some 5-on-0 stuff every once in a while. We'll do a walkthrough on game day. But it's not like you're getting the type of development, hard practices that you get in the G League environment where they're practicing and they're playing, they're practicing and they're playing.
The NBA, it's like there's a lot of conserving of our guys. We don't want them to go. So when they say he's played well in the stay ready games, what that is is because we don't practice as a team, the guys who don't play Either because at the end of the rotation or they're coming back from injury or whatever it is.
Those guys play in like little three on threes and two on twos and stuff like that because it's like, hey, just because you haven't been playing, you have to stay ready, stay conditioned. Well, that's nice for an NBA player to have something to keep sharp with. It's not so great for a guy who's not an NBA player. You need five on five. That's what the G League is for.
It is a minor league so that we can send our guys somewhere where they run our offense, where they have our principles, and he can get better in that controlled environment where not everybody is nine million times better than he is.
It's pointed out to me. This is a new and unimproved Dan Levitar show with the Stugas.
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