Hour 2: The Steph Curry of Sports Media (feat. Jemele Hill)

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This is the Dan Levator show with the Stugatz podcast. Jamel Hill is going to join us now.
And Jamel, I insist, I insist that we find the funny in this conversation,

the stupid, the silly, the nonsense in this conversation,

because I was explaining before you came on here,

just the wearying stupidity of having any kind of discussion

about whether Jackie Robinson was black or I don't even,

I don't even know what the discussion is, honestly, or what the conversation points are that allow us to jump from Jackie Robinson to DEI and then just have the same arguments that we've been having for the last 10 years publicly and privately and longer than that. So thank you for joining us.
But what's the fun? What's the funny in here? What's the part that you that you don't find dispiriting and you just say to yourself,

okay, media members are fighting in the wrong way?

I guess probably the funniest part to me was Stephen A. Smith,

who I live for when he challenges people live on national television

to some kind of confrontation, be it, you know, I wouldn't necessarily say a fistfight, but like when he challenged Kevin Durant, like, you don't want to make an enemy out of me. Or this time around, when it came to J.D.
Vance, the vice president and Donald Trump, and all of a sudden Stephen A. Smith is like, come on my show and tell me, explain yourself.
And I was like, yes, Stephen A., more debate duels. Let's go full wrestling.
That was the part that I found to be highly, highly entertaining. It's like, yes, forget about how we used to have celebrity boxing.
Let's just have debate duel offs all

the time for the soul

of humanity. Let's do this.

I'm in.

The funniest thing I found from this entire

situation was Robert Griffin III

getting dunked on.

That's it.

Was that funny, Roy, or was that sad?

Because I found that to be sad.

I could find the funny and the sad in that

situation. I thought it was highly hilarious

that his take was

Thank you. roy or was that sad because i found that to be sad i i could find the funny and the sad in that situation i thought it was highly hilarious that what his take was that dumb so obviously gets dunked on on that one well i was more i guess of all the characters like whenever these debates in ensue right you have the usual cast of characters that you expect to be involved in some of these debates rg3 was not one that I had on the bingo card.
Then him just coming out of nowhere being like, oh, I long and pined for the days when all the sports talk was just about sports and never about politics. And it was like, what? Where did that come from? You know, so it was it was more the presence and the oddity of his presence in this debate that I found to be kind of strange, if you will.
No, I totally expected that the fat black guy with the silly ass fedora would say something, but he did not. I was really shocked about it.
Well, see, if that would have happened, I would have been like, OK, this tracks. This is our brand.
Right. But like, you know, you don't expect RG3 to, you know, come out of somewhere with a, with a, what he considered to be in his mind.
And maybe this is sort of the dispiriting part is that in his mind, you could tell when he allowed, you know, when he left, let off his opinions that he actually thought he was given some kind of nuanced intellectual take that was somehow missed in all these years in which we have dissected, embraced, celebrated Jackie Robinson's legacy. Here comes RG3, which is something we've never thought about before or something that is so unique to this discussion that he needed to tell the world that, no, no, Jackie Robinson wasn't in Major League Baseball.
It had nothing to do with politics, nothing at all. It had everything to do with the fact that he was just there as just a great player.
And that's it. And just completely just whitewashing the entire context of why this was so meaningful in American politics and American life, period.
I'm curious, Jamel, of your perspective on this. We came up with Stephen A.
Smith, and I love the wrestling characters in media and the evolution of what it is that we have done. But it wasn't always wrestling characters, and he has become rewarded through the way that he is on television.

The modern Howard Cosell and one of the most stunning stories in the history of media to go from not needed at ESPN and let go by ESPN to running ESPN. So the wrestling character of it gets rewarded, right? Well, yeah, I mean, and I don't mean to make it sound as if Stephen A is at home, you know, sort of figuring out what should my character say today.
Like, I don't I don't want to insult him by, you know, sort of I'm just sort of politely making, you know, making fun of the whole, you know, kind of theater of it. because Stephen A does understand the performance element of television.
And because he understands that performance element

and because he does it so well in a way that is very unique to him

and in a way no one else in the industry can actually do it, that it is able to evoke reaction. You know, we live in an attention economy, Dan, as you know, and he's able to create a tornado of attention with everything that he says.
And for a media company like ESPN, this is extremely valuable. It's why he got the big contract.
His roots are in journalism. And for a long time, he was a very good and one of the best, if not the best NBA reporter that was out there.
But I think he's tapped into something that is easily monetized. So when it's not just, you know, this reporter saying something, it's Stephen A.
Smith, the weight of his name is bringing something extra to any discussion that he is in. I just find it really more fascinating, the political turn that he's making while still being at ESPN and still representing ESPN.
Because as you know, that is not something that is naturally embraced by this company. And so I think seeing his turn, his dramatic turn into politics is really quite stunning, given the breadth of his career.
To call it a wrestling character does diminish it because it is just knowing the value of performance on television. But when you say you find that part of it interesting, what is most interesting about it to you? Not just not just the ESPN part, just the slalom course that Stephen A has to ride in an increasing audience between Fox and ESPN because he's using both platforms for his own game.
So that's the part that I do find to be interesting is that he is embraced in a way in conservative circles that you don't often see by people in his position. Now, some of that is just based off some of the opinions that he shared about, you know, things that he said about the Democratic Party and being very critical of them, which naturally will get you embraced by conservative circles.
But very few people can vacillate between two wildly different networks. ESPN is not a political network at all.
Fox is the most conservative. Well, maybe they're not the most conservative because you do have Newsmax and you also have OWN.
But, you know, they're at the top of the food chain, certainly when it comes to conservative networks. It's the value pinging that is very interesting to me to see him going back and forth between these two circles.
And at least from, I think, I read this some time ago, like he's doing some kind of live event with like Chris Cuomo. So I just wonder where all of this is going.
And so it'll be fascinating

to see the arc of his career, I think. And this is just based off things that he said publicly.

I mean, I think his ultimate goal is to be the number one media mogul in all of television.

And as a personality, while maintaining, obviously working on some projects that give him ownership

over things, of course. But I think his goal is just kind of media world domination.
So we're

Thank you. while maintaining, obviously, working on some projects that give him ownership over things, of course.

But I think his goal is just kind of media world domination.

So we're seeing this unfold in real time.

And it's really quite a masterclass into how, if you can drill into the performance part of this, what lay ahead for you. I mean, because the thing with me is that while certainly I'm comfortable on TV, comfortable in formats like this and virtually any format at some point for like, I can't perform like this is what you get and this is all there is.
So I can't every day sort of create this level of enthusiasm and fight and all these other things to sort of sell the natural opinion that I have. Like, that's just not a talent that I have.
And he has that talent to such a incredible degree that I guess the downside of it is that I feel I worry that for younger journalists, that this is becoming sort of like a Steph Curry effect in the sense that Steph Curry started, you know, shooting these logo threes and shooting these completely ridiculous and banana shots. And now every NBA player thinks that they can do that.
Or young kids coming up, learning how to play basketball, you know, they're firing off 60-footers, thinking like this is how you play the game, not realizing that that talent is reserved to one player who can do that. And so my I guess my larger concern is that what is and I don't mean to make it sound like it's a bad thing, like he's negatively influencing younger journal, younger journalists.
But I know a lot of them are watching him and thinking I can do that very same thing. And so right now, they're drilling into persona as opposed to work.
So that's sort of like the long-term 64,000 foot view that I'm, I'm a little bit more concerned about. Jamel, I'm not sure if you saw over the weekend, but, and it's like not a huge story, just because not that many people care about it, but they had like a producer from SportsCenter that got caught kind of ripping Stephen A.
a little bit saying that that they bring him on to SportsCenter just to get this reaction

and even said they just bring him on to be the angry black man.

He doesn't actually care about these things.

Then he goes on Fox News and he talks about Gaza.

What does he know about Gaza?

He was talking about LeBron two hours ago.

What do you make of that?

I mean, because it's a weird situation where this producer was taped. I don't know if this was on a date or like a social outing.
And it was kind of like set up, right? And I don't know what state this was in. Is this another, though? There's been this gotcha journalism that isn't journalism going out on dates and all of a sudden just recording people and, you know, embarrassing them.
Like this has been a journalistic lane recently, has it not? It has. It's a sucker move.
And wait, maybe I need to retract everything I said. This is actually my favorite story from the last couple of days.
Because, okay, there's so many things with this story. Like one, you have this producer who, as you mentioned, may or may not have been on the date.
Like, I don't know how much people have listened to this, but if you haven't, I encourage you to listen to it. It literally sounds like that they're on a podcast.
I mean, the sound quality is so crisp. I'm like, was my man wearing a lavalier? Like, why is the sound quality so good? And the other thing, too, I mean, I agree with you, Dan.
Like, this is ultimately despicable. Like, regardless, a lot of people are caught up in what this producer said and how he characterizes Stephen A.
Smith and more or less how people view him at ESPN. Like to me, that's like irrelevant.
The most, the relevant part of this is that you could be in a social setting. And if you work at ESPN, wind up being taped and then somebody else giving that to the media.
But it also kind of reminds me of a rule I used to have when I was dating. And, you know, a long, long time ago when I was a single woman out here in the wild of dating, I had a rule that if I was on a date with somebody or in that kind of initial interaction where it's like, OK, you know, this this guy's cute.
You know, there's some level of flirting that's going on. If they ask me about Stephen A.
Smith of Skip Bayless, immediately that dude was canceled immediately. Like, no, I don't want anything to do with you because there is nothing more unsexy and unflattering than when you're talking to, you know, somebody who's a potential love interest and you're like, Oh yeah.
You know, so what do you, what are your hobbies? What are you, you know, trying to get to know him? And they're like, so what's Stephen A. Smith like? I'm like, do you want to be on a date with Stephen A.
Smith? Because this, this is doing nothing for me. Like whatever arousal point that I had in this conversation just immediately went to negative.
So it kind of reminded me of that rule that I used to have when I was, I was dating. Like, who does that? Can we play douche or no douche with her, please? I'd like to transition out of I do find all of that interesting, because it really is a story unlike any other.
And Jamel, you and I, it's there's a sort of inevitability in if we're talking about some of the stuff that we were trying to push along at ESPN, with great gratitude for ESPN deciding, for no good reason at all, to become a journalistic company or decide that they wanted to try and mix sports and difficult things to cover in sports and try and do it journalistically. The fascination I have with the evolution of everything Stephen A into somebody who could have a better presidential Q rating than Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama, because he's famous.
Do you believe that, Dan? Like, seriously, I don't believe it. I personally don't.
Like, I really do not believe that's true. I mean, there's a lot of stuff happening that I don't believe it's true.
And maybe that's, and perhaps the polling and the numbers aren't accurate, but I have read that the polling suggests that he would be like the fourth best betting favorite as a Democratic Party representative. I do not believe this.
I have to say, like,

listen, I realize right now we're in, if we did a tournament of top, you know, dumbest times in America to have lived through, I truly realize we're in a time where this could be a number one seed. I get it.
But I refuse to believe that the average person out here would look at Stephen A. Smith and say, of all the candidates that are possible in the Democratic Party, that this one is the fourth most viable that they have.
And I just I don't believe I know that I'm probably going to regret saying this. I don't.
And this is, again, no reflection of Stephen A. Smith.
I don't believe America's that stupid. What if you were asked that on a date? Not the question about tell me about Stephen A.
Smith. It was like, would you vote for Stephen A.
Smith? Do you think he'd be a good president? Does that then automatically cancel the person you're on your date with? Or is that kind of like a gray area? That's a better conversation. You know what? That's actually, to my single ladies out there, that might be the one, you know, because we hear all these reports that one of the reasons or you want to talk about things, whether or not you believe or don't believe.
But one of the things that's messing up the dating game is that like a lot of a lot of men who have expressed support for Donald Trump is turning off is turning off the ladies. OK, and so that this is part of the reasons that social scientists and experts say that men are living in the loneliest time that they've ever experienced because a lot of women are choosing to stay single.
One of the top reasons is our political beliefs, the differences, especially among college educated women. And so maybe that is now the ultimate dating test.

Would you vote for Stephen A. Smith?

And whatever the answer is, ladies, you can decide if you found your man or not found your man.

Dan, fourth best odds, Stephen A.? Sprinkle a little something on that.

Sprinkle definitely a little something on that.

Sprinkle a little something.

Tony and Zaz say that that debate that you wish for, Jamel, would be Super Bowl numbers, they say.

Between Stephen A. and Donald Trump?

Yeah.

Okay, I can believe that.

I can believe that.

I would believe that.

I would sprinkle something on that.

Would you pay for it?

Would you pay five bucks for it?

I got five on it.

I'm going to hate myself.

I'm going to hate myself. You know you're going to do it.
You know you're going're gonna do you're gonna call the girls over and want to have a watch party come on now come on now i am disgusted with myself in this moment so five bucks yes i would pay five dollars okay all right i'm not gonna lie all right i i would i would i would pay i would that. I would not.
I did not want, you know, if the Mike Tyson fight with Jake Paul had been, had you had to pay for it? I mean, I already had Netflix or whatever. You paid $9.99 a month for it, but whatever.
Right, right. I already paid for it.
But if that were available to pay for in the traditional pay-per-view model, I would have never paid for that. But Stephen A.
versus Trump. Stephen A.
Smith versus Donald Trump. I would pay for that.
I might even ten dollars for that i'm not gonna lie can i get you 20 can i get you 20 can i get you 20 you write the girls over everybody splits five you bring a couple bottles of wine you get another charcuterie board if you're gonna pay 10 you can pay 10 you can pay 15 jamelle you pay 20 pay 15 i've got to 20 all right 1999 1999 is as Sold. $19.99 is as high as I go.
Wow. I'm not going past that.
How about a loser-lease town game? Would you pay $50 for that? Oh, wow. Would you pay $50 for that? Loser-lease town game, $49.99.
$49.99 for a loser-lease town game. I mean, for the possibility of getting rid of Donald Trump?

$49.99?

I mean, I'd pay $50.

There it is.

You're a hell of a salesman, Tony.

I pay.

I pay.

Look at America coming together.

Everybody's coming together.

$49.99.

Loser leaves town game, though.

As Jeremy has the appropriate reaction.

$65, and the loser has to shave their head.

Wow.

Okay.

All right.

Let's play douche or no douche here. Leaving stickers on your flat brim hat.
Douche or no douche. Leaving stickers on your flat brim.
I'm going to say no douche. No douche.
Morning routine videos on social media. I'm going to say douche.
Because that's just way too attention seeking. I don't care that much about what you're doing in the morning speaking of which bathroom selfies oh that is you know what that's no douche because I don't consider that I think that's just kind of sad like I don't think you're a jerk for doing that I just think you you probably haven't quite evolved yet like those those things should be out I think a bathroom selfie is okay that That's because you looked in the mirror and you liked what you saw.
And that's such a nice thing that you could feel confident about yourself and go, you know what? I'm going to take a selfie in this mirror and I'm going to show the world that I feel good about myself. I think a bathroom selfie is good.
Nobody wants to see the legs sticking out of the stall behind you. That's fair.
Nobody wants to see that. Right.
Yeah. You got to think of the aesthetic.
Solo bathroom.

Driving a cyber truck.

Douche or no douche?

You're a douche.

And I live in LA, so

you imagine how many that I see on a

daily basis. There's also a Tesla

dealership that's walking distance to me.

No one's vandalized anything, by the way,

in case anyone cares.

Jamel, nice seeing you. Thank you for being on with us.

It's always good seeing you.

Now I got to go and feel bad for myself the rest of the day because you guys got me to admit that I would pay Donald Trump to pay Stephen A. Smith.
You think that's the part that's going to be aggregated? Yeah. You know good and well that's...
Right, bye guys. You know good and well that ain't the part that's going to get you.

I know. Bye.

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company, New York, New York. Please do not share with anyone under legal drinking age don lebatard are the stakes that high that if angel reese loses to kaylin clark you need to start over again as a race stugatz i don't know that we have to necessarily start over but it might have to be it will be a black people's, an important one that will be called the next day.
We might have to put some things on the agenda and get it on the table. This is the Don Levatore Show with the Stu Gats.
Jeremy, what do you have to update there?

Yeah, I really hate to put a damper on this one for you guys, but according to McLaughlin and Associates, in January of 2005, they did a poll thinking ahead to the 20, 2025, thinking ahead to the 2028 Democratic primary election for president.

If that election were held today among the following candidates, whom would you vote for?

So in terms of percentages, Kamala Harris had 33.ete budajich had nine gavin newsom had seven alexandria ocasio-cortez had six josh shapiro tim walls gretchen whitmer and amy klobuchar all had three stephen a smith down at two so you know not gonna happen we get even better odds now better odds you sprinkle a little bit more it goes a long way I would do anything to not have Stephen A. Smith be the president.
Anything. Except for Donald Trump being the president.
So I guess I'd rather him than Donald Trump, but he's a Republican. I don't want him running for the Democratic primary.
You're in a catch-22 here, Jerry. That's crazy.
You're paying 50 bucks, sorry. No, I'll just vote for the far-left candidate.
I mean, that's what we'll do, right? If Stephen A. is the Democratic nominee, the Democratic Party doesn't exist anymore.
Huh. No? We're all just cool with that? The guy who's always said all I care about his money and he's just gonna be all right that's fine I'll I'll I'll shut up presidential something on it there we go what are you the soap a like what are you doing there you want to sprinkle a little something on it a little sprinkle I'm trying to win some money a Yeah.
You can't have your moralities around my value propositions. It's just gambling.
It can't just be both. With our freedom and our democracy? We'll be fine.
But if you lose it, you might as well win money, right? You'd probably lose that, too, if you lose the freedom. Figure that out once we get there.
Yeah, but you win on a long shot. I mean, how does that feel? It's something to brag about for the rest of your life.
Hey, I spent this. I took it early.
Yeah, that's right. And I took it early.
Nobody likes the person who gives the morning routine, right? That's not something that we... That's something that everyone's going to respond.
I don't want to watch your morning routine on social media. Depends how interesting it is.
Yeah. I honestly don't know what this is.
But what is it? Morning routine? Yes. I don't know what this is.
Well, Roy is suffering at the moment. We'll get to that in a second.
Roy is, and this is a good character, actually. I would like to develop this character with Roy.
Roy feels like this is well beyond the sad report that Chris Cody is producing. The slow report, excuse me, not the sad report.
That's a different report. That's mine.
That's the one I do. Yes, I'm sorry.
The slow report is Chris Cody. Mine's the sad report.
But Roy is feeling these days like he is the very last to know anything. That anything going on on social media that is viral, that for whatever the reason it is, it's getting to him last.
He feels like he's arriving at things that others are talking about, and they've already talked about it. Yeah, and as much as I'm on Twitter, or X as it's currently known right now, I have yet to see whatever this morning routine thing is.
Like 0% knowledge of this. I don't know what it is either.
I think it's you have an Android. It just gets to you slower.
Yeah. God damn it.
It is not because I have an Android. It might be.
I guess it's not in the algorithm, I guess. Well, that's why Zaz is here telling you sprinkle a little something on Stephen A now.
Like, that's getting to you early. Take note of this.
Yeah. The morning routine, Billy, that you're obsessed with? Well, so there's this morning routine video that's been going around.
There's lots of morning routine videos. We do some with Knicks, kind of.
That's something that we do. But there's a morning routine that's going on, and it's, I don't know what this guy does, if he's like an influencer or whatever, but like his day starts very, very early, and people are catching on to the fact that times are not necessarily adding up when he's doing things.
Because it's playing now. I guess there's no sound on this.
But it starts at like 3.17 a.m. By 4.01 a.m.
He's out on his balcony doing push-ups, as you know, as one does. That lasts until about 4.04 a.m.
That's not a morning routine. That's a middle-of-the-night routine.
Well, no, no. It starts at 3.00.
Look, rise and grind. Early bird gets the worm.
You know what I mean? That was you for like 20 years 20 years dude yeah well eventually i had to take a step back but yes well he's there he then puts his face in a bowl of ice water for some reason he puts on his uh his running things a twenty thousand dollar watch from what tony says he's there walking you through this video then at 6 20 a.m he leaves his apartment he goes into the elevator 6 23 at 6 38 he's on the treadmill until 6.52, 7.30. He's going outside for a swim, 7.31.
He's there. He takes off his shoes.
And, whoa, there he goes, 7.37. He jumped.
At 7.40 a.m., he landed in the pool. So he was floating in the air for about three minutes there.
Then he goes back upstairs, takes another shower at 8.28 a.m., 8.35. He dries himself off.
He now is rubbing some banana on his face for some reason. Whoa, what was that about? Sits down.
Oh, his face is back in a tub of ice. And now he's having an important meeting where I think he just said, like, give me $10,000 or something like that.
And now he has someone making him breakfast, and he's eating breakfast at 9.26 a.m. And you can watch all that with sound on the social medias.
would have been better or worse with sound worse that was way better yeah billy killed it okay i'm working on my play-by-play skills professional the more i do it the better it's getting the doing of the morning routine and what do you so roy you don't feel like you've missed anything, right? For why and for what? Seriously.

What is that?

Well, the sharing it or having one?

You labeling this a morning routine.

This is like a man performing masculinity on the internet for other people to consume.

This isn't like, oh, I'm brushing my teeth and I'm washing my face and then I'm going to work.

I think that's supposed to be motivational. Like you're supposed to see like how to rise and grind and you see how much like, oh, wow, while I'm sleeping, you know, this guy's doing pushups on his balcony at 4.01 a.m.
for three minutes. What's the point of waking up before 4 a.m.? You could have ended the sentence at waking up.
Jeremy, can you find for me the Mark Wahlberg routine where I would imagine is where this started? started because he's famously someone who gets up at 2.30 in the morning because you want to rise

faster and grind harder than the person. You wake up before anyone.
You're accomplishing so much. 2 30 a.m.
Wake up. 2 45 a.m.
Prayer time. 3 15 a.m.
Breakfast. 3 40 to 5 15 a.m.
Workout. 5 30 a.m.
post-workout meal, 6 a.m. shower, 730 a.m.
golf. So I don't, I don't, an hour and a half long shower.
8 a.m. snack, 930 a.m.
cryo chamber recovery, 1030 a.m. snack, 11 a.m.
family time slash meeting slash work calls, 1 p.m. lunch, 2 p.m.
meeting slash work calls, 3 p.m. pick up kids at school, 3 30 p.m.
snack, 4 p.m. workout number 2, 5 p.m.
shower, 5.30 p.m. lunch, 2 p.m.
meeting slash work calls, 3 p.m. pick up kids at school, 3.30 p.m.
snack, 4 p.m. workout number two, 5 p.m.
shower, 5.30 p.m. dinner slash family time, 7.30 p.m.
bedtime, because his life sucks. I'm sorry, you're going to sleep at 7.30.
You're right. Your life sucks you're going to sleep at 7.30.
What are you doing? I couldn't agree with you more. 7.30? Who wants to do that? And he's like a story.
He's got lots of money. He's going to bed at 7.30? Waking up at 2.30? Go over yourself.
No one cares. Like, is there anyone who you say I wake up at 2.30 in the morning like wow, it's awesome.
I wake up at 2.30 in the morning every morning, by the way. I do think there are people that are impressed by a military lifestyle of discipline, yes.
I'm not saying that I am one of them, but I don't think that Mark Wahlberg is showing that to people because he doesn't think they're going to be impressed. But military guys don't wake up at 2.30.
They wake up at 0600 hours. That's 6 a.m.
That's 6 a.m. That's military time, 0600.
Don't want to confuse anyone. Inclusive show.
Tony, what do you have for us? Dano, I'm glad you asked. Obviously, we've talked a little bit about the...
Is that a finder? No, it was a video of someone just sent me a Willow sleeping out there on the couch. Just making sure.
We've got a bracket update, Dano, and today's bracket update is brought to you by the Toasted Bracket by Jimmy John's. Jimmy John's is sponsoring the Toasted Bracket.
They're finally here and they're finally hot. Those toasted sandwiches, by the way, very exciting.
Try our new toasted sandwiches at Jimmy John's. Order one today.
Dan, it's been a very chalky bracket, right? If you look in the Midwest region, you got one, two, three, four. A lot of ones, a lot of tws, except the two that I picked, which of course was St.
John's. I had them in the final four.
I had them beating Florida in a very exciting run for the Johnnies. Then they continued to go 4 for 41 on threes in the game.
Look at how cute that is. Come on.
I could not click play on that. Shouldn't be here in the office.
Zaz, do you agree with that? That the dog shouldn't be in the office? Dog ain't bothering anybody. It's bothering somebody.
I was at a brewery yesterday and there was a dog right next to me, at the table right next to me. Drinking beer? Sitting in the chair? Next to my chair, lying down right up against me.
I was like, you don't bother anybody, whatever. She's so cute.
How do you feel? So you're okay with dogs? I am okay with it. This is the first I'm hearing that Tony's not okay with it.
No, I'm aligned with Amin on the fact that the dog needs to be somewhere else while we're doing the show. Yeah, as long as the dog's not bothering anybody, I have no problem.
Anyways, we've got number one still alive across the board. I got Duke winning it all so I'm still in, you know, in good graces there when it comes to when it comes to the national championship.
Why? I just wouldn't be in the top ten places to visit. We've gotten over there.
Oh, that's right. I don't want to hear about the dog being an emotional support animal though.
Like, that's garbage. Like, everybody has a dog to emotionally support you.
You have a dog because having a dog makes you feel good, alright? That's everyone. So the fact that you could bring your dog anywhere because it's an emotional support animal, that's bullshit.
I agree. I also have Michigan State in the Final Four.
So the Spartys are looking good, Dano. That's the Toasted Bracket Update brought to you by Jimmy Johns.
Thank you. Zaslo, how do you feel about Florida being a favorite as someone who is a proud Gator and

the best Florida run

there's been was

Joe Kim Noah and

Horford and Billy Donovan.

This is the best team since then,

is it not? Yeah, and by the way,

we had the Cooper flag conversation earlier.

All those guys were projected lottery picks

and they all came back

the very next year.

All of them, Horford, Joe Kim Noah,

Corey Brewer, they all came back

Thank you. All those guys were projected lottery picks, and they all came back the very next year.
Like, that's all of them. Horford, Joe Kimno, Corey Brewer, they all came back the next year.
Jeremy, what are you rolling your eyes out? I wasn't rolling my eyes as much as—it's just it was a different time, right? And those guys were not all freshmen. It wasn't the time of one and none.
It was a different time in college basketball where those players all going back was ultimately good for them and and look all the power to cooper flag if that's what he decides to do if all of those lottery picks at duke maybe win a championship and say let's go win another one maybe that happens we were talking about an individual player where i'm expecting that his teammates are going to leave too but if you tell tell me that some Duke booster, you know, swoops in and is willing to give however many millions to all of those lottery picks to stick around, maybe it happens. But you're right.
UF is like the ultimate. That was the ultimate example of the perfect college basketball team.
It was a different time. But doesn't that make it even more shocking that those guys all stayed? Yeah, passing up on the money.
You're right. And Joe Kim Noah, there was talk he was going to be the number one pick after 2006.
He stayed. He ended up going like number nine or whatever it was.
Well, that would be my test case if I was trying to make the argument against you guys as you correctly assembled so much more money is the thing. If you went and asked Joe Kim Noah and Al Horford now and Corey Brewer now with whatever money they made.
Hey, that second year that you guys got together where you got to do it again, what was that worth? What would you pay for to have that year back? I think in the case of those three, it's an extraordinary amount of money. All their teammates might not have that money, though, and they might have a different answer.
Yeah, I think they certainly liked it because they gave up the year and they accomplished exactly what they set out to do. Like, it worked out exactly the way that they wanted it to.
Well, because they were better than everybody. This team's supposed to be better than everybody except for Duke.
Like, it's the best offense in the sport in 10 years when people aren't, I mean, you can say people are good at offense,

but this is, by percentage, this is inefficient basketball.

This is crude basketball.

It's not even that you're never, you know the cost of what we're talking about in making college what we've made it is?

That Florida team will never exist again.

Like, it's not even a thing that's possible,

even if Phil Knight decides he wants to make Oregon something bigger, the pros are always going to be the calling. That's dead.
It's dead forever. And a portion of college basketball gets killed with it because Cooper Flagg is the name that you know.
But you never... The Duke team of Zion Williamson, where Zion was the third best recruit, that's not going to play together for three years the way it would have at UNLV once upon a time.
It's also dead because we just generally have more of that get that bag mentality right in America than we did, you know, 18 years ago. Right.
It was pretty shocking back then. It was surprising, but it'd be way more surprising now because the kids that are playing college basketball right now were being born around then.
And the way that we've shifted our conversation about individually going and getting the bag no matter what that takes is different than it was then. So you can motivate, hey, you guys just won a championship.
There's this collective bond over whatever. I mean, you see it in the individualistic...
I think it's a better chance if you lose the championship. Like, if Cooper, Flagg, and Duke win this year, I don't think you even consider staying.
I think if they fall short, it's like, I came here to win a championship. I'm going to stay another year.
There is no consideration anymore, right? This isn't even a conversation anymore, even though you can stay in college and get millions of dollars. It's ceased being a conversation.
Everyone agrees that it's dumb to go back. Someone's going to do it.
I don't think it's going to be Cooper Flagg. Someone's going to do it.
Like at Duke this year? No, no, no. I don't think it's going to be this year.
But someone's going to do it one day where, wow, I make enough money here. I'm not trying to play for the Wings.
That is a bold prediction that we'll never be able to call you on. I'm marking it down.
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Games of consequence in sports starting to ramp up. I know what you're going to need by your side.
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