Local Hour: Greg Cote's Top 5 Marches

Auto insurance can all seem the same, until it comes time to use it. So don't get stuck paying more for less coverage.
Switch to USAA Auto Insurance and you could start saving money in no time. Get a quote today.
Restrictions apply. USAA! Hey there, travelers and dreamers.
We all have that dream trip that we've been wishing we could go on. But too often, life just gets in the way.
Whether it's work, family responsibilities, or, in my case, and I'm sure many of yours, price. But your dream trip doesn't have to stay a dream any longer, because Priceline is here to help you book it, with millions of deals on hotels, flights, cruises, and rental cars.
That bucket list destination? Yeah, it's a lot closer than you think. You know, I've been wanting to go see the Pittsburgh Pirates for a long time at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
That's like at the top of my list of bucket list destinations of baseball parks around the country. And because I now know about the type of deals that Priceline offers, I may pull the trigger this summer and go see those Pirates.
Priceline makes it easy and stress-free to book a flight and a hotel so I can go see my team play live. With millions of travel deals, like up to 60% off hotels, I know I'll be able to find great options even when I need to book last minute.
So don't just dream about that next trip. Book it with Priceline.
Download the Priceline app or visit Priceline.com to go to your happy price. Actual prices may vary.
Limited time offer. Terms apply.
Shadow show. Shadow show.
Shadow show. Shadow show.
Shadow show. Shadow show.
Shadow show. Shadow in it.
Shadow in it. I walk into the room, Chris, and your father begins.
His good morning is in the balls section of my podcast. That is how a phrase started.
And I think what he was beginning to do, because it became noise after a while when he starts talking about his podcast, like when other people talk about their kids or their fantasy leagues, and you just tune it out and stare at their forehead. I'm pretty sure that he was beginning an apology about something that he either misremembered or said incorrectly on the podcast, but then we started the show, I heard the countdown, and so we never got to it.
Well, I had mentioned that in the balls section, one of the five, spoiler alert, was sports balls. Do you want to tell people what the ball segment of your podcast is? I know that your narcissism is such that you think that everything you know is something everyone else knows and everything you say is something that everyone else has heard.
Yeah, on my podcast, it's a March Madness celebration in which we don't talk about college basketball at all. But I have my Mount Gregmore, which is a top five, a final five in the categories marches, brackets, baskets, and balls.
And in the balls section, unavoidably, one of the top five was sports balls, just sports balls in general. And so Christopher asked me, what's your favorite sports ball? And I mentioned that for many years of my life, it was a tennis ball because I played a lot of tennis.
I love tennis. I was pretty good at it, I thought.
And then I casually mentioned that you and I used to play. But I couldn't remember how often we played.
Like I said, we used to play regularly. I know we played several times, but I couldn't remember whether it was how periodic it was or anything like that.
And he claims, even though Dan has how many years younger? He claims you guys were even, that it was like, oh, if you played 50 times, you won 25 and 25. I would say that's actually pretty close to true.
But keep in mind, I believe that I have this right when I say he had played tennis before and I had not. I was playing tennis for the first time in my life.
It's not something I'd ever taken up. So we were roughly even and I hated his drop shots because it was annoying.
But you'd been someone who played. Put it on the Pollock Levitard show.
I suspect that Tony would take basketball if he had to choose from among the best of the balls. Yeah, basketball for sure.
Football is a very close second.

What I used to do, Greg, as a kid, we had like a sloped roof.

What I would do is I would throw the ball on the roof,

and it would hit the shingles, and then I'd go down and try and catch it.

Oh, yeah, we've all done that.

I would play against myself, and I'd be one team going one way on offense,

the other team going the other way on offense.

Roofball is like a thing.

It went viral a few years ago.

Roofball is sick.

They've started leagues. Really? Yeah.
I've never heard of it. Obviously not real leagues, but just people on the internet.
You've never done that? I thought he was speaking a language right there that a lot of us have done in lonely childhood moments where you don't have anyone else around and you want to just play something by yourself. You throw a ball on the roof and try and figure out where it's going to land and catch it before it hits the ground i thought a lot of people i am hearing of it for the first time and and my initial reaction is it's bad for the roof tiles you know i mean that's why when you have your roof pressure cleaned you know you got to be careful because somebody steps on tiles they break and then all of a sudden hey kids get off of my roof yeah get off you can sudden...
Hey, kids, get off of my roof. Yeah.
You can be on my lawn, kids, but stay off of my roof. Exactly.
That's your first thought? You worry about the roof tiles because a tennis ball is bouncing on the roof? Yeah. Keep in mind, not that many years ago, five, seven years ago, I had a real problem with Norwegian roof rats.

And that was an issue.

I don't know why they started there.

I don't know, but I actually enjoyed it.

I think we should do that more. That was actually one of the beneficial production assets.

Go ahead and play that again.

I'm guessing that Jason just made a giant plate of bacon and then sat on the wrong button.

This is the Dan Levatore show with the stugatz podcast i need some help from the group here because greg cody is a bit cantankerous this morning because he's a little surrounded uh today and tomorrow zaslow his sworn enemy is going to be on the show tomorrow. And Greg Cody

and Zaslow have beef.

And now we've reached out to Billy Corbin,

who, of course, is very busy at City Hall,

because he always is. And

we're trying to get a hold of him to talk.

What the hell's he doing at City Hall?

Billy Corbin. What do you mean, what's he doing

at City Hall? Don't you imagine him to always

be at City Hall? But Greg brings up a good point. He's just there.
Isn't there a meeting? I'm sure there is a meeting. He's not voting on anything.
Don't you understand Billy Corbin is South Florida's self-appointed watchdog looking out over everything, protecting all of our rights. He's at City Hall waiting for some controversy to happen.
Good for you, Billy. Keep it up.
So like I said, he's cantankerous, and he has called Billy Corbin a jackass before on the air, and he's asked me not to inflame that situation, but how do I not inflame that situation when I'm an inflamer? And also when he's coming on with us in a little bit to talk about this O Cinema story where you've got boycotts and protests over an Oscar winning movie that's being played. And the mayor of Miami Beach is looking to shut down an independent theater.
I wanted to talk to Billy Corbin about that. What do I do with Greg Cody here saying this was his life philosophy.
If you treat me like a jackass, then I think you're a jackass. And so he didn't have any problem.
Like I've said before with Edwin Pope and other columnists, when someone of his stature does something that out of character to call someone publicly a jackass, it gets my attention more than if a random person is doing it because he does it pretty infrequently. But I feel like Billy Corbin is someone here who is almost universally annoying while always fighting for the right things.
So I don't know. That's subjective.
It's super subjective. To who? Even to those on the left, it's subjective.
I want to hear Tony's reason why. I'm good.
I don't dislike Billy Corbin. He has publicly disrespected me.
And I think the human nature, I think all of us might agree, if somebody disrespects you and is against you, you tend not to like them a lot. And you tend to get your back up and say, oh, you're going to call me this and this.
I'm going to call you that and that. It is funny how it couldn't be further away from politics, my dad's reason for hating Corbyn.
Well, but no, it's all personal. No, but there is something here.
You say it's all personal, and this one's always interesting to me

because that one's subjective, where people say in these kinds of conversations,

hey, don't do anything personal, and then everyone has a different definition

for how they take things personally.

The source of this is that Billy Corbin didn't want the Marlins to get that stadium,

and Greg Cody was rah-rah-ing on behalf of his business being fine with the taxpayers paying so that the Marlins could have a stadium that before the show I saw Fuentes and Mike Ryan and a bunch of people screaming at each other as Mike Ryan claimed that Lone Depot Park you know wasn't up to his standards. It's a hole it's a hole it's a it's an assault on the senses too all these colors.
And I know that they changed the apple green walls, which were just horrendous to look at. But it's just there's this constant ambient hum.
The food options stink. The sight lines are no good.
The sight lines are fine. No, I hate the sight lines.
It's designed to be a baseball stadium. You can see the field from every spot.
You know what's designed to be a baseball stadium? Camden Yards. That's designed to be a baseball stadium.
I'm not arguing that Lone Depot Park is a top whatever ballpark in all of sports. I'm just saying we're being affected by how bad the Marlins are.
If the Marlins were in the playoffs the last 10 years, we would feel differently about this ballpark. It's not a great park.
I got to say I never liked it from opening day on. And I was someone that was a proponent of it, even though that meant tearing down the Orange Bowl.
And I got there. I'm like, this is what they decided to do with it.
What started this debate is there was Google, Yelp. They kind of formulated all the reviews from all the stadiums in the NFL, NBA, and MLB.
And they ranked 90 stadiums. And Kaseya Center, the Heats Arena, is a top 10 arena, arena according to reviews and Lone Depot and Hard Rock were 62 63 out of 90.
Yeah but what I mean we don't have to rehash this whole thing but the controversy around Lone Depot Park wasn't because the it was ugly or like the walls were a bad color like you understand that right Chris? No I'm talking about we all know that. So like the wins and losses thing like i thought that doesn't really change the reality of how the park ended up where it is yeah but i mean that's already known that like i understand that this whole conversation started what right isn't that why greg and that's the personal nature of the beef starts there and i don't think that there's anything else to it other than.
Well, I was one of the few people in this market who was a proponent of them building, getting that stadium built. And the difference between Corbin and I on this particular topic is that he thinks I should have been protecting the taxpayers of Miami-Dade by questioning the deal and how much money and who was paying this and how much taxes were going.
And that's up to the politicians. My job as a sports columnist in this market, I think, in this case, was to be a proponent for the new stadium they needed to keep the team down here.
They got it built. And that's actually, although it's a controversial one, that's actually the only positive legacy of Loria's time here as the primary owner, or at least it's the biggest one, along with one World Series after which he disbanded the team.
Well, when you say, though, the one positive and you guys in the other room say Billy Corbyn, according to whom, is on the right side of things.

Billy Corbyn is perpetually fighting corruption.

He's on the right side of things. Billy Corbyn is perpetually fighting corruption.
He's on the right side of perpetually fighting corruption. You can have your issues with all of the other activisms, depending on whether your political leanings are one way or the other, but there is no disputing that he's one of the few vigorous and vigilant about holding public officials accountable on how it is that they're supposed to behave with the public's money as servants.
That's not up for dispute, correct? No one here would dispute that portion of it. That's not subjective.
No, and I agree that looking back there was malfeasance on the part of Miami and Miami-Dade politicians to get fleeced by Jeffrey Loria. It was Jeffrey.
Jeffrey Loria is a businessman and a pretty good one. His job is to get the best deal he can.
And boy, did he. That's correct.
But when you guys say, and I ask, Billy Corbin tends to be correct. When it comes to this thing, it's been an enormous waste of money locally.
It's not just that our politicians got taken. It's that the sport's only alive here barely and not functioning as a business in any reasonable way because they got that stadium.
Otherwise, they'd be in the situation the A's are in. Local governments misappropriate funds all the time.
It's one thing to say flatly that that money was used for a waste when you have no idea what that money would have gone to. You can have an idea, but you also have less say in the matter when this is something that was actually on the ballot.
Wait, that's crazy logic, though. Like, a city shouldn't waste money because they'll just end up wasting it on something else? I'm saying that stadium referendums are one of the few times that you can actually vote on these things and you can actually see whether or not and decide whether or not this is a good allocation when a lot of times they do stuff with autonomy or just commissioners do it.
My big issue was they got the stadium, they cried poor, and then they sold the team that they spent a lot of money for right then and there. They made the Blue Jays trade, which I know in retrospect they ended up winning, but we don't need to litigate all this stuff.
And yeah, while I agree that Billy is generally on the right side of corruption, how he goes about doing things rubs certainly a lot of people the wrong way, he's a rabble rouser. The sad state of the Marlins today is a whole different subject.
Bruce Sherman's one of the worst owners in all of sports. He's spending half, one-third of what he needs to be spending just to compete.
But the stadium itself... To not even compete.
Right. The stadium itself, I think, is very good.
Looking at it from the macro, the retractable roof was a very smart idea, a necessary idea. It overlooks the Miami skyline.
It's a very pretty vista when you're at that stadium. They don't fill it because they have a lousy team because they don't spend, but that's 10 years, 15 years after this.
We're going to talk to David Sampson about this in about 30 minutes. He built that stadium.
One of the most amazing things I've ever seen in South Florida business is the fact that he got that thing built and on time and with no overruns in this city. Because yes, those people are very good at business.
We're going for likable this morning, huh? Billy Corbin going to join us at some point from City Hall. But you guys have it right when you say sometimes he's just hanging around City Hall because he's like something out of a Carl Hyasson novel in that Xavier Suarez did pull into his parking spot the other day, and Billy Corbin's like leaning against City Hall for no particular reason, just shouting at him, hey, Mayor.
Tony, what are you shaking your head about? I'm not shaking my head about anything, Dan. You were shaking your head about something.
Your head was shaking. I was reading something in the chat.
No, shout out to the chat, by the way. It's a safe space.
Tony, you have a lot of opinions. You have been saying them nonstop since the show started, but none of them have been into a microphone.
Wow. Let's not do that.
Corruption doesn't usually happen at City Hall. It happens outside of City Hall.
So go to other places around and try to figure that out. They happen in the back rooms of restaurants and things like that are we sure he's there because of the politicians or the fact that their microphone's there we will ask him that uh i don't believe that uh those who live in ass houses should be throwing stones we like our microphones too around here it's not like anybody here has any complaints about microphones speaking of which we need to get taylor in here to talk about the North Carolina game last night.
He's always in here. He's not ready to go yet.
How about that, bud? He's still rubbing his nipples. Where are all the critics now? Where are you, Mayor or Governor of West Virginia? How bad is North Carolina now? They kicked ass.
They had a statement to make, and they made it in capital letters. Go Tar Heels.
Who'd they make it against? You know, some team I'd never heard of. Never heard of? They made a Final Four like two years ago.
Oh, San Diego State. Yeah, it was the UM Final Four where UM tanked and everybody else stayed good.
They didn't tank intentionally. Team I've never heard of.
No, I mean, it's a play-in game is what I mean. But give North Carolina credit.
Everybody maligns them saying they didn't deserve to be here, and they sort of made a statement for themselves. Good for them.
You seem to be very vibrant on behalf of North Carolina, the last team to make the tournament. Well, because they were maligned, which means unfairly criticized.
Not unfairly. Not unfairly when you're 1-12.
Okay, they ended their regular season, the playoff ACC, by almost beating a great Duke team. How did West Virginia end their season? Oh, there he is.
I really hated how to be San Diego State. Such a scrappy underdog program.
They do everything the right way. But what we had to do was put their head on a stake and remind everybody who North Carolina is.
And that's exactly what we did. We're on to Ole Miss.
Let's go. On to Ole Miss.
They're going to make a run. UNC's going to make a big, long run.
Weather is starting to warm up. Regular season starting to wind down.
Games of consequence in sports starting to ramp up. I know what you're going to need by your side.
It's by my side already. Miller Lite.
Yeah, that's right. I'm making my springtime a Miller time.
I'm making my sports time miller time going to a car race miller time gonna see some tennis miller time gonna chill in the backyard with some friends and make some memories miller time i love miller light because it's got taste that i know i can depend on no games no gimmicks it's that simple folks it's just a great beer for people who like beer. Miller Lite is brewed for taste.
It hits different than the other Lite beers. It's got simple ingredients, and at just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces, Miller time is always a good time.
The original Lite beer since 1975 and still the very best one. Miller Lite.
Great taste. 96 calories.
Go to MillerLite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Tastes like Miller time.
Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
96 calories. 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.
Hey there, travelers and dreamers. We all have that dream trip that we've been wishing we could go on.
But too often, life just gets in the way, whether it's work, family responsibilities, or, in my case, and I'm sure many of yours, price. But your dream trip doesn't have to stay a dream any longer, because Priceline is here to help you book it, with millions of deals on hotels, flights, cruises, and rental cars.
That bucket list destination? Yeah, it's a lot closer than you think. You know, I've been wanting to go see the Pittsburgh Pirates for a long time at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
That's like at the top of my list of bucket list destinations of baseball parks around the country. And because I now know about the type of deals that Priceline offers, I may pull the trigger this summer and go see those pirates.
Priceline makes it easy and stress-free to book a flight and a hotel so I can go see my team play live. With millions of travel deals, like up to 60% off hotels, I know I'll be able to find great options even when I need to book last minute.
So don't just dream about that next trip. Book it with Priceline.
Download the Priceline app or visit Priceline.com to go to your happy price. Actual prices may vary.
Limited time offer. Terms apply.
Hey friends, it's Jer Baer here, and I'm here to tell you all about Boost Mobile, which is now a legit nationwide 5G network. So I must take a break from the jokes here for a second and put on my serious voice because I would never ever joke about a 5G network that has invested billions building 5G towers across the country.
Not even once. Not even if Mr.
Boost Mobile himself asked me to. There is nothing funny about it.
Boost Mobile is now a legit nationwide 5G network and also provides coverage across 99% of America. Seriously.
Visit boostmobile.com or your nearest Boost Mobile store location to learn more. The Boost Mobile network, together with our roaming partners, covers 99% of the U.S.
population.

5G speeds not available in all areas. Don LeBetard.
I want to address Tony and all men who would wear that shirt in public. Stugatz.
Don't do it. This is the Don LeBetard Show with the Stugatz.
I want to ask all of you here, sports fans, the folks who over the years have gotten more than a little annoyed when you say likable and unlikable, of this show and what it's been regarding the Miami Heat for 15 years. I believe that there is audience here today exclusively to find out how we feel about Jimmy Butler leading the Warriors last night in a way that he plays the entire fourth quarter.
He gets a bunch of free throws. Steph is not needed.
They beat Milwaukee. They beat Dame.
They're beating Dame and Giannis, and they're doing so going through Jimmy Butler with Draymond Green holding Giannis to 0 for 6. Jimmy Butler must haunt Giannis.
Giannis must be haunted by everything Jimmy Butler. Draymond Green says, hey, Wemby's out.
I want to be Defensive Player of the Year again because he shuts down Giannis. Shuts down Giannis and then after the game, Jimmy Butler is saying, not only can he do that to anybody, he demands that no one help him with it.
He does not want any help. He gets insulted by Draymond Green.
Old as he is, annoying as he is, still plays defense at a level that is insane. And he's flying up the Defensive Player of the Year rankings and odds on, he's second odds on favorite right now to win at plus 650 on DraftKings.
Evan Mobley's the only one ahead of it, minus 275. Maybe three weeks ago, maybe a month ago, he wasn't even on the board.
And I'm wondering if to the group here, this feels like if you're an ex in a relationship, you see your ex out with somebody else, and all of a sudden it seems like they have a more passionate relationship than the one that you had. And all of a sudden, you find yourself longing for everything that's happening over there because the Warriors are 14-2.
And now when Steph is tired, because this part was interesting. So Steve Kerr says yesterday, Steph's tired.
He's exhausted. He's carried us for a month.
Steph has seven turnovers in a game. Can't make anything.
Says, I'm not tired. Says, it's my back.
My back hurts. And Kerr is saying, it's from carrying the team.
Now you bring someone in. Somewhat.
Jimmy Butler never had something like Steph here. Jimmy Butler, everyone here was begging the heat to get him something better than Jimmy Butler.
So then Jimmy Butler could be that on select occasions when it's needed. So when you see that happen last night, your feelings are what? I don't feel like a jilted ex-lover.
I don't. I feel like it's like the Tom Brady quote about his marriage.
They put on a joint statement. Our marriage did not fail.
It was a successful marriage. I think I'm pretty confident unless he has an Andre Iguodala-type finals that's paired up with a Steph Curry-type finals, where he wins an MVP in an NBA finals, he's going to be remembered as a member of the Miami Heat.
When people close their eyes and they think of Jimmy Butler, the image that they're probably going to get is him bent over a scorer's table in the bubble in a Miami Heat uniform. He went to two finals down here.
It was a great time. He proved that he can be the best player on the team that went to multiple finals.
And I'm very secure in it, and I'm actively rooting for him to win that championship, so that can't be held against his brilliant career. I think when people think of Jimmy Buffett, Jimmy Buffett, I say that all the time, Jimmy Butler and Miami, they're going to think of the burned bridge, which is still smoldering.
And then they're going to think, you know what, Jimmy Butler was right after all, because he's so fit for that role in Golden State, where he doesn't have to be the best player anymore. He did have to be the best player in Miami, and although he had a fairly successful run here, it wasn't ultimately successful, and the Heat failed to make him the second best player on the team.
And they're still looking for an elite player who's going to

be the best player on the team because it's not Bam and it's not Hero and it wasn't Jimmy Butler. That's the problem with the Heat right now.
They're stagnating without a premier player. Again though, 11 for 11 from the line, plays the whole fourth quarter, and every play in the fourth quarter is run through him.
yeah he he's going to be great, I think, for them during this window. And then maybe next season, it won't be as great.
And then it'll just keep declining. I think he's got one more run in him.
And I'm hopeful to see that. I think if they have a good run, and he's really good in the postseason, then even though it's part of the narrative down here locally, people will look back on his time, especially if he becomes an NBA champion, and his time in a Heat uniform will be remembered for the Miami Heat specifically failing him, and that'll become the narrative.
The part that I wanted to talk with you guys about, though, because the league has been taken away from Steph Curry. The way that you honor the back end of his career, one of the most amazing things any of us have ever seen anywhere across sports, the existence of Steph Curry.
The way that you protect his aging when the Van Gundys say, the hardest thing to do in coaching is to coach the aging superstar. That thing in Golden State that features Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler.
My question to you guys is how does all of that age when both of them are unwilling, reluctant to give up who they've always been because they're in their later 30s. And at some point, there has to be a diminishment.
Draymond Green already at this point is only a defensive player. We laugh at him in every other respect because he is largely offensively washed, but he does one thing is the fuel of that thing.
And when it's not working right, he'll punch you in the face. And so that's opposite Jimmy Butler.
And so what you have, a lot of people feel this way. Sam Morrow was on with us.
This is what he had to say about Draymond Green and just the very idea that he would say that Cat was avoiding Jimmy Butler in a game between the Knicks and the Warriors, and then afterward the Knicks players were dapping up Draymond Green instead of defending their teammate. Draymond bothers me, and you said he apologized.
He didn't apologize. He gave a Draymond apology.
He bothers me. The podcast he has bothers me because he brought in Baron Davis to make himself more likable.
He's not likable. He's terrible at broadcasting.
He lacks charisma. The way Shaq and Barkley ball bust Draymond, he's not able to do that.
He's like the kid who thinks he can ball bust, but then says, like, your mom has cancer. And you're like, that's not a joke that she actually does have cancer.
That's like his sense of humor. He sucks.
He's mentally ill. If he was a football player, he'd be Antonio Brown by now.
He's unhinged. He has like the ego of like, it's like if Ringo Starr was the biggest dick in the Beatles.
You know? Like, it's weird that Paul, George, and John are nice and then Ringo's a dick. I don't think you can just accuse him of being mentally ill.
I think that's a bit irresponsible. Okay, he's got all his marbles.
You think he's not mentally ill? I don't know. I just don't know that I'm not comfortable just saying that about somebody.
Certainly, the resume has a lot of behavior that's unstable on it. Yeah.
I mean, he's just upset that Rudy Gobert, not Rudy Gobert's fault. He keeps winning defensive player of the years and he just like puts him in a sleeper hold.
I don't, that's not the behavior of someone who's got it all together. It bothered me that the Knicks dapped him up.
I think if Jalen Brunson was there, it would have been a different vibe. I don't like,.
Not pictured Commissioner Gordon. Dan, first and foremost, let me say I'm proud of you and the growth that you've made over the last week on journalistic responsibility.
That's huge. I'm glad that you corrected Sam on saying that.
That wasn't fair to label Draymond Green as mentally ill. That is great work out of you.
And also, Sam, I'm pretty sure you'd love Draymond if he were a New York Knick. There's many of those guys look there's one in Brad Marchand and Matthew Kachuk also on the Florida Panthers that you hate them if they're not on your team you love them if you're if they're rare for two to be on the same team aging at the same rate is is what I'm saying yeah I mean Jimmy's a different type of player he brings more to the table offensively but Draymond like he has his role offensively I're saying.
And look, it's working now. We'll see what happens in the playoffs.
I'm not actually even questioning it. I'm just super interested in seeing how all of it plays out because you've got – the thing that made me think of it is I'm assuming that everyone listening to this knows what it feels like to have somebody in your workplace, one person in a workplace who you think like Greg Cody thinks of Billy Corbin, that guy, that person's a jackass.
But when there are two of them in a small, small workspace, and they're two of the ones in the league that we all look at and say, that's the top of the food chain on people others wouldn't want to play with. I think it's a fascinating bet that Golden State is making on pressing the gas on, we got a couple of months to figure this out for Steph.
We can't even take next year for granted. We'll give Jimmy the extension, but this is about right now.
Can we take out OKC before OKC becomes too good to take out? What's the longest Shimmy Butler has ever been paired on a team with someone that is obviously greater than him? The flash that D. Wade had, no pun intended, in Chicago? That locker room had all sorts of problems between him, Rondo, and Wade.
He gravitated towards Wade, and it was the vets against the young guys, but he was still younger in his career, and everybody knew that Dwayne Wade was historically the greater player then. Then in Philadelphia, you can argue that Embiid was the better player on that team, but that was a short-term deal.
So kind of blessed in his career. He rubs people the wrong way, but he also has the benefit of being able to do that while he is very clearly the alpha of the team.
But this is what I'm talking to you guys about when I say the Van Gundys say the hardest thing to coach is the aging superstar because confidence is the last thing to go, last thing, and the mirror is the last thing to know. And so Jimmy Butler's not going to concede to anybody.
He's not going to concede. But if he's the team player everyone thinks that he is, this is a fairly self-aware, easy easy genuflect to make.
I'm going to Steph's team. This is all...
I got my money and now I'm here to get... I'm here to go 11 for 11 on free throws and if they need me in the fourth quarter because Steph can carry us, I'll play the entire fourth quarter and have all the plays run through me.
I think the other thing, too, is having Steve Kerr in that locker room to kind of get the tensions down a little bit. Obviously, Steve Kerr does a lot of stuff with USA Basketball, has the ability and has the track record of coaching some of these monster personalities and monster players.
It's like, all right, Jimmy, this is Steph's team. You know that.
You're coming in. But I can help you kind of fit in the way that you would if it was like a super team like a USA basketball or something like that.
Except for one very famous example where it didn't work out. Well, I mean, that wasn't his fault, though.
I wanted to ask the group, though, because I'm guilty of something here that I see as a great source of conflict in the NBA and at the top of the NBA pyramid, media pyramid. Right now, you've got an interesting thing happening in the content game where Barkley and Shaq have kind of been running it for a really long time.
And there are plenty of new voices in basketball who are tired of the old voices, no matter how popular they are to us. And they get bothered by things like Shaq being on inside the NBA and being able to get away with not knowing who the coach of the Pistons is, not watching the Pistons, and criticizing a team that's one of the better ones in the league this year because we hang on to the things we've been talking about for 20 years.
Steph and LeBron. Steph and LeBron.
Michelle Beadle was on the other day saying when Barkley said, those fools at ESPN who are just talking Lakers-LeBron all the time. She ran afoul of LeBron while at ESPN, and she's saying, yes, we were all fools and are fools, the way that we just keep talking about LeBron all the time instead of celebrating this new generation of players, because it's easier to talk about the thing you've always talked about, than to talk about OKC or Minnesota or even Denver somehow, because their star's not interesting enough for us.
But Barkley calls Kendrick Perkins a fool, and then the retort from Kendrick Perkins is this, hey NBA on TNT, might want to tell that senior citizen Charles Barkley that I'll be around. When he sees an idiot or fool in person, make sure he keeps that same energy.
Straight from the 409 homeboy and we bar none and fade all. Hashtag Texas boy.
I read that quickly because I didn't want to read that. Yes, you see right through me, Jessica.
You couldn't have noticed that from the speed with what I said. You didn't have to read it.
Greg, how do you feel about him using senior citizen as a sort of slur in that post? I think it's a clever slur. I mean, is he 65? How old is Barclay? I don't even know.
Isn't he 60? I think he just turned 60. Okay, I think that's a broad parameter of the phrase senior citizen.
62. See, this is all great, though.
It's great for everybody. It's great for all the networks involved, all the principles involved.
Like I said the other day, controversy is good in almost every instance, particularly when you're speaking into a microphone. Okay, but you guys think, just, I mean, I understand what is happening in the entirety of the content space.
Not just sports, but documentaries and people's lack of use for independent freedom, not former player. The idea that Charles Barkley is critical of you and your coverage and that the response is, make sure that when we're in front of each other, you might be ready to fight, that's a new thing.
Like, that's not how we've done that before when the media is talking about the games and the criticism is going back and forth between two entities. In this case, we're going to work together next year if Charles decides that he wants to be there with these people.
And it can all be wrestling, but I'm just curious if you guys care at all that it all becomes wrestling. That's Perk being Perk.
Perk goes at people like that all the time. And I don't actually think they have to work together.
It seems like they're licensing TNT's coverage, right?

So they get to operate in their silo.

They don't actually ever have to interface with ESPN's NBA team,

which history tells us will change again.

Kuper Perkins gets involved in there,

and I understand where he's coming from and defending himself,

but I'm old enough to remember NBA finals that John Barry was a key analyst for. Jalen, Antonio Davis, they come and go.
It's very transient over there, and if they actually have an anchor in TNT's coverage, I would try to ingratiate myself over to that. Otherwise, you may end up looking like Lance Stevenson going up against LeBron.
I also wouldn't assume genuine anger on either side. I think when these guys see each other, they're going to shake hands, they're going to have a little giggle.
Hey, this was all a bit. You're a good guy.
Clap each other on the back and move on. I don't think that they're really that angry.
Okay, but the thing that I'm asking you about, all of you, is back when we were the young different thing we were doing the bit to everybody because they were doing the serious thing now everyone's good with bit like we're good with we're good with what's we're asking this i'm i'm i'm i'm asking i'm doing bit now i'm asking i am actively asking. You know what? I'm going to hold on a second.
I've asked enough times for you guys to stop explaining the show here that. Major penalty.
Five minutes. Scrooning comedy.
I don't need to hear anyone's actively doing bit ever again from anyone on this show. That's weird.
The idea that two major media figures would go back and forth with beef is something I enjoy as content. Why have you not left yet? Why are you still here? Was that, okay, I'll leave.
That was for you, yes. He thought that was it me.
You want me to go to a fake penalty box?

Whoa!

What do you mean it's fake?

It's not fake.

What do you mean it's fake?

Get out of here.

It's a five-minute penalty.

It's a five-minute penalty, and it's not fake.

You did the crime, now do the time.

Somebody's listening right now like, wait, what?

I genuinely thought you were doing that to yourself.

Okay, that's good that that's what you thought, that you can leave now. But why would he be doing it to himself? Why would anyone do it to himself? Why do any of us? I enjoy this.
Does the audience, we're good with the trade, right? Because obviously a portion of this is personal to me, right? I kind of liked when ESPN allowed the journalists to have the strength. I've also been actively and publicly cheerleading for all of the athletes running into the space to make it a democracy.
But when they do so, what you get is documentaries that aren't actually the truth. They're just sort of documentaries that have access because we're blurring the line on some of where these conflicts are in the business economy of this.
So when Beatle, as J.J. Reddick says, yeah, ESPN is just forcing LeBron on you through topics.
Like we're forced to do that as a topic because same way you do Tebow. And I'm asking you guys, do you do the sport, the right service when you're doing wrestling character about the guy you've been talking about for 20 years and ignoring that the MVP is in Oklahoma City because you don't know how to talk about that team, even as it runs roughshod over everybody.
And even if you do know how to talk about it, your audience doesn't care and your audience is dictating everything because everyone's fighting over the audience. So you have to talk about the things that's going to get the most people in the tent.
But in the transaction, you lose the ability to sell young people anymore. You're just telling the same stories you've been telling for 20 years to the most important demo.
Well, but as the media, we have to do both, right? We have to acknowledge the new wave, and the NBA has a great young wave of stars right now. But people still want to talk about LeBron James.
He's a unicorn. He's a one-of-a-kind.
And we've done that across time with extraordinary athletes. We talked about Tom Brady nonstop.
We talked about Serena Williams even after she was past her prime. We're still talking about Tiger Woods 15 years after his last major win.
We do that because these are legendary figures in sports. Why wouldn't we talk about them? And LeBron James, since they added Doncic, that's a good team right now.
It's a little bit of a renaissance for the Lakers, which is a major franchise. We always talk about the Yankees.
We talk about big franchises and big players, and I don't apologize for that. Tiger Woods won a major in 2019.
Point still stands, though, Greg. But I think it's all part of the issue that First Take kind of put everybody in, where it's like, we're going to talk about LeBron, and Skip is going to argue with Stephen A, and we're just going to have this be debate culture.
And all of a sudden, now we're seeing the seeds of that 10-15 years down the line where yeah, all we can kind of do is talk about LeBron, right? Nick Wright, who's now one of these new voices of the generation continues the propaganda of talking about LeBron. When are we going to talk about Jokic? When are we going to talk about SGA? When is that going to happen? Who's going to bring that to the forefront where the casual fan's going to be able to understand that? Jason Tatum is listening and watching the coverage of him, a champion.
He's done whatever it is he was supposed to do with his talents. He has achieved now.
We cannot diminish him in much of any way. He's saying, I don't get my proper respect.
Part of that is because we're always talking about the other people. We're refusing in narrative to give the league over to the other people.
We'll talk about Anthony Edwards. We'll talk about John Morant, but not this way, not, not with the stories that we've fallen in love with, with for 15 years, so that we're still talking about the Warriors and Theo Pinson, who is proving to us that there are just too many podcasts.
Theo Pinson is out here saying this of Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat is worse.
That is a worse trade than Dallas and the Lakers. Yes.
By far. Yeah.
Dallas is just getting cooked by injuries. I kind of agree with that.
The Heat are healthy. They suck.
Jimmy Butler was Heat culture. Yes.
Regardless of what the f*** you thought he was doing off the court, that motherf***er brought a toughness. He brought a mentality.
Leadership. He had he had leadership it bro i swear to god it did not matter what seed the miami heat were if they got in the playoffs any team that played them you didn't want to have to buckle the fuck up you didn't want to see it would be a dog fight theo pinson played for the dallas mavericks played a couple years the nba cup of coffee by the way just for those of you out there like Theo Pinson I feel like I've heard that name yeah Raymond Felton's on that Byron Scott has a podcast there are a lot of podcasts what sentence could you put together that would be the funniest there if I went all in with Byron Scott has a podcast what are you beating me with as a Chris Cody Jess Tony Tony's brother Taylor Billy Ethan Mike Fuentes.
We have a podcast. The Greg Cody Show featuring Greg Cody.
Damn right. Has a podcast.
In the most recent episode, we've got a best marches, best balls, best brackets, best baskets. Correct.
I'm honored that you remembered all four categories. It seems like a real delight that you just making lists with your son is also proof that there are too many podcasts.
Now that the window has closed on the voting for the top five marches, do you want to reveal the top five marches to this audience? You don't remember them, do you? I don't remember all five off the top. You're the worst.
I mean, come on. How important are you? Disrespect.
I'm going to promote your podcast. You disrespect the march by not remembering that the Million Man March is among your greatest marches.
No, it actually wasn't. Stunner.
Okay, I can name the march. Ides of March, were you there for it? The what? The Million Man March? No, the Ides of March.
Oh, no. That would have been a good one, though.
You were covering it. That was O-L-I.
I know two of them. You had March of 77 when you lost your virginity.
Right. And then March of 2023 when you and I went to the Final Four.
Right, which was a lovely father-son trip. One of them is Peggy March, little Peggy March, who had a great million-selling record in the 60s.
I will follow him wherever he will go. What were the other marches? Oh, the March in Selma, the mid-60s Selma March for Civil Rights.
That was on there. And what was the missing march? Do you remember? Oh, John Philip Sousa's famous march, the all-time great musical march.
So it turns out the winning march, spoiler alert, was me losing my virginity. It won in a landslide.
I would have voted for it. This is a new and unimproved Dan Levitard show with the Stugas.
Gamble on by DraftKings. Weather is starting to warm up.
Regular season's starting to wind down. Games of consequence in sports starting to ramp up.

I know what you're going to need by your side.

It's by my side already.

Miller Lite.

Yeah, that's right.

I'm making my springtime a Miller time.

I'm making my sports time Miller time.

Going to a car race?

Miller time.

Going to see some tennis?

Miller time.

Going to chill in the backyard with some friends and make some memories?

Miller time.

I love Miller Lite because it's got taste that I know I can depend on. No games.
No gimmicks. It's that simple, folks.
It's just a great beer for people who like beer. Miller Lite is brewed for taste.
It hits different than the other Lite beers. It's got simple ingredients.
And at just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces, Miller Time is always a good time. The original light beer since 1975 and still the very best one.
Miller Light. Great taste.
96 calories. Go to MillerLight.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer.
Tastes like Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly.
Miller Brew company milwaukee wisconsin 96 calories 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces hey audience you know it's that time of year where everyone is debating who the number one pick is going to be well let me tell you something that is undebatable who the world's number one vodka is that is smirnoff and as fun as it is to debate whether or not the team with the number one pick goes pass rusher wide receiver quarterback one thing that we all know is we're going with smirnoff as our number one vodka pick isn't that right dano smirnoff rules smirnoff rules so while you're over there hosting your draft parties you know one thing in particular you need well there's that you absolutely need. The draft on TV, that's a must.
But number two, what is it, Dano? Smirnoff! Do you like Dano? Support the people who support us. Smirnoff supports us.
I like Smirnoff. I don't like Dano.
And thanks to Smirnoff, God Bless Football is doing their first ever watch-along live stream in front of a live audience in Nashville, Tennessee.

Join God Bless Football during round one of the draft on the Levitard Show YouTube channel on April 24th.

More details to come.

Please drink responsibly.

Smirnoff, number 21 vodka, distilled from grain,

40% alcohol by volume,

the Smirnoff company, New York, New York.

Please do not share with anyone under legal drinking age.

Woo-hoo!