The Big Suey: The Tushy Pushy (feat. David Samson)

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Welcome to the Big Sue,

presented by DraftKings.

Why are you listening to this show?

It's a podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Lebetard 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 that 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 Lebatard show with Stugats is presented by DraftKings.

DraftKings, the crown is yours.

I'm really torn here.

Maybe Samson can give us some help.

He certainly travels in these corridors of power where you just can't get to people or ask them questions.

Mickey Arrison's offering us five minutes today.

Should I take it or not take it?

Because these guys don't want to do interviews that have conditions on them.

You 100% take it.

Did he tell you that there's certain subjects off limits?

No.

So you got five minutes of a man's time that he doesn't give five minutes to many people.

He doesn't do much media at all.

So the question is, how do you make the most of the five minutes?

And I think you got to go right in.

You got to lead with some of the great signings that he's done.

I think you start with, you know, probably Terry.

I would do that.

All right, you guys, I need some help with this because he's going to be available at some point here soon, and I've got to make a decision on five minutes.

But David, as we introduce you and they they put your face on the screen, and you were grinning maniacally at a Intro to your show that is actively annoying, Zasla was over here next to me, and it felt like disgust was on his face.

Zaslow, how did you feel about the intro that David Sampson just had?

Here's the thing, though.

I'm so disgusted with it that like it's it swings back around the pendulum and I love it.

It's the most disgusting that that I like it.

So his greed and his love of money and this person that he is that wears the flashy coat.

I mean, look at that face.

No, but and loves that Bob Ross gets ripped off by his family, and loves that the customers getting screwed in the streaming service wars where no one knows how to find football.

You do know where to find football, and you used to pay for cable.

Now, you just pay for different streaming services, but you get more than football.

I don't want to sit here and defend, but I want you to realize that I understand your confusion where you don't know to find a game.

But tonight's game, the kickoff of the NFL season, Cowboys, Eagles, it's free.

It's NBC.

So I think everyone just needs to

play their roles just a little bit.

I'm saying your general glee that you know that this is going to get worse before it gets better, that the customer is going to get charged more and more and more to find its sports in more and more and more places.

And no, don't take for granted everyone knows where to find football.

There are plenty of people in America still confused on Thursday night that they got to go find Amazon in order to find the game.

Well, again, I understand what you're you're talking about, your demographic, but frankly, your demographic is not interesting to the NFL, its sponsors, or its partners.

You've aged out and the people who need to be in the know, they're in the know.

And they know.

But it's costing too much, David.

And you delight in that.

It's costing the fan.

You delight in these rich people screwing over the fans who didn't ask for any of this.

They were already paying for football in a variety of places.

Are you like, are you upset about dynamic pricing for FIFA's World Cup that's coming to Miami?

Are you that guy who doesn't recognize that, hey, there's people who pay different prices when you fly on a plane or when you stay in a hotel room?

This is the way it's always been.

There are people who can afford to get certain things, pay certain things, and some people who can't.

They can afford it.

David, they could afford it before, and the customer is getting screwed here.

There's no dispute on that.

It's just different customers are getting access to different things who may not have had it before.

And if you had access, you may not have it anymore that again is part of life okay I mean I think the dispute though is like Thursday night games used to be on NFL network which is also a subscription that you needed to have but now the NFL network has bought part of ESPN because they're gonna be doing it over there now too but that doesn't have anything to do with like the Thursday night games you're just switching from NFL network to Amazon and like if you were to go back 15 20 years you basically had three games you could watch the one o'clock game on CBS and the four o'clock game on CBS and then the one o'clock or four o'clock game on Fox.

Now you can watch any game you want, essentially.

You just have to pay for it.

Where before you didn't have the option to pay for it.

Dan, do you even think the Eagles can repeat?

Have you even cared to ask yourself that question?

Do you know what the Eagles are playing tonight?

I do know.

It's a big game.

Do you know who RB1 is for the Cowboys?

You know about that tush-push?

The thing about tonight's game is that it's a glamour franchise that hasn't won in a really long time against the defending champions, who were overwhelmingly the most physical team by position by position in the NFL.

This is good shit, right?

It's not good shit.

I know you want sports here, but now I'm in the corridors of power fighting with the owners over money, and they're screwing the customers.

They really are.

Like this season is starting.

I don't feel screwed.

I'm in an enjoyful.

So you don't think it's getting too expensive for you?

Tonight, Eagles Packers.

It's free.

It's on NBC.

Cowboys.

David, we were trying to trick you.

I like dating in the middle.

Do you have to ruin everything?

Can I ask you a candid question?

Do you have to ruin everything in life?

It's my lot in life.

Can we talk about dude wipes?

No, please follow Billy here.

Why'd you ruin that?

Because Billy and I are having an off-camera problem.

Are we?

No.

Why'd you ruin that?

Because I felt left out.

No, he didn't.

I thought I was the only one to talk about football.

Cleaning your butt now?

Go on.

I just want to talk about more ways to raise money that you can sponsor things like dude wipes.

And we're going to see a tushy pushy tonight.

And I want to know if we're going to see a dude wipe like on the new Jason Kelsey.

Kelsey.

Do you think that'll catch on?

I'm dying to watch.

Do you think that'll catch on tushy pushy?

I got a lot of stuff.

I don't like it.

I don't like it.

A little too close.

Put it on the poll at Levittard Show.

Do you like tushy pushy?

It's a tough one for you.

You be careful.

I've seen a stovetop in your past.

Tushy stovetop.

That's what I'm saying.

It's a tough one, especially if you're going quick.

Okay, so David Sampson.

I never do.

David Sampson felt left out because, if you have not noticed, David Sampson's Nothing Personal podcast, which is flourishing,

is about a lot of things other than football.

He'll do football, but once football season starts, that's not his area of expertise.

I don't know that anyone wants to hear his opinions on football.

He'll try, but he'll feel left out because it's your weakest sport, right?

And nobody can be good at everything, and you are doing stuff on that podcast that nobody's doing.

So football would be your weakness, correct?

Well, because you gave a second hour every day.

So today we had Brady Quinn as our guest to talk.

He's an expert analyst, And so he talked about college.

He talked about tonight's game.

So we do have guests on now twice a week and who will cover areas of expertise that I can't cover.

But do I know who QB1 is of Dallas?

No, but my nothing personal pick of the day, I'm taking the eight and a half points, baby, because for Jerry, tonight is his Super Bowl.

He's got to win post-Micah, and he's got to stop the run with Clark because he said stop the run.

His whole fricking press conference was, hey, we traded Micah Parsons.

We could stop the run.

And of course, he's going against Saquon Barkley.

You know, can he get 2,000 yards again?

Wait to see.

So it's a big game for the Cowboys.

So I took the points.

So you know Kenny Clark on the defensive line, but you don't know QB1?

No, RB1 on the Cowboys is what Mike asked.

I do know QB1.

I do know that you said

QB3.

Don't worry.

It is okay, but nobody wants your football analysis.

It's good, right, Mike?

Nothing personal

is a podcast that covers almost everything else well.

And I'm not even saying you don't cover football well.

It's just that I can tell when you're trying to fake it because you're just trying to talk football so you can feel in the club.

It's the same thing Mark Cuban's doing right now, by the way.

He still wants to be in the rich person's club.

He's still, that's what he's doing.

You think they're kicking him out?

He's still in it, Dan.

Or the basketball club, excuse me.

No, it's a more check.

No, no, no, wait a minute.

This is a big-ass distinction making there.

He still wants to be in the basketball club, and he's not welcome.

No, his team is run by the other side now, and they traded Luca, and he still wants in.

And no, now only your opinion matters, but you're coming after Pablo, and you don't have any facts other than you want to protect your precious basketball club and Pablo.

2014, Dirk Nowitzki, I don't know, Dennis Rodman staying in Mark Cuban's house.

You're snitching now.

No, just

no, I'm just saying, look into it.

Same energy with Mickey.

Find out.

You better do that, Anthony Carter shit.

Okay.

You go down this road, damn, people are going to think you're a mouthpiece for the Miami Heat.

So what are we doing?

Are we doing the interview then?

Yeah, because you guys told me not to.

No, wait a minute.

Now you want me to do it.

I'm already because I was worried that you're coming with kid gloves.

So, no, in five minutes, you want me to ask him about Anthony Carter Hall of Fame week?

I want it only about Anthony Carter now and

considering your whole more Cuban take.

Okay, so we got to protect you from you.

Okay, so how do we do this?

Are we taking the interview then?

Are you challenging me to do a good, hard interview with Mickey Harrison in five minutes?

I mean, as long as we can talk that shit.

Okay.

Okay, so Mickey, selling part of your team to the Saudis.

Go.

Yeah.

That's a good start.

That's that now.

Now we're talking.

Five minutes.

Hall of Fame Week.

That's what you guys want.

Who's this Kushner guy that's in the club now?

Cuban's not in the club.

Kushner is.

Talk to me.

You asked to Andrew Roussini about Trump.

You gotta ask Mickey.

There's no way this interview happens, though.

Five minutes.

No, no, I'm trying to figure out how to do it.

No, no, I want to do it, but that's one question.

You've given me five minutes and one question.

Disguise after the sweep.

And Dan, just stop with the intros.

Go right to it.

Like, don't spend four minutes saying how you're feeling, you know, how you feel being inducted.

Forget it.

Go right into it.

You can do it.

Go back to your journalism days.

Five minutes.

Five minutes is plenty.

Guys, Hall of Fame,

if you ask them these questions, I assure you, you're not going to get five minutes.

Yeah.

Kushner, Jimmy, Rosier,

Saudis.

Saudis, yeah.

Saudis.

House of Saudi.

LeBron.

Vaccines.

Now you're talking.

Well, that, I mean, if you find an in on that one, that's fine.

That one's not exactly related or pressed.

All right, so enough with this.

That is directly talking.

But this is very pressurized.

Now I got to decide this in a half hour.

You guys have put me out there making like this public decision journalistically where I look like a coward either way.

Like this is a no-win position for me right now because you want me to ask a guy who's given five minutes to

three people who are in it.

Do you think that's what Rachel Nichols is going to be asking him about?

Rachel Nichols is the other one?

That's the only other one I know.

There are two people who are allowed five minutes with him, and what I've been offered, we've been offered is another five minutes.

It's some great gift from the sky.

Okay, but hold on one second.

And it's on the phone.

It's not even like we can't get a Zoom.

How do we know it's him?

We can't get video.

There's no video allowed.

It could be a voice modulation thing of Mickey's voice.

I don't even know.

RFK was here a couple minutes ago.

Okay, now you're out.

Oh, look, now I can be.

Look, I'm not a coward.

I didn't avoid asking him any of those questions.

It's just a time thing.

That's not fair.

I'm not out.

Number one, as long as he is not telling you what you cannot ask, I don't care about the time limits.

All right.

Number two, you're not out.

Look at you.

Look at you.

You mean he bought you rings.

You're wearing a 2020 runner-up shirt.

You're just rocking second past.

Oh, you're right, it is 2020.

Yeah, I thought it was 2023, but no, this is 2020.

So many runners.

That bubble was, man, that was some run.

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I want to talk about home security for a minute.

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Don Lebatard.

John, can you rate my Al Pacino from that billiard scene in Carlito's Way if I do it for you?

I think it's pretty good.

Yeah, okay.

Stugats.

You think you're big time?

When you're gonna die!

Big Tom!

That is

on my infamous scale of one to 10.

That's a 7.6

solid.

Good job, Dad.

That's a Sui nominee right there.

Good.

This is the Don Lebatar Show with his two guys.

I think you need to ask Mickey about salary cap circumvention.

Ask whether he's ever participated in that.

Guys, I got five minutes.

It's five minutes.

What happens if you go over five minutes?

You're going to hang up?

Hey, clock just ticking.

Bad look for the Hall of Famer.

Yeah, he's not going to hang up on you.

This is an impossible spot.

So you want the same energy for Mickey Errison.

What do you want to ask him about?

Look man, I I just asked Saslo.

He's a two-time champion broadcaster.

Look, and Samson will appreciate this as well.

Mickey Eriston's the best owner we've ever had down here.

He's going into the Hall of Fame, and he's so shy that he doesn't really want to like make a big deal out of all of it because all he's wanted to do is win the championships.

This is a great honor, but it's not what this dude is about.

Like he doesn't want to...

You think he wants to be making a speech in front of people?

You think he wants to be making a speech?

I don't.

I think he wants to be making a Hall of Fame speech in front of people.

I don't.

Yeah.

Why is he there then?

Yeah,

he didn't say no thanks.

Okay, I can ask that question.

I'm gonna ask him if he's seen Superman.

Yeah, that's a good question.

Good question.

All right, so I have five minutes with him, and so we got to make use of the five minutes if I accept them because you guys want me to ask him about the salary cap and circumvention and the Saudis.

I mean, that's not, that's not five minutes.

Ask him if he's okay because he's very clearly being dragged to this Hall of Fame ceremony against his will, being forced to talk to people.

It's a tough weekend for you.

Everyone's honoring you.

You know, billionaires,

they just get told they have to talk to people and they just do it.

I bet he has to.

The way this ends is with Dan not getting one question in in five minutes.

Not one.

Because he'll hamming on, talk about how difficult it is to deal with five minutes.

And then it'll pass.

No, I accept your challenge, and I will do the five minutes.

I will absolutely do the five minutes.

But what I'm telling you in the audience is it can't be any good that way.

Like, if a person doesn't want to be interviewed and is only going to be interviewed for five minutes, and I'm throwing salary cap circumvention and Saudis at him in those five minutes, like he has no way.

He has no, way.

Somebody who's hidden for 30 years in front of us.

What's he hiding from?

And Kushner.

I think that's the first question.

Hey, you never do these interviews.

What are you hiding from?

And then you throw in the Saudis.

Boom.

You played yourself, Dan.

Everybody else in the media is asking if the Eagles can repeat.

Football is back, Jack.

You could have said, no, I'm not taking Mickey because today is a national holiday.

Mickey, Super Bowl prediction.

So here's what we've got going on around Pablo Torrey, and I wanted to ask David Sampson about this because Chris Mannix has talked to a series of NBA executives.

This story is going to continue to grow.

I know football is going to continue to overwhelm all in its path, but one Eastern conference executive says, quote, this is a huge deal.

A Western Conference general manager says bad for them, very bad.

The NBA will be pissed about this.

If it's true, the punishment will be worse than what happened in Minnesota with Joe Smith.

NBA officials are furious about these allegations, according to a source with the league office telling SI, if this is what it looks like, I think Adam has to make an example of them.

I I don't think this is going to be a small deal, but Mark Cuban, as is his want, in protection of these people that he cares about, the owners, and a sport he cares about, because I imagine Mark Cuban right now is sort of frustrated.

All the money in the world, I understand.

But he loved that thing in a way he didn't love anything else.

It was his identity, and he could be Shark Tank and everything else, but they trade Luca, and he doesn't have any control over that.

Like, whatever his dreams were to own the toy that was the Dallas Mavericks, he exceeded them, but now he's old and basketball hasn't left him behind.

But the Dallas Mavericks and his identity make it so that he's the first one out on behalf of the owners to question seven months of investigation by Pablo Torrey and begins with, if you'd taken the time, these rich people are burying media because they've got all the money in the world and Pablo took seven months of time to establish what Mark Cuban says he couldn't establish that Ballmer didn't know.

David Sampson, you're an expert in this field.

How could Ballmer possibly not know that $28 million was going to circumvent the cap so that they could get Kawhi Lennon?

Allegedly.

So a couple of things.

When we were sitting in that room with Pablo, Amin Elhassen, and myself, when we did the show, Pablo didn't tell us what the show was, didn't tell us what was going on.

There were documents, and all of a sudden, live, we are looking at these documents, and it's all there.

And Mark Cuban may or may not have watched the episode.

Certainly judging by his tweet, he had not.

He had only watched the four-minute clip on Twitter along with the other 25 million people.

But Steve Ballmer gave money, invested money in this company aspiration.

It's right there.

It is a publicly filed document right there.

And then the company did a deal with Kawhi Leonard for $28 million.

Can you imagine Kawhi Leonard getting 28 million to endorse anything, anything, but a company that already was giving money to Leonardo DiCaprio and Drake and Orlando Bloom and Cindy Crawford and Kaya Gerber, on and on and on.

Robert Downey Jr.

for crying out loud did a commercial and all of them made a tiny percentage of Kawhi Leonard?

Do you think that the heads of aspiration said, hey, we've got an investor in our company who owns the Clippers?

Should we ask him whether Kawhi Leonard would be a good pitch person to plant a freaking tree?

Ah, nah, let's not bother asking him.

Give me a break.

Of course, Steve Ballmer knew.

It's absurd to think that he would not have known.

We had players who did deals with sponsors of our team for like a few shekels, like the corner grocery store in Hialeah or

a car dealer local.

Yeah, you get 25 grand in a car, big whoop.

Yeah, but you don't have a salary cap.

You don't have a salary cap, though.

But I'm saying that even we would know about the little stuff.

If one of our players were doing a $28 million deal with a company that we had an investment in,

it belies all credit.

All right, so David, help me with this part, which is within your expertise, which is why you're a part of the episode with Pablo Torrey.

These things have to be heavily lawyered.

You have to be able to prove these things.

The money will bury you, and it is dangerous to do what.

what Pablo is doing because the money does not like when this is done to them.

Steve Ballmer is the sixth richest man in the world, wants to win with a Laughing Stock franchise.

And according to what seems to be proof, what looks like proof, allegedly, he's got a deal that has a whole bunch of fraud in it.

And while Kawhi Leonard did have a new balance deal, you can tell me what he's actually gotten in endorsement, $28 million.

And to be so sloppy about it that he doesn't even send out a tweet of him planting a tree or have somebody go out and just hashtag aspiration, just a social media account, pay 10 tweets something

that that suggests you're earning that money take us through David as quickly as you can with as much expertise as you can what Mark Cuban did yesterday because he he doesn't have facts if he thinks Pablo store Pablo Torrey doesn't have this story pinned down well he got as confused as you got so I just want to be clear that this story is not about Steve Ballmer committing or being accused of any fraud the fraud was committed by the people who started aspiration and one of the co-founders was pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud and bilking investors out of money.

That's not what we're talking about with Steve Ballmer.

The simple conversation around Steve Ballmer revolves around salary cap circumvention.

Not a crime, a violation of the NBA rules, but not a crime.

So make sure you're very clear about that.

Number two.

Thank you.

I appreciate the correction.

No, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic.

No, no, no, no, I do.

No, no, but David, again, this stuff is dangerous.

When you bring this stuff to power, the sixth richest man in the world knows how to extinguish this unless the other owners tell Adam Silver, hey, you can't do that.

But if they're all doing it, and if they send Mark Cuban out to protect that they're all doing some form of that, do you know how hard these things are to prove?

Nobody's going to be able to prove anything ever on Steve Ballmer.

Like, but, but it doesn't.

There's an investigation, Dan.

The NBA said we have to investigate this.

We have to figure out what happened because this doesn't smell right.

What doesn't smell right is a $28 million deal, which we have a copy of.

Pablo got a copy of the actual endorsement contract that I went through page by page on the show.

And there are provisions in that contract that don't pass the smell test under any scenario,

and most with Kawhi Leonard getting 28 million from that company.

But what the NBA has has to figure out is, does Steve Ballmer get made an example of, or do they bury Kevin McHale the way they did when Glenn Taylor got suspended, but Kevin McHale got in the real trouble?

You know, $3.5 million fine, big whoop.

Joe Smith contract terminated, big whoop.

This is a far bigger deal.

There's way more money at stake, and Steve Ballmer is way more powerful.

In terms of Mark Cuban, he is an ancillary part of this story because he got involved on Twitter with Pablo where he was saying, Pablo, how could you not have investigated the scammers?

Why are you not focusing on the fact that Balmer got scammed?

Well, Mark, that was the first 30 minutes of the episode.

It was all about these Democrats.

And it shouldn't have been because you guys spent 15 minutes not getting to the point.

Like, they spent 15 minutes before they told us what they were talking about because they were talking about that stuff.

But even if it wasn't, like, who gives a shit?

Why is it Pablo's responsibility to check in to see Balmer getting scammed like pablo's coming at it from a sports perspective which is the nba side of it like who cares about bomber getting scammed and that's where mark cuban got confused and he talked about the fact that if you don't you have to investigate the scammers scammers can get scammed and just like scammers can scam but that's not the point of the episode at all and pablo was very clear about the difference that you just conflated and i understand why because it's complicated but the fraud is what aspiration did to investors bomber was an investor but Balmer put money in that then went out the door.

Why was money going out the door to Kawhi Leonard when other bills weren't being paid?

Why was Kawhi Leonard getting 7 million a year to do nothing?

Why is it a coincidence around the signing of Kawhi Leonard?

There's got to be something here.

NBA, go investigate.

And so they are going to investigate.

What Mark Cuban said is, I'm totally irrelevant.

I'm not a governor or alternate governor.

I have nothing to do do with the mavericks so therefore let me go and say that i'm team balmer that's how he started i got 20 minutes of nothing personal this morning because he said i'm team balmer it's totally absurd second only to the clippers statement where they said we had no oversight over the contract with kawaii leonard and aspiration of course you didn't because you're not on the contract but that's not the issue did you have influence over it steve that's what adam silver is going to ask for perspective his deal with New Balance, Kawhi Leonards, was multi-years, 5 mil a year.

So there's a chance that he was being paid more by aspiration than he was by New Balance.

Think about that for a second.

When you lose sight of the dollars, think about what Tony just said for a second.

New Balance, which forced Kawhi to do commercials he did not want to do, paid him $5 million a year.

This no-show job paid him $7 million a year.

Think about that one for a second.

What offended me about the Cuban tweet is that he said it's sad that Pablo Torrey didn't take the time to find out how these scammers pulled off their scam.

Well, A, it's in the episode and B, Pablo took seven months of painstaking investigative journalism.

And I don't want to downplay that.

This was not a story when there were lawyers, Dan, while it was being recorded to make sure that everything was very clear what I was looking at and what then I would say in response to what I was looking at.

And so this is a serious, serious show show that Pablo did.

And Mark just saying, oh, you know, you seems like you've shot it out of the, you know, side of your pants.

I did not appreciate that.

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Dan Lebatard.

Tetas.

Stugats.

Tetas.

This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

When he says at the end there that it's going to come back to backfire on Pablo, like a threat?

What does that mean?

It sounds like someone trying to stay relevant who knows that he has no more seat at the table.

You know, the question is, did he call, did Steve Balmer call Mark and say, man, we got to do a statement.

We got a real problem.

Marky, Mark, what do I do?

I'll bet you a dollar that called

it.

Mark Cuban is pretty relevant, David.

Mark Cuban is pretty relevant.

Mark Cuban, seeing an awful announcing clip, David Sampson says, I'm trying to stay relevant.

I mean, all he has to do is go at the sitting president like he often does, and he remains in the national conversation.

conversation.

He's not outside of this basketball club the way that Dan is positioning it.

He is still the person most associated with that franchise.

And that'll be that way probably unless they get a player more famous than Luca.

But, Mike, that's the optics of it, though, man.

You are not allowing for these people who have these giant amounts of money to have blind spots about where their personality gets distorted.

Mark Cuban, having power over that club, made it at one time that he was running on the court and getting more fines than anyone because he kept going after officiating and thought he lost a title in Miami because the refs cheated for Dwayne Wade.

And that's no, but I'm saying Mark Cuban cares about this like he's never cared about anything.

And now he no longer owns the team and was reminded when they traded Luca on him.

So David can tell you with expertise what it's like to be in the club or outside the club.

David's outside the club right now and it hurts.

Yeah, and David had an owner that chose to be outside the club.

This is a decision that Mark Cuban made and he's got enough wealth to say like, oh, I can just buy another team.

Now, I know that's been tricky in previous years for Mark Cuban.

Sometimes baseball didn't want him in there, but Mark Cuban has enough money that he didn't have to sell and he can get another team.

Mike, do you understand?

Like, you just glossed over.

I know it can be tricky.

Baseball said no to Mark Cuban.

How much no do you think Mark Cuban's been getting?

Hey, you want my money?

Right.

And David Sampson and Jeffrey Laurie have sold the team way overvalued.

They're different.

If Mark Cuban comes back to the table, they're different clubs.

Why do you think the rich guys all want to own the sports teams?

They're different clubs.

David has said routinely that they want the franchise values going up.

Mark Cuban, I am positive, Mark Cuban hurts in a way that he didn't expect when Luca gets traded.

Just hurts in a way that you'd assume he couldn't be hurt.

And I'm telling you, David, who's a robot, David, you could speak to the human parts of when you get kicked out of the club.

I'll tell you right now, after 18 years, my adjustment to not being in the club, it was tough.

And it's only, it's been eight years, but it still comes up where I think about relevancy and I think about I'm not in the room where it happens anymore.

And believe me, Mark Cuban thinks that way Adam Silver did not pick up the phone to call Mark to say what are you tweeting for Mark Cuban can't get fined by Adam Silver if he tried and that is a true fact Mike now of course he's still rich you may say he's still important but there's a different feeling when you're in that room when you're in the room which I was in where you say out loud we will not vote for Mark Cuban to buy a baseball team you feel important.

Of course it's not real, but man, it feels real.

And then when it's gone, it's emotionally devastating.

You feel like you've lost not just your identity, but your value to yourself, to your family, to

people around on the street.

I mean, God damn, when I'm recognized for being the first voted out on survivor, you think that's what I want?

I wanted to be the president of a team or the owner of a team.

That's identity.

And Mark Cuban doesn't have it.

He prayed.

He's like, I'm still the head of basketball operations.

No, you're not.

You're nothing.

You sold the team.

It's done.

Ouch.

Did you, you guys voted against Mark Cuban?

Did you just

come to a vote?

He couldn't get 23 votes.

Mike, you say that he couldn't get a baseball team.

I'll tell you exactly what happened.

He wanted to buy a baseball team and was told, you will not get approved.

It is not going to happen.

You do not have the votes because you are the way you are in the room and you cannot be controlled.

And we don't want any part of that.

How would you have voted?

You guys voted no?

There was no vote.

Would you have voted no?

I would have voted with the commissioners.

Yes, I I would have voted no.

So if Mark Cuban offers Major League Baseball and the Miami Marlins $3 billion for that franchise today,

he's not going to be allowed?

He would not get the 23 votes.

Oh, my God.

All right.

And by the way, if anyone offered Bruce Sherman $3 billion, that team would be sold faster than Mickey Erison's interview.

But that's what he just said.

That's what I just said.

Thank you for that.

But not to Mark Cuban.

Okay, I don't agree with you.

Wait a minute.

You're saying you can't be serious.

It was a different time when Mark Cuban tried to buy the, what is it, the Chicago Cups Oh, the Pirates.

It's a different time back then.

Now, it's all about getting these values up because the jig is up.

They're on to the Miami Marlins.

We know that these things are overvalued.

So if someone comes around with $3 billion for that franchise and it just so happens to be Mark Cuban, I think it's a different day and age.

And you're not in the room where it happens to tell me opposite these days.

So

your last point is your best one, and that the room is different now.

And there's a chance that there's 23 votes that he can get these days.

And there's a chance that Rob Manford would be less vocal than Bud Selig was.

So all of those things are true.

But again, why would I operate in fantasy when I was in the reality?

Fantasy is offering $3 billion for the Marlins.

Reality is the fact that Cuban couldn't get the votes and then sent the tweet that he sent yesterday about PTFO.

David, can you put to rest a rumor that's been going around this office regarding that Pablo episode that you were in?

There's people saying that those papers that were on Pablo's desk were fake, that there was just copy paper that was taken directly out of the packaging and stacked in front of Pablo.

There's nothing on anything, on any of those papers except the top ones that have stuff printed on them, but the rest is just reams of paper that were unboxed and placed in front of him.

So I had my issues with that, but I had my own pile in front of me, and I was only allowed to look at my pile.

And Pablo said that that's 3,687 pieces of paper.

And I said, we're going to be here more than two and a half hours.

I'm not doing that.

So I didn't look in those piles because I was too busy with my pile and my pile was as real as the day is long.

David, we're going to let you go right now, but from that episode, one of the things that I saw, and I want to get video on this, the size difference between you and Pablo was bigger

than the size difference between Billy and Derrick Henry.

It is the greatest of the Pablo Torrey is not large in any way.

He is a,

I wouldn't call him diminutive, but he's 5'10, 5'9?

Uh, he was not 5'10.

What is he?

How tall is he?

He's, I would say he's no more than four inches taller than I am.

I'm gonna go with 5'9.

Yeah, he's 6'9.

69 inches.

Nice.

So

this camera.

I was forced into that chair.

Number one, forced into the chair.

Number two, I wanted to adjust the chair before taping and was told, no, no, the camera angles require the chair to be where it is.

And I said, this is outrageous, but then I forgot about it once I got my pause on what the hell the show is about.

Then the show comes out and I got plenty of calls, maybe including for my representative, wondering why it is that I look like Mishu.

At least no one saw it, David.

Your most viewed episode ever in the history of anything you've been involved in in media, and you look like somebody who is two feet tall, that you are 43 pounds.

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Hey, Billy Gill.

Hey.

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