Local Hour: Tony Calls Dan "Dad" (feat. Tom Bogert)

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I believe that we brought someone in because Mike Ryan needs to talk about a most historic finals match being played in soccer. I'm not enough for him.

And, well, Tony's not enough, Roy's not enough, Chris isn't enough, I'm not enough, Jeremy's not enough, and Zaz isn't enough. What are we talking about again?

You called it the finals, it's just a final, there's no S.

Like hockey in terms of singular game. How many are there?

How many are there that are just called a? Okay, I guess that's what it is. Singular final.
When it's one game, it's a final, and when it's more than one game, it's plural. No, not in the final.

It's weird.

I understand It's confusing.

Battle court, though, that's a final.

We'll get to that in a second. Who smokes? No one's answered my question on who the hell that is.
That's Tom Bogart. In the right-hand corner of the screen, welcome, Tom from the Athletic.
Yeah, yeah.

And the Lazzo Network. He is.
Hell of a mustache.

He's got a hell of a mustache. That is his number one accolade.
But his number two is he's the premier soccer insider in the United States. One of them.
Behind me. It's me, Tom.

Well, it's good then. We're going to have some people to talk soccer with on

an important

soccer day. They're going to be drawing ping pong balls today for 90 minutes of wild entertainment.
What do you, Tony, what are you making of this?

Pulling ping pong balls. I can see that on Twitter.
So let me know who's on. Oh, Netherlands are here.
Okay, cool. It is

pretty absurd that we were talking about it before. I think this might be the third largest global audience for any sporting event, and it's the World Cup draw.

No games being played, just a lot of pomp and a whole lot of circumstance. Well, that's stupid.
It is not stupid. What is your favorite pomp and what is your favorite circumstance?

Oh, today there's plenty of pomp. A lot of legends.
Eli Manning is hosting a red carpet dance. Of course.
You got draw assistants. You got the goats of the game.
You got Shaq. You got Wayne Gretzky.

You got Tom Brady and represent baseball Aaron Judge. But Jordan wasn't available.
Okay, but he's too busy doing those interviews from months ago with Mike Tarik.

Are they still airing the same one, by the the way?

Have they done a fresh one yet? Are they still airing the Michael Jordan one from a couple of months ago? Do you think Shaq knows he wasn't the first choice?

No.

I think that Shaq probably assumes in all instances that he's always the first choice. Aaron Judge is the only active athlete out of that four, and they represent the big four sports in this.

It should have been Jeter, right? It should have been Jeter.

Maybe he said, no, Judge, you also weren't the first choice.

That's a close one. Was A-Rod busy? Better.

I mean, it's on Fox.

Right?

What else are the highlights that involve the pomp and involve the circumstance? Finally, Donald Trump is going to get a peace award, correct? We're just not going to let Tom talk on any of this.

Tom, you want to talk about Trump's Peace Award? Not particularly.

This is the Don Labatar Show with the Stu Gats Podcast.

A lot of fun sports stuff going on this weekend, beginning today, really. I was going to say at noon, but a little after that with Battle Court and the Cyclones.

Hold on, we'll get to that in a second. We've got a lot going on this weekend.
We've got four football games that people are going to be interested in.

Colts, Jags, Bears, Packers, Texans, Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens.

We have Inner Miami playing for the championship. We've got the World Cup draw.
We've got Jeremy Tashay. What are you doing on the heat broadcast? Is this some sort of promotion, Jeremy?

Is someone out sick? What's happening here? I mean, I'm assigned. Yeah, Jeremy, what are you doing on the broadcast? I'm a courtside reporter.
Is somebody out sick? They called you.

I do that.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I wasn't familiar with your game.
My bad.

The Cyclones are playing a matinee, a matinee today. Yeah.
Closed to the public. Although I saw Tony invited earlier today, and Tony declined the invitation.
I didn't decline, Dan.

I got my battle court shirt on right now. I'm very excited, very ready.
Yeah, you did decline. We asked you, hey, would you want to come? And you're like, I got a thing.
What time's it at? 2:30 p.m.

Eastern.

We got the like Texans, Bengals, Saturday 4:30 window.

Which is an insult because we're playing the Warriors. We're the top seed.
And as you know, Dan, this is Battle Court's oldest rivalry. I don't understand how the playoffs work in your sport, Chris.

Can you help me understand how the playoffs work? You know what? The players are here to explain it to you. Take it away, fellas.

The top four teams will meet a face-off to secure a spot in the championship.

The top-seeded team will face the fourth-seeded team.

The second-seeded team will face off with the third-seeded team.

All matches are doubles for the playoffs.

In guess of a tie, guys, seed teams get to pick a double speed to go to a tie break.

Where it's a single set, where the first of six advances to the championship. Who are you hoping to see win the playoff? Let's go!

The Cyclones.

The Davids. Tiger.

The Fireballs.

The Warriors. Bogo.

Oh, goosebumps. The Fireballs had more energy than the Cyclones.
I think we saw that together. We're conserving our energy.
We have the 2.30 match. How are you guys feeling about things?

And we'll get to Tom Bogart in a second, Jeremy's brother, because he has some legitimate soccer expertise to give us on what is a big, a giant soccer day.

But you guys have been good owners of the Cyclones, and you haven't been this relevant in a while. You haven't been this competitive in a little bit.
So, we've actually been bad owners.

We won the first title. Owners, once they added teams to the league, this is our first appearance in the playoffs since they expanded to six teams.
Now, we're loyal. We have had Manu as our stalwart.

He is the best backquarter in the world, and we've had a lot of bad luck over the last few seasons, right? But now we are the top seed. Yeah, we are favored.

The playoffs are doubles, and he's great at doubles, and you guys are great at doubles. Yeah, yeah.
So, Lord Willing will punch our ticket to the battle court final. I don't think the Lord cares.

That's where you use Lord Willing. Hopefully, yeah.

I've said two prayers in the last six months: they're for the Catholics to be sent to hell and for the Cyclones to win battle. Match three has me nervous, there.
I'll say it.

I forgot

to tell you when we talk about heaven and hell and God,

that the Nicholas Cage movie in which he plays Jesus' dad, it's a horror movie. I forgot to tell you guys.
His name is Joseph.

Damn.

Did it again.

My bad, I'm thinking about the pots earlier. Cut it up.

Okay, Tom, I'm happy to have you here and your expertise because for those of you who do not know, he is America's preeminent soccer authority.

And

in print? In print,

I don't think I could do that. I don't even call my dad dad.
Wow, that's like, what are we doing?

Let's talk about that. You confuse me with dad, the dad thing, Jersey.
So, what's happening?

Well, because not only did we rattle you, not only did we rattle you, for some reason, the way that you decided to fix it was to say, I'm still rattled from pod talk in the meeting, which is basically something that only us know about

grouper pod.

You know what? I've got to say. It's Gino Flenge's fault.
I'm going to say that. I agree with that.
I'm going to say it all.

Gino threw the minor penalty at two minutes, murdering the show with their bare hands and a dismemberment kit in cold blood.

Out.

If I can say Geno was the one that threw the groups in the paddle.

Listen to your dad.

Tom.

When I tell you that Inter Miami is playing Vancouver for the championship, we were talking about this earlier in the week.

The idea, I didn't think any of this could happen quietly, that Messi could be here, that he could play this way, and that Inter Miami could be playing for a championship that I don't think Miami's exactly going to celebrate with a parade if they do win it this weekend.

But can you put into context before we talk about the World Cup draw today, what it means that Messi has come here and done this, and how mismanaged has the selling of it been that it's happening somewhat quietly, that this is not a national or international story.

When he has grown the sport, he's done everything that's been asked of him, but yet it's happening pretty quietly.

Yeah, in the soccer world, I wouldn't call it too quietly, but definitely in the mainstream kind of American sports, part of that is that it's behind a paywall, and part of that is they haven't really promoted it that well.

But on the field, it's been awesome. He scored or assisted each one of the team's first 12 playoff goals.

Each one.

He had, I believe, 22 goals or assists in like a seven-game span. It is unbelievable.

And I wish that we were talking about it more and talking more about the onfield stuff than, hey, why is nobody caring?

I know that in sports in general, whether it's Tom Brady or LeBron James or Serena Williams or Diana Taurasi, that athletes now can play into their 40s.

But can you give me some historical context for Messi still being this good at this age?

Because I really thought that they'd be getting a faded star, not somebody who would be, you know, either scoring or assisting their first 12 playoff goals. Yeah, he's just an alien.

There isn't real precedence for what he's doing.

Obviously, MLS is a lesser lesser league than La Liga or Spain or England or France or whatever, but he's still doing this with the Argentine national team.

He is still viewed as one of the very best players in the world. At his age, obviously pace and agility and like the physical attributes matter, but it's his brain, it's his technique.

While his left foot is the best of all time, I think his best ability is his intelligence of movement and his way to like camouflage himself within the action because there is nobody that you should be paying attention to more if you're a defender.

And he constantly finds ways to just hide and then sprint and it's a tap in. And people are like, oh, why aren't you marking Messi? He's just so smart.
And I think that's his best quality.

How and why is it that he is non-committal still about the World Cup? What is the logic in that if he's playing this well, clearly he's going to play in the World Cup, right?

It's jarring to me.

It's weird that he keeps saying, I don't know if I'm going to play at the World Cup when at first it was, I just want to wear the crest one more time with the gold logo after winning the World Cup.

And then he continues to play. He continues to be really, really great.
And he still says things like, I don't know if, obviously, he's playing at the World Cup.

Is he doing what the committee's doing with Notre Dame, Miami, just like keeping us interested?

If he said yes a year ago, then we're not asking. Well, there'll be some big announcement.
Obviously, it will be a big announcement when he makes it, even if it's anti-climate.

Or maybe does he like the idea that my last World Cup game, we finally won the World Cup?

Then he wouldn't be continuing to play in friendlies. They just got back from like Africa.

They played Angola for no reason other than money, and he's playing in that game. We'll get to the World Cup draw in a second, but I think that Zaszlo at ESPN is now challenging Stephen A.

Smith for hardest working man in show business. I heard his recycled Chris Paul takes on the radio last night with Amber.
He was doing the same Chris Paul takes he did in the morning.

Whole different audience, Dan.

You want him to have a new take? The exact opposite take? No, I just wanted him to have different points.

It doesn't have to be a different take. Amber hadn't heard me say it yet.
We're doing a show.

Amber listens and watches our show. She had heard you say it.

But also, was Mario Cristobal on with you last night? Hell yeah. So that's a third show.

That's a third show. You're looking for like 13th.
Okay. He's been on Cody.
He's been on Kane's Insight. He's been on Zaz.
Hell yeah, coach.

Yes, he has made the rounds. It seems clear that he does not like me or Jeremy Tashet.
It's because he's afraid of me, right?

He's afraid of my logical arguments?

I call them logical. And strength.

I think he might be not wanting to be around general hijinks on our show,

but it could just be that he dislikes you. What did Mario Cristobal have to say on Zaszlo show Twitter?

Yeah, well, I mean, I asked him here, I wanted to know if the way he feels right now, if it's similar at all to last year, because last year at this time, 10-win team on the bubble of the college football playoff.

And yeah, here he was.

This is the second year in a row. You're a 10-win team.
You're on the bubble. Last year you guys got left out.

The way you feel now, is it similar to the way you felt last year or is this year different? Oh, it's completely different.

You know, I guess the best way to explain that, I felt last year, you know, we lost that last game to Syracuse and we were prior battling, I think it was a 9-3 team. So we had a really good offense.

We did not have a very good defense.

And we did not not play our best football at the end. In fact, we were playing poor defense.
I felt like it was debatable.

Like there was definitely some arguments in our favor and some that I couldn't make. I couldn't say we have a complete team and we're playing our, I couldn't say that.

To me, that was all right, their best points, which are really good versus ours, because we have some holes in ours. It's a debate.

This year,

it's not. This is about facts being presented.
And

I just think that we have the best case scenario. You have a head-to-head, same record, and common opponents, and statistical data showing that we are playing our absolute best football right now.

Whose computer was that? No, that was his computer. That's embarrassing, Zaz.
Zaz. You were on ESPN with that? You could at least cut that out of the clip.
That was his computer.

What can I do about that?

I just cut it out of the clip. I mean, the clip was a minute, 15 seconds long.
It could have been a minute, 14 and a half seconds.

Like, why would you not just cut that out of the clip when you put it in our absolute best football

could have stopped it at absolute best that is a flanagan's cup

in the background uh what are our thoughts on marcus freeman are we seeing him look a little mopier these days does he physically look a little

bit still hot as hell but mopier because he realized what's this what's coming this way if you read his body language and the players too you could say that notre dame is taking their cues from their head coach and they're handling this with class which which they are but here's why they're handling it with class it's because they're football guys and i can guarantee you mario crisobal may be out there doing like some some media stuff uh zaz i went over the air that's a fine uh i i mario crisobal would be doing some media stuff

but it would all be about oklahoma and alabama i'm embarrassed all right he's got to go

He's got to go, Dad. He's got to go.
Take him out of here, Dad. It's a mistake.

We got to wrap. 22 minutes.
Delay a show. Embarrassed.

Incredibly distracting. Here we go.

Don't say that to me.

What I'm trying to say is, Mario Cristobal may be out there like arguing, common opponent with Alabama. We beat FSU.
Might be arguing, look at all the metrics. We're much better than Oklahoma.

As bad as our defense was last year, that's as bad as their offense was.

But if he lost to Notre Dame, was sitting at the same record, I guarantee you with every fiber of my being, Mario Christobal would not be out there publicly saying that Miami deserves to be in there ahead of Notre Dame.

And I can guarantee you the same for myself. I would not be doing that.
I would turn my attention to that lackluster pot of SEC teams that I think is wildly overrated. But Notre Dame has,

you would think that they've benefited from this CFP discourse. It's actually done them wrong because they're going to wake up Sunday morning toe-to-toe with Miami.
Something that they do not want.

They're the chicken shit heel, Hollywood Hogan in the ring, throwing NWO members at Goldberg.

They do not want to be side by side next to Miami because they know in competitive sports, the ultimate tiebreaker is head-to-head.

And the CFP has done them a disservice because the real debate is Notre Dame, Alabama. The real debate is Notre Dame, Oklahoma.

And they haven't had the opportunity to even have that debate, nor are they prepared to have that debate because the entire discourse has been about Miami, Notre Dame.

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Don Lebatard. I feel like we need to normalize saying the scientific terms for organs on the air.
Like if someone, yes, you know what?

If someone takes a foul ball to the penis, we should just say he took a foul ball to the penis. Say it.
Stugats. That free kick hit him right in the cock-a-doodle-doo.

This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

I am being told two things by the producers of this show. One is that Thing with Zaslow did not go out over the air.
It was just for you and Chris Kogan.

So you need to leave now. Minor penalty, two minutes.
It's only a show.

So it was not something that everyone heard in the audience We all heard it. It was distracting to all of us, but the audience missed it.
He was trying to speak to Jeremy and he did an all call.

Okay,

that's on the line. Well, we'll need Judge Zaz to rule it out.
All right, that means you get out, though. The other thing that the producers are pointing out to me, that's right, the delay.

I just saw him made a great point for 30 seconds making great points. Nobody listened to me.
Nobody. Everybody was talking for the entire 30 seconds that I was talking.
Coming up.

You didn't include BYU. Hey, you shut up.

I have to listen to him. You know what? Jack shit.
Out.

Delay of show. Please respect the call.

The other reason that I wasn't listening to you while you were talking is because the producers were also telling me the entire time, hey, the new guy looks like Nacho Libre.

Like they are, they're all pointing out that he looks like Nacho Libre. And so that's why I couldn't hear what it is you were saying.

So, Nacho, please tell me what it is that it means both worldwide and

in America, the draw that we're about to watch today as the World Cup comes to

the United States. And I'm going to really enjoy ramping up World Cup coverage as we get closer and closer to the world's biggest sporting event.
Yeah, today's a big day. You find out the groups.

We'll learn who the United States are paired against. They are in pot A, which means they will not draw.
Told you. They will not draw Argentina, France, the best teams in the world.

You get one team per pot, and we'll find out the other three opponents for the United States, and obviously everybody else, except kind of there are still playoffs going on.

So the pot for it, what is air quote, the worst. You could get Italy if they do qualify through UEFA's playoffs.
So it's going to be a big day. We'll know where the games are.

We'll know what times, all that stuff, except for, again, the playoffs. Do you enjoy today? No, you don't.
Not a little bit. Not even a little bit.

The pomp and circumstance with FIFA. I hate it.

They invented a Peace Prize award to give to Donald Trump, and I think today is going to take, I don't know, nine hours.

So you hate that, but the world loves it, right? When you talk about, Mike was saying it's the third,

when he was saying it was the third, most, it's going to be the third most viewed sporting event thing that there is, Cowboys.

Cowboys Chiefs Thanksgiving did 52 million. It's not going to do that, right? Oh, it's going to do well more than that.
Well, maybe. Globally.
Well more than that.

So you're saying third largest viewing, putting it behind what in terms of what the numbers are when you put it at third? I think you might touch a billy on this global audience.

You get out of here. I just served a penalty for some bullshit.
You get out of here. How about you push through when someone's destroying? I did.
I thought you could be a little bit professional.

Don't talk to me how to be a pro. I'm just saying.
Start being a pro. Just push through, man.
Start being a pro. Keep the show moving.
Zaszlo was a pro yesterday on our show.

He was a pro on ESPN Radio. He was a pro on his show.
Zaszlo is working very hard these days, giving his opinion everywhere. What else did Mario Cristobal have to say to you?

Because I wish you'd been in here when Mike was making the point that Mario Cristobal, he guaranteed it with every fiber of his being.

Not some of the fibers, not a percentage of the fibers, all of the fibers in his entire being.

He guaranteed that Mario Cristobal would not be out here making the rounds like this if he had lost to Notre Dame. I thought that was, I think Mike's right because Cristobal said the exact same thing.

thing to me and I thought that that was super interesting and I thought it was classy and because I said to him him, I don't remember you campaigning like this last year.

And then he specifically told me, that's because I was raised the right way. He knows he has a good hand.
And I think people are going to be shocked.

tomorrow when they tune in on Saturday morning and they realize this discourse that has been kicked down the road is going to totally flip on Notre Dame. You're going to have Nick Sabin.

You're going to have Greg McElroy. You're going to have Kirk Herbstreet.
You're going to have pretty much everybody unified in acknowledging the most obvious thing.

It's not a hot take. If you lost a game to a team with the same record, the team you lost to is ahead of you.
And they are all going to come out in

uniform. Wow.
In consensus. And they are all going to be arguing for Miami ahead of Notre Dame.
You meant unison, right? Because now you've got them in uniform. It works well, but I have them in

Catholic.

You know, my relationship with today's show, not great. Everybody's being a real asshole except for Tom.

Wait a minute.

And Roy. Thank you.
I was listening to what you were talking about in Miami. You're fine.
Thank you.

So just me then. Tom.
Yeah. Can you

explain, Tom,

what you expect to happen in

Inter-Miami? No, no, no. I want to talk.
Predict the ping-pong, Dad. No, no, no.

Who are we trying to avoid in this? What's beat? I want to talk about inner. We've got

a final on Saturday for a championship in Miami.

And while I might not have the interest of the room, room, the entirety of the room, every fiber of the being of the room, I do know that there are a lot of South Floridians.

They might not be Americans. They might not be here, born in this country,

but... No one's going to actually watch this final in terms of like common sports fan, right? Maybe some casuals go find this game on Network Fox.

But if Inner Miami win this game, There is going to be a parade. There will be.
And maybe some of you might be, peshaw, parade? Why? Where is this parade going to be? By Chase Stadium?

By the old boomers location? It would be the biggest parade in the history of South Florida sports.

I am curious as to what is going to happen on Monday if Inter Miami wins on Saturday.

But what I was asking Tom, not just for prediction, because I don't know who he favors or why, but is it good for the sport if Messi and Inter Miami win?

Is it better for the sport if Messi and Inter Miami win?

It's good that they're in this game and that I'm on the show talking about this game for Miami and Messi to get to the final. Whether they win or lose, I think this is still a huge moment for MLS.

This is going to be the last day of Messi 1.0 in Miami. Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets are retiring, maybe probably Luis Suarez, and then 2.0 starts after this.

So it's either are they defending a title or are they still trying to get back over that hump? So either way, I think it works for the sport. It's bigger than if Vancouver wins, Dan.

For America.

For the sport, is what I was asking. I wasn't asking about

Vancouver. I wasn't asking about America.

Let's ask Don Garber.

What's bigger for you? Messi winning a championship or Vancouver? Or the white caps? What are the betting odds? Do we know who's favored? Miami Heavily.

So, okay, so Miami, it would be

a pretty large disappointment and large upset if Vancouver ends up beating Intermiam. Do you think the parade, if they do win, would come close to what Greg Cody did in his famous parade with us?

I think you're going to get people coming from

out of everywhere in South Florida just to catch a glimpse of Messi. Do you think it'll start or end at the Wendy's on commercial?

There is start. There's the thing, though.
Despite Miami being a favorite against Vancouver, Thomas Mueller is playing for Vancouver. And that is the boogeyman fool.
I don't know that fool.

Well, Messi knows that fool. Because Messi does not have much luck against Mueller head-to-head.

You'll forgive my ignorance here, but how rare is it for a team like they the bugaboo last year was the first round and they lose to Atlanta. This year they get through the first round.

How rare is it to win the two games before the final 4-1, you know, by the number of goals that they've won, they've outscored their opponents as the things have gotten tighter? Definitely very rare.

They have dominated everybody in this playoff front. Last season when they lost, that is historically the biggest upset in MLS playoff history.

And this is a league that is built on chaos, that's built on upsets and things like that. So it was a huge, huge disappointment last last year.
And this year, they've gotten much better.

Obviously, the goals is what everybody's going to watch, talk about because it's messy, but they've gotten much better defensively.

They played Vancouver in May in the Champions League, essentially, in CONCACAF. Vancouver in leg one at home killed them.
And then they came down to Miami.

Everybody expected Miami to come back and win. And Vancouver dominated them off the pitch in the stadium.
So they're much better than they were in May, particularly defensively.

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Holidays? Fun. Holidays as a dad? Tough.
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I swear.

Don Lebatard. To us, residents.

Oh, wow. That's pretty good.

You think I haven't been practicing? Stugats. Oh,

I didn't realize we had a substitute complicated legacy practice.

441 Powerline Road. Second down to nine.

This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stewarts.

Roy, I'm worried about, in general, your mental health as it regards the Panthers. They've now lost five in a row at home.
Last night, Bobrovsky was good. He was excellent.

And they still lost at home, five in a row at home. However, if I had told you right before the season started, they're going to have the injuries they have, and they're going to be 12 and 12.

They're going to be 12, 12.

They're going to be at 500.

You would have taken that, wouldn't you have? Yeah. Yeah, I actually would.
I would have. You look where we are in this season.
And who's in last place?

Considering who's injured, yes, I would have taken that. They will get better this season.
But they're last last place. I understand Aaron Lasburg.
But I just asked,

I didn't ask him about last place. That speaks to the difficulty of the conference.

I just said, if I told you after 25 games, they'd be 500 and Kachuk would be out and you'd, you know, you've got Barkoff out.

Would you have taken a 500 record? Why are you guys in disagreement on that? You're just bothered by last place. Because they're in last and they're the lowest scoring team in the conference, yeah.

But you know the reason for it. Of course, but and they're going to get Kachuk back soon, but there are still a ton of other injuries on this team.

Like, yes, Matthew Kachuk is going to help, but just Matthew Kachuk is it's so hard to gain ground in this league because the three-point games, they're in last place.

Like, I, I'm super concerned about them missing the playoffs.

For reference, Matthew Kachuk spoke to reporters after his very first skate around with the team, and he's like, I feel so much better today than I did during the cup final. And that's exciting.

It is. But again, so hard to gain ground in this league and they're in last.
I mean, you win four in a row, all of a sudden, you climb halfway up the east. I was in nine last, by the way.

Buffalo's in last. Ah, Buffalo.
I'm wondering, though, as we talk about this,

what is the

more disappointing way to not be able to defend two consecutive titles?

Is it getting eliminated in the playoffs when you're healthy or just being unhealthy and having a reason that's not the team has gotten worse, you've got an explanation?

This is low-key so much better than being defeated.

I was so envious of how the Warriors dynasty, well, even though they won afterwards, but the KD incarnation of the Warriors went out because they could, even though, even though the Raptors, I still firmly believe, would have won that series, they get to hang their hat on Clay and KD getting hurt.

And you always have that in your back pocket if you're a Warriors fan. I agree.
And no one actually took out the Florida Panthers. Injury took them out.
And we rebuild next year.

But you could always say, when you tell the story of the family. From being so banged up from all the winning.
That's right. They went to three straight Stanley Cup finals.

I think in that instance, you do put the S on. I like a good excuse, Dan.

So when we talk about Bobrovsky being bad this year, how much of that do we chalk up to the fact that he has had to be under the pressure of 69 playoff games?

Three years. But,

okay, but you said their defense sucks before I asked the question, which you still haven't answered. Couldn't wait.

But you didn't answer the question, which is, he's been bad this year, but how much does that have to do with you've played 69 playoff games the last three years under an intensity that seems to be super pressurized, and you're the one guy who's never getting hurt.

You got to imagine all those extra minutes that you're playing add up.

I mean, Barkov, it seemed to be a fluke injury. He got hurt like the second he touched the ice in preseason camp.
And we know that historically you get banged up.

Actually, this most recent cup final was Florida's best luck when it came to injuries. But when you look at what troubles them specifically right now, it's goal scoring.

We know that they have talented goal scorers out, and the four check is really lacking. And it's not just Barkov.
That one's obvious.

But Lucer Rynan, like that freak barbecue accident, he is one of the most... I don't know what even happened to him.
What are the details there? You've mentioned this. He had a barbecue accident.

Well, he's mentioned Facebook. He's mentioned this a couple of times now.
And at this point, now I need to ask follow-up questions. All right, I had a team barbecue.
What was the barbecue accident?

What do you imagine barbecue accidents look like? Because I've got an exploding grill. It's got to be around the grill, correct? Like, it's not apart from the grill.

If you're saying it's a barbecue accident, it has to be around where the fire and the barbecue are. No, Peter Burns had a barbecue accident, remember?

His name is Burns, and he had a barbecue accident, and I assume it has to be the grill. Lower body injury with the propane tank.
This is why I don't. Did it explode? Explode?

That has to be it. I've got it being a barbecue at Ekblad's house.
Ekblad's on the grill flipping a burger. Luce Drainon's like 10 feet away.
He's got a plate with a bun on it.

He's like, here you go, coming in hot. And he flips it over and it hits him right in the eye.
No, he just ate too much and went to Tummeak City for a while.

A lower leg injury involving a propane tank suggests to me that he didn't run into the propane.

Like, what happened? He's actually kind of lucky because it was kind of like a freaky week when it came to hockey and off-ice injuries.

Luke Hughes cut his finger off whoa jack you can't jack jack with frank the tank yeah like yeah he was he was just chopping it up in the kitchen and he cut his finger off true dan with frank the tank

you know frank the tank was there an explosion with the propane tank do we know if that are are basically are hockey players now playing through landmine explosions of the lower body gotta be happy that jack hughes did that thing though the the exploding propane tank under the radar but we miss him Come back, E2.

The cutting off of the finger. Clearly, there's no game time missed there, right? The hockey player just continues to play through a cut-off finger.
Nope, nope, nope, no. He is out.
Yeah. Yeah.

A couple of months. They were able to reattach it.
I don't know how well.

How did it happen? How did they do that? Did they reattach it?

They say to put it in milk.

You put it in milk. Yeah, so I think you put the finger in milk and you take it to the hospital and you're like, hey,

I got a thing. And they're like, hey.
I always heard it was ice. Is your finger in milk?

Good. Look it up.
Put it on the poll. Better than looking it up.
Put it on the poll at Lebittard Show. If you cut off your fingers,

should you put it in milk?

I don't know if you guys saw Nobody 2.

I enjoyed it because I love the idea that action stars are now getting older and older and older, and you can't do better than Bob Odenkirk as funny, old, and it's a great action movie somehow, even though it stars Bob Odenkirk.

But there is a scene, and spoiler alert, there's a scene in that movie where someone just slices off his finger, he chases it as it rolls off of a boat, and then a fish eats it.

I don't know, I do not know if he intended to put that in milk or not. But Tony is telling you that the way to,

Tony, I don't know why you have such knowledge about dismemberment things.

Yeah, but you've got suspicious knowledges in suspicious areas where you just simply know how to hide things in the human heart and pay

criminal money. The internet is saying for a severed finger, you should wrap it in a moist cloth or gauze, place it in a sealed plastic bag, and then put it in ice.

And rush to the ER. Milk is not recommended.
Not recommended, but again, who are we listening to?

Who is that, Gemini? Gamer.

WebMD. Come on.
Google AI. Okay.
Exactly. Thank you.
Moint for humans. We do not know if the milk helps the severed finger or

ice in it. I imagine if you don't have ice and the milk's cold, you know, fine.
But that kind of thing. I'm going ice.

Okay. I'm glad you imagined that, and I'm glad that you've offered your particular wisdoms to this conversation.

Zaz, I got a text last night from Nick Wright as soon as LeBron James's, well, I don't think you're going to be happy with what it is that he had to say, but as soon as LeBron James's streak ended, LeBron James had scored double figures in every game he had played in since 2007.

And last night, he scored eight points, but he assisted on the game winner. And Nick Wright just wrote to me, ask Zaz what he thinks about how LeBron ended his streak now.
Yeah.

I mean,

I think that he made the type of play.

that he's been making his entire career, but for everyone to say that he he chose to win the game instead of get his streak, he didn't get his streak because he was four for 17.

All right, like that's why he didn't get the streak, not because he chose to do the unselfish.

What I sent Nick Wright as a response was something that you texted me as soon as the streak ended, which is LeBron's streak is over, Dan.

He definitely wanted that shot to miss at the end and go into overtime. And then Nick Wright just wrote back, he's an all-time dope.

Talking about me? About Zaz? He called you a sucker. Wait, Zaz is the dope? Yo.
He's an all-time dope.

I'll apologize to Nick Wright right here, all right? Because maybe he's off his rocker now since I owned him a couple days ago on the show. So you know what?

I'm not even going to take offense that he may be reeling based on me dominating him in that debate.

So here is LeBron talking after the game about, and no one asked him the question, were you hoping that the game winner wouldn't go in so that you go into overtime? No one asked him that. By the way,

it is a really funny, silly thing that we do with numbers because LeBron's streak of scoring eight points in a game since 2007 is still in play.

That's on.

That's still alive. But because the 10 points is no longer alive, LeBron is asked, and this is what he says after the game.

Now that the streak hasn't ended for you, what feelings did you have if any of what about his needed? None.

We won.

Is there an honest bone in his body? A fiber in his being. An honest fiber in his being.
Dan,

he remained, the last game he played, he was in the game in the fourth quarter down by 26 to keep the streak going. Like, is there an honest bone in his body?

I'm going to hold your feet to the propane tank here. Do you think he's falling off? Like,

is this like Jeter's last season? All-star tilted. Yes.
Because, like, Nick Wright's calling you a dope when that guy said he'd be an all-star at the age of 50. And that,

that's aging like the milk we're putting a disembodied finger in. Yes.

I think we're seeing the beginning of the end. Not that I think he's going to retire this year because I think LeBron is going to announce a

farewell tour, which I think will last multiple years. All right.
One year of giving LeBron presents and flowers every time he goes to your building is not enough. I think it's going to be two years.

But I do think that we're seeing the beginning of the end. This has to be the worst take of the year by Nick Wright.

Like, if we're looking back at this entire year of shows, saying LeBron would be an all-star at 50 and then what he's done so far. Don't be too hard on him.

He's shook based on what I did to him the other day. But just wait a minute, all right? Because worst take of the year.

When it comes, you say worst take of the year, but when it comes to nominating most obvious take of the day,

really,

it's the beginning of the end for LeBron. This is 23rd season.
He said till 50. We didn't say it.
We didn't make him say that.

At least he had the courage to answer the question, Dan. He's the oldest player in the league? Like, what do you mean it's about? Of course it's the beginning of the end.

It's been the beginning of the end. It should have been the beginning of the end 10 years.
But it never felt like it. But now it feels like it.

We started feeling like it as soon as Nick said that. Yeah,

we haven't seen him like, ah, let me sit out for a month because my back hurts. Let me throw up a four for 17.
This is one of the the most efficient basketball players in the history of the game.

I don't recognize that guy.

He's got sciatica, gout, leprosy. Right, then don't say he'll be an all-star until 50.
Like, you're proving our point of how dumb it was.

He literally gave a quote: like, when you wake up this age, something new hurts every day. You're not making it until 50.
No, I think they're just building this offense around Luca.

I think what LeBron needs is a wide open offense where everybody shares the ball and there's lots of body movement. You can always tell when you're everyone else involved.

Hey, I'm with him on this thing. That's true.

I would take him today. Also, that streak should have ended in 2011 in the NBA Finals, but that doesn't count.
Chris, you're so right about Jeremy. He's like your dad.
He's got a lot of people.

You could tell from his children.

I'm doing it. They super candidly get hiding.
That's why I'm doing it. Put a ham on the street.
I know how to do it.

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