Local Hour: The Yankee Clipper

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I want to give everybody a brief recreation of what I walked in on this morning as everyone was gathered around a sad bucket of bagels that you'd find at the average PTA meeting that

was filled with underperforming students and parents who didn't care. Jeremy is muttering under his breath, I'm not kidding.

It's only one game. It's only one game.
Zaz is saying,

I knew that was going to happen. Yeah, I heard that.
And Rose is singing in both a bad accent and bad singing voice.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. She does this thing where she's so loud because she has her headphones on and she doesn't realize people can hear.

Zazzl can't do the thing of, I knew that was going to happen when you have three hours the day before on the air and you never said that was going to happen.

Oh, well, we're going to break down heat at Mavericks on a Wednesday night. In his defense, we didn't do predictions.

I know, but I'm saying if you knew that was going to happen, and Tony, you seem to be someone who would call bullshit on this. Like, if you knew it was going to happen, you got to tell somebody.

And then what would happen? You would put it on wax, Zazl. Would you prepare if I, like, if I told you yesterday, hey, the Heat are going to lose the Mavericks tonight, then what?

I've been like, okay, I'm going to watch a little bit more intently now. Zaz has got a little bit something online.
He said something, right? You say nothing, I don't care. You say something, I care.

All right, good. So you know what? Are we going to make it a thing now where every day,

Zazzlow, are the Heat going to win or lose the Mavericks?

You want to make it a thing that every day you announce your MVP candidate for the league and the MVP conversation. Make similar imaging for his pick.
Glad you're on board.

Will the Heat heat win tonight? Tyler Arrow, make a layup. Mike Ryan, watch the game.
Andrew Wiggins, my God, can you make a game? Ryan Emhard. Wow.
I do. Tangentially.

Cooper Flag. Is he 19 years old yet? Yeah, he's 19 years old.
No, no, he's 19 in December.

He said it on the broadcast. When they said he turns 19, I audibly gasped.
That doesn't happen often watching a game.

Oh, my God.

I know that, you know, Kevin Garnett and a handful of others, LeBron James, came to the league out of high school, but I personally have never met at that age someone physically who can play in that league.

Like I've never encountered someone who's 18 years old that I say, yes, of course, he could play against, you know,

the Rudy Gobert, physical players in that league. Like

that's not,

I have not encountered a human being who is 18 years old that I would say that person can play starting minutes, handle the ball in the NBA.

Not only that, once they switched him from actually playing a good point guard with Ryan Nemhard, his game is like almost taking another step.

They started the season with like him as the point guard guard. Him as the point guard.
Yeah,

it was too much, and he was turning the ball over at a crazy rate. He had one of those types of turnovers last night, too, but it's not just the physicality, it's the IQ.

This kid is such a smart basketball player at 18. That defense is legit.
Like, when Kyrie comes back, it's going to be really frustrating to play there. Did Nico have a vision?

Yeah, he got unlucky last night, though. Anthony Davis played.
That never happened. 17 and 17, too, by the way.
AD, big dog. That defense is good, but so is the Heats.

Like, the thing that I, there are two things above all others that I am surprised by,

that they're playing at that pace and can be that good defensively at that pace, which is a ridiculous pace.

And you said, speaking of public comments that you have made, that Davion Mitchell was going to get benched when Tyler Hero came. Well, you say benched.
That means like that he did something wrong.

That's not how I meant it. No, but that he was going to have to go to the bench.
And I was saying, you can't bench that assist-to-turnover ratio. Like,

it's the best in the league. If you're going to play at that pace, that efficiently, and never turn the ball over, that's not someone you can bench.

Like, that's that's legitimately one of the biggest surprises in Heat history, that point guard, even at a place that recreates and fixes all manner of players.

This is the Don Levatar show with the Stu Gats Podcast

In making their stars so important in basketball and making the NBA matter over the last 40 years by celebrating the stars, they have created a league that has a lot of delicious drama.

So, James Harden and

Kawhi Leonard are legitimately shocked when in the middle of the night, Lawrence Frank and Chris Paul are having a conversation that gets Chris Paul a really unceremonious exit when I'm thinking I can make the argument that Chris Paul is the best clipper ever, right?

Or who's in that discussion? Like, if I just say best clipper ever,

okay, yes, that's

who they also just discarded of. So

you've got the drama over there, but all of the drama around the league and the fact that everything changed with Damian Lillard on Star Player Gets What He Wants.

I'm asking this question while I am leaning toward the innocence of I believe Giannis's injury to be real.

Is the next step on countermeasures for players making sure they get to go where they want faking non-contact injuries?

Like, I believe everything that happened there to be real, but you come out of a meeting with the Bucs in which I can't hear anything you're saying right now because these guys won't stop arguing about best clipper of all time.

It's not even close. I think it's Blake Griffith.
I think it's Blake Chris Paul.

I think of Nas Paul. I think of Chris Paul.

I think of him as a rock guy. It doesn't matter what

he's doing. He's at 19th of the team.

Blake Griffin changed his goat.

Chris Paul. He jumped over a corporate carpet in those moments.
Think of the city off.

I would nominate the Yankee Clipper.

Zaslow, is it unfair to say

or to even wonder when Giannis wants to force his way out of there? Because it's being reported that they're meeting to see if Giannis can work anything out with the Bucs.

That's not what they're meeting about. You gave yourself the Hakeem Next laugh.
You can't do that. The Yankee Clipper?

No. Yeah, no, that was great.
You can't jump really. There's four people.
It's in the criteria. Four people driving around listening to this, being like,

Yankee Clipper.

It's a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. No, it's

actually what you're thinking about. No, it's called.
It's an actual Clipper. Dude, now it's called Beotion.

He's right about that. You think that the origins of the Yankee Clipper are a hotel in Fort Lauderdale? Fourth of July every year, Cody's.
It was great.

Do you guys know? I don't know if Greg still does this, but Greg Cody, who has been white trash my entire life,

does the vacation of sleeping on the beach.

And it's really not the when I say sleeping on the sand at the beach outside of a hotel on the beach in Hollywood that's not the greatest of hotels, it's always after he's had too much to drink.

So he just doesn't get back to his bed.

There would be a bunch of families doing it, and the families would go to the hotel room, but my dad and Papa Benson would sleep on the beach to protect everyone's stuff because we'd be there on the third and the fourth.

And it used to be a zoo there on the fourth. So instead of like setting up, resetting up every morning, they would sleep on the beach.
And my dad would always bail at like 6 a.m.

and stumble into the hotel room and try to like get two hours of sleep. And then he'd get, Benson would get mad at my dad, be like, I've been out here all night.

And Greg, my dad would just slither away. But he would sleep

on the sand. And I'm guessing that

occasionally, given what your dad gets into, that there wouldn't even be a towel or blanket or anything out there.

There would just be your dad with sand in his hair wandering back into the hotel room. Sleeping crisscross applesauce? Raw dog in the shore is crazy.

They would have issues like homeless people would come by and stuff. Unhoused.
Yeah. Actually, no, you can say homeless again.
Thank you. You can also say that your father was scaring the unhoused.

It wasn't the unhoused scaring your father.

Homeless guy was like, hey, can I get a SIG? Yeah. I knew Tony would have my back.

They are homeless. They have no home.
They're homeless. What do we do? Never got that one.

Okay, not for you to get. It's not offensive to you.
Stay home fewer. Regardless.
We ask them.

Because you're saying that.

They guys are all big on, like, how do you identify? If we ask them, hey, are you cool with homeless? Do you unhoused? And they're like, hey, I don't have a house. Do I give a shit?

They've They've got greater concerns. Yeah, when do we acknowledge that Joe DiMaggio is the Yankee Clipper? Right, well, thank you for that.

Really?

This whole time I thought it was Tyler Clipper.

I was about to ask him, actually, Jeremy, who was the Yankee who was nicknamed the Yankee Clipper to try and get the surprise out of him, because I don't think he was going to get DiMaggio.

I think he was. I thought it was Tyler Clipper.
He

clearly did not know this was a nickname for anyone. He really truly

named after Joe DiMaggio?

It's also a hospital in Fort Lauderdale. Kiss your cheek.
Named after Joe DiMaggio.

Put it on the poll, please, at Lebatard Show. More famous Yankee Clipper, the hotel in Fort Lauderdale or Joe DiMaggio? Can you throw Tyler Clippert on there? I think I'm right about this one.

Like a dog with a bone. Jeremy,

when you watch what it is that's happening with the Bucks, and I'm going to play some Doc Rivers sound for you in a second. Okay, sir.
Is it wildly unfair for anyone to wonder?

And again, I'm going to preface this by saying, I believe he's actually injured. I am just wondering if the next step on making a mess where the player takes the power back is, nah, nah,

I'm just not going to play for you, and I'm going to make the mess bigger than any mess.

And the way to make it a biggest mess, because the reports are from Windhorse that he wants to be a nick, that he's just saying, make me a nick.

It's not a meeting about, can you come back to the Bucks?

Once you're at this point in the meetings, it's, I want want to get out of here no matter what Doc Rivers says it's funny the way this has escalated because I came in here with sort of the same energy as you which is I think he's hurt

but

if you were going to muck things up

it sure would be the right way to do it which is delete everything off your social media and then immediately the next game you play come out with an injury of which was undetectable.

Yeah, non-contact. But calf strain, Zaz and I were talking like that.
Castra's a new Achilles tear. Like, if you, if you have a Calf Strain, you don't have to play for a year.

That's the new, that's the new Achilles tear. And you know what? Normally, I would obviously doubt that Giannis is faking an injury because that has never been his MO.

He's a super tough, hard-working player, great reputation, but he's doing the childish bullshit.

Like, you wouldn't have expected Giannis doing the let's delete everything off of social media, childish nonsense. So

he may be doing the

get me out of here playbook.

Remember, his leg snapped on national TV in a finals game and played and had 50 points and 20 rebounds.

Okay, but I would say that if you're just willing to be most cynical and be willing to explore the hypothetical, I believe that the faking of an injury is a bridge too far.

There's one thing with, you know, the childishness of deleting the team that you're following. That's a different thing.

The faking of an injury to me is something, while not criminal, is something that should ruin your reputation.

Like if Damian Lillard wasn't willing to ruin his relationship with the fan base of Portland, I know that Giannis is not only a great spokesman for the league, Giannis is, as you say,

the stories are legendary. Giannis used to run back and forth to the gym because he would just jog to the gym.
He'd always want to be at the gym. He is a hard worker.

Everyone has known him to always be a professional. But if you fake an injury to get out of somewhere, to me, that is a scar that should stay on your resume forever.
Dude is not faking an injury.

Like he's not, this is not fake. You'll never know.

Well,

I think we'll know. And I guess technically short, we can go into it conspiratorially and saying we'll never know.
He's not faking an injury. He loves that city.

He might be frustrated with the organization, but he cares about the fans. He cares about his own career.
He's not a guy who is one to fake anything.

But the fact that we are where we are in how to escalate the drama to get what you want when you're a piece like Giannis, that we can sit around here and even question it just shows kind of how nuts things have gotten in terms of those contracts and being moved.

If you look at an injury that he had previously a couple years ago, it's kind of the exact same thing.

There was a side-by-side of the videos of him pulling a calf the same exact way a couple of steps after something happens. He goes down to the floor.
Like, I don't think this is something that's fake.

It's something that we've already seen before. May I just say, I am so proud of us.
We've done this for about eight minutes, and we have not put him on the heat yet. We've learned.

I would say that it is less likely that Giannis is faking an injury than the grand majority of players in the league.

Just based on what you think of their reputations, how much they want to be out there, how much they love basketball.

He would be one of my last choices on this, but let's hear what it is that Doc Rivers had to say about this, because he says this is not Blake's fault. So, here we go again.

There's been no conversations. I want to make it clear, just for the, I would say one more time, but for the 50th time, it clearly is not getting the one network for sure.

Giannis has never asked to be traded, ever.

I can't make that more clear. He's only implied it.
So here we go again.

He's not asking to be traded.

He's telling them to trade him.

It's not a request. It's a demand.

He's not politely asking. He's politely telling, I don't want to be here anymore.
What if a reporter then followed up with, but has he told you he wants to be traded? Yes, he has that.

I can't make that more clear. You could.

Windhorse is saying that Giannis told the Bucs, I want to be a Nick.

Make me a Nick.

And quote. So

does everyone think Doc Rivers is just lying there?

Okay. Well, that was over the summer.

I mean, his initial report on that and everything that was going on, the whole long ESPN article that detailed everything.

was all about Giannis wanting out, asking for enhancements to the roster. They came back with Miles Turner.
They told him, we're not moving you.

The conversations between the Knicks and the Bucks were not the Bucks calling the Knicks, but the Knicks checking in. And it all just stalled out there.
But now

all these months later.

So here we go again.

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Don Lebatard. All these high-paid analysts, I don't want to mention names, TNT,

ESPN, you know, oh, yeah, they they are dead. They cannot they they they're not going to make it, you know.
Even if they win in

if they lose in in Miami.

If they lose in Miami, they don't got a chance in Boston. Oh, they are going to have their ass, you know what, in Boston, you know.
Stugats. They were wrong.
They were.

Are they going to lose their job? No. Are they going to get a cutting paint? No.
What are they going to do? Keep predicting what is the obvious. They're going to say, oh, the Nogats are going to win.

Oh, Denver, the altitude. And you know what? The Heat are going to win it all.
This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stewarts.

Okay, so this is what's happened to Giannis with Milwaukee because I don't believe that yesterday is a conversation about let's see if I can be here. Let's see what we can do.

Let's see how we can fix this. I don't believe that that's the case.
I believe that Giannis has been stewing in some form since they lost Chris Middleton and Drew Holiday. They're not the same team.

He's out there with Bobby Portis now. And yes, Miles Turner, who every team in the league could have had

the last three years. Did you see last night, by the way, we almost had a big time, big time scrap in that case? Seriously.

I mean, two guys really scrapped. Bobby Portis, Isaiah Stewart.
If I was at that game and those guys started fighting, I would get out of my seat. I would leave.
I'd be very scared.

Put it on the poll at Lebatard show. If Bobby Portis and Isaiah Stewart started to fight, would you get out of your seat and leave the arena? I get out of my seat and stand.
I'm excited to watch it.

I'm trying to stay safe, safe, Tony. Please.
You guys understand what I am saying, though, right?

If you're 20 games into a season and you're under 500 and he's playing the way that he is, which is very well, and you look around and you're like, I can't win this way, this isn't a conversation about how do we fix this here.

This is a conversation about how do you fix this for me so I'm no longer. Oh, you don't think he's going in there to game plan with the front office? Well, but that's the way they're presenting it.

Of course. Okay, you say it.
You say, of course, but that's not accurate. It's not an accurate representation of what's happening.
But even with that, what assets do you have to trade?

What assets do you have to make this team better? You don't. And then on top of that, when they've been with him, they've been a 500 ball club.
Without him, they've been dreadful.

Offensive rating drops like 15 points when Giannis is on the floor to when he's not on the floor. Like, this is a completely flawed roster from top to bottom.
We knew that going into the season.

And then it's like, oh, Giannis is just going to score 30 and have 15 boards a game. Like, I guess it'll be fine.
Here's the reality.

They should trade him and they are going to trade him. And not just because Giannis wants to be traded, because it's literally the best thing for the franchise.

They've already won a championship with him. Like, they've maxed it out.
They've maxed it out. They have no assets, like Tony said.
They have no way to build around Giannis for the foreseeable future.

They took big swings. They missed.
And now the way to replenish is actually to cash in on Giannis. I'm sick.
It's like winning the in-season tournament buys you nothing.

So Zaslow claims the Bucs have maxed it out. and I would argue that with that kind of player, they've underachieved.
That one championship is not enough to win when you have that player.

I don't even mean it very much as an indictment because he's playing during an era when there are a lot of great players. Two championships.

There's two banners. Emirates IST.
Do they have a banner up for that?

I know the Lakers do. Boy, I'll tell you what.
You know, the Heater in the NBA Cup semifinals?

I really hope the Heat win. I'm into it.
They better not put up a banner. They've got Dan Marino's jersey retired up there.
It's like in the corner and it's dark. Yeah, it's

a spotlight on it anymore. How are you into it, but don't want a banner?

Because I would like to say that the Heat won the NBA Cup, but you better not put up a banner. Does Mark Anthony still have a banner? I haven't been to the arena in almost two years, so I don't know.

Wait a minute.

You haven't been to the arena since they let you go

since you worked there professionally in a suit? Yeah.

Since you got paid to be. I was at a Travis Scott concert there.
I went to that. Nice.
Yeah.

Did you see the Mark Anthony banner? So Michael Jordan's banner is up there. Michael Jordan's jersey's been retired up there.
Dan Marino's jersey is retired up there.

But this is where Zed draws the line.

Not the Mark. Markov.

Oh. That's a good one.

Haslam. They're going to put Haslam up there, aren't they? I think Haslam's already Haslam.
They'll probably just keep it there. Haslam's already like...
Yeah, yeah.

Haslam's got the one without, like, a Hall of Fame below it. It's kind of a little sad by comparison.
Or gold medal. Hey, LeBron's doesn't have a Hall of Fame.

Or, I mean, you know, LeBron's not up there, but whenever, you know. Yeah, LeBron's not up there.
Willie? Willie B? Do you happen to know?

I don't happen to know, and I'll be honest with you. I hope not.
If Shaq's up there, LeBron's up there. Get out of here.
If Shaq's up there, LeBron's up there.

You guys are nuts if you think LeBron's not going up there eventually. And you're crazy if you don't think Jimmy's going to be up there soon.
Oh, get out of here. That's going to happen.

Oh, shame on you. Jimmy will be up there.

Take that back. Jimmy will be up there.
Shame on you. So here we go again.
Put it on the poll at Lebatard Show. Would Jimmy Butler's number be retired? No, they hit it and put in.

Yeah, it would be. It would be.
This isn't about Mickey. This isn't about Pat.
It's about the fans. And I know it was ugly at the end, but Jimmy brought a lot of great memories here.

You think the fans want that? I mean, Tim Hardaway's up there. He did, I guess, more than Tim Harda.
I think right now it's split. I think in 10 years' time, we'll be like, you know, COVID.

The photo of him, the tired photo. Yeah, like,

you know what? Like

an asterisk for COVID? Just

going to say COVID on the

I think in 10 years' time, fans would be like, wow, we didn't win shit when Jimmy was here. What did we win with Tim Hardaway? I understand, but that's not the same.
I don't think this is fair, okay?

Like, I understand that the standard in sports is that there's one winner and everyone else gets to be a loser, but you don't get to disgrace everything that was five years of an era of basketball that was really good in Miami and really successful because they got close a few times but didn't end up winning the trophy.

I'm not going to dismiss that entire era as loser, but I also think the hostility and the mess at the end will make it so that I doubt very much that while Pat Riley's alive, that jersey's going up there.

I'd love to see how that process goes. Is this something that they visit with annually? Is there a committee?

Like, is there like a board meeting where someone's like, all right, Goran Dragic.

And he puts out feelers? Okay. Quick meeting.
We'll have this conversation next year. For 22, they immediately gave it to Andrew Wiggins.
Like, Jimmy left, they gave 22 immediately.

Like, come on. Yeah, but when LeBron came here, Mario's like, all right, I guess I'll give you six.
Yeah, okay, that's different.

Do you guys disagree with me saying that Giannis winning one championship in Milwaukee is not a max out? It's an under two. I do disagree.

Two titles. I do disagree.
What if it's two titles? I do disagree. I think winning is really hard in that sport.
I mean, was Luka Doncic's time in Dallas a major disappointment? He won anything.

Yeah, but if Giannis didn't win a championship, he'd go right there with Barkley as the best players in that sport to never have won a championship. But he did.
Like, why does he have to win two?

Like, he won. He did.
Oh, because I thought he was going to be dominating the sport over an era that's. It's like if Wemby only wins one.

To me, the kind of player that Giannis was, when I'm looking at what that was physically, and I, again,

we're really splitting hairs because I don't mean this as an indictment of Giannis. I've said of Aaron Rodgers, that's underachievement.
I've said of Shaq, that's underachievement.

And I don't mean it as indictment.

I just mean those are physically such gifted players that they should win more than they've won because they were the best among the best of what it is I've ever seen.

And I would think in this conversation, you're using that more as an indictment of the front office than a friend of the year.

But I'm saying they won with Drew Holiday and Chris middleton like it's not that's fine but it's

like they that's fine but it's his two best teammates winning a championship that it's exactly what i'm saying it's why he's leaving like it's it's because since they won the championship you're supposed to build off that and they've gotten on nothing but down because he's like you're not even gonna get me drew holiday and chris middleton you're gonna get me miles turner but they were old at that point right like they were already kind of on the cusp of all right these guys are a older guys that are champion veteran players now all of a a sudden, you get rid of those guys.

You don't tool up on young guys. You get AJ Green, who's running out there shooting threes.
You're like, what am I going to do with this? They did get them Damian Lillard, though.

And they won that bidding war. Everyone was in on that trade.

Everyone. And it resulted in, again, an Emirates Cup title.

You guys keep glossing over this thing, and I don't get it.

Can we just say the very obvious, and that is that in the year 2023,

Jimmy Butler and the Heat took the Bucks hole.

They did what? They took the buck's soul. Okay.
The soul.

I heard bucks hole. I heard bucks hole the same way I heard Pocrasy yesterday.
I heard Bucks hole. You think I said they took the bucks hole?

You said they take that ass.

You're the inventor around here of taking that ass. Why would anyone say that? I thought that's what I was saying.

Take that ass.

I saw that.

I heard that. Tony, how did you hear that? I heard soul.
I know what he meant to do. Jeremy, what did you hear? Soul or hole? Hole for sure.
Get the hell out of here. Chris Cody.
I said, Bucks hole.

It did sound like you said buckshole. When you take a buck hole, they took that buck's hole, is what you said.
What happens when you take their hole?

What happens when you take that ass? Oh, you got ass.

You said they took that buck's hole. That's what I heard, anyways.
That is what I heard. I want to go back on two different things here.

First, the Chris Paul thing, because I don't think we talked about this enough yesterday. I almost don't care what happened outside of an illegality.

You cannot have your franchise's all-time great sent backing in the middle of the night. Like,

you're sitting here telling me that the Bucs are constructing an assortment of lies to protect their franchise, their optics, and everything,

an assortment of lies as it relates to Giannis. But the Clippers in this case, who, by the way, put this on the poll at Lebatard show, did Pablo Torre ruin the Clippers? Did he take their hole?

Did Pablo Torre take the Clippers' hole? Pablo!

Maybe we shouldn't phrase it that way. Because this has been a Clipper disaster.
They won last night in Atlanta.

I defy you to look at that Atlanta roster last night and figure out how it is that that team was 13-9 headed into that game. But you can't let the best player in franchise history.

I'm saying, outside of an illegality.

Outside of him committing a crime, that's not the way you can have that career end publicly, almost no matter what he's done.

If he's arguing with Lawrence Frank in the middle of the night in a hotel room for three hours, whatever it is. What if he's spit in Lawrence Frank's face? You can't do that.
You, you can't do it.

I mean, Zazwin. No, no, no.
No, I, no, I'm saying you cannot have Chris Paul's career end in a way that looks like that.

You can absolutely waive him, but it's got to look better than that at the end because what ends up happening with the way that they did that, okay, people wake up in the morning and they're like, what happened with Chris Paul?

And all you have after that is everyone asking, what else happened there?

You have to be able in protection of your franchise, in protection of who it is that Chris Paul is in protection of what it is that he's done for your franchise you have to protect the optics better than that if you're willing to tell me that the Bucs are just out here lying just lying about what what's happening with Giannis why wouldn't they lie in this situation to simply wait until the next day wait

it's the sending him home in the middle of the night shocking his teammates where where you're now got a locker room the next day where Hardin and Kawhi Leonard are giving the quotes of like this totally surprised me so you're telling me Lawrence Frank can be sitting there with a Loogie hanging from his face?

Like, oh, I'll see you at practice tomorrow. I'm saying they can waive him and make it look better than that.
He doesn't have to come to practice.

You could say, you could actually say conduct detrimental, whatever it is that you want to say.

You can't just send him away in the middle of the night and leave all of the questions there when it's an all-time great. Like when I'm sitting here looking at this, when people are saying,

I'm listening to the coverage yesterday, I'm like, Chris Paul, I think, is the best player they've ever had. Like the clip, this is...
We're still debating it back here. This is a franchise.

This is a franchise that before Chris Paul got there was a laughingstock for 30 years. Like before Chris Paul, Chris Paul is the beginning of them getting to be more credible.

Chris Paul's the beginning of Ballmer being able to make one of the dumbest trades in history that we all thought was a good trade at the time.

Yeah, and I guess because everything you said is true, I guess the place that I go is he must have been impossible to deal with this season for them to do all of those things you just did.

Yeah, but you can have all of that be so and still protect your organization and optics better than that.

The way that you're doing it, the way that the Clippers did it, as far as I can tell, show me all the hypothetical worst ways they could have done it.

Give me all the things that you imagine that a PR team, a crisis team, a marketing team on optics, tell me how they could have done it worse than the way that they did it, where they're just leaving a bunch of questions for people in the morning on like, what the hell happened there?

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Teammates can't shoot from three. Now they're gonna see a different Jimmy.
Now he's just just playing.

Nickel back in the locker room. And Stugats.
They'll play D and shoot threes as they chase the Nats for the sixth seed. These five words in his head.
Scream are we winning games yet?

This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stewarts.

Briefly revisiting the worst basketball trade of all time, everyone was grateful that the Clippers got into that thing because if Kawhi went to the Lakers, they would have ruined the sport.

Why even have the games? The Lakers are going to win everything.

And then, cut to now, that trade did end up ruining the sport because okayc is unbeatable just thought of something do we think that the clippers did this to distract from pablo's aspiration story so that that way there's just something crazier that's happened more recently that seems like an even bigger front office and ownership bungle no because there's a mystery here with the clippers and the last thing they want is another mystery

though i feel bad for the pr people right like just one storm after another it's the aspiration thing it's this it's that all of a sudden they wake up you guys did what to chris paul now we have have to clean up what again?

I know we like to talk about front office executives, general managers, even coaches. They're stupid.
They don't know what they're doing. All right.
I'm guilty of that as well.

Lawrence Frank definitely understands the optics of what he did or was about to do before he did it, yet he still did it. So doesn't there have to be something really bad that happened?

Again, the fact that they've left that question in your mind a day later is part of the problem. I don't assume

Lawrence Frank knows what he's doing based on how I saw him with weeks to prepare for the Pablo allegations, how he arrived at camp to talk about that publicly. We can get that sound.

Get me the sound, please, that we were making fun of Lawrence Frank about when it is that he made those comments, when he had weeks to prepare for the making of those comments.

But also, get me the sound of Hawks fans last night just chanting that they're wondering where Chris Paul is.

This is in Atlanta, and this is the fans heckling the Clippers

saying, where is Chris Paul?

The idea that you would take an all-time great,

just basketball great, never mind clippers great, because again, I'll just, I'll keep saying it.

Whoever you think is the best Clipper of all time in my lifetime watching basketball, it's been Chris Paul.

Just seeing everything that is happening around the Clippers reminds me that they've been a laughingstock when they've cleared some of that laughingstock energy off of them over the years.

But Mike mentioned that Kawhi Leonard would have ruined the sport if he had teamed with LeBron.

Chris Paul would have ruined Los Angeles in basketball if they'd let him go to the Lakers before David Stern stepped in and said you can't go to the Lakers.

Like if they'd let him go to the Lakers, the Clippers would still be something that we're laughing at because Chris Paul is more responsible for the Clippers resuscitating themselves than the Clippers have ever been for resuscitating themselves.

And it shifted in Los Angeles, where the Clippers became something formidable when he got there.

And I just don't know what he could have done when he says spitaloogie in his face, like like Jamar Chase and Jalen Ramsey, when he says spitaloogie in his face,

Chris Paul's more important to everything the Clippers have been than Lawrence Frank is by leaps and bounds. Like it's not Lawrence Frank doesn't have to eat it.
He can wave him.

But you have to make it look better than that on behalf of the organization. So I ask you guys the question again.
What is the hypothetical worst way that they could have done it if it's not this?

Mid-game, right? Mid-game. He's not playing.
Yeah, but if at one point like Tyler just walks over. What if they killed him? Just flat out killed.
Hey, mid-game. He's dead.
Mid-game. We killed him.

Mid-game. Halftime show.
Yes. Just murder him.
Okay, you got me, Tony. You did.
Thank you.

You sat in the chair? Electric chair. He's dead.
Sorry. Okay.
Really? This is a play.

So electrocute him. Electrocute him to death in Atlanta.

Pro capital punishment, my man. All right.
Very good. I appreciate the effort.
Let's check in here with Zaszlo and make a final verdict here on whether he said, take their soul or take their whole.

Jimmy Butler and the Heat took the buxhole. Vindicated.

I hear holes. Yeah, I'll say it.
I'll play it again. You're right.
Jimmy Butler in the heat took the buckshole. I still hear holes.
I still vindicated.

That S is not that S is not attached to the bucks.

That S. Dan has the S somewhere else.
I'm a Zaz on this. I hear souls.
No, listen to me. Just listen to me closely.
That S is attached to the buck. It is not attached to the hole.

Jimmy Butler in the Heat took the buckshole. Bucks hole.
That's possessive. That S belongs to the buck.
Something wrong with your ears.

You keep playing that. Keep playing that.

We're fine tuning. He took the buxhole.
He took the buxhole. Oh, it's come on.
What do you mean? Come on. I still hear hole.
He took the buxhole. Yeah.

That's definitely a buckle. Wait a minute.

There's only one S, like Dan said. You shouldn't be able to do that.
There's not two S's there.

There aren't two S's there. There's one S.
There's one S is the bridge. He took the buxhole.
And it's with the hole. It's not with the Buck.
The more I listen to it, the more it's hole.

The more I listen to it, the better I feel. He took the buxhole.
That is. I'm like Yonke Win.
There's no S.

This one there's only one s he took the buxhole that is not vindication for zaslow i don't know how you hear vindication there when all i hear again and again is whole

he took the buxhole thank you for playing that again because now i definitely know i said buxhol thank you gotta pay the troll toll jeremy do you have a ruling on this because i believe i don't believe mike and i are doing bit here i i keep hearing now this might be one of those things where you hear whatever it is you want to hear before you start the conversation It is, but I'm telling you, the more you hear it, the clearer it becomes.

It's obvious. There's one S there.

He just flew through the other S. This is why you're not a judge.
Okay, but you've got to give Chris Cody time to edit this. When he's editing most ferociously, his mouth hangs open and he panicked.

I can tell he's editing.

He just yelled an F-word. Can't hear what I'm editing when you guys are talking.
Can everyone shut up? Stop blowing the girder. Okay, man.

Just give him time to lay out. His mouth is open.
You lay out and you feel. And then we do something funny.
Oh, hey, look at the AP Clipper. I have Lawrence Frank talking about rules.

Which was, has Dennis Robertson, Kawhi's uncle, ever asked for any extra benefits that wouldn't be allowable under the NBA settler cap directly to you? There's been a lot coming out of his asks.

Yeah, look, Dennis knows the rules, Kawhi knows the rules, Mitch Frankel knows the rules, and we know the rules.

Is that a yes or a no, though? Yes, we all know the rules.

You're positive he knows what he's doing?

You're telling me it's not possible Chris Paul spit a loogie on that guy's face?

I heard hole. Are you reporting it? Let's relive this.
He took the butthole. Whoa!

That's obvious. Whoa! It's obvious.
Like, that's how I've heard it every single time. It wasn't even saying bucks.

It was just straight up butthole. He took the buttle.
He took the butthole.

You guys are bullshit. What do you mean? You're bullshit.

You said it. You said it, and we heard it that way.
You're a professional communicator.

We often listen around here.

We listen in a clip of about 91% around here to what other people are saying. And multiple people heard you say that he took the bucks hole.
He took the bottle. And now it's even worse.

Now it's even clearer to me. The more I hear it, the more obvious it is to me that you said something that's inappropriate and you should be on the cusp of being canceled.
He took the bottle.

Is that not obvious to you? What are you making faces for? This is why no one takes me serious.

He took the buttle. It's the backwards flex fit hat.

It's the fact that you wear a Roman Reigns shirt. Nice hat.
Not a spread hit man heart.

No.

You are a judge, you're a lawyer, you are a race expert. You're a war expert.

You're a journalist. You are being taken seriously around here, but I think that what is hurting you is the way that you dress.

Like, I believe that Juju is right when he says you can be taken more seriously. Anyone can be, if they dress for the part.
I had to go to a school function last night with my older son.

My younger son, excuse me. My wife couldn't come because she had something else going on.
I was wearing a wrestling shirt. I said to my wife, do I have to change? And?

She said, wear whatever you want. But date night is different.
The rules are. Well, yeah, because I wasn't with her last night.
But date night, you know, I'm right next to her.

So I guess she felt that that's the difference. Okay, so the shame is not of having you as an adult dressed like a toddler, being among other parents as her husband.

And my wife's the principal of the school, by the way. Oh,

whoa.

What? What happened? Wait, the same school? Yeah.

So people know you. You're like kind of like a boss around there.
I mean, I'm not there that often, so I don't know if they know me.

I want to clarify a couple of different things here as Jeremy.

Please isolate the shocked woe from Jeremy as he just fled the microphone with like shame and embarrassment on behalf of Zaz the way that Zaz feels shame and embarrassment when watching anything Tim Robinson does on an airplane.

The idea

that your wife when you're next to her would have an objection to going out to dinner with you wearing a Roman Reigns shirt, but she's fine with you representing among other parents at the school where she's the principal, which is really a detail I did not not know either.

And inside, I had the same reaction that Jeremy had outside. It came out of Jeremy's mouth, but

it was pinballing inside me.

I just didn't want, you know, Zaz to feel my shame, which is, oh my God, the principal must be so embarrassed that her husband is going out in public among other parents wearing a Roman Reigns shirt that none of those kids would wear.

I'm just glad she's finally allowed me to express myself. What did your kid wear? Is he also wearing a wrestling shirt? He's like, dad's wearing the wrestling shirt.
I'll go like...

Nah, school uniform.

So everyone there is dressed professionally. You're the worst one.
You're dressed. Worst? I think you're mispronouncing B.
Looks more like the middle schoolers than the middle school. I look great.

I was very pleased with my look last night. But when you look at the other parents, is there anyone there? I see a bunch of nine-to-five losers is what I'm looking at.

Got a point there.

You don't think they'd trade places with me? Of course. Did you wear jeans? No, I don't wear jeans.
I wear shorts. You wear shorts at night? Yeah, whatever, man.
Okay.

You never wear jeans? I don't do. He took the buttle.

So,

nine to five losers is what you have now called the principal's constituency.

You were just dressed like you are now.

He took the buttle. This podcast is brought to you by Square.
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