one seems to have felt that, which, great, I'm glad.

We in general, and this is like Dan is correct in the sense that you think about how you've done and in addition to like how good the show was in totality but like I felt like both of us were just a little unintentionally boxed out and that's fine if that's what the show required I didn't know if I was doing well at all and you talk about roles in the play I actually don't really know besides being unpredictable and dangerous what people want my role to be here on the show on a day-to-day basis.

Is it levity?

I loved watching him play with Houston.

everything that he did for his mom.

He was seen as one of the all-time good guys in the NFL.

There has to be something psychological that's happening with him.

I think there's something wrong with him.

Yeah

... maybe she's just not that type of player to be a focal point of a team.

She's an insane iso scorer, but she's also 5'8".

She's also not a great defender.

Um, you know, she's also such a heliocentric player in general that like you have to build a specific type of a team around her.

But more to the point than that, 'cause I, I feel like that's not really as big of an issue as- From what I have heard, and people got very mad at me on the podcast last week for saying this out loud, this is not my opinion.

This is what I'm being told.

Mm.

Hmm.

Yeah, I mean, pretty much.

And I think that's Trajan Langdon's strength right there, is understanding who has cash base, who doesn't, who's interested in him, who's not, you know? And, like, once you know what the board is and what the cards are in the deck, then you can act accordingly, and clearly Trajan Langdon's done that.

Very smart dude.

Clearly built this team in a way that has elevated well be- beyond anyone's expectations.

They're gonna move on, apparently, from Tobias Harris.

They've already gotten, uh, you know, es- essentially flipped Isaiah Stewart for Isaiah Joe.

But outside of that, we didn't hear anything leading into the draft about Vivek Ranadive, and that shows already a shift in how this front office operates and the autonomy that, uh, Scott Perry has talked about with De'Aaron Fox.

Can you guys, uh, tell me from last night's game what stood out to you? Because, uh, villainous Wemby is something that I'm enjoying, and, uh, Wemby, uh-

uh-Whispering with his hand covered to Biyombo.

Uh, I don't know when this started.

I know the Miami Heat were covered in a way in 2010 that had Wade and LeBron always putting their, uh, jerseys over their mouth, but I think soccer players were doing it before that.

I don't think that, uh, Wade and LeBron were, uh, were inventing the idea of I don't want anybody and all of these cameras to be able to read my lips.

But, uh, Wembanyama is covering his mouth with his hand as he talks to Biyombo and Plumlee, and then after that, they start hard fouling like crazy because this series is gonna keep escalating.

These guys, both of these sides...

[laughs]

What are your thoughts here, Trista, both on Juju's list and, uh, how this will be remembered? Because I don't think Morey gets a top job again.

I like the list a lot.

I think the list...

We have to define what the process is, because I feel like it's pre-Morey and it's post-hiring Morey.

And, like, the things that were super egregious were really the Bryan Colangelo things.

To me, I feel like Morey is one of the best talent evaluators in the league.

A- a- and if you look at it like a grocery store, the GM's job should really be going out and getting the best ingredients for the chef, AKA the coach, to cook up.

Put it on the poll please, @lebatardshow, if the silver fox calls you babe and says, "I have to hit the head," is he allowed to have a toxic workplace? [laughs] Because, or it, does that make it a toxic workplace by itself? Because I- [laughs]

Absolutely.

Last year.

I think at this point, that was one of the more disappointing performances in the playoffs from Jalen Brunson down the stretch.

I don't care that you were down 18 and you figured out a way to come back.

At the end of the game, what did Jalen Brunson do? You had a shot clock violation air ball, and then you had a turnover.

You cannot ...

And he's over-dribbling the ball.

Yeah, what's the latest word there? Because, like, a te- like, do we know if he's been passing the test? 'Cause it's 48 hours until he's allowed to even start doing anything basketball related, so that would've been last night.

What do you, what do you think this is? His solo on The Ghost of Tom Joad, which is an eight-minute song, when they play it together, is one of the sickest things I've ever seen anyone do live.

Question though, is he giving back? If this is all about protest-

Yeah

... then I'm gonna need to see some of those exorbitant ticket price sales-

No.

If the quadriplegic guy can kill somebody while driving, anything's possible.

One-armed paper hanger.

I think we gotta retire that one.

As more we peel back the onion, the less it holds water, True.

This is where your young fans get excited about something, and Tiago Splitter is leading an improbable run, and he's worried about whether or not the masseuse is allowed to work in the ballroom because they are cutting expenses in Portland, one of the richest owners that has ever existed in sports.

This is by far one of the more impressive coaching performances that I've seen, and I don't think it's being talked about enough.

Yes, Joe Mazzulla in a gap year has been incredible.

Yes, what we've seen with Detroit as well, but, like, there were G League players like Caleb Love, like Sidy Sissoko, guys that most fans do not know were getting...

Chris freaking Murray, the bad Murray twin, was getting significant minutes.

Jrue Holiday missed a ton of time.

Scoot H- uh, Henderson played, I think, only after the All-Star break.

Not the fear of do I have a bad one, but am I now long-term relationship with a guy who doesn't care about sports the way I do?

What were the most interesting parts of the Jayden Ivey story to you?

Well, the thing that's kind of crazy to me about it, and that we talk about, hey, we don't wanna hold parents... uh, we don't wanna he- hold children accountable when their parents go crazy on the internet, like Flau’jae's mom, right, was like, "Hey, it doesn't matter that South Carolina beat LSU.

My daughter's still winning on the court." And we don't feel like Flau’jae should be responsible for what her mom is saying.

And I wanted to kind of get you guys' thoughts on whether we should hold or at least ask questions about those that are parents in the public eye when their children that are in the public eye say wild things.

Because now Ivey is the women's head coach of the Notre Dame team, which is a Catholic university.

Jayden Ivey clearly said some things about Catholicism, but she... uh, Notre Dame in general has been... uh, had some circulation or some rumors around homophobia where Olivia Miles, who I'm actually wearing her TCU jersey right now, transferred out of Notre Dame and did not go to the draft, and went to TCU because of, I don't know if it was her issues around Hannah Hidalgo and some of the comments that Hannah Hidalgo made, where she reposted a Candace Owens post about men and women are the only ways that you could have a marriage.

ButNow I'm questioning Nell Ivey is how does she feel about some of these things, and nobody's asking really Nell Ivey what she thinks.

To me, part of this whole story, uh, is how wide open is your personal life if you're a public figure as relates to Jaden Ivey's mom? If, if Tr- Trista, if you're covering a Notre Dame game and, and in the post-game interview, are you entitled to ask J- Jaden Ivey's mom about what he's saying in, in that situation, or do you consider that to be off limits?

[laughs]

He's certainly very, uh, limber at that size, which is not something that we could say for someone like Yao Ming or even, uh, Arvydas Sabonis back in the day.

So the things that Wemby is doing sort of break our imagination of what is possible to start with, and then you add what the Spurs have surrounded him with, and you say, maybe this is just a new paradigm.

... thoughts on the NBA, uh, Players Association rebuking the Bucks for wanting to sit down Giannis? Did you guys, uh, have anything on that subject? Because Giannis wants to play, wants the optics of wanting to play, and now the NBA PA is saying he needs to be able to play, and you guys, the Bucks, are wrong for not allowing him to play or not wanting him to play.

Yeah, I think this is just a m- uh, a good old-fashioned standoff.

And I agree with the PA, to be honest with you.

Like, if Giannis is healthy enough to go ahead and play the rest of the season out, I think he should be able to do that.

Clearly, it's the Bucks wanting to maintain the value of their asset to potentially either give him an extension, which I don't know if he'll ever accept, or to trade him to a team like the Knicks or the Heat or wherever it is that he wants to go.

And I've finally hit the age where I realize something, which is that you don't need more clothes, you just need better ones

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Teddy's better than nightie.

You can't punish the higher seed.

No, you can't, and I think, obviously Miami is the much more talented team on paper, but they're playing in Missouri's backyard.

That always matters in the tournament setting.

Their coach hasn't been in the tournament as a head coach before.

Virginia just gave the blueprint to everyone.

Make this Miami team make threes, and let's see what happens.

So I'm really, really excited about this game to watch as well.

It always costs more to get a new customer than to keep your old customer.

That was a great win.

That was a great series, right? We loved that, like old school hoops, vintage.

No, I think that this Magic team, no matter who you get, you get Desmond Bane, bad three point shooting team.

You get Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, all of a sudden he sucks, and the three point shooting has continued to be a problem.

I just think Paolo and Franz are not able to play when, uh, to- together.

Pa- Paolo is not really one of those players that I think is a true point forward.

He can't shoot.

No, that's not what she meant.

This is the Don Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

[upbeat music] My first interview on Radio Row was Tebow, and he was doing avocados from Mexico, and he brought chips and avocado, but he's keto, doesn't eat...

Tebow is keto.

Rhymes.

He doesn't eat chips, and w- I got him to eat a chip with me.

Yeah.

I was like, "Yeah.

You know, it was so weird, though.

But for me, for the last few years, "Hey, did you see what Russell Westbrook did last night?" The answer's been a firm no for, like, a good five years running.

Yeah.

I think the thing, though, that I, I was, like, intrigued about is he said that the, the media members, some of the media members in Sacramento were anticipating some huge year, some big year out of Sacramento, and I think that part is somewhat true.

Like, there's a little delude of quality to being in a market that's been this bad for this long and had the Beam team year.

What, what happened?

[sighs] A lot of things.

I think, like, the defense was never good.

Mike Brown had this, this team, like, humming offensively, and then he tried to tweak a bunch of things and get them to be more of a defensive first team.

Do you put a vest on that dude right there?

Uh, I can't find a service animal vest this small, but he is doing servicey things.

And then all of a sudden I hear a bang.

And I'm like, what was that? That wasn't good.

And, uh, then all of a sudden the flight's canceled and I find out that the luggage mover crashes into the plane, that's what that bang was, and gets underneath the plane and breaks off an antenna.

And they said, "Well, we're gonna try to, like, see if American Airlines will, like, lend us a part." Uh-

Now, Trista, this is not the first time that you have dealt with an issue on the flight home from one of your appearances here, right?

No.

This is The Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

[upbeat music] Are we gonna get some layoffs, Samson? Like, uh, what's the, I guess, internal-

... that's another one I'm gonna watch next.

Yeah.

I mean, if she didn't know, why would she do that with her legs? That is not, that is not a normal thing to do.

[laughs] I mean, let's uphold some decorum here.

What does Cooper Flagg make? Like, is, is it gonna be more? Is it gonna be advantageous? It can't be more profitable to be in college than in the pros, can it?

No, he's making 13 million in his rookie contract.

But listen, BYU and Provo have a lot of money, and they wanna keep AJ, and they ended up just getting a, a top five kid, a five-star for this next class.

BYU is the future-

... recruiting class.

Well, I think the thing that's actually more interesting about AJ and this, like, comments that he's making is you've got all these NBA teams that are tanking, and they're tanking egregiously, and they're not places that a, a guy like AJ may wanna play.

So he throws out in this interview like, "Hey, I, I may not, I may not come into the draft.

Like, I may stay four years." Like, if you're, if you're a team like Utah, you are shitting your pants.

What a sh-shit contribution from you.

I thought it was great.

Anyway, UConn, uh, is better offensively than they were in '22, '23.

Um, slightly below structurally than the team that was just an absolute monster.

Better pick and roll offense, better decision-making.

The guards are able to deal with, uh, uh, g- centers that end up dropping in coverage.

This team is just an absolute monster, I think, in a bunch of different ways, um, and I think that they will surprise people.

Mm.

(laughs)

I mean, this...

I, I would like an MP3 of this.

Are we still doing MP3s?

(laughs)

Juju, you did the national anthem and not Lift Every Voice and Sing? That's very off brand.

(instrumental music plays) Now is a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began.

In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila.

Cuervo.

D- what are you doing here, D? Cuervo.

Any time someone says Cuervo, I show up.

(laughs) Well, that- I do know that to be true, but even during ad reads? Like- Cuervo.

(laughs)

And so we get there and it's like, "Oh yeah, by the way, you can't bring your purse in." And I'm trying to...

You're a Knick.

(laughs) That is that.

Love the buzzwords.

Okay, so switching gears, so Olympian Noah Lyles argued he deserves a signature shoe from Adidas since he's a world champion while Anthony Edwards already has his own shoe with no championship.

He said, "Anthony Edwards has a shoe, I'm already a six-time world champion and I'm prophesizing that I'm going to be the Olympic champion.

I believe I've done enough to prove that my worth is given a signature shoe, or at least having the conversation of it." So with his logic, Trista, do you think Noah Lyles deserves a shoe? I just don't.

I don't agree with the logic.

This is kind of his first offense, but athletes constantly getting in trouble with women?

(laughs)

All these G League night guys, I just am like, "Are you really know how to play basketball or do you just know how to get buckets, right?" And, and Jalen Green obviously a top pick, but a guy who's like, "He's a bucket, he's a bucket, he's a bucket." And he makes these crazy decisions.

He just barrels into the defender and throws it up trying to foul Bay.

He's throwing it to the side of the backboard, and that killed them.

And then he ended up coming back after, you know, I criticized him a lot for game one, and I think a lot of people did, and he came back with eight threes.

Eight of them.

One of the...

(laughs)

Yeah, yeah.

Uh, they had 0.5 seconds left to go.

Jalen Brunson shoots the free throw and misses un- intentionally.

It goes up in the air, no one touches it, right? And then it's like, "Oh, that's a violation.

You can't do that actually, now all the Pistons have the ball.

And so everything you were trying to do, uh, you just failed that." And also, Jalen Brunson probably should've had a backcourt violation.

So it was shaky.

Yeah.