(upbeat music)
- Welcome to the Big Suri! - Presented by draft Kings. - Why are you listening to this show? - The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan-Levitard podcast.
“- Sorry, I'm not gonna apologize for that.”
- In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. - I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries that if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys.
- I've done it. - And now, here's the marching men to nowhere, that face and the habitual liar. - This episode of The Dan-Levitard Show is presented by draft Kings,
draft Kings, the crown is yours. - A lot of people are enjoying this Hornets team, but nobody seems to be enjoying this Hornets team more than Eric Collins. We will get to him in a second.
He is the voice of America's team. The Charlotte Hornets, he's the play by play announcer for the NBA on Prime as well. But before we get to him, let's just air that Jimmy Johnson commercial for erectile dysfunction.
- I'm Jimmy Johnson, known not the race car driver. I'm the better looking Jimmy. Since I recently became the spokesperson for instance, everywhere I go, guys ask me if extends really works. I'm here to tell you, extends works for me.
“I started taking extends before I became their spokesperson.”
With over a billion tablets of extends taken by men of all ages,
I was sold and you should be too. Extends does things only one way. Really, really big. - If you call now, Wilson will weeks apply to extends absolutely free.
- Call now. - That is the way to introduce Eric Collins. I think I've got it wrong though. That might not be erectile dysfunction. It just might be a general lengthening of things.
So on that note, a hum diddly D. And how do you do to Eric Collins? Hello, Eric. Thank you for being on with us, sir. - Hey, guys, my pleasure.
Happy Monday. - Yeah, I would love to say Hornets our America's team, but they've lost two consecutive games. First time has happened in about a month and a half. It's been tough on last night in Phoenix.
- They are fourth and offensive rating, however, and before we get going here, let's just play for the audience again, a little montage of Eric Collins being excited. - La Valla!
- Yeah! - With the Gats of a Cat Barrier. - We're tired, 97. - The last one. - Lance gonna have the fire.
- La Valla! - Yeah! - La Valla! - La Valla! - They can hurt train.
- Wow! - Look at like it's kind of train man, come on live! - No! - The train is safe! - Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!
- Wow! - Pretend is popularly dead! - Let's go! - Oh, a double-clutch didn't see new boom! - Have come on, come on!
(cheering and applause) - This is for it to pass the ball! - Eric, take me through the origins of the hum-diddly D, please. I'd like to hear how it is that hum-diddly D became a thing. - I used to play high school basketball,
and I was digging the heavy D in the voice, and their big song was we got our own sang,
and it always began with hum-diddly diddly diddly diddly D.
- And I used to, was the earworm from me for many, many years, and I'd be sitting in the end of the bench in high school, and it would just be kind of going through my head. And everyone's smiling, I just play what happened
and I'd say hum-diddly D allowed him. Years later, when I got a job in the NBA, it just kind of became my thing. But that's the genesis of it, so it's a heavy D in the voice reference.
- No, I'm getting late today!
“- None of the players know who heavy D is, correct?”
- No way, no chance. - But he was hot for a while, man, back in the '80s. - Yeah, I don't believe love her. - Yeah, I thought, thank you Roy, I appreciate it. One of the few guys that's allowed to be the fat entertainer.
We don't allow a lot of those, and heavy D embraced it. But none of the players have any idea what you're talking about. The, I was arguing last week, Eric, that if lamellaball is your best player,
you're gonna be what the Hornets have been,
but if he's your third best player,
you're going to be what the Hornets have been over the last couple of months, which is, before this recent streak, that starting lineup was 22, they had won 16 of their last 19, and the six-game winning streak they had.
They were beating everybody by 15, including the last three defending champions. Is this the best time you have seen in all of Hornets history? - Wow, well, now hold on here, you know, I saw the Hornets play a bit back in the '90s.
I was in the NBA back in the time with Chicago Bulls, and those were really super, super solid teams. I think people kind of go to sleep on them. And they had great attendance, but they actually had pretty good teams. This run right now is on par with any of the best runs
the Hornets have had as a franchise. You're 16 and five in the last 21 games. That stands up to, you know, a lot of different teams runs over the years. But it is fun, the way that they're playing,
the matter with their playing, you make a fantastic point with the mellaball,
Because he is still the straw that stirs the drink.
But the hope that he's getting has allowed him
“to flourish physically and mentally as well.”
There's no, the models are a wonderful, wonderful player who's got a lot of things going on and is up in his wonderful head. He's an artist and heart, but he gets frustrated. And the frustration level has gone so far down
because he's got conk in it for playing with it. He's got others, but con has made everything a little bit better, just because the gravity of who he is is a player, the attention that he commands. His ability to be a second ball handler and a second creator.
All of a sudden, the mellaball's not getting double team to the half court. He's not getting physicaled, admitted to get to the ball and bounds. There's other weapons on the floor.
And he's driving him because of it. He's smiling again. The hornet's are playing with his type of character and his joy because he's allowed to be free again and not have to worry about some of the other things
that he was dealing with for years and years
and years when he was the never one option with a bullet.
He's been a problem child, though. No, he seems wildly immature. I wouldn't call him a problem child by a stretch of imagination. I think he's a good kid.
“I think he's the product of his upbringing.”
We had a lot of things that were kind of came easy to him or maybe he didn't have a stereotypical childhood. And again, it was taken out of high school and kind of placed all across the world who was dead. It's kind of hard to kind of get a good feeling
for who you are and where you are in the world and that happens. But I think he's growing into his body and growing into his game. And I've seen demonstrative changes that the course of the year.
This is by far the best two month window I've ever seen him as a professional and it's translated not just to off the floor, but on the floor as well. There's no way anyone saw a con-knebble being this right now, right? I did not.
I'm a big believer in watching adults. I don't watch a lot of college basketball and you get frustrated. But just everything that I read about the guy. Yeah, good shooter, good form, whatever.
But the guy is fantastic. Man, he is a real player. He understands where to be on the floor. He elevates the level of everyone he's playing with just because of the literally.
He gets so much attention no matter where he is because he is a knockdown shooter. I'm from Cleveland, Ohio.
I never thought I'd see a better shooter
with better form than Mark Price. But this guy is. And just because he's bigger and stronger and he can shoot from front of the distances just because of that size.
Con-knebble is, man, for people who are debating Cooper flag and con-knebble, you're missing the whole point. You've got to fall in love with con-knebble just because he is so uniquely gifted and it's going to be good for so long.
In terms of names that you enjoy saying who finishes second place all time to con-knebble? (laughing) Well, I was early and if I ever, I do a lot of, I used to do a lot of college basketball
and Sandra Mammu-Kellish-Vili. For some reason, I perfected that name years and years and years ago. So I will find a way virtually every two or three broadcasts, even when he's not playing against us.
I will find a way to say Sandra Mammu-Kellish-Vili because that feels so comfortable and that my ability to say that word. So you like saying that better than even con-knebble, you're willing to say here nationally,
you're willing to put your name on that. Well, con-knebble's great. But I don't want to kind of get caught sometimes. You know, it's certain names that you're scared of the nipple. I'm scared.
So it's always, I've got to play it right down the middle.
So it's con-knebble and I don't really kind of vary. I don't kind of get too many illusions. It's just it's con-knebble. You mentioned that the Hornet had some solid teams in the '90s, but go ahead and give me the greatest moment in franchise history.
Well, it's kind of, it'd be relatively sad, but Alonso morning hit a jump shot in the second round of the playoffs, I don't call the year, probably 94, 95 against the Celtics, to eliminate the Celtics in the first round of plays. That's the only kind of the Hornet ever made it to the second round.
That would be the biggest moment. That's the biggest shot the biggest win and it has been 30 years ago. So that's before, it's on par with heavy deal. Heavy deal is probably enjoying that.
That's unbelievable that you went to Alonso morning, pre-heat in order to get your biggest memory in franchise history, which got you to the second round. Yeah, well, the bigger things was kind of off the court. You know, the Hornet's, the attendance was insane.
It changed basketball. You know, they're the origin of all these different things. You know, the PSL, you know, they sold out nine consecutive years. You know, they led the league in attendance with 24,000 for years and years here. There was a buzz year, but there has been excessive winning.
That's for sure. Could you solve a longstanding mystery for me
“because Purple shirt guy in the eyes of Miami Heat fans?”
It's an iconic moment. He was drawing back and forth with Dwayne Wade. Dwayne Wade went demigod on him and the heat ended up advancing in that. Purple shirt guy never returned. It's almost as if he actually felt shame, which today is weird.
Usually they doubled down and just wear a purple shirt forever and become the guy on the that's sitting court side that will always annoy them. But he disappeared. Why was that? No, it knows, but he definitely, I don't even think he's even come back to be reenact in
cognito. That would have been spring of 2016, those the last time that the Hornets were in the
Playoffs and they probably should have won that playoffs series.
You know, they were up through five games that you just needed to win one more and they couldn't do it. Now, Dwayne Wade is a huge part of that. But yeah, I do think there's a bit of shame. You know, the guy, we don't do certain things in Charlotte, North Carolina.
It's a Southern Gentile city and he was ostentatious.
“And I think the locals thought that, you know, we don't need any of that.”
And I think a lot of hardcore Hornets fans thought that, dude, you cost us a win. And why are you getting underneath Wayne Wade's skin? And yeah, he's not been around to the rest of my knowledge. That was, that was, that was old Wade, too. That was Wade at the very end, the last embers of Dwayne Wade.
We didn't think any of that was still in him by that point.
He was always primed Wade when he played against the Hornets.
No matter what year of his career, it was always primed Wayne Wade. Have you ever been telling you? Eric, how, how does the Hornet fan feel about Michael Jordan these days? Well, there's always going to be a reference and a respect, you know, because Michael, just of everything he meant that only to, you know, basketball, but to this particular region.
But I think the time was perfect for them to be, for there'd be a changing of the guard. We've got literally a 180 degree different representation in terms of ownership. We've got younger guys who were not best while players who just kind of fell on love with the game and want to do things in a different way. And I think it's been a massive shot in the arm.
We've got this fantastically young, hip, smart, front office. And they're working in conjunction with the coaching staff to get players that are moldable. And are, you know, malleable to the ideas of, hey, this is Hornet basketball. And these are the ways we're going to have to try and win. And I just think that the trade deadline deal of Kobe White was hugely indicative of what the Hornets
can do in the future.
You know, the Hornets with a young core, a lot of people just figure out just the build with La Mello,
let's build a brand of Miller, Brilet Kyle Knipple. But they saw a distressed asset in Kobe White. They knew that Kobe was a guy who could fill a definitive need that the coaching staff had been talking about for months. You know, the Hornets were not great in end-of-quarter situations.
Kobe White is fantastic in two-for-ones in getting his own shot and setting up guys and taking heaves. And so they went out and got him.
“And I think that is raised the floor for this team quite a bit.”
And I think they have a really good chance of doing something over the final 17 games of the season. And maybe a plan, maybe possibly possibly get into the sixth spot. But yeah, I think things are really, really looking up right now. I think people are super excited.
Do you think there is any way that we can trick that young smart hip front office into taking back Terry Rosier? Yeah, I know, sorry, he's all yours. Okay. That was really rough, yes, but yes, no, that's not going to be rescinded.
What if I've had one trade rescinded recently? That was Mark Williams Fiasco out in that LA with the Lakers. And nothing's going to happen again. How many times will you physically actually get out of your seat while broadcasting your game? I do.
It's a very physical experience for me. And I've got a partner in Del Curry who got it suffers me. And he's totally cool with it. So it's kind of the George Costanza fact. You know, it's, we started one way.
“I mean, next year we take you to another level and another level it.”
It's all natural and fun to me. And it's just the way that I kind of enjoy a basketball game. But to give it an actual number, it's probably six times a game. Probably. Wow.
Six times a game. So are you ever, has there been during this stretch at any point, your glutes or thighs or anything in the hamstrings or nether regions is sore the next day from the amount that you're getting up out of your seat? Nothing is ever sore, but my ego every once in a while takes a couple of hits because the
people, particularly on the road, when they see me kind of get up and down and get excited about something that they've deemed to be trivial, I get glares. But I've figured out a long time this career that having a really low bar in terms of embarrassment is probably a good thing. But yes, people think that I'm kind of a nutso on the sidelines.
But who cares? It is what it is. Yeah, that sounds like a man being shifed in prison. Let me hear that again. Yeah, if I take out the ambient noise, that is somebody being stabbed by their bunk.
No, that one was more exciting. That's pretty fun. Yeah, Eric, thank you for being on with us. Congratulations on the success, sir. It's been a lot of fun.
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I've never stepped foot on that campus, if you told me right now you liked the pens on
it, go to Santa Fe University and just just take a picture. This is the beginning of NFL free agency at noon so there's going to be a lot of activity noise names, but there was an interesting thing that happened last week and we have been talking about. Do you fix the old star game?
How do you fix the old star game? Well, it's nice to see the players care. Then you have Matt Ish be going on with Pat McAfee and saying, "I know how I'll fix the three point competition and the dunk competition. I'll offer a million dollars to each player even though it's against the rules to get
them to care."
“We've been talking for two seasons, as Steph Curry and LeBron James age, who's going to be”
the face of the league? How do they become the face of the league? Jomerant falls out, Anthony Edwards, Minnesota is confusing to me. Anthony Edwards is fallen in love with the three. They're not actually that good.
They're not going to win anything. How do you become the face of the league? Crying after a regular season game because you care so much because you're with the spurs, you're rallying from 25 down. It is the second biggest home come back that the spurs have had this century.
Wemby was so tired. He got help from the clip or somehow Nicholas Batume just at the end of that game is standing out of bounds when they passed them. I wish you were there with me when I'm sitting on my couch watching this incredible come back on a second TV and being like, "I know this person, that can't be Batume.
No, it cannot be Nick Batume playing meaningful minutes in 2026. He's been for years for this. It can't be. They just want him to shoot threes and he's so comfortable doing it that he caught a ball out of bounds because that's within his range.
It's where they want him. They want him further and further away from the basket. But the end of that game, the clipers disintegrated, the spurs won and I was legitimately stunned to see Wemby exhausted, crying on the court because he cares like that and it buys him so much, do you know how rare it is for somebody who's not an American basketball player
to take the path of the face of the league? Yoca hasn't been allowed to do it even though he's been unbelievably great at least in part because his personality doesn't reveal this kind of emotion to you. He's stoic. It seems sometimes we wonder how much he actually cares, crying at the end of a regular
season game. I love it. I love it. You know, I can't sit here, obviously it's a regular season game in March, you know, that he's crying over and that's a very cynical way to look at it.
But I can't sit here and tell you my biggest criticism for the last however many years of the NBA and certainly of the NBA player is that they don't care because they don't.
And then also be critical because this player right here is crying after a win against
an under 500 team in March, like I can't play both sides like that. I love that he cares. I love when the players care and I feel like I already, I feel like I said this last week.
“I think the spurs are going to win the whole thing this year.”
I think they're going to win the whole thing and Victor Wemba Niyama is doing something unprecedented because this is a player who came into the league with hype that has never been topped. Now, maybe there's hype that's equal to it, like LeBron was equal hype, okay? Maybe even Zion Williams was equal hype.
Magic Johnson was probably equal hype as well. Magic's not exactly a great analogy because he was drafted by a really good team number one overall because they made a trade and they gave them the number one overall pick. But for Wemba Niyama, the amount of hype that he was came into the league with.
And if he wins the championship this year, in just his third year in the league, LeBron didn't win a championship until year seven and it wasn't with the team that drafted him. For him to go to a team that was terrible. And if he wins the championship in year three, matching, meeting all of the expectation,
we never seen anything like this before.
I thought he might potentially because of his size and his game be so unstoppable in this league that he might ruin it. And he's basically the Terminator and Terminator too, which is like he's humanity's greatest
Salvation potentially.
He is going to save this league. He's not jaded yet as a super sorry goes to the all star game and you would think that complacency would bleed over to him and he'd get affected by it trying to impress all the vets in that room. He's going to try and everybody follows his lead.
It's a refreshing perspective to be reminded, oh, these guys play games for a living. This should be fun and superstars should care like that for a regular season game. It's like here on Roger Bennett talk about the ideals of America. You have this appreciation for someone that is coming to you wide eyed and looking at you full of the potential and hoping and striving for who you desire to be.
“I think Wemping Yama is great for this league and as whether he wins a championship or”
not he could get bounced in the second round by by Yokech right going head to head with
him. But what he's done for the league this season moments like this with with crying after a regular season win and showing the emotion that comes with just playing a great basketball game doing what he did for the all star game. It felt like he saved the all star game and partially was the format but the way that he
motivated the guy like Anthony Edwards like I pray that the timber wolves can build a good enough team around him so that we can see those guys going head to head despite positional differences for years to come when be is doing something for this league that is rarely seen. One of the things that I find most interesting about this I'm not going to make it the most interesting thing but it's pretty damn close.
You mentioned Anthony Edwards, Jomer and face of the league. These people are a bit superhero in terms of human dimension. I've told you before that I was sitting courtside during a game with my wife and she says how tall is that small guy out there and I'm like he's taller than I am, Valerie. That's not a small person that's a that's a six five person who looks small compared to
everyone else. Kobe and Michael get credit that Karim doesn't because we don't give the giant guy this. I've told you guys before that when it comes to reading and publishing the people who read the smaller the ball, the more people read and shack, even though he's a spokesman
for everything, whenever they put him on magazine covers, they would always fail because
of how much he had to overcome as Goliath. This is the perfect player at the perfect time. You're not noticing that he's got an unfair advantage over everybody that does threaten directly because if he cares like this and stays healthy, he's too tall to play against okay see slaughters everybody and can't do anything against the height of him and the disproportionate
nature of that's more where if you've got one guy like that, you don't even have to build the team around him. They have they have good players around him, but still you don't have to have that many when you have that at the center of every.
“I think it speaks at a level of problems that the league has because it's so systemic with”
the superstars, it'll follow the lead of the superstars. Superstars aren't playing and they're willing to go with it and they don't care and they all kind of have this laser fair attitude and everyone's like, well, I wish we're like the 90s where there was intensity and people cared about things like all star games and they wouldn't miss, they wouldn't miss games that leads itself to a mentality
discussion and for whatever reason this generation of players do not have them mentality. Ambagnama is a shock to the system because he cares so deeply, he's trying to reinvent the way that those fans participate in their games during the chance injecting this European
soccer influence into it and he's basically the rising tide there, not just for that
franchise, but I think for the game as a whole. You're a star, you're also the soul-flashback, just like the rats and then the head of the system. Do you think all of this is right? Yes, exactly. This star is the star of the star who just understands the game, the game, the studio, the job or the music.
The star? The star? I don't feel like the star. The star is the lead. The star?
The star? The star? The star? The star? The star?
I went in the margins. I'm like, you're money-ball of sex. I'm basically Scott Hadabur. Not a w*****. Stugats.
A lot of walks, but I'm on base.
“When it comes to sex, it's got to be a guy.”
Other dudes that can be a GMB. You know your role you play? I know my role. This is the D'Alleba star show with a Stugats. A Yoke says he's glad he's retiring soon.
Before Lembanyama takes over the league. He says, quote, "He's changing basketball." I'm glad that I'll probably retire before when he holds the entire league and a chokehold. And quote, "I object to what you guys are saying there, and I know it's common perception.
You can't do what those people do for a living and not care at all.
It's just not possible. The people who don't care get weeded out by all of the people in management who are investing and will not allow you to not care. Now, the all star game is a different animal. That is obviously not caring.
Guys aren't playing and there's load management because of how the game has changed. Physically, how much people are getting hurt. Don't tell me Norman Powell doesn't care. I'll tell you James Harden doesn't care. But he plays all the games, though.
You say he doesn't care, but one of the things he's always out there.
He's not one of the ones load, he's not one of the ones load management. And he is. There's so many of these guys and there's just an attitude to that. Mike, then that you say an MVP of the league doesn't care. You can't be better than everyone else in that sport, not caring.
It's not possible.
“I think we're having a semantics discussion.”
Okay, fine. And it's obvious. This is not an opinion thing. The guy's crying after a regular game. I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding. You say, flatly, that nobody out there cares. It's not true. It's not good. I mean, it's the collective nature of the care.
Because what it is is so many of these guys when they come into the league with hype are trying to earn their max contract. They're looking at their individual success and their individual growth. And so that random regular season Friday night game against a team that you're probably not going to, I mean, you might face in the playoffs, but you're probably not going to face
in the playoffs. It's just a random comeback might not mean as much that you got the victory. Yeah. There's trash talk. There's moments.
There's work in the gym. There's all sorts of guys who do that. But I think what we're seeing in the reason this is standing out is you're looking at an individual who has an opportunity to be one of the greatest individual players of all time.
But what he cares about is the collective right from the jump of the career and that's rare. That's how I feel. I think there's a difference between caring, meaning you want to, you want to win a championship, like big picture you care.
I think there's a difference between that and caring every time you're out there. Like, I think Wempan Yama cares every time he's out there and I think most guys just care about the big picture, which is I want to win a championship. It is very important. And you have a generation of Superstar that is like, why, why aren't you having fun?
“This is, this is games you have to rent who seems miserable.”
I think there's a difference. Jimmy Butler is certainly Kyrie Willingley said, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not taking that vaccine. I want to play these games. I'm just not going to show up.
Gordon doesn't care, but this is, like, LeBan Yama's not going to get up there to press cover to complain about playing it.
I don't, I never know when Joel M.B. is playing these are not small names.
These are some of the biggest names at times. There were guys that were, you know, considered potential face of the league. It's even jaded Janus to the point that now he's becoming the disenfranchised Superstar. So to see the optimism that is very clear along Wemby himself and his fans, it's a breath of fresh air.
I'm objecting again and again to you guys thinking in any way or form that anyone can get to something as competitive as the meritocracy of sports where all of them care about money. You could say they don't care about other things. All of them care about money.
You can't be MVP of the league because you're so prenaturally gifted that you can beat a whole bunch of other people who are caring while you don't care. I'm not following you to that hard line. I'm not having that discussion with you. They very clearly care about their profession and making their money and on court success
is cool, but they'll play it cool. They all play it a certain way. Wemby doesn't. He cares differently and that is obvious to everyone else and that's a space that I'm living in.
I'm not going to get into debate. Jailin Brunson doesn't care about basketball. He very clearly doesn't. I'm not saying that.
“I'm saying does he care night in night out to play?”
You guys won. You guys won. Guys, crying at the end of every game where it doesn't stand out unless Wemby doesn't because no one else is doing care. You're taking me to the extremes.
No, you doesn't have to cry every game, but it's great to see occasionally.
What I'm saying is, it's amazing.
What I'm saying is the easiest thing in the world. Wemby cares in ways that are different and obvious to everybody and it's refreshing more of that, please. I think that what is sort of the irony within all of this is that for Mike individually, he has looked at a team over the last five years or so where their superstar and Jimmy Butler
is the example of what he's talking about. Someone who cares so deeply. He does. You won't find a deeper competitor or a guy who cares about his craft, the way that Jimmy Butler does.
At the same time, he looked at the regular season as a tune up for the post season.
So as someone who's consuming the product all season long, Mike became someon...
didn't really want to watch regular season games of his own team because he felt like
on any given night, Jimmy might coast through that game, might be conserving energy for another game later in the year. So what I'm intrigued for is, when be later in his career, once he's one, one, two, three,
“four championships, is that a motion still going to be there?”
The way it was with someone like Michael Jordan, who every single night was that competitor. I actually think so, but that's really I think where this comes from. I think the modern MBA player is a lot like Kevin Durant in that I know you care. Kevin Durant very clearly. All he cares about, I think is the game.
But why is so miserable, okay, why we're playing games? Okay, he's miserable, though, because of everything that surrounds the games. If indeed you believe he's miserable, I think he likes this one thing and is exceptional at this one thing and cares deeply about this one thing. But I'm just going to continue to stop you when you tell me that I play in, I'm watching
the era of Steph Curry's the greatest shooter I've ever seen. How did he get that way? How did he become? Not following you there.
“I know Steph cares, but, LeBron, LeBron, how is LeBron an unprecedented player?”
How does that happen? Do you care every night? Do you care the way that I care watching the TV because I want you to care, I buy your jersey. I'm buying a ticket.
You don't care to play because you're doing, the league is at a different place right now. They're saving their legs and there's minutes restrictions and all this and that. The person watching TV wants people to care the way that Wemby does and what I'm saying is more of that plea. How do you guys not notice so, honestly?
Like I get how it is that basketball used to be and the way that we long for a different time. But how do we forget so quickly the lessons of the pandemic, which is when these guys weren't traveling all over the place, weren't tired, it's the best basketball you've ever seen. And they weren't flying all over the place, having practices in different places, trying
to get like because I really don't think that the average fan, sports fan, not basketball fan, understands that these guys, after the Miami heater playing two games because they've changed the schedule at home against Brooklyn, that they're flying out and they're getting to Charlotte at five o'clock in the morning, that they're flying overnight and they're arriving in a city at five o'clock in the morning after I know they fly private and
everything else, but they're flying on an airplane, like they're sleeping on airplanes. How do you guys forget that during the bubble, we saw better basketball than we've ever seen at least in part because these guys were simply rested. I'll just give you an example, I mean, I was on the Miami heat broadcast for 12 years.
And there would be home games where it's the first night of a back-to-back.
And so the team is going to fly immediately after the game in Mike Engliss, who was our play by play guy was the only one of our radio team who traveled with the team. I didn't travel, obviously John Croddy didn't travel back then, he was on the radio with us. And after the game, we'd get up and I would leave in Mike with head toward where the team
is going to go to travel.
“I remember seeing myself like, holy shit, it sounds really terrible to get on an airplane”
right now. And I'm just a broadcaster and these guys are going to play me. This sounds miserable if I had to go get on an airplane right now. I do think that most people listening to this simply lose sight because they are such majestic athletes and the past did us no favors by making 82 games a regular thing.
But we've seen all of these organizations care less about the regular season and you guys keep blaming the players for care and less.
And it's never, it's never management doing this because they're trying to get to the
playoffs healthy. You're never putting that blame on management because, systemically, they're allowing guys to take off who are making a bunch of money because they're trying to protect their bodies. In a world full of choise, be a Wemby.
Put it on the pole at Levittard Show in a world full of choise, be a Wemby.



