The Big Suey: I Say Unto Thee (feat. Amin Elhassan)

(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. - Dan-Divine points out that in Will Chamberlain's 100-point game as the New York Knicks intentionally found other Philadelphia warriors to try to keep the ball away from him. The warriors responded by intentionally fouling the Knicks

to get the ball back so they could funnel it to him.

- Ethical hoops. Nobody cares about the details as history marches on.

“I think Mike Ryan also forgets the post-Labron”

before Jimmy years of Miami Heat basketball that started the way that he feels about the Miami Heat in general, which was a stretch like this that didn't include finals appearances in it. But the moment has been grabbed

and you can't have right now pure sports moments without argument. Not the way that all of this is consumed and discussed. And so, Miami Heat fans, especially the ones who were in the building,

were thrilled watching that last night. But I believe you're gonna get poison right now that has nothing to do with the Miami Heat, nothing to do with Bam out of Iowa, and nothing to do with even Kobe Bryant.

If you don't like what basketball has become, yesterday will become a symbol for why you don't like it because the numbers have been distorted and now Bam out of Iowa is in a place among Kobe and Wilk that he shouldn't be, right?

Like that's not a place that he belongs historically. That list, one, two, felt right at a hundred points, 81 points, but let's bring in Amino Hassan. What do you think Amino is gonna be the national reaction to this?

What was your reaction to this last night? - Yeah, it's weird then because in many ways, I wonder if these are different algorithms that play my algorithm had nothing about this isn't real basketball or basketball stinks now.

My algorithm was all about people thinking that Kobe Bryant's legacy was somehow tarnished or disrespected because he seemed to intentionally go after the record as opposed to some sort of moral way of like, oh,

he's got 83 points in a driveway, going up hill both ways while snowing barefoot. So I don't know, I really can't tell you what the national kind of reaction is because everyone's consuming different reactions

because of algorithms on social media. As far as my reaction, it was kind of like, oh my God, is this happening? And then I thought when it was like 70 points and it was in the fourth quarter,

I thought to myself, oh, they're gonna pull them. They're not gonna go for it. And then I realized they're going for it. I said, holy crap, is he gonna get it?

“And what's Washington going to do to try to stop it?”

And so I thought it was a great fun night for basketball and I think people complaining usually have an ulterior motive. - Was Washington out of line for the way they were playing the final few minutes?

- No, I mean, that's, look, I don't know if you guys ran the video Sam Mitchell, who was the coach of the Toronto Raptors in Kobe Drop 81. He was on the Raptors broadcast last night and they broke out champagne and set a toasting.

No, you do whatever it takes. You try everything in your power to stop that guy from doing it. And unfortunately Washington didn't have a whole lot of power to do that.

They didn't actually break out champagne or you making it in that up. That they bring champagne out. - Sam Mitchell didn't have a TV. - Where did he get you?

(laughing) - It's like James Worthy with a cigar. - He just, he had champagne nearby. - In case. (laughing)

To celebrate that somebody didn't even break the record.

That somebody broke the second place

finished here for most points allowed by an individual in a game, former coach of the year, Sam Mitchell broke out champagne to celebrate that. - Not only that, he definitely pulled the Mercury Morris, but the reverse Mercury Morris,

but he also gave some life advice. Yeah, there he is. (laughing) And Raptors broadcasts on TSM, toasting right there, but he gave some advice.

A life advice to the Wizards Coach. Like telling them, hey man, like it happens and you just gotta take it a chin at the end of the day you're not playing. So you really are limited in the total number

of things you can do.

“- I mean, do we know for sure that world scored 100?”

Like it's a possible that BAM is scored the most points ever in an NBA game? - No, my kid actually asked me this yesterday in the car. Said, "Well, how do you think it was fake?" And I said, "No, we had the radio broadcasts."

My kid said, "Well, they could have fake that."

I said, "Yes, but they had the radio broadcasts

for as long as I can remember.

This isn't a function of like the last 10 years or so where people are doctrine things left and right. It's documented. Everybody knows what he did in that game. The box score is there and it's existed for decades.

The radio broadcast is there and it's existed. It's just that nobody was there in terms of cameras

“and that's why we are naturally kind of skeptical.”

- Cody says he was there. He remembers it clearly even though there is no video proof anywhere of this. Pablo Tory finds out did a deep dive on it. It has all the facts if you want to check out

what is not in any way up for dispute on the history of this. But as you consume, not your algorithm, but you love NBA Twitter, your in-mashed in the tapestry of everything that is NBA conversation. What are the interesting things that you have either

observed yourself or heard others say about this in the instant reaction to the aftermath afterward? - Well, to me, I wondered a lot of things as I consumed my version of the reaction which was again very Kobe centric.

I wondered, first and foremost,

if it's in part because of who it is, who did the breaking? If Donovan Mitchell had done this in the same exact fashion, if Lucas Donget had done this in the same exact fashion, if Jalen Brunson had done this in the same exact fashion,

I don't know if the uproar would have been quite as loud.

“I think there is a feeling that like bam out of bio”

who is not quote unquote abuck it to use their parlance for him to occupy this space. That feels like some sort of trees or some sort of blasphemy, right? Then obviously, you know, bam shot 43 free throws. And again, he's not a guy that shoots a whole lot of free throws

a game so that kind of felt out of balance for a lot of people, but then obviously Kobe Bryant, the fact that Kobe held this record and that Kobe's no longer with us. That people kept bringing that up and was like,

oh, that's disrespectful, the man can't even, as if Kobe could have suited up the next day and trying to go, I'll go get 85, just to make sure I still have a number. Oh, but that is so, that is so real.

You cannot win arguments against a dead man, like the Kobe Bryant's legacy was, it must've been clouded because of the way that he died and now people protect him really preciously as if their sainthood involved there.

His memory, his legacy, all of it. - Yeah, absolutely, Dan, again, there was already kind of very zealous his fandom before he passed away. I used to make a joke when I was on the jump

that it's a nation, the nation of Kobe Stan and these are the Kobe Stanis and they're ruled by the Knights of the Triangular Table and everything is all about that flag, even him over the Lakers even.

They would rather see him flourish and the Lakers struggle than the other way around. And obviously when he passed away, I kind of have to retire that bit because it's a very sad, tragic passing,

especially the circumstances with his daughter and the other children that were on that helicopter and so you gotta ease off the gas, but basketball moves on. And regardless of whether he's alive

or not or how he passed away or not is this record was broken and wasn't nothing Kobe or any of the Kobe Stanis can do about it and we're just gonna keep living until someone drops 84 or 85 or whatever's next.

One more point on that though in terms of the precious sort of rosary bead clutching on that Kobe Bryant was a religious figure before he died in terms of, in terms of how zealous the people are around him

and now even more so, I mean, like now, that the way that this is being reacted to preciously isn't in protection of basketball. I don't believe as much as it is in protection of his memory.

Then I don't know if we have a sui for Bestie Martin, but that might be it. - I like to put one eye on it. - Good point. - Zaz, what do you have here?

- I forgot what else can I ask him. - Okay, when you look at what it is, I mean that happened last night and people use it to celebrate their dislike of basketball. What do you do with that?

- Well, I think these are, look, I tend to dwell in a place where I don't have to defend

“something that I don't like to other people, right?”

I for instance, don't care for cricket. Try to watch a title on a two confusing two boring. What I don't do is spend every waking minute of my life trying to tell people a cricket stinks. Even though cricket is a massively popular sport

by some calculations,

the second most popular sport in the world,

Above basketball, by just a number of people playing it.

But again, I don't care. And so I move on.

“So I would urge everyone who feels the need”

to point out the best well stinks. Like, why do you care so much about something that does not interest you? - That's the part that feels frustrating, right? It's like, do you guys like basketball

or do you like complaining about basketball? It feels like the last couple years, everybody likes complaining about basketball and not watching the actual sport, 'cause everybody says the regular season's dead.

I mean, we just had an incredible game last night

between the Celtics and between the spurs. And the night before, SGA has his two-time MVP moment hitting a clutch dagger three against Yoke who's averaging the best numbers of his career. And he's had three MVP seasons.

- Yeah, no, it's been a tremendous season. I think the only downside is kind of some of the injuries that have happened. We wish these teams were a full strength, but like we've had great moments,

great games, great performances across the board. And so I don't know, Tony, to be honest with you. I don't know what they want. I don't know if this is an, again, we live in an age where people are saying things

and doing things because it gets attention

“because it picks up traction and maybe that's why.”

But again, I think we all have things in life, TV shows, movies, the books, whatever, sports that we don't like. We don't spend most of our time talking about how much you don't like, I hate Hamilton.

It came up, I talked about how much I hated it. And that's it, like I don't spend every day talking about how much Hamilton sucks. - This episode is sponsored by Better Help. March is one of those months where we talk

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Let's play for a mean that Tim McMan sound from earlier in the show so he can hear

What some of the old heads are saying.

You are like he's jacking up threes while being trouble-teamed.

“I mean it was just, it honestly was just awful, hideous, disgusting, basketball down”

the stretch that I admit I was cracking up laughing while watching, but I never, ever, ever,

ever, ever, ever. Want to hear about heat, culture, and professionalism and all that crap again because that was the most blatant stat chasing I've ever seen. Honestly it was the worst stat chasing since Ricky Davis tried to get a rebound on the wrong basket to get a triple double.

The difference is this was minutes and minutes and minutes and minutes and extend the game stat chasing. So it was embarrassing for the lizards. Agree just for the heat, but hey you got your 83. I enjoyed the ethical 39 by Winby Moore and I enjoyed the egregious 83, but I'm old.

I'm grumpy. I admit it. I mean, I didn't know that the lizards played last night. That's incredible. But he played the wizards and the lizards, tremendous thing.

It's his thing. He replaces the W with an L. Sure. Okay. I don't look man, he said he was offended by someone shooting over triple teams.

Oh, I wonder was there a player in NBA history who routinely shot over double and triple teams despite having open teammates because he may be he was trying to get buck. I can't think of any, definitely not one that worked 24 or eight in their career or sad. It's ridiculous. Yeah.

We're just, we are basically arbitrarily saying things.

Look, if there's someone that you want to blame, so only you want to be angry at, it's the Washington wizards. Right? They're the ones who could not come up with a game plan to stop Bam out of bio again. I must reiterate, not the amount of the Mitchell.

You asked him to be aggressive. He was finally aggressive. You say the same as the address until he's more aggressive, you will not call him Bam. He was aggressive. It was aggressive last night.

Absolutely. He did. It look is 83 points, 73 points, 63 points, even 53 points ever achievable for him again. We'll see, but I would bet no, but again, he has a capacity to be a bigger offensive player than he has shown thus far.

I truly believe that. And for Tim McMahon, talking about professionalism and class, again, it's a game. They tip the ball, their whistles, their rest, the score keepers, you play. Again, you want to talk about professionalism? What happened to the wizards?

Why are they so incapable of stopping a player who's not known to be offensively great? Right? Everyone talks about all people milling it in. The heat and mill it in, clearly they looked at us and their best player got 83 points.

“So again, I would say, if you have a problem with it, maybe you need to go back to”

YMCA basketball where they, you know, they have mercy rules and things like that, maybe that's a more comfortable place for you and your pure ethical basketball. I'm really, I'd say a fence to that. Like the idea that everything in the mind he does a franchise or a bout now means nothing as a result of what happened last.

That offends me. I don't understand how I'm short-sighted. It's a emotional, it's reactionary and he said himself at the end of it and I'm an old person. Yeah, it should have here.

It should have been, okay. As it should have been on two levels, level one, the fact that one night could invalidate a decades of a way of doing things that we know. We know for a fact, dozens of teams across the league do not do things to that level, so that level of efficiency or class or or discipline, right?

So that's one level of achievement. The other level that you should offend you is that that was somehow unclassy or unprofessional. What did they do? They played basketball. They won the game.

They did it with however means they did it.

If you have a problem, again, we always say this, we'll go all the way back to when Cleveland

had LeBron the first time around and remember when they used to be up big at home games, they would play Rick Asley and then Danny Green with all Danny Green was known for, was dancing

“at the end of a blowout because he never played, right?”

Obviously, he went on to have a great career, but at that point in his career, he was just known as the dancing fool when Rick Asley comes on because they would ask, and I remember there were teams and scouts and coaches like, I hate them. I can't believe it's so unclassy, and my response back then is the same as it is now. If you don't like it, then go out there and stop them from doing it.

That's night, it's worth noting that the heat war without coloware, the other center on their team. There's no yovitch, so they didn't have anybody else to fill those minutes other than Kishad Johnson. They didn't have hero or Powell or Wiggins, all of their other scores, so they needed

BAM to come out aggressive, which is what happened in that first quarter with...

and then late in the game ends up being a 12-point game in the fourth quarter, so they

needed to keep them out there, but then late in the game, all the BS starts happening. But I mean, can we move to the space where we just talk about how impressive it is to get

“83 points in a game regardless of what's happening, because I think we framed this all”

around other people's negativity. BAM at a bio had 83 points in a game yesterday, a guy who came into this league to be a defender in a lobster. Right. He said the game in this league, when we're talking about up until two nights ago, we're still

talking about, hey man, you got to be more than just a defender in a lobster. So it's definitely a remarkable, remarkable achievement. Again, I use, man, you talk about someone who went out there and put up 43 field goal attempts. People think that's all.

If you gave me 43, I'd guarantee you there's a Zillion MBA players out there that if you gave them 43 attempts, they wouldn't even get there because A is hard to put up 43 legitimate attempts, and B, it was exhausting to put up 43 legitimate attempts. So what he did out there was a testament to stamina, a testament to his skill level. And again, I don't see anything untoward about it.

How many players in MBA history have scored 80 points? Him, Kobe, and, and, and, and well, and so if this thing is so easy, or if it's so easily manipulated, why aren't there more 80 point games? It's a real question, especially in this era where defenses are worse on the bottom end than they've ever been.

I mean, he took 86 shots last night between free throws and between field goals, 86 shots. Is that the most in MBA history? Because I'm trying to do the research on it. I don't think anybody else has taken 83 86 combined shots in history. Ah, yeah, I mean, I'm to top my head, I would say it's either him or will, just off the

rip, but I, you know, 86 shots, man, that's a lot. And again, people say, oh, but Kobe only shot 20 free throws or whatever it was, and I said, well, sounds like Kobe didn't make it as hard on the raptors as badmout about it. Did on the wizards? I actually thought as someone who has said a lot, I mean, that the people watching

basketball, even the ardent followers don't generally have a real appreciation for how difficult it would be for any of us to advance the ball even to half court if the wizards even were saying, you will not advance the ball to half court. If any group of five of us tried to get the ball over half court and, and, and Alex saw is out there, and, and we would not be able to get the ball over half court.

The athleticism involved in just getting an in bounds when there are three people, if three NBA players trying to prevent you from doing that, all of that is going to get lost in the wash and today's discussion, what you're talking about, the just the difficulty of actually getting open, even if it's just the wizards preventing you with three guys from trying to get open.

Yeah, then you took a step that I never liked to take, which is like, it'd be hard for

any of us, right?

“Of course, it's hard for anybody, but that's why we're not in the NBA.”

I always compare NBA players to other NBA players, it's like, again, it's hard for a lot NBA players to bring the ball up against that kind of pressure. That's hard for a lot of NBA players to get open under that kind of intensity and scrutiny. That's not a a human kind of predicament. That is an NBA player predicament, and so again, I say unto the, if BAM somehow used the

cheat code like we're playing Legend of Zelda or or something like that, then why hasn't anyone else employed it? Why isn't anyone else doing it? And the reality is there are no cheat codes. There's a ball, there's a whistle, there are lines, there's score keepers, there are referees.

And then your job is to try to get, you know, as many points as you can and they're trying to stop you and under those conditions, he did it better than anyone else other than will. The other thing I'll say, and this is important, you know what this up or really about. Maybe it's not about Kobe, maybe it's not about BAM's place in history, maybe it's not

about basketball today at the goal versus non-ethical or any of those things. Maybe it's just about people who use singular numbers to worship everything. This is the sixth rings is why Michael is better.

“There are 81 points, that's why Kobe is better.”

And when someone who is not of the chosen class so to speak ends up with one of these numbers, we have to find an answer, we have to find an explanation that's not, oh, he may be he's better than Kobe, of course he's not better than Kobe, we all know that, BAM knows

that he even said it in his postgame press conference, but the reality is if you live your

life with a number being the reason why someone is, this is why Kobe is better than Brown. Because he had 81. Okay. Now BAM walks in with 83 and you're like, all of a sudden, that argument doesn't work anymore.

So either you stick to your argument in which case BAM is better or you accept that maybe

Just maybe a number isn't the thing that makes it player better than another.

On the poll, please, should your basketball analyst ever say, quote, I say unto the while

“doing his basketball analysis, and to a means point, okay, we can discuss this at nauseam.”

There are very few numbers in basketball, very few that matter and BAM now has one that matters forever. Like go ahead and name all the numbers, you guys think matter because LeBron's about to set the record for whatever it is, most feel goals ever, nobody cares. Hit.

Okay. Yeah. So give me all the numbers. I mean, give me all the numbers that you as a basketball sacred person, find sacrosanct.

There's one number that is sacrosanct, I put it on everything that will never, ever, ever,

ever be broken. Will Chamberlain, for a season, average 48 and a half minutes again. Ladies and gentlemen, they're only 48 minutes in and then be again. Okay. That's a part of the show.