The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: Mike Ryan's Messi Victory Lap

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

Is the news of Lionel Messi heading to Inter Miami bigger news for Messi, Miami, or Mike Ryan? As David Samson joins the show, Mike takes his victory lap on being right about the Messi story all along. Mike and David debate who deserves credit for Messi landing in Miami between Inter Miami ownership and MLS, and David also breaks down how the Saudis are infiltrating sports rapidly and the "sportswashing" happening across the pro sports landscape. Plus, sober NBA correspondent Mo Dakhil joins us to discuss NBA coaching value and listen to the list Tony found of the Top 75 Ballers of All-Time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. Welcome to the big suite, presented by Giraffe King. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Levitard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to 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 man to nowhere, that face and the habitual liar. Tony is laughing uproariously. Our timing is again bad on David Samson, even though the business of sports good, God.

Do we need some help understanding the business of sports today? Because two monster moves in the last couple of days. One is live golf somehow, getting the outrage of everybody as Phil Mickelson wins all the money and Tiger Woods. Hey, congratulations, Tiger Woods, for having principle. Cost you a billion dollars. You've got principle, PLE, Mickelson's got principle, P-A-L.

I mean, we got to do an entire segment just on Tiger finding out day of I mean Literally the only guy that was bigger than the tour in his heyday Let me tell you something if Tiger Woods decided to break off and create his own tour He does not have trouble finding a television deal This is unbelievable for a lot of reasons and it's money winning greed winning rarely this overtly rarely this brazenly but yes, Tiger Woods could have stu gots if he didn't respect the traditions of the masters. Black guy with no voice on anything living at the country club makes all his money and then at the end Greg Norman and Michelson steal it because they're like, woo hoo, oil money.

We'll get to that in a second. Big victory for greed yesterday, but... Finally. Mike Ryan is taking a victory lap right here, Tony. How would you describe what Mike Ryan has been doing here as the international reporter, the only one who had everything on the biggest athlete in the world correct that Messi is coming to Miami. This shit's crazy.

If you're not watching on YouTube, he's got a Messi shirt on and he's been showing it kind of like a, somebody would a jersey when they're in front of a camera and he's got his tongue out. He's doing like this kind of thing where he puts his finger on his elbow and he hits a three, that kind of thing. Give me my flowers. Write the whole damn time. Didn't you say that you weren't saying he was coming here that just it's possible?

I didn't wanna give a prediction. I didn't wanna give a prediction, but my reporting the entire time was accurate. While people were saying he was resigning with PSG, while people were saying Barça, while people were saying it was done and dusted that he was going to Saudi. I remain firm that inner Miami's contact with Lionel Messi's camp was regular and conversations were deep.

Deal points were talked out and that inner Miami, while dismissed by all of legacy media and all the best insiders that got this story completely wrong were in this were a serious threat were finalists for Lionel Messi and this was going to be the week. Don't doubt me. We got him. We got him. To be honest, this is a bigger day for Mike Ryan than it is for Messi. Yeah.

That's sad. This is Mike. This is Mike's number one day here. It's well can't spell fabrication without fab. Oh, he's going after the world of international. So the world of international soccer said he was resigning with PhD back in December, but I knew things anybody who's been listening to this show knows that Mike has been right about everything when it comes to the reporting of that story. We'll get more information on why he made that decision.

But David, why are you shaking your head? Because he's eating up three minutes of your time. What you said, David. But this news just broke by plenty of reputable reporters. So it's time. I'm sorry. It's a great soccer player of all time choosing South Florida. I apologize, David.

Florida's Samson is supposed to be here on Thursday. He's not because there's a game three. But you have David upset that Mike took up too much of his time. Well, Samson's down to like nine minutes now in this segment. You used to be an hour on Thursdays. Why were you shaking your head? No. I'm shaking my head because my quads hurt because I've been sitting up at attention because I'm too short for the live show since I was told to be here at 930. That's why I'm

shaking my head. Okay, so we've kept you waiting 15 minutes on what is now a reduced. Add attention. Add attention to us. And it also should be noted that why I'm shaking my head. Okay, so we've kept you waiting 15 minutes on what is now a reduced- Add attention, add attention to OLS. And it also should be noted that it's not intermiami who's getting messy, it's MLS. So while I do give my credit for saying that intermiami is involved, they're like the conduit for the deal that's happening.

And it's not MLS, it's not Miami doing the negotiating. It's MLS because only chance he has of coming here is if he gets a piece of the Apple deal and gets a piece of the Adidas deal of those sponsorships, this is a league deal and they're placing them in a market where they need to make sure that they've got stars in order to get the building built, which I assume they've broken ground

and it's opening, I guess, in the year or two, I've not been down to Mel Reese recently. I have, it looks overgrown like a jungle. It's actually pretty creepy. Wait, is they not started construction at all? No, no, no. As I understand it, their lease doesn't begin until they start construction,

so they've actually saved money against this and keep in mind the valuation of the club goes up. The second shovels go into dirt. So maybe they're holding off. So messy when he agrees to this deal formally and the deal points come out that he has equity in the club can actually get more initially because the value of this club is about to skyrocket. I will push back on the notion that this is a league deal and not an inner Miami deal. Inner Miami was the team that has been negotiating with Messi's camp for years. Inner Miami's ownership was the people taking direct face to face meetings with Messi's camp.

Apple and Adidas came into this very recently and the league is doing credit to MLS They are doing whatever they can to help this deal go through and they're leveraging their partners But to say that this is a league deal takes credit away from the Moss family and inner Miami for getting this done The Moss family couldn't get the deal done not because they don't have the money or not because they're not liquid enough David the Moss family just got the deal done. The most family just got to deal for what was needed to even potentially be in the conversation to get messy. They don't have the ability to offer a piece of the Apple deal.

It has to be the lead. You're mistaken. You're mistaken. And the Saudi money late in the game did change the dynamics of the deal and allowed for the partner, the league partners to step up to the plate and make this a more robust offer on an annual value basis. But messy choosing Miami isn't necessarily for dollars. When you have Saudi Arabia coming in offering you essentially a billion dollars a year, that

is really difficult to say no to. So in a last bit of leveraging, MLS and its league partners had to sweeten the pot to get this deal done. One of them is getting equity in Miami, or is he gonna get the chance the way Beckham did to get into an expansion team at a lower value age? He is absolutely getting a percentage of the club.

He is 100% getting a percentage of the club. Will this be a launch pad for him to have additional opportunities? I've heard that. I haven't had that directly confirmed by my sources. I've heard that actually from Emma Less sources. I know I've heard from Emma Less sources that he had conversations

additionally with a group that was trying to put together a club in Las Vegas, but make no mistake about it. This was Inter Miami's deal wired wire. MLS may have gotten in the game late, but the conversations were always going through the Moss family. David, though, I understand what it is that you're saying, right? Because what has just happened with the Moss family is the guy who's a gas bag who sat next to Jeffrey Lourier in an All-Star game. And when it came time to buy the Marlins, didn't actually have the money has now negotiated in a place where it's very hard to come by land a sweet, sweet land deal contingent upon building

something near the airport that will have to be built quickly by Miami. Good luck with that. Built well by Miami. Good luck with that. I'm keep in mind they built the the stadium in Fort Lauderdale very quickly. But this was a giant swing. You can tell. But this was a giant swing to bring the biggest athlete in sports at the height of his leverage and power to make American soccer work because messy in Miami, he doesn't have anything else to prove in international soccer.

He can start building his brand post retirement like Brady and LeBron, because he's going to have equity, because he's just used all his power to make MLS matter more than it has. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post.

And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan's post. And to Dan is saying was a huge part of this. When Messi lifted that cup over the winner, the game changed and Inter Miami's chances only increased from them, but from there because Messi had nothing else to prove. It was all legacy plays. He had nothing else to prove in Europe. If you want to take pot shots that he wasn't able to push PSG over

that final hump and get champions like fine, but he was the best player in the world during his most important time, a legacy defining competition. Perfect way to retire is here with what is left of his brand management. David, it's just a monster move. His family wanted to be here. He's going to be a mogul in the United States. And this is, we'll see if MLS is gamble and Apple's gamble, we'll pay off. So far, it has not.

I have very strong opinions about putting the entire sport behind a paywall. I think it was counterintuitive to the growth of this sport. But now, whenever you get Apple TV ads instead of Ted Lasso's face, you're going to see Lionel Messys and that is a major major coup. And I am so sorry to eat into your time because I know we've been yo yoing you around. And I do want to talk live PGA will bring you back for the next segment. This news just so happened to finally break during your segment.

And I apologize for that, but I don't want you to dismiss inter-Miami and Moss family from what just happened here because they got the stadium, they saved the team, and they saved Messi. They got Messi. So I understand, take it all the shots, and I know that they didn't have the capital to do anything other than just be a stalking horse for a potential owner, but they got this done.

Yeah, you don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Having Messi and Miami is huge for MLS. I'm merely saying that what got him over the finish line was not Miami or Moss or his branding or any of it. It was still money. They had to come up with an offer that had to include upside from Apple and Adidas or else it wasn't gonna happen.

That was my only point. We don't have time in this segment to get into all of the layers of what happened with live. So stay there, David. We will come back with you and talk about everything that's happening here. This quad, though, I mean. Yes, his quads, please.

I'm gonna slouch for a few minutes if you don't mind. You should, yes. But just before we get to it, before I just wanna know your general feeling as someone who does a podcast called Nothing Personal, as someone who is brazenly and obnoxiously, always telling us corporate greed and business when always don't romanticize sports, don't be a fool.

Have you ever seen anything as brazen as what it is the PGA and lived did yesterday? And this is speaking to somebody who stole the expose from Canada and put them in Florida. No, I didn't. The answer is yes. What was brazen about yesterday is how badly Jay Monahan did this. The PR, the not communicating with his players, the not getting buy-in, all of those things were part of the problem and it's going to cost him his job. It took me about 22 minutes on nothing personal this morning to go through this deal and to come to the conclusion with an official wait to see, Jayanehan's finished. Bungled it worse than I've ever seen a CEO or a commissioner do with any deal ever and this is with Rob Manford taking Phantom Golf

swings during a lockout. Love you David. Hello, someone listen to me. I need help. I'm in Barcelona and the creatures are everywhere. If you listen to the rice, you listen to what you hear, you're going to put your eyes on. Las criaturas están por todas partes. A raíz, ¡blook, la raíz! Escucheis lo que escuchéis, tapados los ojos. La calle vamos todos a cieras, pero lo más aterradores no saber en qué confiar. Uy de las personas que os piden que mireis. Si queréis seguir convido. ¡Dan Lebatard. We all know the words, Alas, resort.

You know how I know it's a hit? Roy, Roy, you absolutely know all the words. I like N2P. Vinicilaric. You're lying. Roy, I'm having that. Is Roy going to get the first ever attack from the chickens? Are you all accused of lying that he does

right? That's all that we're talking about. Still gots. Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! That's a guitar part. This is the Don Lebertar Show with his two cats. I sense in the room something that feels like tension. What do you need? My crying is as happy as I've ever seen him

and it doesn't appear to me that the room is happy for him I'm ecstatic for him That's my brother Michael Shodden Freud Yep I'm happy, I don't have to talk the rest of the show I'm happy for him I'm more worried about the pants this time

I'm trying to figure out how me and student get a season ticket and another message Exactly Should've listened to me before the season, Bub I'm happy for him. I'm more worried about the pants. I'm trying to figure out how me and student get season tickets and other messy. Exactly. Listen to me before the season, Bob. Well, I'm happy that I don't work for the Marlins anymore, because this is just another reason to put them lower and lower in the news cycle in Miami. They're pretty good baseball team, Dave. Yeah. And no one cares. And now with messy coming to Miami, that's it. It's done. If they even get the stadium built down near the Miami airport, that's it for Marlins Park,

that's it for the Marlins. Arise would have to hit 400 for the season and it would still not get the column inches as if messy scores and equalizer in a regular season MLS game. I don't believe we are measuring things in column inches anymore, newspaper man. I't believe that that these are the newspaper wars uh... i do believe though

that if you thought my grand was obnoxious before we have now reach the bob stage of the arrogance where he's referring to others as bob because he got this so internationally right and the credible to God. He kicked the ass of the wages of the world. Like the international reporters are bigger than combined, chefter and wages followings. Bigger because this is the biggest athlete in the world. And somehow this show has had all the correct news. This is going to fall out of the world. And somehow this show has had all the correct news. This is going to fall

out of the sky. People are going to be stunned that Messi just chose Miami. I have some more reporting to do and I'll give more details. We've eaten up enough of David Samson's time. I am fascinated by the live story. I am fascinated by the spot that they put their biggest sores that put themselves on an island and actually many in many respects for some taking a principle saying for the first time ever publicly going into the political realm for the first time ever publicly and they found out day of I cannot imagine what Tiger Woods was thinking when the news came across his desk. I can't imagine what Rory was thinking and how embarrassed he must have felt. Tiger was probably thinking, how are you going to make up the 800 million that I turned

down and perhaps I'll replace you when they fire you as Commissioner of the PGA tour? That's probably what Tiger was thinking. David, condense what you did on nothing personal for us here because there are so many layers to this. The floor's yours. Take like all the interesting parts of this and tell us what you think. So the reason this merger happened is PGA decided that they needed financing.

And so to boil it down, this is a really big sponsorship deal and they decided to take Saudi money into PGA who become the biggest investor in what they're calling a new company. The PGA tour and live are merging to form a new company where Jay Monahan or whoever the Commissioner of PGA tour is reporting to the head of the investment fund who also runs an oil company and sits on boards and all sorts of other nefarious things. He's now in charge of golf. and fund, who also runs an oil company and sits on boards and all sorts of other nefarious things.

He's now in charge of golf. But PGA says we've got more seats. We get to still play by our rules and have our schedule. What they're not telling you is that all of the prize money that will go to Rory McElroy or Tiger Woods or whoever wins the tournaments is coming in from Saudi Arabia. What happens if the broadcasters walk away or the sponsors walk away? PGA tour is saying no problem. We'll go on CW because we're getting so much money from Saudi Arabia.

No problem. NBC, ESPN, all the other networks, they'll stay with us because now we have everybody together again. Kumbaya, my lord, Kumbaya. Except, they forgot to talk to the employees. And I'm the first one to tell you, you don't need to involve all employees in big decisions that are being made strategically for your company. However, in golf, it's different

because the commissioner is not owned by owners or appointed by owners, it's actually the players job. He's there to represent the players and he chose not to. I don't care that Greg Norman didn't know anything, he was a figurehead, overpaid, doesn't know anything about anything, no problem. But to not go to your biggest stakeholders in the game

is the biggest mistake I've ever seen in a sports business transaction. The merger makes sense, because Saudi Arabian money is coming to America, Eddie Murphy style. It's coming to the NBA, it's gonna come to MLB, and it's not gonna be long before you've got ownership of North American teams by Saudi Arabian money and funds. But that said, the clumsiness in this deal is like nothing I've ever seen.

The public golf fans want players to boycott. Players are upset. They want the commissioner fired. Some players have suggested they might boycott. Like, David, how How does this get fixed is there a way that this gets fixed over time? You can boycott until you've got a payment to make so it takes money to be rich and the reason why rich people want to get richer is because they have a lifestyle that needs to be funded and you can say that Tiger Woods can start his own tour. He can't the amount of billions of dollars that are being put in by Saudi Arabia into the live tour is something Tiger Woods could never do. Josh Harris is one of our biggest billionaires, right? And he's putting together a group to buy the commanders. And the reason it hasn't been approved is he's cobbling together money,

figuring it all out and waiting for NFL approval. Saudi Arabia can come in and write a check, Steve Balmer style, but even bigger. And so one of the things I said to nothing personal that the live check out upset about, but picture this scenario. What if Saudi Arabia came to the 32 NFL owners and said we want to offer about $1 to $2 trillion and we want to buy every team

and we're gonna value teams at a minimum of 25 billion. And Jerry Jones, we're giving you 100 billion for your team. Do you not see a scenario where Saudi Arabia could take over leagues, not just teams and players? This is happening. This level of sports washing is real. And this is dipping their toe in the water with live and now merging with this is one of the reasons David that this is so offensive. Okay, because

of course, even the even tiger woods gets trampled by this cement mixer, this greed, this blood money, as we all wonder, well, everybody's taking money, right? But ballies, regional networks and baseball go to funk and these leagues need draft kings, need fan dual, and now need more where are the oil wells? Let's go find the literal oil wells. Let's go find people who might bone saw a journalist, but numbers on dollars don't mean anything to them. They just bought golf, and they bought golf as a starting point this

is what i ask you about the transaction of it david because this part's confusing live wasn't working even though it was costing billions of dollars but holy shit what a good investment if you could just buy golf and that's what they did because live was not working but the pga caved anyway because their commissioner is what you just saw, which is not an actual leader, not an actual leader of anything. Dan, it wasn't working, but they don't care. They don't define it by whether or not they make money or not. It worked perfectly.

Like, what Liv was doing, worked perfectly. Just to threaten the coward, just to threaten somebody. It's exactly their plan, Dan. So, you're looking at this as a rational P&L person, like you're the CEO of an actual company that wants to make a profit. That's not what Saudi Arabia is interested in. That's not what this fund. They can allocate trillions of dollars and not worry about return on investment. They have a much bigger plan in mind. And that plan is to make us believe that they are okay. And

we've talked about sports washing for months and months if not years. It's all been planned out. These are not idiots, folks. These are people who have a plan and they're executing it. And golf is merely a first step. You're going to see, and you said it early on in the live show today, that you may see investment in leagues. You're going gonna see it.

The NBA now allows sovereign funds to invest in teams, but no teams done it. I'll bet you a dollar right now, and I'm not a reporter. I have no breaking news way to go, Mikey. There will be sovereign funds investing in NBA teams, and it's gonna be announced soon because these owners need money.

Even the billionaire owners here in the United States need money for what they're doing with their teams. So, this is just starting. The Miami Heat is run by Carnival Cruise Lines. In the middle of the pandemic, the cruise is took an enormous hit and pretty quietly, I think 10% of Carnival Cruise Lines went to Saudi Arabian money in the middle of the desperation of all that. I'm curious, David, and walk me through a piece of this here.

You just mentioned that they bought golf and that's just the beginning, but this kind of thing that had the equivalent of slaves dying to build stadiums for the World Cup. They already bought the World Cup, right? It's not necessarily this fund, but it's the same sort of spirit of With our bone saw blood money. We will buy all of your golfers, all of your soccer players, all of your sports until Saudi Arabia is a world power With America because the oil they make is Forever valuable until we've destroyed the entire earth because we're so greedy about wanting it. Real jume days and air.

I mean, we are selling these people, we are selling these people the livable climate, not just our souls, not just our sports and our souls, but also the air we will breathe in 10 years when everybody else has the money and we don't have air to breathe. I'm not saying you're wrong and normally I find you to be too alarmist and I don't want to live my life assuming that you can't have the world. Scary, give away our area.

But in this truth, you're actually right. I think both of us will be dead by then because we're old. Oh, it's coming sooner than you guys think. It's already happening. Our death. The oil buying the livable atmosphere. Did you not see them on soon? Stugots drove in yesterday. He feared for his life. Oil is going to kill Stugots. He's greed to get to the oil is going to kill him. It might be the heaters. No way. It's smoking cigarettes around oil.'s talking to you and first to dots

It's having a heater while you're a deep impact at the edge of the ocean and the big-time tsunami is coming over you You get one last drag that's how it's gonna end first to got laughing like that smoking a cigarette as a Was a wave and golf said David how, brother? Good to see you. It's good to see you, Juju. What's the most adorable thing you've done this week? Wow. Wow, good question. I actually agreed to a Father's Day dinner

with two of my kids not on Father's Day because they had other plans. And I thought it was adorable of me to say that I will adjust my weekend and to not see any kids on Father's Day and do a midweek drive back and forth for five hours to have a dinner and I thought it was adorable except some people who I told thought it was pathetic but I'm going with adorable. Yeah, yeah, sir. You are absolutely 100% adorable and I appreciate your brother. Absolutely 100% adorable and I appreciate your brother

Don lebertard so like there was a time that and I'll tell you who this person is that I admired and I said that'd be a great career for me Ryan C. Crest Still got and then to take it a step further, you know, just a couple weeks ago James Corden was stepping down and he said you know, it'd be a great replacement for him. Me. I could do that. I could replace James Corden, right? I agree with you on that. If I don't have to move to LA and I could just do this somewhere near the Tamiyami area, like they have an old, you know, theater that's kind of abandoned right now, maybe we do something there. I mean, people like to come to my band, right? They came out into your late, late, late, just studio. Yeah, so I didn't even think about that. Wow! That's a theater something there. I mean people like to come to my band. They came right into your late late show studio. Yeah, so I didn't even think about that.

Wow, that's a theater right there. This is the Don Lebertar show with their stugats. I don't feel good about myself and I don't feel good in general. I have had six puffs of a cigarette that stugots chimney smokes every morning. Well I don't feel well. Me and mykins stugots just had a one of the saddest big celebrations in the history of fun in Miami. A victory cigarette. I mean in the history of fun and Miami a victory cigarette in the parking garage Vigorette where I saw a whole bunch of

Stubbed-out cigarettes in some sand by a door Mm-hmm Mike Ryan had the story and was in front on the story of the biggest athlete in sports coming to Miami And a way that would not and could not be a surprise to anyone who has listened to the show. And now a known or I've laughed at a Cuban gas bag that I have laughed at has secured a multi billion dollar piece of property and sports rights has basically Cuban talked his way into the game after not being able to afford it. It seems like he had the last laugh that the marlins he is now gonna have a real estate deal and he's gonna be just

a typically Miami owner is gonna be loud in that spoke because he got we did not mess that's right we did it we all did it I collectively I have done some reporting in the segment since all the news from reputable sources I know the the origin of the reports coming out in Argentina, I do trust them, but it should be noted, corned my sources, messy has not informed inner Miami of his final decision.

That is not uncommon in these types of situations, messy probably wants to control the messaging. I know that inner Miami and MLS have prepared for messy to go rogue and announce himself, they've prepared for all sorts of scenarios. But I will tell you, Intermiami are feeling very good. At this moment, the athletic reported earlier, I think yesterday, that Saudi Arabia was out and that the decision was coming down to Intermiami and Barcelona.

Now, while there are some reports that say that LaLiga has approved of Messi's plan, that being said, and it being reality, are two different things. The reality, the situation, the financials are very hard for Barcelona right now. And if LaLiga were to bend the rules for Barcelona in this instance, everyone would know. And it would really piss off Real Madrid amongst others. Now, why on one end of the of the ocean can a league bend all its rules to accommodate one star. And on the other side, Barcelona has all these restrictions mainly because Barcelona is stepped into it many, many times, but also they are bound by financial fair play where in the United States,

MLS really doesn't have to care if the Colorado Rapids have a problem with Lionel Messi coming to the league and the league just making rules up on the fly to a common. No, he's going to be the hood ornament on the league. He's going to be what Pele was trying to do with American soccer with the cosmos. This is not, this is not Pele. This is a player that's going to win the, the Ballon Dior. He is going to be named the best player on the planet. This is a player that we saw a few months ago was in his prime lifting the most prestigious

trophy in in all of soccer. So while everyone is feeling really good right now while there are reporters saying it's a done deal. Just know that inner Miami have not been informed just yet, but we're feeling really good out there. Pre-mature heaters, pre-mature heaters. No, no, no, I don't think it's pre-mature heaters. If Saadi is out, which I do believe them to be out right now, and I've heard from other sources that are more plugged into the Saadi Arabian side,

I'm not, I'm plugged into the inner side, that they were kind of resigned to the fact that they were out, and this comes out into my Amy Barcelona thing. I just don't see how Barcelona can do it, but all my sources are feeling really good right now and it would appear that inner Miami have secured the rights to the world's best footballer. So, God's, I am looking forward among many things here, not just watching him play or

seeing soccer catch in Miami as I've been waiting for many, many years. I am looking forward to finding out what Saudi Arabia was offering that he turned down. I can tell you the reports of it being close to a billion dollars were not inaccurate. A year? A year? What? If they were not inaccurate. And also some additional reporting, if and when Lionel Messi does indeed decide to come to the United States and play for inter Miami Do not be surprised if Chrisiano Ronaldo comes to MLS the following season Ronaldo has been making calls to MLS clubs

Since he got to Saudi Arabia Come on coming back. So a lot on Retire Did you see the signs of God buy? Is a lot on he told the visiting supporters that shut up, stop booing right now me retiring is the biggest moment of your year. Slot on was one and a million, but.

Has Messi seen the stadium in Fort Lorde de Liette? That's a wild thing. I've spoken to people in Inter Miami and there have always been these private theories that on Twitter anyways, that, well, they're not gonna play at Drive Pink Stadium anymore. They gotta move their games to Hard Rock Stadium to make a picker venue.

You think the Moss family wants to give Stephen Ross any cut of this? No, you'll be playing a Drive Pink Stadium. Before we go any further though, another reason that I'm not feeling great is I mean is here but you'd have no evidence of it over the first two hours of the show Billy what are you doing? Just tying us two guts. Yeah. We were talking privately trying to figure out if a mean is just inviting his friends to hang out here. There's lots of people just hanging out in

that room. I see his here. I think is he having the mixer today? Yeah. In Billy's defense, we were on topic. We were just talking about a mean and he's not here because he's pointing a board. I'm just confused because he's our NBA insider and the finals are here and I would like his expertise. Spowe, it's being reported. You see these dollar figures don't matter anymore. Everyone's been underpaid in sports. They're all their own economies and the reports are supposed to work twenty million a year when his contract runs out in a year and i wanted to ask a mean about that but he's not here because i mean his planning a mixer and he hasn't been here for

two hours and i would like some expertise uh... michael ryan can you find me one of his friends out there to replace a mean perhaps will work cheaper and less drunk perhaps will work with less alcohol on his or her breath. I think I mean got balloons and what for the mixer. Mo thank you. Mo DeKiel is here. Yes. Well. Thank you. Who did you put? I thought you were putting somebody in charge of nicknames. It wasn't there. Tony. That's Tony's show.

No, no, no. I sure the title is juju. But the Keoniel is a great nickname. The Keoniel. The great name. This is a good nickname. 10-day Tony. I wonder what that come from.

Salute to my brother. Well, but why did we put Tony in charge of the nicknames when juju's the one who's good at the nicknames? Did you come up also with free del Castro? Absolutely not. I want to listen to those things. I'll bring it away from that one. Good move, yeah.

Mo, the report that, and thank you for being with us, I hope that you can replace a mean on our show forever as the sober correspondent gives us good basketball analysis. Spowe at 20 million a year, I was confused by a couple of things. Monty Williams, the piston's giving him 80 million seemed insane to me, but I'm like, wow, that's progress. That Monty Williams would make 80 million while Vogel has to take 31 million. 31 million. That is progress.

That is, but it's also, it also resets the salary structure for all coaches because if Monty Williams is worth that, then Spowe is worth more than that. Of course. Every owner in the NBA shook their head at the Detroit Pistons when they made that deal because they legitimately said, you just reset the market. You've made it impossible for us to hire coaches at this point. To what you're talking about, we're supposed to be worth 20 million. Like how is he not?

It's very simple in that sense. Most important guy in this organization right now and the way he's building the culture and everything that goes with that, you're gonna pay him that much. You're gonna pay, I mean, pops old at this point. So he's probably not gonna get that kind of deal. But guys like Ty Lou, who's trying to renegotiate

an extension with the Clippers, is he was just smiling smiling i promise you that they he popped whatever he likes to drink that night and was going completely nuts is agent was going was pride doing laughs all over the place in just celebration and that's gonna be the fallout with what we have now and i think the funny thing with the detoury thing is they just kept throwing numbers at him and tell mantea finally said i can't pass this up

because it didn't seem like he was going to take a job this year and then they wanted him, he said, no, no, no, no, no, no, and then they finally kept pushing it to the point he's like, well, if you're gonna pay me that much, I'm gonna take that. So, God, think about the absurdity of what we're talking about. Vocals champion. I know.

Recently. I know. I'm in a champion with LeBron and Anthony Davis. Okay, Monty Williams is not a champion with anybody. No. But he was. Many people were talking about him as the best coach in the NBA. You're your rings, rings, rings, rings, your rings. And he hasn't won a ring. I know.

But Volga has and is getting, I mean, you're paying Monty Williams almost three times what Volga's making. Right. But Volga was expected to win a ring. And I'm not saying Monty was. It was spulchery.el's making. Right, but Vogel is expected to win a ring. And I'm not saying Monty was it with Spulstra, it's different. He's won a couple that he's expected to win, but what he has done this year, I'm telling you, Dan, that is what made Eric Spulstra this year. Not the LeBron years, not anything else.

This year, and really the last four years, with Jimmy Butler, as his best player has done more to increase Spulstra both value than anything. Mo, I also want your expertise here because Tony's always saying that real hoopers know and I mean I really honestly think that we need to find some people here to compete for a means role as a mean nose basket ball because he's gotten lazy in it. And no, he wants to just throw parties. He wants

to throw. He wants, he's arrived at success. He just signed a new deal. And so now he's like, let me see if I could go the Ron McGill route of having my own Cadillac and throwing parties during the final. But Tony was saying that he liked this list of top 25 hoopers. Top 75. whobers 75 because of style not substance just guys who had swagger and game and style and so Tony what is on that list that is uh... that meets the ten day Tony seal of approval and what does it oh damn um... geez there's so many to go here I actually want to give Mo my computer so he can look at it while I talk about it because there's some names There Mo again this list think about Billy. Why are you shaking your head? You gave him the nickname job

He gives it away to juju you ask him about this time. I'm showing him. He's been talking about I'm giving away. No, doesn't have the list in front of him Looking at this list. It's really funny. It's a really good list. It also makes perfect sense for hoopers It's a think about It's a really good list. It also makes perfect sense for Hoopers. Did you get John it? It's a think about their game, not their name list. Wow. That's what it is. The game not the best. Why is real Hoopers know just inefficient jumpshooters?

Why is that always what a real Hooper is? Well, there's a glaring mistake there, though. No Michael Rath. No Michael Red. Yeah, no Michael Red. Michael Red needed to be in there. He cannot have a top 75 list of anything in basketball If Montaille Ellis is honest, okay, can this is crazy real who was no

Ball, huh? You never played basketball Manta Ellis was a absolute baller Ellis was a real was a absolute baller. My Dallas was a real hoop. Long short, he can get you buckets. He could get me buckets that I won as a defense. Oh my God. This guy playing nerd basketball, Excel spreadsheet over here.

This is what you get in math, bro. And I say literally got good when I got rid of him. It would be like, Oh, Jay Mayo making the list. He's on the list. Get out of here. Oh, Jay's on the list. So is Brandon Jennings, BJ. But he'll play the game. Absolutely. It's got to be with Kobe with the Afro. I'm the list so is Brandon Jennings BJ

Kobe with the afro so when I guess MJ with the chain Long shorts long shorts curry This is a phenomenal list. Thank you. Thank you's the pure silliness of everything that they have with that. Tarell Brandon's on here. Again, there's things that I would take out. I would probably put Michael Redd instead. I mean, that's just wild.

Beer, I mean, Nick Van Exel, yes. Definitely, definitely, belongs to Mark Price is on here. Again, I didn't make the list. This is what length were his shorts. Not long enough to be on the list. Price is on here again. I didn't make the list what length were your shorts? Not long enough to be on the list