Jemele Hill

Und dann der andere komplizierte Teil hier, Leute, ist, dass ich denke, wenn du ein blauer Journalist in diesem Bereich bist, der auf diese Geschichte berichtet, gibt es eine andere Art von Verantwortung, die auf dich sein wird, als andere Leute.

Und von dem her meine ich das, dass es, weil es eine Form gab, eine Wand von blauem Protektionismus, die sich um Deion Sanders und Shador Sanders geformt hat, weil du weißt, That wall was definitely there. And because of that, any criticism of Dion and any criticism of Shadur, especially if you're black, was viewed as you selling out the race.

You selling out, like, oh, so let me get this straight. You allow this to happen, but not this to happen. Like, you have all these words for this. Like, it was one, I don't remember what press conference it was, where I felt like, you know, Dion... didn't handle it particularly well or some of the things he said, I sort of critiqued.

And the number of people calling me a sellout or saying that like, oh, y'all just hate it when a black man is confident. And then it was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Where did all this come from? So I think all of that is wrapped up in this, is that I don't think it was a thing. Yes, the media. I totally agree. The media got caught up in the story. They got caught up in the hype.

And it's a great story. And it definitely was a great story to see Colorado back on the map. And even when he was at Jackson State, it was always positioned as here is Deion Sanders, this NFL Hall of Famer with all this personality, all this charisma. And he's bringing all that to a black college, putting them back on the map, you know, making a statement about black excellence.

And once that narrative took hold, criticizing Deion, oder Shadur zu kritisieren, wird ehrlich gesagt nicht sehr herzlich begrüßt werden. Und ich denke, es gab einige Leute in den Medien, die davon wissend waren. Und sie haben vielleicht einige rote Flagge gesehen in Bezug darauf, dass er vielleicht als Vorsitzender einige Dinge arbeiten muss. Und sie haben ihre Punkte gespielt.

Und deshalb ist jeder gefragt, wie wir zu einer Situation gekommen sind, in der ich dachte, er wäre der zweite gewählte Spieler oder in den Top 5. Und alles, was möglich sein könnte, ist, die Raum zu misslesen. Denn wenn du der zweite oder dritte Runde gewählt hast und in den Draft-Prozess gehst, hast du die Möglichkeit, deinen Wert zu erhöhen. Wenn dein Spielplan dann wird,

I'm gonna tank some interviews because I don't want to go there. I'm going to tell people, hey, I only want to play for certain teams. I'm going to go into meetings and tell them the kind of offense I want to run. What do you think is going to happen?

It's like, yes, because if they don't get an opportunity to get to know you and to get to know you beyond what the headlines have been, then they're just going to make up what they assume to be part of your character and you're going to get this.

Aber Dan, real quick though, I think that's such an excellent point. It's something that's been overlooked in all of this. I think Dion played this with Shador in terms of advising him His agent, his coach, his only coach? Yes, as if Dion were coaching himself. And it's like, yo man, you have generational ability. That was obvious, right?

If Shador was placed in that category, being a can't miss, surefire generational talent, all the advice you gave him makes sense. But when you still have some work to do and improvements to make, and there's still questions about how you play the position, then you need to approach this a lot differently.

Korrekt. Und in einer Zeit, in der man argumentieren kann, war er viel konservativer. Und er hat das getan. Und weißt du, warum die NFL sagt, dass wir uns nicht interessieren? Wegen deons Talent. Das ist der Grund. Und das ist der Grund, warum es mir schwierig ist, einige dieser Stimmen zu schauen, die versuchen, alles auf Rasse und Kultur zu verurteilen.

Und das war der Grund, weshalb Shadur nicht eingeladen wurde, weil die NFL einen vertrauten Mann oder einen vertrauten weißen Mann nicht mag. Ich bin so wie, wie soll Deon überleben? Er war sehr zufrieden und hatte viel Schwachsinn und Bravado. Das war sein Uniform. Mehr als jedes Team, das er jemals gespielt hat. Und es hat ihn nicht nur akzeptiert, sondern auch lieb gemacht.

Und ich denke, das war eine der Situationen, in denen in den geheimen Illuminati-Meetungen die黑en Leute zusammengekommen sind und gesagt haben, weißt du was, wir werden dieses W in einer oder anderen Weise bekommen. Und ich war so, Leute, das könnte nicht derjenige sein, über den wir uns treffen sollten.

Just on the spot, aren't they?

Let me just give a quizzical. I'm concerned, but I don't know what you're talking about.

Nun, die Nachbar-Race-Lady hat einen überraschenden Ansatz hier. I don't think this really was about race at all. And I know that it pains me to say this only from this perspective is because I have been as critical of the NFL and its racist undertones and overtones as much as anybody.

I am not the one to throw down the cape over the puddle for the NFL because they their track record speaks for itself when it comes to matters where race is, if not directly implied, at least it's just sort of floating there right around the atmosphere and their unwillingness to actually deal with it. But in this case.

What is crazy to me is that we have turned Shadur Sanders not being taken in the first round, not being taken when people thought that he should have been, as if he's some kind of freedom fighter and political prisoner. And I'm like, that's not what any of this was about. Listen, it's hard for me. And I know that just because you have, you know, sometimes these things don't go together at all.

Cam Ward war ein Null-Star-Rekrutierer aus einem zweijährigen Zuhause, weil du weißt, wie wir das umdrehen wollen, richtig? Ein bisschen Respekt. Er ist ein fantastischer Spieler, vertraut, hat alles gemacht, hat Nr. 1 gedraftet. Und mit der Art und Weise, wie die Leute diese Narrative so beobachten, dass Shadur so falsch gemacht wurde.

Es ist so, als würden sie Cam Ward so ausdrücken, als wäre er Steven von Django. Und ich bin einfach so, du kennst diesen Jungen nicht. Es ist so, plötzlich ist er in diesem Leben gepaintert, weil, oh, die NFL wird diesen Art von Schwarzen akzeptieren, aber nicht diesen Art von Schwarzen. Es ist so, weißt du, wie viele Spieler, wie viele schwarze Spieler vor Shador Sander gingen?

Es sind viele von ihnen. Und die Grundlage ist... Maybe we should accept the fact, and this is not to say that Shador Sanders cannot go on to have a great NFL career, can't do great things, but maybe we as black people need to accept the fact that Deion Sanders may have overplayed his hand a little bit. Und es gibt kein Verbrechen. Und er hat all die Selbstvertrauen in Shadur.

Hör auf, ich war nicht überrascht von den Rückenflexen, von allem. Keiner von dem. NFL-Teams, wenn du genug talentiert bist, interessieren sie sich nicht. Sie interessieren sich nicht. Und wir haben das schon mehrere Male gesehen. Die Baltimore Ravens haben in der zweiten Runde jemanden gedraftet, der von sexuellem Gewalt verurteilt worden ist, mehrere Male.

Aber du willst mir glauben, dass sie in der NFL diese Talententscheidungen immer machen. Wenn die Talenten es wert sind, dann geben sie dir keinen Scheiß, wenn du aufhörst und alles goldblättern, flaschen, was auch immer, so lange du spielen kannst. Das ist alles, worüber sie sich kümmern.

Ja, ich meine, hör mal, wir machen das so, und ich versuche nicht, einen Schuss an Mel Kuyper zu werfen, weil ich ihn generell als eine gute Person finde. Ich habe ihn über die Jahre getroffen. Er war mir nichts, aber kind. Aber das ist nicht der erste Mal, dass Mel schlecht falsch war.

Und das Problem in diesem Fall, weshalb es die perfekte Rezepte für diese Art von explosiven Reaktionen von vielen Leuten war, ist, dass Deion Sanders, Shadurah Sanders, die gesamte Colorado-Story, sie brachten viele wirklich casual Fans ein, also Leute, die gar keine Aufmerksamkeit für Fußball hatten oder gar keine Aufmerksamkeit für College-Football hatten und sicher nicht für den NFL-Draft.

Also zwischen Deion, der den Hype baut, zwischen der Hype im Allgemeinen, nur um dieses Team herum zu sein, gab es schon eine Erwartung, die Mel Kuyper geführt hat. Viele Leute fühlen sich also enttäuscht und wir fühlen uns, als wäre das eine grave Ungerechtigkeit.

Wenn es nur so ist, wenn man die NFL schaut und studiert und auf die NFL berichtet, versteht man, wie das möglicherweise geschehen könnte. Ich meine, ich würde sogar sagen, wenn etwas, zumindest in den Medien, ich meine, wie die Fans reagieren haben. Und sie werden oft zusammengeblendet.

Denn es gab definitiv eine große Teilzahl von Fanbänden, die das Gegenteil gemacht haben, wenn es um die Behandlung von Shadur Sandals geht. Und wir wissen, was das ist. Wir wissen, was das Element ist. Sie haben das definitiv erforscht. Aber in den Medien, wenn etwas, wegen der Begeisterung für Deon, denke ich, dass viele Leute es für sie beobachten.

Und er hat eine, nicht er selbst, aber wenn es um Das ist verrückt. Das ist verrückt. Das ist verrückt, um zu suggerieren, dass die Medien ein bisschen verletzt und gekauft wurden von Dionnes Charme. Ich weiß nicht, ob es sein Charme ist, weil ich denke, was in den Medien passiert, kann innen genug gemacht werden, wenn man eine Fanbase sieht, die reagiert.

Shadur Sanders, Deion Sanders, lass uns ehrlich sein, sie haben viele weiße Leute verrückt. Sie haben sie verrückt, richtig? Wie sie sich dargestellt haben. Es war nichts falsch, wie sie es gemacht haben, aber es gab eine Konjunktion, die auf dem Hate Train war, weil sie glaubten, es sei übergeheizt und all die anderen Narrativen, über die wir gesprochen haben, wenn es um diese Familie ging.

Und ich denke, dass es Medienmitglieder gab, die sehr bewusst davon waren. und wusste, dass das im Spiel war. Und vielleicht hat es sie gemacht, ihre Punkte in Wehen zu drücken, weil wir zu viel Extrems gesehen haben. Du weißt, wie du weißt, es gab Medien in Colorado, wenn Dion das zurück und fort hatte mit diesem Reporter, basierend auf etwas, was er reportierte.

Wir sahen, wie Dion, charismatisch und sehr, ähm, du weißt, dass jemand, der die Medien versteht, nicht Teil davon war. Wir sehen, wie er es kann, die Medien in seiner Verfügung zu nehmen. Ich meine, er ist es. Und ich denke, viele Medienmitglieder, anstatt einen anderen Draftspieler zu geben, der sein letzter Name nicht Sanders sein könnte.

Ich denke, viele dieser Geschichten, die wir über seinen Anspruch gehört haben und Kritiken über seinen Anspruch auf die NFL, auf den Kombi, auf andere Dinge. Ich denke, diese Dinge würden wahrscheinlich berichtet und viel früher gesprochen werden, wenn es jemand anderes wäre, der nicht zu dem letzten Namen Sanders verbunden wäre.

Du hast ihn verurteilt, dass er täglich auf seinem Peloton arbeitet. Und Greg Cody hat es, glaube ich, flatly Bullshit gesagt. No, I said he was a braggart. Well, but you accuse someone of bullshit. Again, there's backtracking everywhere around here.

Well, Jemele Hill can answer some of these questions. She knows some of these people involved. She's got new episodes of her podcast every week on iHeart, Spolitics. Or is it Spolitics? It's Spolitics?

I thought that Jujugati was great on this subject in the post-game show yesterday. I will ask you what's fair or not fair in the commentary that you've seen around this. Because when you invoke magic and bird, and it's the only thing like this I've seen, you know that magic went out of his way to be more palatable and cross the gulf of whatever he had to be. Ich versuche es zu erzählen.

Sparks and Fever are rising. And liberty. Well, no, less so. I would say that I think that we are watching something that's easier to talk about than the games, because the men who are talking about it, myself included, are more informed and interested in the soap opera over here than just, you know, the games, the regular season games.

It's on Eric Spolstra and politics. Is it politics? It's clearly Eric Spolstra talks politics with Jamel Hill. Exactly. The political analysis you've been dying to hear. I'm subscribing right now. It's huge. You should see. Filipino Jackson is huge in the Philippines. This podcast is so popular. The politics of the Philippines they talk about.

Ich möchte, bevor wir zu unserem neuen Spielshow kommen, dass ich Zaslow hier anbieten werde. Würdest du auf dieser Helle sterben? Ich wollte dich wiederum über die Unterschiede zwischen dem, wie der Mainstream etwas öffnet, und dem, wie der Rest des Internets darüber spricht. Die New York Times hat jetzt ein neues Profil auf Belichick und Jordan Hudson.

Belichick wird sich weiterhin überall auf dieser Stelle erlauben. äh, äh, Story. Jordan has told at least one person that she and Bill Belichick are engaged to be, äh, married. Uh, what's fair and unfair here, Jamal?

You can also subscribe to her YouTube channel at It's Jamel Hill. She's a contributing writer for The Atlantic. And I've got a number of things to talk about with her and to play a new game because I don't think she knows this. But Am Ende, bei ESPN, wenn ich mit irgendeinem Geschäftsführer eine Argumentation hatte, würde ich sagen, dass ich auf der Jamel Hill sterben will.

Can you give me, please, some hacky game show music for this new game, Would You Die on This Hill? And they will not be as hard as this, but I will just start the bidding before I give it over to game show host Zaslow. Is the median grandfather racist? would you die on this hill? The average median grandfather, any race, any culture. Okay.

Yes.

Okay, this is a distinction she's making that ruins the game. Will you die on the hill or will you not die on the hill? All of this nuance, there's a correct answer.

Alright, I'll hand over the proceedings to Zaslow. He's a better game show host than I am.

I think I just did. Don't worry about it. I will explain it.

Wir werden also mit der Jamel Hill spielen, ob du auf der Jamel Hill sterben würdest, in einem Moment. Aber kannst du mir sagen, wofür Amerika hier in der Basketball-Serie wartet? Denn ich habe die Angst, dass für eine der ersten Zeiten in meinem Leben, vielleicht seit 9-11, ich Amerika fühle, Routen für die New York Sports Teams.

Next up, everyone's favorite game show. Hold on, I'm sorry. I've got to get Tony.

Just be clear on this. She's a respected journalist. She has peed drunk on a car tire. She has not smoked drugs.

This is not possible, people.

I'm not dying on that hill. I'm firmly alive. Living on that hill. We also have to ask her the question though and sing song chant. It doesn't work really if we don't say Would you die on that hill? It's this. Anything else? Do you have any others there?

Would you die on this hill?

I think medium would work in that medium. Yeah, there's a reason why it's medium medium.

Really? Yes. I've got one for her. Go ahead. Thank you. I didn't know everyone knew that. I will say in your voice, I'm used to being cynical and skeptical about celebrity behavior, but Diddy has exceeded my every wretched expectation. Would you die on this hill? Das ist, warum er der Game-Show-Host ist.

Cuervo. Anytime someone says Cuervo, I show up.

I want to attack a couple of the things that she just mentioned there. Windhorst, I think, one of the great underestimations of my lifetime has been knowing that people hate the media, but not knowing how much people hate the media. Like I knew, I knew it was bad, but Was die Medien denken, wenn du verrückt bist und Brian Windhorst in deinem Tool Hall of Fame, dem inaugurierten Mitglied, nimmst.

Jamel ist korrekt, wenn sie sagt, Brian Windhorst wird von anderen in dieser Industrie als einer der südlichsten, fairsten Personen, die existieren. Und ihn nur, weil er ein Symbol für ESPN ist. Und die Knicks sind 0-8 auf ESPN und sie mögen Stephen A. Smith nicht so sehr, weil sein Fandom bandwaggig und insincer ist. Und so wird Windhorst einfach eine einfache Person, die verletzt wird.

It's literally garbage.

I don't know if you have any other thoughts on this, Jamel. But the point I wanted to make about New York being an underdog is you just never see this. You never see it. Maybe Isaiah Thomas? Jalen Brunson kann nicht der kleinste Spieler auf dem Platz sein und der größte, wenn es zählt. Nur Isaiah, wer sonst außer Isaiah?

Iverson hat eine Runde, aber du darfst nicht so groß sein und in diesem Sport die Champions League gewinnen.

Zaz ist richtig, aber du willst diese einzelnen Leute nicht lauter sein. Halliburton hat schon Tickets gekauft und fliegende Pacers-Fans, Plural, die Trash auf sie gelegt haben. Das ist verrückt.

I mean, you gotta take the trash. Well, but how much trash? Is it trash with juice? That bag looked wet. Is it juicy trash? Because just trash, you guys are imagining a neatly wrapped bag being thrown at you, which is fine, but now make it dumpster juice.

Baby, we're going to the ECF. You smell like garbage, honey. It's okay, though. We're going to be surrounded by it at the Mecca.

Es wäre besser gewesen mit Dumpster-Juice. Es wäre besser gewesen mit Dumpster-Juice.

Der Backpack mit dem Sport-Kot ist auch etwas... Das ist so ein Sport-Writer-Swag.

Meine Damen und Herren, hier ist der coolste Typ, den wir je gesehen haben. Ich versuche es.

I have been told that we have secured Dan Graziano. He will be joining us in about an hour so that Billy can accuse him to his face and Tony can accuse him to his face of lying about his workouts.

Warum nennst du Windhorst einen Nerd?

I rooted against both teams, Boston and New York, in the last series only because of their fans.

Ich will nur wissen, was passiert.

Wir machen es in der richtigen Weise. Ich muss mit Billy sprechen. Ich habe noch nie gehört, dass unsere Kunden zu viel kümmern. Ja, du hast nicht so viel Leidenschaft. Und es ist eine Schwierigkeit. Es ist eine Schwierigkeit in einem Game 7 zu Hause, dass unsere Fans zu viel kümmern.

Paul Maurice, weißt du, wie selten es ist, für einen Trainer voranzutreten und den Opponenten zu beten, weil sie in ihrem Gebäude sind und er traurig ist, weil er fühlt, als hätte er ein Feierabend, das er schon hatte?

There's that. He's the murderer of both Fun and the Maple Leafs.

Go ahead and put that on the poll. Yeah, put that one on the poll. Give her her intro music. It's taking too long to get here.

RG3 gegen Ryan Clark. Ryan Clark geht nach RG3, weil RG3 den Fox-Pivot gemacht hat und sagt, dass er jeden Punkt in der Arena bleibt. Ryan Clark hat die Linie geschlossen, dass er nicht mit schwarzen Frauen spricht, weil er mit weißen Frauen verheiratet ist. Ich glaube, das ist eine Linie geschlossen. Frauen. Ich, ich, ich, ich, nein, nein.

The line between something that's talked about in the mainstream and something that's talked about in private. Because RG3 versus Ryan Clark is being discussed by people. It's just not being discussed by people very well or very much on television.

Yes. I would pay five dollars to see Donald Trump and Stephen A debate. I'm not going to lie, all right? I would. I would pay five bucks for that. I would not, I did not want, you know, if the Mike Tyson fight with Jake Paul had you had to pay for it, I mean, I already had Netflix or whatever.

Right, right, I already paid for it. But if that were available to pay for in the traditional pay-per-view model, I would have never paid for that.

Stephen A. Smith versus Donald Trump, I would pay for that. I might even pay $10 for that. I'm not going to lie.

$49.99 for a losing style game? I mean, for the possibility of getting rid of Donald Trump? I mean... I'd pay $50.

Let's just have debate duel-offs all the time for the soul of humanity. Let's do this. I'm in.

Leaving stickers on your flat brim. I'm going to say no douche. no morning routine videos on social media uh i'm gonna say douche because that's just that's just like way too attention-seeking like i don't i don't care that much about what you're doing in the morning speaking of which bathroom selfies Oh, that is... You know what?

That's no douche because I don't consider... I think that's just kind of sad. Like, I don't think you're a jerk for doing that. I just think you probably haven't quite evolved yet. Like, those things should be out.

I think nobody wants to see the legs sticking out of the stall.

Nobody wants to. That's right. Yeah. You got to think of the aesthetic. OK.

And I live in L.A. So you imagine how many that I see on a daily basis. There's also a Tesla dealership that's walking distance to me. No one's vandalized anything, by the way, in case anyone cares.

Now I got to go and feel bad for myself the rest of the day because you guys got me to admit that I would pay Donald Trump to pay Stephen A. Smith.

Was that funny, Roy, or was that sad? Because I found that to be sad.

I don't know that we have to necessarily start over, but it might have to be, it will be a black people's meeting, an important one that will be called the next day, where we might have to put some things on the agenda and get it on the table.

Well, I was more, I guess, of all the characters. Like, whenever these debates ensue, right, you have the usual cast of characters that you expect to be involved in some of these debates. RG3 was not one that I had on the bingo card. Then him just coming out of nowhere being like, oh, I long and pine for the days when all the sports talk was just about sports and never about politics.

And it was like, what? Where did that come from? So it was more the presence and the oddity of his presence in this debate that I found to be kind of strange, if you will.

Well, see, if that would have happened, I would have been like, okay, this tracks. This is our brand, right? But you don't expect RG3 to come out of somewhere with a,

what he considered to be in his mind, and maybe this is sort of the dispiriting part, is that in his mind, you could tell when he allowed, you know, when he let off his opinions, that he actually thought he was given some kind of nuanced intellectual take that was somehow missed in all these years in which we have dissected, embraced, celebrated Jackie Robinson's legacy.

Here comes RG3 with something we've never thought about before or something that is so unique to this discussion that he needed to tell the world that, no, no, Jackie Robinson wasn't in Major League Baseball. It had nothing to do with politics, nothing at all.

It had everything to do with the fact that he was just there as just a great player, and that's it, and just completely just whitewashing the entire context of why this was so meaningful in American politics and American life, period.

Well, yeah, I mean, and I don't mean to make it sound as if Stephen A is at home, you know, sort of figuring out what should my character say today? Like, I don't I don't want to insult him by, you know, sort of I'm just sort of politely making, you know, making fun of the whole, you know, kind of theater of it, because Stephen A does understand the performance element of television.

And because he understands that performance element and because he does it so well in a way that is very unique to him and in a way no one else in the industry can actually do it, that it is able to evoke reaction. You know, we live in an attention economy, Dan, as you know, and he's able to create a tornado of attention with everything that he says. And for a media company,

Like ESPN, this is extremely valuable. It's why he got the big contract. You know, his roots are in journalism. And for a long time, he was a very good and one of the best, if not the best, NBA reporter that was out there. But I think he's tapped into something that is easily monetized. So when it's not just...

you know, this reporter saying something as Stephen A. Smith, the weight of his name is bringing something extra to any discussion that he is in. I just find it really more fascinating, the political turn that he's making while still being at ESPN and still representing ESPN because as you know, that is not something that is naturally embraced by this company.

And so I think seeing his turn, his dramatic turn into politics is really quite stunning given the breadth of his career.

So that's the part that I do find to be interesting, is that he is embraced in a way in conservative circles that you don't often see by people in his position. Now, some of that is just based off some of the opinions that he shared about you know, things that he said about the Democratic Party and being very critical of them, which naturally will get you embraced by conservative circles.

But very few people can vacillate between two wildly different networks. ESPN is not a political network at all. Fox is the most conservative network Or maybe they're not the most conservative because you do have Newsmax and you also have OWN. But, you know, they're at the top of the food chain, certainly when it comes to conservative networks.

It's the value pinging that is very interesting to me to see him going back and forth between these two circles. And at least from, I think I read this some time ago, like he's doing some kind of live event with like Chris Cuomo and this guy. So I just wonder where all of this is going. And so it'll be fascinating to see the arc of his career.

I think, and this is just based off things that he said publicly, I mean, I think his ultimate goal is to be the number one media mogul in all of television. And as a personality, while, you know, maintaining, obviously working on some projects that give him ownership over things, of course. But I think his goal is just kind of media world domination. So we're seeing this unfold in real time.

And it's really quite a masterclass into how if you can drill into the performance part of this, what lay ahead for you. I mean, because the thing with me is that while certainly I'm comfortable on TV, comfortable in formats like this and virtually any format. At some point, like I can't perform like this is what you get and this is all there is.

So I can't every day sort of create this level of enthusiasm and fight and all these other things to sort of sell the natural opinion that I have. Like, that's just not a talent that I have. And he has that talent.

to such a incredible degree that I guess the downside of it is that I feel I worry that for younger journalists that this is becoming sort of like a Steph Curry effect in the sense that Steph Curry started, you know, shooting these logo threes and shooting these completely ridiculous and banana shots.

And now every NBA player thinks that they can do that or young kids coming up learning how to play basketball. You know, they're firing off 60 footers thinking like this is how you play the game, not realizing that that talent is reserved to one player who can do that. And so my I guess my larger concern is that what is.

I guess probably the most, the funniest part to me was Stephen A. Smith, who I live for when he challenges people live on national television to some kind of confrontation, be it You know, I wouldn't necessarily say a fistfight, but like when he challenged Kevin Durant, like, you don't want to make an enemy out of me. Or this time around when it came to J.D.

And I don't mean to make it sound like it's a bad thing, like he's negatively influencing younger journalists, but I know a lot of them are watching him and thinking, I can do that very same thing. And so right now, they're drilling into persona as opposed to work. So that's sort of like the long-term 64,000-foot view that I'm a little bit more concerned about.

It has. It's a sucker move. And wait, maybe I need to retract everything I said. This is actually my favorite story from the last couple of days. Because, okay, there's so many things with this story. Like, one, you have this producer who, as you mentioned, may or may not have been on the date.

Like, I don't know how much people have listened to this, but if you haven't, I encourage you to listen to it. It literally sounds like that they're on a podcast. I mean, the sound quality is so crisp. I'm like, was my man wearing a lavalier? Like... Why is this sound quality so good? And the other thing, too, I mean, I agree with you, Dan, like this is this is ultimately despicable.

Like regardless, a lot of people are caught up in what this producer said and how he characterizes Stephen A. Smith and more or less how people view him at ESPN. Like to me, that's like irrelevant. The most the relevant part of this is that you could be in a social setting and if you work at ESPN. wind up being taped and then somebody else giving that to the media.

But it also kind of reminds me of a rule I used to have when I was dating. And, you know, a long, long time ago when I was a single woman out here in the wild of dating, I had a rule that if I was on a date with somebody or in that kind of initial interaction where it's like, okay, you know, this guy's cute, you know, there's some level of flirting that's going on.

If they asked me about Stephen A. Smith or Skip Bayless, immediately that dude was canceled. Immediately. No, I don't want anything to do with you because there is nothing more unsexy and unflattering than when you're talking to, you know, somebody who's a potential love interest and you're like, oh yeah, you know, so what are your hobbies? What are you, you know, trying to get to know them?

And they're like, so what's Stephen A. Smith like? I'm like, do you want to be on a date with Stephen A. Smith? Because this is doing nothing for me. Like whatever arousal point that I had in this conversation just immediately went to negative. So it kind of reminded me of that rule that I used to have When I was when I was dating, like who does that?

Do you believe that, Dan? Like, seriously. I don't believe it. I personally don't. Like, I really do not believe that's true.

Vance, the vice president, and Donald Trump, and all of a sudden Stephen A. Smith is like... come on my show and tell me, explain yourself. And I was like, yes, Stephen A., more debate duels. Let's go full wrestling. That was the part that I found to be highly, highly entertaining. It's like, yes, forget about how we used to have celebrity boxing.

I do not believe this. I have to say, like, listen, I realize right now we're in, if we did a tournament of top, you know, dumbest times in America to have lived through, I truly realize we're in a time where this could be a number one seed. I get it.

But I refuse to believe that the average person out here would look at Stephen A. Smith and say, of all the candidates that are possible in the Democratic Party, that this one is the fourth most viable that they have. And I just I don't believe I know that I'm probably going to regret saying this. I don't. And this is, again, no reflection of Stephen A. Smith.

I don't believe America's that stupid.

You know what? That's actually to my to my single ladies out there that that might be the one, you know, because we hear all these reports that one of the reasons or you want to talk about things, whether or not you believe or don't believe. But one of the things that's messing up the dating game is that like, oh,

a lot of men who have expressed support for Donald Trump is turning off the ladies, okay? And so this is part of the reasons that social scientists and experts say that men are living in the loneliest time that they've ever experienced because a lot of women are choosing to stay single. One of the top reasons is our political beliefs, the differences, especially among college-educated women.

And so maybe that is now the ultimate dating test. Would you vote for Stephen A. Smith? And whatever the answer is, ladies, you can decide if you found your man or not found your man.

Between Stephen A. and Donald Trump? Yeah. Okay, I can believe that. I can believe that. I would believe that. I would sprinkle something on that. Would you pay for it? Would you pay five bucks for it?

I am disgusted with myself in this moment.

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Cuervo.

That he goes after him on the sidelines.

I have. All those other spans have Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green. This one does not. That's why it's the most impressive.

I am guessing this is the best Jamel has ever felt as a Lions fan. Right now. Today. Beating Green Bay. In Green Bay.

She's a 49ers fan. Then everything I say I take back. This would be the worst day to be a 49ers fan. Because your team's not really relevant and the Lions are a juggernaut.

Name a warrior.

Ich meine, Lawrence Fishburne hat eine Statue. Wayne Wade ist noch da.

Go Lions!

Yeah, that's because we're not celebrating the career of an all-time great. And that's Kevin Durant's own doing. It's not Stephen A. 's fault. It's no one else's fault but Kevin Durant's.

Es geht um Joel Embiid, die Stadt, den Markt, wie die Fans zu einem Mann reagieren, der all die Dinge gemacht hat, die er für die Stadt und die Fans gesagt hat. Aber er hat keinen Titel gewonnen und er hat nicht mehr als 70 Spiele in einer einzelnen Saison in seiner ganzen Karriere gespielt.

Und ich verstehe, warum Philadelphia-Fans mit so vielen Erwartungen, mit dem großartigen Spieler, der er ist, wenn er da draußen ist, und dann schießt er in, er spielt in den Olympischen Spielen im Sommer, wenn er wahrscheinlich aufstehen sollte, weil die Sixers mehr wichtig sein sollten in dieser Stadt, als ein Goldmedaillen auf einem Stacked-Team zu gewinnen.

Und ich verstehe, warum Philadelphia 76er-Fans und die Medien ein bisschen mit Joel Embiid verabschiedet sind, weil er so ein toller Spieler ist. Aber er ist nie draußen für 82 Spiele. Er ist nicht. Er ist einfach nicht.

Aber wenn sie Embiid zurücknehmen und George spielt heute Abend, wie du gesagt hast, werden sie in der Osten sehr gut sein, oder? Wenn Embiid 50 Spiele gibt und Paul George den Rest der Saison spielt, sind das große Falschen, massive Falschen. Aber wenn sie das tun, werden sie in der Osten kämpfen.

Aber ich denke, Kevin Durant, das ist der Beispiel, der ein bisschen Licht auf das ist, was Joel Embiid durchgeht. Kevin Durant hat dir gesagt, es war nicht Spaß, der Gesichter der Franchise zu sein. Nein, er hat die Franchise verlassen und er war nur noch ein Gesichter der Golden State.

Ich meine, ich verstehe. Sie haben Maxi bekommen und das hilft. Er ist ein ziemlich guter Spieler. Er hilft.

Ich weiß, aber was sie falsch gemacht haben, war gut vor Daryl Morey. Es war Morkel Fultz, wenn man Jason Tatum nehmen konnte. Das ist, wo das ganze Ding abgelaufen ist, soweit ich mich interessiere. Weil wenn du Embiid und Tatum hast, hast du mehrere Wettbewerbe. Du hast es gemacht.

Und warum würdest du die Fans oder die Medien für Joel Embiid kritisieren? Es ist alles auf seinen Schultern. Ich meine, will er das nicht? Er ist ein Kompetitor. Will er es nicht alles auf seinen Schultern? Ich sage nur, es ist hart. Ich bin nicht...

I don't know that we have to necessarily start over, but it might have to be, it will be a black people's meeting, an important one that will be called the next day. We might have to put some things on the agenda and get it on the table.

Well, it struck me that so many people, especially in the media, have such unwavering confidence that this is going to work. And I'm not saying that it's without merit. I understand it from a purely football perspective. I understand this. Bill Belichick is arguably the greatest NFL coach in the modern day. And his accomplishments speak for themselves.

But I just think that maybe I've been exposed to too many young people. And especially talking to other coaches about what it's like in today's day to deal with modern young athletes. And I just I just wonder how this is going to how this is going to turn out. Certainly a lot of athletes want to be professionals. They want to make it to the NFL.

And I easily see many scenarios in which Bill Belichick is able to. as he was good at in the NFL, able to turn someone who maybe has some borderline potential into a real viable prospect. But at the same time, it's just such a different landscape. If coaches that are around his age are getting out and he's jumping in, that to me says a lot. And his last few years in New England weren't good.

And so I just wonder if this is going to be a fit from a personality standpoint and just looking at how differently college athletics are compared to maybe 10 or 15 or 20 years ago, where if you had said Bill Belichick was going back to college, I would have said this is no brainer. A slam dunk. You know, he's going to win there in this climate. I'm not so sure.

No, and I guess the only way she would have made Megyn Kelly matter is if she came out in support of Black Santas, because we know that Megyn Kelly only believes Santa Claus can be white. I mean, that's the person whose opinion is chiming in on this.

So it's not surprising she would have a problem with Caitlyn Clark actually acknowledging the contributions, the sweat equity that Black women have put into this game. And you can tell a lot.

Let me just big picture this real quick, though, Dan, is that as Caitlin Clark's popularity was rising and particularly after it exploded when her and Angel Reese met in that national championship game, she did the infamous Angel Reese John Cena motion. And we saw a certain section of people galvanizing around Caitlin Clark. We saw it then and it only continued to grow. And there was a

Nice amount of disingenuous people who were not basketball fans, certainly not women's or they were not women's basketball fans. To be clear, they were not fans of women's basketball. But Caitlin Clark became their avatar.

She became their vessel to express a lot of the hateful and racist opinions that they had about black women, about queer women and about the WNBA overall to some degree about all women.

so she became their sort of bat signal for that and now that we're learning more about caitlyn clark and this by the way this was not the first time she said this it may be the first time she really said it at length and because she didn't do that many one-on-ones uh this year in 2024 but she certainly have been have been she's been asked questions sort of along these same lines before and uh you know while she didn't specifically mention white privilege see she has certainly

always had a level of respect and reverence for the pioneers that came before i mean one of the viral moments involving caitlyn clark was when she finally met maya moore maya moore is her favorite player ever and that by the way shows the growth of the wmba you know a lot of the players that when the wmba first started they had no professional model to look at in america to say oh i grew up watching this you know professional women's player because that

possibility didn't exist. Caitlin Clark represents the generation that actually grew up watching the WNBA, familiarizing herself with this league, understanding the legacy and the history of this league. And all she was doing is giving a nod to that.

And she knows, like a lot of white players in the WNBA know, and they've said it, Kelsey Plum, Breanna Stewart, is that they get elevated, they get marketed, they get pushed in a way that black women in that league who have accomplished similar things do not

Get the same endorsement opportunities, the same marketing, the marketing riddle of the WNBA prior to this moment has been how do you market a league that is 70 percent black where a third of the players identify as queer? How do you do that? And that it has been a lot of marketing challenges. mistakes the WNBA has made in trying to sort of minimize that part of their identity.

Or, you know, a lot of people have certainly for years speculated that they push certain players because they're trying to kind of galvanize and interest white America with players they believe that they will get behind. So this has been a long standing conversation in the WNBA. And Caitlin Clark, in her sense of leadership, I mean, she just stated the obvious.

And now she has some very predictable people angry at her because they never were fans of hers. They just like the idea of weaponizing her success against other black women who they can't stand.

I have a black Santa and a black Mrs. Claus in my house. I think that doesn't surprise many people.

Jamel has black Santa.

You have original recipe, Santa?

You had- Well, I got spicy Santa.

And Robert F. Kennedy, right?

I mean, but would it have been so bad if he said, you see the money, right? I mean, would that have been?

I think it is. But it's not a gotta blow it all up and completely restart from scratch. We're not the Cowboys for crying out loud. You know what I'm saying? But I think it does signal that for this iteration of this team, this feels like the end. They got some major decisions to make. How much to pay Brock Purdy. Can't take advantage of getting him on the cheap. Decisions to make about Deebo.

I mean... About the defense. So I think there's going to be some serious retooling in the offseason. They can't afford to play Brock Purdy what quarterbacks are worth that have accomplished what he's accomplished.

All of it depends on how much is Brock Purdy going to cost. That's really, truly the million-dollar question.

Well, I think he deserves a competitive, really good quarterback salary. Does he deserve Dak Prescott money? Hell, it's questions about whether Dak Prescott deserves that kind of money.

I will say this. If we can keep, it would be great if we could keep that price tag between, and I know this sounds ridiculous, but between 40 and 45, that'd be great if we could keep it.

I mean, it would be great if we could. I'm not saying, he's clearly better than Daniel Jones. He's better than Trevor Lawrence. I get it. But like, for the entire engine of this team to work... Once we start talking in the 50s and certainly anywhere near 60 million, okay, we in trouble. You can't pay him that.

Wow, that. Dan, I feel like I'm joining a cult right now. I have no idea what's going on.

I thought it was a weak move. First of all, he already knew the reason that he was in that position was because of, you know, Dre Greenlaw being out. So he knew he was he was in a unique situation. So if this issue was about, you know, him, the playing time, it's like that was your reality when. You knew that was your reality from the start.

But I think it's just, unfortunately, it's just a window into this season. You know, the 49ers have had an incredible amount of luck to go along with their skill and obviously the winning. But you got to stay healthy in this league. You got to keep drama out the locker room. And this was not the year Unfortunately for that, everybody got hurt.

There's now, you know, even before this week, you had drama with Brandon Ayuk's contract situation, drama with Deebo Samuel last week complaining about not getting the ball enough. And unfortunately, he had the performance that he had against the Rams. So this was the season that all those things that can derail other teams came bubbling to life for them.

But what was clear in hearing Kyle Shanahan and other players talk about it afterwards is that You know, he has lost, Campbell lost a lot of people's respect in that locker room. I mean, you have a lot of guys who have a lot of things on the line.

And it's difficult to get these opportunities in the NFL for somebody to willingly tap out and to do that to your teammates in a nationally televised game. It's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for him.

Well, he did ask Black Jesus to deliver him from pick sixes. That's what I'm saying.

Ooh, I'll kick that one. No, I'm sorry. That's not yours.

I'm aware, but you know... Y'all will never make me hate Kirk Cousins because he went undefeated against Michigan when he played for Michigan State, my alma mater. I'm going to keep this, I believe. Come on, Falcons.

Okay. A part of me hopes I lose because I'd love to be in costume. That'd be pretty hilarious. I got some ideas already. All right, great. I know Kirk Cousins is going to pull it off. So thank you all. Good to see you.