The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Big Suey: David Keeps Talking (feat. Survivor Contestant David Samson)
29 Jan 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the Big Suey, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Lebitard 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 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, fat face, and the habitual liar.
This episode of the Dan Levitard Show is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours.
Brian Windhorst has been saying a form of this for a while, but now he's just saying it flatly that the Lakers are going to ask LeBron to take a pay cut, potentially a significant one, for next season. Last night, LeBron was crying during his return to Cleveland. Crocodile tears. Really? You guys don't think any of that was sincere last night? You thought that that was all optics?
You all are bringing your cynicism to this?
Major crocodile tears, Dan. Dan, Dan, thank goodness there just so happened to be a box of tissues underneath his seat on the bench. Because that's commonplace, right? Thank goodness there was a box of tissues for him to wipe away the tears he knew he was going to have.
I mean, we have a box of tissues here because South Beach Sessions could get vulnerable and we always have it here in the event that anybody needs some tissues. You love that move. Which move? Passing the tissues to the guest. Yeah, that's such a great interviewer move. Here, take these. I don't love that move. You do.
My Christians are so great. You do. We happen to have tissues there.
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of LeBron's emotional moment during his return to Cleveland?
You guys love to criticize when people cry. Why is he crying? I imagine it's a combination of age, appreciation that you don't have at the time that you're young when you look back at things and memories and you're at the end of your career and whatever it is your identity was at the top of this sport. My guess is that memories. Greg Code has been crying more at 71 than I've ever seen in his life.
He does acknowledge in postgame. He won't say it indefinitely. He's like, this might be.
But LeBron is in the portion of his career that Greg is in the portion of his life. He's about to bury the person that he has been for the last 20 some odd years.
But he's been warmly received consistently in Cleveland since he won them that title. Right? So it's not like, I don't know if the novelty of, you know, my first time back here after leaving this franchise, they threw batteries at me, and now I'm being cheered. I don't know if that novelty ever wears off, but I've got to imagine it gets diluted because, you know, he's done it a lot.
It's also LeBron. Like, he could get traded to a team that he feels better on, and then he goes and plays Cleveland four more times the next year.
Okay, but this part, right? I don't know what that team could be. This part is, to me, always interesting, right? Kobe used to say that the one that mattered to him the most is the one that he got without Shaq because he proved it to himself. LeBron getting the championship in Cleveland, very few people, like that's the best moment of his career and life, and there will be nothing like that.
And Crocodile Tears, when you mention it, Zaz, it reminds me, Stugatz patented not knowing what Crocodile Tears were.
I'm telling you guys, you were on stage. Dan and I were both crying. Like crocodile tears.
Crocodile tears are fake. Crocodile tears are fake. I thought they meant big. David Sampson is with us now.
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Chapter 3: How do the hosts interpret LeBron's tears as crocodile tears?
He's always good for cynicism in all circumstances. So I would assume, I would just guess off the top of my head, even though you've been more emotional lately than I've ever seen you, that you think that LeBron's tears were crocodile tears. What say you?
Oh, I think they were actual. I think when it's the end of an era, you know it. He knows it. He knows he's done. His team's done. And he knows that he is no longer where he was. And that, of course, is when the tears come. He is already starting to reflect on what was the second greatest career, you know, in the National Basketball Association's history. So I would expect there to be more tears.
Cleveland would be the most. But when he comes back to Miami, if he would actually play, that would count or any place he's been. You just sort of you take a last look. I'm familiar with last looks and they're tough.
So you believe it was sincere. You don't believe what Zaz is saying. Tissues under your chair. Crocodile tears. Get out of here.
yeah we there's tissues all over the place i've got tissues here there's uh i mean some of the medicine i take causes a stuffy nose but there is um yeah there's only a few people who laugh at that and they're old but yeah there are tissues in various places around the bench that's very normal zazz i i don't think it is normal and on top of it lebron is wiping the tears with his jersey why does he then also need the tissues did he just wipe his tears with his jersey
Yeah, but you can only reach a certain point on your jersey. Then it's too wet and not impactful. The game hadn't started.
This is the most performative athlete of our generation. He does a lot of things for optics. He's leaning into the moment. It's a little extra. Okay, but you guys, man. He's going to do it again next year. I'm the bad guy? Are we going to get emotional next year, too? Is this the Cleveland emotional moment?
Can we not imagine that going there closer to the end of his career, playing with Bronny in Cleveland? I understand that. This is closer to the end of his career, and he knows that. It might be the end of his career with the Lakers, as we just saw that Windhorse report that says take a pay cut. He doesn't know what he's going to do.
There was a report yesterday, I think it was Dave McMenamin, that said LeBron doesn't want to do the pressure-filled retirement tour because he knows he doesn't want to play every single game. That is a crock. He says he doesn't want to play every single game of a season, and so in turn, he's going to disappoint fan bases. Maybe he doesn't want to weigh that.
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Chapter 4: What insights does David Samson provide about the nature of athlete emotions?
Maybe, but I would say that there's such cynicism now around sports fandom and the customer, and everything has become so...
poisoned that maybe you'd do that but when brett farve did that before any of the brett farve stuff happened i remember the conversation here where he's weeping in front of his locker and you guys buried him you guys just buried that before after he threatened retirement three times and then came back for several different teams i guess sometimes cynicism is right like yeah i i understand your perspective actually i don't because you're hardlining believe him
And I'm not hardlining cynicism. I'm saying there are performative aspects to this. Yes, it's touching. They had elevator signs all around the locker room. Like, welcome back home, Brawny. And Brawny's a little kid. And LeBron in arguably his greatest professional moment ever. Like, yeah, that stuff hits you in the feels. But... He knows when the camera's on, famously.
Yeah, but you're performative, too, and you're also aging. And if I put a moment with you and your daughter in front of people at the end of what we know is the end of this, and you were crying, and people would say, you know what? He's a performer. I don't believe that. He's acting. It's a bit. That's Mike Ryan. That's bullshit. That's not real. Those feelings aren't real. Okay.
I also didn't crush Greg Carr.
I was eight years old.
I would not show my daughter on camera.
Mike, you will definitely cry when this run is over. You've had an amazing run with Dan, and whenever that time comes, whether it's in five minutes or 20 years, you will definitely cry.
Yeah, yeah, no doubt. And you will know when it's the end. Like, I'm not going to cry now because it's not the end, despite what Reddit might say.
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Chapter 5: What conspiracy theories surround Bill Belichick's Hall of Fame voting?
As listening devices, you use your ears for their intended purpose. Let Mike and Chris do their thing.
I think it'll still work.
Bill Belichick and Jordan trying to make travel arrangements.
I love that backsplash. He's got that island you like. Now go, David.
Zaz, I should point out, I think David's wrong. I don't think it's because he was paid. I also don't think it was a sad movie. I think it was a complete picture of somebody who has been represented for 50 years as a bit of an asshole. And so there's some asshole in it, but it was a complete look at humanizing him. And so I don't think that he is upset.
Maybe he's upset about the clip they used to sell it because it's the one clip that makes him look like a jerk to the interviewer. But the entirety of the movie is something that is a more complete picture of somebody that is just human is all it is. Did you cry during the movie, David? Because I think this is your favorite guy. He has made some of your favorite movies.
Can I go now? No, I didn't cry. I will tell you though that I know he wasn't in control and that he was paid because of the PR clip that was used. If it were his documentary under his name, that never would have been in the final documentary and certainly it wouldn't have been the promo clip.
So therefore it was to draw an audience in who only knows him maybe from his most recent work in community. And it made him out to be terrible. And most people, as you know, only watch the preview and not the full movie. And so they have this view of him. And I frankly just don't think he cares. But no, I didn't find it maudlin.
I didn't cry during that documentary. But you know when I did cry, Dan? About time. You watched it? Minor penalty. Two minutes for adding nothing. Dave, I looked up the plot for Terms of Endearment 1983. And yeah, this movie looks like it sucks.
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