Le Batard & Friends Network Lebatard & Friends

We find ourselves at a rare moment in human history, facing an undefinable industry worth trillions, which happens to be concentrated in the hands of a few billionaire stewards like the doomsayer Elon Musk, the evangelist Sam Altman and MMA enthusiast Mark Zuckerberg. Are they just super-villains plotting our own destruction? Washington Post columnist Josh Tyrangiel’s entire beat is artificial intelligence. So we ask him to contemplate the odds of extinction — and why A.I. might just cure James Harden's addiction to strip clubs.
Further reading:
How A.I. Could Transform Baseball Forever
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Today’s word of the day is ’rinse & repeat’ as in another stadium as in another press conference as in another handshake deal as in the Chicago Bears. Another big time announcement with renderings! (13:45) What are the Dallas Cowboys doing? Jerry Jones has decisions to make on all his top players. Micah Parsons the DE is up soon. Dak Prescott is up soon. CeeDee Lamb is up soon. Uh oh! (23:00) Quick side note on Deshaun Watson and his trip to Saudi Arabia. Are you kidding me? (28:30) Review: Milk. (32:50) Blake Snell is on the IL. Bad starts. Bad ERA. Now hurt. (42:30) NPPOD. (45:20) So You Wanna Talk to Samson!? Someone asked me about the draft. How much goes into drafting or trading players when it comes to character vs talent.
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With Amin out today, Charlotte has a guest co-host who's really shaking things up: Al Gorithm. Al is helping Charlotte get into everyone's algorithm using cutting-edge technology to pinpoint topics that are guaranteed to drive traffic to Oddball's various social media platforms. Is Anthony Edwards the next Michael Jordan? Do the Heat stand a chance against the Celtics without Jimmy Butler? Can the Mavs keep this pace in their series against the Clippers? And wasn't it crazy when Nikola Jokic's brother fought a Lakers fan? Charlotte also admits that it's been hard to not become a Knicks fan, and shares some footage of New Yorkers after speaking to them before game two of their series against the 76ers. 

Finally, Executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches Craig Robinson joins the show to talk about playing pick-up basketball with his brother-in-law, former president Barack Obama. Listen and subscribe to Craig's new podcast, WAYS TO WIN with John Calipari by going to: link.chtbl.com/waystowin?sid=oddball1
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Today’s word of the day is ’expectations’ as in the Dodgers as in World Series as in Shohei Ohtani as in Mookie Betts as in Freddie Freeman as in 100 games as in slow start. The Dodgers were supposed to be juggernauts, but why have they not performed like it? Ohtani and Betts have. The bats are alive, but the record is mediocre. (10:25) Hey, White Sox fans… are you ready for a new ballpark? Are you excited? Worst record in baseball, but Reinsdorf still wants a stadium deal with public money! (21:30) We have an update on the NBA TV rights deals. ESPN and TNT will be able to match ANY offers the NBA gets. Linear, yes. Streaming, yes. Will this impact bids from NBC or Apple or Amazon? (35:03) Review: Kiss Me Kosher. (39:30) NPPOD. (43:30) We have a MAJOR announcement from the FTC. Noncompete clauses.. goodbye!
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Amin and Charlotte drop some hot takes on one of the most important NBA discussions of the year: the NBA awards. Where is Jalen Bruson? Does Victor Wembanyama deserve to win DPOY? Why isn't Joe Mazzula one of the Coach of the Year finalists? Amin also gives everyone the 411 on Kawhi Leonard and why he hasn't been playing for Clippers in their series against the Mavericks. Charlotte thinks if the Knicks win another game the fans might just burn down the city. We found out that you can't count out Dame and wouldn't be surprised if Dame's next song was released. Amin and Charlotte also ask each other if you could do one thing in front of your idol, like Ant playing with Durant, what would it be?
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A viral video of a weeping Caleb Williams, the top prodigy in this week’s draft, “scares the sh*t out of a lot of NFL teams.” So correspondent Dave Fleming breaks out the tissues — and a stack of research — to discover what the science of crying disproves about the pseudo-science of scouting; why a Super Bowl locker room was like a scene out of “The Notebook”; and how even the Darth Vader of football (allegedly) choked up. Plus: Domonique Foxworth names names — and changes our basic understanding of the most masculine of sports.
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