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00:00Tonight, we can party in the streets.
00:03Folks, Mario Hazonia, a Cleveland Cavalier.
00:11We got him.
00:13We got him.
00:15We got Mario Hazonia.
00:17A Cleveland Cavalier.
00:22No, we didn't get LeBron.
00:23Darryl Ryder, we didn't get Ken Carman either today
00:25because Ken Carman was certainly, if you've been listening to him
00:30the last two weeks, he was not going to be held hostage
00:34by LeBron James, Rich Paul.
00:39I got some issues with C.N. Cotton.
00:43Got some big issues with him.
00:45He was leading people astray.
00:47Chad Mraz, he didn't do anything.
00:49That's a former LeBron teammate too.
00:51Mav, maybe Mav did.
00:52I'm not sure.
00:53There's a few.
00:56That we're selling LeBron's return for a third time pretty hard.
01:00Does anybody have an issue with,
01:03and we'll get into the nuts and bolts of this,
01:05we got Danny Cunningham at 720.
01:07You never know who might pop in.
01:08Second half of the show as well.
01:10We had all sorts of stuff happen over the weekend.
01:12We do have Browns as they get ready to embark
01:15on their new journey this year.
01:17The Guardians are playing the worst baseball.
01:19They played all year.
01:20I know the LeBron thing hit on Friday,
01:22basically as we were out the door,
01:24so we didn't get a chance to comment on it.
01:26Ken didn't get a chance to comment on it.
01:29Ken is on sabbatical.
01:32That's how much the LeBron news has devastated him.
01:37He does have practice this week.
01:39So LeBron did not get in the way of Ken molding the next group of powerhouse football players.
01:48Oh, I thought it was the specter of another riveting Browns quarterback competition
01:52that set him on sabbatical.
01:53Ken's got notes.
01:54He's got the notes ready to go.
01:55I'm very curious what Ken and Daryl and Owen and John Colavita,
02:03Ace and Gary in the back, young Joey.
02:06I am interested to hear them and their thorough investigation
02:10over the Jerry Judy stuff that happened over the weekend.
02:13But we have to start front and center.
02:15LeBron is not a Cavalier.
02:16I want to know who's to blame.
02:18Who's to blame, Daryl?
02:19I know you were on this weekend.
02:22And this is one of those things where, yes, I thought we were getting LeBron.
02:27I said I'd be devastated if we didn't get LeBron.
02:29Are you devastated this morning?
02:31I am.
02:31I am.
02:32It sucks.
02:32Not because I thought it was like 2014 where I thought it was going to be Cavs every night,
02:41national television, and championships.
02:43They would have gotten national TV, but the championship thing, I think it would have helped them.
02:51It certainly wouldn't have put them ahead of Oklahoma City, the Spurs, or even the Knicks.
02:55And I was adamant about that before.
02:57This isn't revisionist history.
02:59I said that at the time, but I thought LeBron, even at 41, 24 years in, was a massive upgrade
03:04over Dean Wade.
03:05And now he gets to join forces with Dean Wade over in Philly.
03:09I was expecting to wake up this morning and see in my inbox the upcoming NBA schedule from Adam Silver.
03:16I mean, he's had a couple of days now to finish this thing off.
03:18Oh, that's right.
03:19What's he waiting for?
03:20Yeah.
03:20What are we waiting on, Adam?
03:22Did they also...
03:23You found out on Friday.
03:24LeBron to Philly.
03:25How hard is it to fill in the rest of the schedule now?
03:28Did they also have the lovely husband and wife that used to create the baseball schedule every year?
03:32Do you remember that?
03:33Yeah, I remember that story.
03:34Or was that just...
03:35No, I think that was true.
03:37I mean, they...
03:37That was definitely true.
03:39Yeah, they...
03:40Were they in Nebraska or Iowa?
03:42Wisconsin, I think.
03:43Come on.
03:44They used to make the schedules on whiteboards and stuff.
03:47I had to erase our whiteboard on Friday.
03:48I know, Daryl.
03:49I was sad to see it go.
03:50The Rich Paul whiteboard.
03:52You know what?
03:52I actually messed up.
03:54I should have trolled everybody by leaving the Philadelphia 76ers on the board.
04:00I should have erased everything on the whiteboard except the Philadelphia 76ers portion.
04:06I should not have erased that.
04:07I apologize.
04:08What a coup, right?
04:09What a coup for Mike Gansey.
04:11He's in Philly.
04:12He's the executive of the year, right?
04:14You're exactly right.
04:15I mean...
04:15Turn in your ballots now.
04:17A hundred percent.
04:18Now, we'll see if any of their players...
04:19Well...
04:20We'll see if LeBron gets through the season.
04:22We'll see if Joel Embiid gets through the season.
04:23It depends if that turns into a big dumpster fire, though.
04:26We'll see.
04:27Listen...
04:27I mean, it looks good on paper right now.
04:29Everyone's got them penciled in to the conference finals and NBA finals, but, I mean, how many
04:35free agency, regardless if it's baseball, basketball, football, how many free agency bananas
04:44have just kind of blown up in teams' faces, you know, over the years?
04:50I mean, we see it all the time where we're talking about teams making splashes in free
04:55agency and bringing in all these players and how they're going to win the championship
05:00or play for the championship, and then their season turns into an unmitigated disaster.
05:05So, just because Mike Gansey has had himself a very fine offseason signing Dean Wade, trading
05:10for Brown, and then getting LeBron James, there's no guarantee.
05:14He, I'll say this, when you talk about who's to blame, LeBron's to blame.
05:19There's no one else to blame.
05:20It's not Rich Paul, as much as I do want to blame him because he's talking out of both
05:24sides of his mouth with all these, the sources say reporting that's coming from, you know,
05:29Wendy and Joe Varden and Scoop B and all the national, David Aldridge, all the national
05:35reporters that are doing these in-depth behind the scenes of LeBron's big decision to go to
05:41Philadelphia, right, the narratives surrounding the Cavaliers, but if you've paid attention
05:47to various multimedia productions surrounding LeBron, whether it's Rich Paul's podcast, whether
05:54it's, you know, podcasts that LeBron has done, it's all contradictory, right?
05:59We're blaming the Cavs trading Darius Garland to the Clippers for why LeBron didn't come back.
06:06We're now blaming the fact that they're supposedly surprised that Donovan Mitchell was
06:11the superstar that was not moved by the Cavaliers, but there's evidence that, well, LeBron actually
06:18felt that Donovan had a little more to offer than Darius did.
06:24And, oh, by the way, Rich Paul's, you know, happened to admit on his own podcast, I think
06:30it was last summer, where he had told Darius this is going to be your last year in Cleveland.
06:35So, like, I just, just come out.
06:38I have, I have 10 myths.
06:39We're going to get to this later, Michelle.
06:40I mean, just, just come out and say you didn't want to play for the Cavs.
06:43You accomplished everything you were going to accomplish in Cleveland.
06:45There was no reason to go back in Philadelphia to climb the mountain again.
06:49And that's that.
06:50Like, what's with all these excuses?
06:52And what are you covering for it?
06:54There's nothing to cover.
06:55There's nothing, you know, you won the championship here.
06:59So, there's nothing to feel bad about not choosing the Cavaliers.
07:03I just don't know why there's all these excuses, or as you put them, myths that are being circulated
07:09about why LeBron did not come back to the Cavaliers.
07:11It's a waste of time.
07:12Well, right now, there's no doubt that the pressure is on Kobe.
07:16The pressure is on the Cavs.
07:18Because it looks like, because they have not made a move, other than Hazonia yesterday.
07:22They re-signed Donovan Mitchell.
07:24And, well, so this is key here.
07:26If you look at it.
07:27They drafted Malik in the second round.
07:29What the teams have done across the Eastern Conference landscape.
07:33You're dismissing all those moves?
07:35Dismissing?
07:36Well, I don't think their offseason has really begun yet.
07:39And I think that's bothering people that they have been on hold.
07:43Because they were talking confident.
07:45Let's be honest.
07:46Kenny Atkinson at the Summer League was talking extremely confidently about LeBron.
07:51James Harden in Brazil were caught up with at the soccer, the World Cup.
07:57ESPN Brazil talked to him.
07:59And he said, that's the plan.
08:02Everything led to the Cavs coveting LeBron and kind of basing their offseason on LeBron.
08:08Which I know, on its surface, on paper, that seems crazy.
08:12Probably a bad idea to be counting on LeBron if you're the Cavaliers.
08:15Well, yeah, they know better than anybody how finicky this can be and how they never have known what LeBron
08:24is thinking.
08:24I think that's part of the good and the bad of LeBron.
08:27Like, LeBron is not somebody that you could see these moves coming from a mile away.
08:32Look, Kenny and I had argued, man, like four weeks ago about the Knicks.
08:40Like, he thought I was goofing about the Knicks, and I think, clearly, now we know, I think his move
08:46was the Knicks until they won the championship.
08:49So, just like the Cavaliers now have to go to their plan B this offseason, the Sixers were LeBron's plan
08:54B.
08:55Yeah, his original desire...
08:57Well, after they got Jalen Brown.
08:58Well, his original desire was to sign with the Knicks.
09:01Then the Knicks won the NBA championship, and we're like, yeah, bro, we're good.
09:05We got the trophy, we're good, you don't need to come here.
09:08So, he had to then pivot and find his next challenge.
09:12There was no challenge left for him in Cleveland.
09:15He already won the championship.
09:17In doing so, he beat the winningest team in regular season NBA history.
09:21In doing so, he became the only team to come back from down one, three, and a finals.
09:28There was no...
09:29It doesn't get any better with that.
09:32And all those four championships, the championship that everybody remembers, it's not the bubble title with the Lakers, it's not
09:38the two with the Heat, it is 2016 with the Cavaliers.
09:41That's true.
09:42Cleveland, this is for you.
09:43That is what everyone remembers when you're talking about LeBron's legacy.
09:47Now, if he goes to Philadelphia and wins a championship with his fourth different franchise, well, maybe the legacy shifts
09:56a little bit.
09:57But, you know, this notion that the Cavaliers put all the eggs in the LeBron basket, look, I hope the
10:04pitch wasn't come home for all the feels, LeBron, because that's not LeBron.
10:10And if that was the pitch, and I don't know what the Cavaliers pitched him, okay, but if that was
10:15the pitch, Anthony, that's 2010 all over again.
10:18Remember the stories about they had the video of all their inside childish jokes or whatever?
10:24Yeah, and then meanwhile, Pat Riley, you know, walks in and he just starts putting rings on the table in
10:31front of LeBron.
10:32You know what I'm saying?
10:34Completely pulled.
10:35So I hope that wasn't the pitch to LeBron was, hey, come home for all the feels.
10:38We made you cry in January with our tribute video, because that's not what drives LeBron.
10:44Winning and competing for championships, that's what drives LeBron, okay?
10:50And if you look at, and I've said this about the Cavaliers, yes, they got to the conference finals.
10:56They got swept.
10:57I felt this was a major opportunity to miss.
11:00Had they been able to get by the Knicks, they could have beaten the Spurs.
11:02They would have beaten the Spurs, okay?
11:04And we would have had a second NBA championship.
11:06But they knew that.
11:07You think the Cavs would have?
11:08Yes, I think the Cavaliers would have, yes.
11:10Errol, spicy on a Monday morning.
11:12Absolutely.
11:13Massive, massive opportunity missed by them.
11:15Because now, like, this past season was supposed to be the easy path to the NBA Finals.
11:22Now look at the Eastern Conference.
11:24It's now a gauntlet all of a sudden.
11:26Well, now tanking's gone.
11:28Everybody is motivated to get out of the bottom three because of the way.
11:32Yeah, there's five or six teams that could win the Eastern Conference this coming season.
11:35Yeah.
11:36Yeah, it's very interesting.
11:37I want to hear from the fans on this.
11:38216-474-0092.
11:40I know the news hit Friday.
11:42I want to know how people having the weekend to take it all in, right, and to try to figure
11:49out where you were on your LeBron feelings.
11:51Because, you know, it happened on cue.
11:53Once the news happened, it was, you know, LeBron did us dirty again.
12:00Get rid of the statue.
12:01He means nothing to us.
12:03I don't believe any of that.
12:04Listen, I was convinced he was coming back.
12:06I was too.
12:07And you know what?
12:08I should have known better.
12:10Why, Daryl?
12:11I should have known better.
12:12You're the Browns beat reporter, not the LeBron beat reporter.
12:15I've had two tours with LeBron.
12:18I was prepared to sign up for a third.
12:20So why should you have seen this coming?
12:22I should have known better.
12:24Because having a couple of nights to sleep on it and digest it and read everything over
12:30the weekend here, it stared me right in the face how obvious it was.
12:36He really was not going to come back to the Cavaliers.
12:41Why do you say that?
12:43Because, again, what drives him is competing for championships.
12:46Habs were good last year.
12:48Well, he was in search of his next purpose in the NBA.
12:53Like, think about this, right?
12:56His first tour with the Cavaliers, got to one NBA finals, got back to the conference finals,
13:03got beat up pretty bad by Orlando, really didn't sniff the finals again.
13:06His purpose became winning championships.
13:09He goes to Miami, four straight finals, wins two titles.
13:11Then his purpose became, I need to make good on what I did in 2010 to Cleveland.
13:16Let's go home and try and win a championship.
13:20That became his purpose.
13:21He did it.
13:22Then it was, okay, let's see if we can do a little dynasty here in Cleveland real quick.
13:26Like, nope, they got KD.
13:27Can't do that.
13:28Now my purpose, the Lakers, heritage franchise in the NBA, has fallen on hard times.
13:34My purpose now, go out there, establish my post-career business setup, and help them return
13:40to glory.
13:41Well, won a championship there, albeit in the bubble, but a championship's a championship.
13:45So he served his purpose in LA.
13:47Then, what's his next purpose?
13:49Well, coming back to the Cavaliers, I don't know what his next purpose with the Cavaliers
13:53would have been other than just trying to repeat what he did the second time around with them.
13:58So now his purpose is to elevate another NBA franchise and bring them a championship.
14:07He wanted to do it with the Knicks.
14:08That was going to be his purpose.
14:09I'm going to go to New York and be the knight in shining armor to end their drought, end
14:16their misery.
14:16Well, too late.
14:17That's already been done.
14:18Brunson took care of that this year, right?
14:20So now, okay, where can I go to have purpose?
14:24Golden State?
14:24Nah, not really.
14:25That was a dynasty for a while.
14:27And also, I was the victim of said dynasty.
14:30So Philadelphia makes pretty good sense.
14:32All right, listen to Daryl on a Monday.
14:34There were a lot of layering going on on the Mind the Game podcast.
14:38Rich Paul, Max Kellerman, The Ringer.
14:40There's a lot of layers.
14:41I think a lot of lies and layers over the past month.
14:45And they were jerking us around.
14:46Let's be honest.
14:48They have been having fun.
14:49Hey, I wish, honestly, I think it would be a lot of fun to be like Rich is a multi,
14:55multi, multi-millionaire.
14:56He has a chance to be if he wants.
14:58He's the de facto NBA commissioner.
14:59Well, if he wants to be a GM, if he wants to be a president.
15:02Why would you?
15:03You control 32 NBA franchises as an agent.
15:06You had the entire league on hold for four weeks.
15:12Four weeks.
15:13Nobody was conducting league business until they knew what LeBron was going to do.
15:19Why would you give up that kind of power?
15:21I think it would be a lot of fun to sit there.
15:23The whiteboard thing was such a good bet.
15:25I was jealous.
15:26As a radio professional.
15:29As somebody who is supposed to be in charge of driving content all the time.
15:33That whiteboard bit was hilarious.
15:35It was all lies.
15:36None of it.
15:37They were just joking.
15:38The whole thing was a bit.
15:40We got trolled for four weeks.
15:41Absolutely.
15:42And you know what?
15:43All of us are guilty of running with it.
15:45And we were glued to that podcast.
15:46Because what else did we have?
15:47Yeah.
15:47Right?
15:47No breadcrumbs.
15:49We're really starting to get out there after.
15:52Could you imagine Drew Rosenhaus?
15:54Pick, I don't know, whatever top free agent you want that's a Drew Rosenhaus client.
15:58Could you imagine Drew Rosenhaus doing a series of podcasts on his client's free agency?
16:06Or Tom Condon or one of these other super agents doing a series of podcasts on their client's free agency
16:13over the course of a month?
16:14I can't.
16:15I've never seen anything like that in my life professionally.
16:18Look, this is Rich Paul's world.
16:21I've said this.
16:22People don't seem to care about the Rich Paul part of this because he's not the basketball player.
16:27Best thing that ever happened to him was running into LeBron at the airport.
16:30Well, and he gets all sorts of flack people line up to be like, well, you're only in this position
16:35because of LeBron.
16:35It's like, yeah, you know what?
16:37A lot of other people's crossed paths with LeBron.
16:39They didn't become this powerful.
16:41Right.
16:41You know, and by the way, I say the same thing about Maverick Carter.
16:45How incredibly, people don't even know how he moves the needle in Hollywood and elsewhere because he is not, he's
16:52not as self-promoting.
16:54Right.
16:54Maybe as some of the other people.
16:56But the three of them, what they, I watched, I watched LeBron and Maverick Carter play basketball together.
17:03Yeah.
17:03Way back when, way back when, my senior year of high school.
17:07I've told the story on the air.
17:08To see where they have all, yeah, come in all these years, it is an amazing story.
17:14It's not the story people care about today.
17:16We're without LeBron James.
17:18And to hear Rich Paul talk about this, people are getting angrier and angrier and angrier.
17:23Because why?
17:24We don't have the answers.
17:26We did not control the situation.
17:28Kobe Altman, it is his job to build a roster that would make LeBron want to come here for that
17:36final leg of the journey.
17:38That final leg of that championship journey.
17:41And while, look, I thought getting to the Easter Conference Finals was a big deal.
17:45Many disagreed with me.
17:47Clearly, LeBron disagreed with you.
17:48And Kobe Altman and Rich Paul.
17:51Clearly, they disagreed.
17:53If Jalen Brown doesn't get sold pennies on the dollar by the Boston Celtics, what kind of conversation are we
17:59having today?
18:00What if the Cavaliers traded for Jalen Brown?
18:03What if the Cavs, I don't know, did or did not make other moves?
18:09Because I still say LeBron wasn't coming home.
18:13Now that I've had time to sleep on this and look back on it and reflect over the last four
18:17weeks and really dissect what Rich Paul said on all those podcasts with Max Kellerman,
18:24LeBron was never coming home.
18:27They made it sound like he was coming home.
18:30I mean, we had Cupcake Person reporting LeBron was coming home.
18:34We had childhood friends of LeBron saying, yeah, LeBron's coming home.
18:38Yeah, I don't think he's ever coming home.
18:41I really don't.
18:41Yes, it is true.
18:43The Cavaliers were a contender.
18:46They were in consideration.
18:48He wasn't picking them.
18:49All right, so would he have picked the Cavs if all the clutch clients were here?
18:55I'm being dead serious.
18:56By the way, I don't think the Cavaliers employ any clutch clients anymore, do they?
19:00No, not right now.
19:01Okay.
19:02Are they ever going to have another clutch client again?
19:05Yeah.
19:06How can you be an NBA team and not take them seriously?
19:10He is, you know, one of the leading agencies, representation of NBA players.
19:16Kind of feels like Rich Paul couldn't wait to get his clutch clients out of Cleveland, I'm just saying.
19:20Well, and we're going to get to that when I told you.
19:22Yeah, 10, in my hand, 10 different things that I've heard over the weekend that I want to debunk.
19:28And we even have some audio to prove it as well.
19:31But I want to get, before we get to the fans here, I know they're lining up to talk.
19:35The blame game on LeBron.
19:39I have been, at times, the afternoon show, Ken Carman, they've called me Whammer.
19:46They have said I've been carrying the water for the Cavs based on a lot of my defense of Kobe
19:54and the hardened trade,
19:56which, I will reiterate, for the 100th time, made the team better, gave them more financial flexibility.
20:04Yeah.
20:04Got them out of the second apron.
20:06And they got past the second round.
20:09Check, check, check.
20:11Three things that were not happening.
20:14Had Darius Garland been on the team?
20:15I've done that to death.
20:17Well, James Harden actually played in the playoffs, whereas Darius Garland would not have played in the playoffs.
20:22And he's better than Darius Garland.
20:23I don't know how many, nobody in the league thinks Darius is better.
20:26Well, he's definitely better dribbling basketballs off his knees and ankles than Darius Garland is.
20:32Darius needs to play in the playoffs.
20:33And by the way, he definitely had no problems committing turnovers when he was going up against Indiana.
20:39And we can look at the Knicks a few years ago.
20:41Whatever.
20:43I don't know how this is even controversial.
20:45I know what Rich Paul said.
20:47I know what he put on the whiteboard.
20:50He's also his agent.
20:52Yes.
20:53Like, you got to remember that, guys.
20:55This isn't hard.
20:56Don't fall for the banana in the tailpipe.
20:59There is so much in the way of, they're clowning a lot of the media and fans.
21:05Yes.
21:06When they do this.
21:06And when I see what Windy put out there, and I think Windy is one of the best.
21:13I don't even have to go through all the things that I need to say about what I've been reading
21:19him from day one.
21:20He got played by Rich Paul in the...
21:23So many people got played by Rich Paul during this process.
21:27We all got played by Rich Paul in this process.
21:30And I did warn people last week that I said in many ways, this might be more about Rich Paul
21:36and trying to advance the ball forward for all of his clients than anything LeBron.
21:42I thought LeBron had his mind made up a few weeks ago.
21:45Turns out he probably did.
21:47But it was for Philadelphia.
21:49That was my misstep.
21:50It wasn't for Cleveland.
21:51Well, I did say for a couple weeks not to discount the 76ers.
21:56That they were a dark horse to sign him.
21:59I didn't actually think it was going to happen, though.
22:02Again, because I was convinced, based on everything that I was hearing that was being put out there,
22:08I'm like, he's coming back.
22:12Everything's...
22:12All signs point to Cleveland, Ohio for this thing.
22:16And I should have known better.
22:18Because, again, it's not...
22:22When you talk about a tenure with the Cavaliers, Anthony, you're never topping 2016, number one.
22:28Number two, what if he came back and he didn't win the championship again, right?
22:32Whether it was two or three years that he'd be back to wrap up his career, okay?
22:37But he didn't win another championship.
22:39He retired with four instead of five.
22:42Or maybe six, okay?
22:46I think that that weighed heavily on him when he was making this decision.
22:53And, again, look at all the contending teams.
22:56Miami, he already won two titles there.
22:59Golden State, he was on the receiving end of that dynasty.
23:03So there's no drought in Golden State.
23:05In fact, the Warriors came back and won a title a couple years ago, right?
23:10The Knicks were out because they had won the championship.
23:13So he can't be the hero there in New York.
23:15He can go to Philadelphia now and be the hero.
23:18Like, that was the one spot of all the contenders where he could show up and be the hero.
23:24And nobody loves being the hero more than LeBron James.
23:32That's a big part of what drives him.
23:35And I don't mean that as a negative.
23:36That's not me being sarcastic.
23:38That's a cool thing.
23:39That'd be amazing.
23:40Like, that drives him.
23:43And to be able to do things never done before, because the number one thing that gets held
23:48against him in the GOAT conversation is, well, Jordan won six titles with the Bulls, went
23:526-0 in the NBA Finals.
23:54Okay?
23:55I think LeBron's been to, what, 10-11 Finals?
23:57He's won four of them.
23:58And so the fact that he's lost five, six NBA Finals has been used against him.
24:04Like, that's a bad thing.
24:05Which is silly.
24:05It's ridiculous, because you look at some of the teams he went to the Finals with, they
24:08had no business being in the Finals.
24:10Okay?
24:11The Warriors teams in 2017 and 2018 were some of the best teams I've ever seen in my life.
24:16And also, too, LeBron, those two years, played some of his best basketball ever.
24:20The Cavaliers.
24:22I would argue the Cavaliers, the year after they won the championship, okay?
24:26The 16-17 season, I would argue that Cavalier team was better than the 2016 NBA champions.
24:34And they got their, you know what, handed to them in the NBA Finals by Golden State, okay?
24:40And then we know what happened in the 18 NBA Finals before LeBron left for Los Angeles.
24:45So, like, the hero thing.
24:47To be the knight in shining armor.
24:50To be the guy that lifts and elevates a franchise.
24:53It's been, what, 43 years now?
24:55It's hard to believe 1983 is 43 years ago.
24:59So, I, I can't believe, like, I, I just, those words coming out of my mouth are hard for me
25:06to, to digest.
25:07But, yeah.
25:08It's been 43 years since the Sixers have won an NBA title.
25:11And he wants to deliver a championship so much for the city of Philadelphia that he's gonna live in New
25:17York City.
25:17The happiness thing's a joke, by the way.
25:19The happiness thing's a joke, by the way.