All Ball - Pt 2. ‘Predator’ Actor Dane DeLiegro on Overseas Pro Experience, ‘Prey’ Big Break

age limit for the NBA draft. Uh. This is something that's long been discussed, long been desired by the NBA, p a and the NBA. Whether they want it or don't want it, it's just been a leverage point where they said we get to it. Now it feels like they're going to get to it. So what does it do? Well, the college basketball coaches forever have said, why don't we just have the baseball rule, you know, college baseball while you go out of high school or you gotta stay

for three years. That works. Here's the problem with it. College Baseball, and I get I get that basketball is an inherently different sport. Um, I totally understand that. I understand that. Basketball is why are differently. That the tradition, the pomp, circumstances, all of those things, and what you're gonna do when you have, and you know, I know these.

They want more draft picks as well, which of course will create a bigger influx of young players who go directly to the minor leagues, to the to the g league. There's a there's a lack of sustainability, I believe, to the whole thing. I could be wrong because obviously gatorade changing from the D League to the g league is a big proponent of it. The League wants to stay alive. It helps the teams, but they have don't get me wrong,

they lose money. This is not a money maker. Um, for for the most part, I would guess it's a little different with the gatorade money, but not much different. The G League, ignite, is not a money maker. It's just not. And the weird thing that I haven't heard anybody say, at least in front of a microphone, is you know, it doesn't matter that the players are better than g league than they are in college basketball. People

don't watch minor league sports. So the caution to to college basketball is this idea that we like the college baseball model. Sounds Great, but does Anybody Watch College Baseball outside the College Baseball World Series? The answer is no, and you don't want to. You don't want that to be your sport, that you don't want that to be your m O, that nobody cares. On the other hand, the cautionary tale for the NBA is it doesn't matter how good the talent is in the g league. We

don't watch minor league sports. We just don't. And I think turning college football or basketball in a minor league sport is a mistake. And depending upon a minor league sport, a True Minor League sport, to to to draw a number on a TV writing is an ill fated concept. I don't know. It seemed to work for a long time the way that we used to do it, and now that you have name, image and likeness, guys should stay longer than our borderline. I I don't love this rule,

but I would especially not like this rule. If you can come out of college, go back in. Come out of college, go back in. Now you get compensated with N I l. Now you can transfer right away without sitting out, all of which is not great for college basketball, but it's great for the student athlete. I think expanding the draft pool Um and, frankly, lowing the age limit, it's just gonna make more people charge into this thing headlong, and that doesn't make it a great decision. All right,

let's get you to Dante Legro. Here's part two of my discussion with the new star of the new dangelegro. So you have you finally got this passport, you get done playing. So then all these like all these European agents start coming out of the world facebook. They just, I don't the same thing with the Jew the Jew basketball radar. They just find you, I don't know. They look up stats, they look up Division One. How many

Division One schools are there? So they you know, the hundred and fifty, four now, I think, but back then there was probably, you know, there's three. So if you if you have like a hard working, relatively smart agent, he can he can find these graduating seniors who could go play overseas. And I don't know if it's public information or not that I have my passport, but there are people who are starting to pursue me now and it's it's a little bit of a factory. Like you know.

They're a guy from Germany came and did his rounds on the East Coast and met with me at New Hampshire and my numbers weren't bad, but I started for four years, so I think that stands out. Um, I graduated, I was the second all time leading rebounder in school history. Oh that's another I was I could have been the all time leading reboundersquistory. I got suspended for what I had. I used a fake parking pass. That are S I D who? But by the way, our S I d

on the road was my roommate. His name, his name doesn't matter. I'm not even gonna his name is Eric, but Um uh, he copied his like faculty parking pass photocopy and gave it to me so that I could park um closer to the field house so I wouldn't

have to walk. Amazing our athletic trainer saw me one day and snitched on me, reported it not to my head coach but to the athletic director and I got suspended for three games for extra benefits and he instiduably forced me to pay one hundred dollars to a charity of my choice, like, first of all, looking back. No, the instable. You cannot fucking do that. You can't force. Okay, well, I'm not paying. Well, you can't play. That's you can't

do that. I certainly can't. I don't know, but that ship wouldn't fly today, I can tell you that much. All that extra benefits ship. Well, yeah, that that stuff as good. Well, for parking pass, I got suspended for three games. People thought I was doing I'm in New Hampshire. I me at Vermont there, like, were you doing drugs? I heard you're doing dealing drugs. N Fake Parking Pass. Crazy. Three Games, three games, three. And so I was the

average trainer. Did the trainer understand what he she was? No, she did not know. She was just no, she didn't choose from North Shore Massachusetts and just wanted to snitch on me. And that's it. And I was averaging eight point out. How many rebounds short are you of being the all time leader rebound? So I was averaging eight point eight rebounds a game that season and I missed three games and I missed the all time leading rebound record by twenty four rebounds. Women close but very likely.

If I knew, and who are the team? If you knew, you would have got more. If I knew, I would have dedicated these games to rebounding. It's since changed. The record has been broken by now. You know, I would have been I don't even know, Um, because they played more games now too. Well, they play more games and like the yeah, there there are like better those. Those records are so fragile because we never had players at

New Hampshire anyways. So you bring one guy in who's capable of doing a lot of things and you know that they were going to break all the records. So I was seventh all timesis when I when I finished, but I finished three short of Greg Anthony and then Aaron Miles is, uh was how many? Way, he's seven short of him. Um, I'm nine short of Tony Miller at Marquette and thirteen short of Sherman Douglas. And these are all the time. Great, I'm forty six. Oh, you

didn't play with Travis Deiner Against Travis Deiner? No, here's my point guard. So so my point is, my my story is I wasn't suspended, but one UM, Notre Dame, did not help because one. We lost in the first game in the Big East Tournament. We didn't play any postseason play and we played pretty slow. Right that that that that didn't help. But I did start that year, so I probably got more than most guys. But then in Oaklhama state. So my the year I aloud led

the country one time, a second the other time. But when the year I let it Um, two things one. So I was averaging like twelve and ten. We play out here play. That's crazy. And I had gotten a technical foul against Florida Gulf coast. So here's the here's the here's the story. Okay, UM, my sophomore year we we were picked last in the League and UM at Oakham state. So I sat out of year side of Oaklham state and Um really was there was a bunch of other schools that's going to go to and it

just kind of all fell into place. Plus, they badly need a point card. If you watch their team play like they're actually really good. They just are playing way too slow because they don't have a point guard and they don't have anybody who makes everybody else better like they had really like Joe Atkins was my two guard. He averaged like four and a half sister game our senior year. He was a great passer and score. He just wasn't a point guard right, like he didn't think

of getting everybody else involved. Deson Mason was was playing a wing and you know, when I got there we moved into the four, we played small and he was, you know, like as a he it was just a constant mismatch, right. So, anyway, we had a really good sophomore year. We got a bad draw. We lose the Duke in the N C a tournament, kind of similarly to your Yukon story where we were tied with Duke

with two and a half ago. We get home but we got no. I meant not the officiating, which wasn't great, but it was more that you get home and people are celebrating. You're like we lost, like Oh, would you almost be Duke? Like we lost, like no, you almost bed it, like we fucking lost. We should have won the game, like, dude, have a beer. So it was a hard fought battle and it was I'm sure it was great to watch, but the end result is what was really plus. Like, you know, if you're in the moment,

you're like we shouldn't want to. It was a tight game with two haive minutes ago and we made a couple of shots and they scored, like we should have won the game. So Um. So, my junior year we were picked when we were top preseason, top ten, because we had everybody back except our starting center again, Brett Robisch. Brett, his dad played in the NBA. His brother was on the team to his brother ultimately transferred to Butler. He played like six years but like fifty games because he's

just always had these always hurt. Brett was really good. But plus Brett was like a he took a lot of bullets for all the rest of the guys, you know, like he stood up for people, he talked back to coaches just because he knew we couldn't play without him and like he just didn't take ship from anybody. So when he was gone it kind of changed the dynamic. And then we had we didn't have enough eligible guards.

We lost Florida Atlantic. I could, I could do a whole podcast on it, but I got so anyway, I got a t in the I got thrown out of the U C L A game. Again, another pot. You want to just boil it down. Well, I got it the first tea I got. So it's the only game I ever played in the state of California and from California. We played in Orange County. I'm from Orange County and we played against US silly. My brother and sister used a lambs. I was the U C L, a ticket hold of one, I would say I was. I was

a ball boy for a time, you know. And UH, well, Jim Herrick recruited me but I turned down. And then Steve Labin was the coach we lost to. So Um. So I turned them down in a high school Um. And then why went to know dame and then when I when I was sitting out in between, had baron Davis not gone there, I would have gone there would be a better player than me right. So they were like wait, waiting on barren. So Baron it was his first game off of the A C L tear from

the end of his freshman year. So he was heavy. He wasn't very good, but I got a tea where. I mean the officiating was awful. There's got named Charlie range. Anybody listen to podcast just from western United States are a high a college basketball coach like Oh, Charlie range,

borderline criminals official, fucking horrible. Okay, but he would always do the big west coast game when somebody from the East would come and play or midwest to come and play and low behold, like they would get calls like Charlie range. Dave Libby was a better official but also could be a merciless prick if you if you looked at him, weird like he would. He hed t coach and my last game ever for nothing anyway. So Um, I go and I'm, you know, again kind of like you,

like I'm in college. I probably run my mouth more than that ship. So we start the game and it's like six Oh and six Oh and fouls, and so I flipped the ball to him after they call us like a little nickel diamond. I was like come on, charl leaving him up a little bit. He bangs me. You know. That's the first so end of the first half, like we're holding for the last shot and I probably went early off a highball screen. I go in and I shoot a floater over Jerome Moiso, French kid, and

Dan get's reach. I don't know how you remember all these. I don't remember half of the dudes I played again. Well, they were both pros and that ship came out so hard. They were like. And then baron like I went by him, so instead of trying to get back defensively, like, he leaked out. He gets a layup, lays it in. I think it was only two points of the night and he comes back like talking ship. Yeah, motherfucker, yeah, yeah, motherfucker,

and he like bumped shoulders to me. I was like, get the funk off me, dude, right, and he takes a dive. Oh No, takes so they call it in tensional foul, but then they go back and the intentional foul was after the halftime Buzzer had expired. Consider technical foul. So I have to stay in the locker room in the second half. We lose by three points. So we had we had a player sitting out. Um, I promised my teammates I would not I would not say his name aloud because he's the one guy who's not in

the circle. But his name is Glenn and Alexander. He's had some he's had an interesting post career career life whatever. He's the all time leaning scored in the State of Texas. He was a transfer from Arkansas, so he was eligible the next game. So uh, and that's really what kind of unsettled our whole team. We had terrible chemistry because he thought he should play right away and like we were all we all started the year before we were

really good. So somebody was gonna sit and ended up being him and him coming out the bench and ended up kind of settling and working itself out. But the next eight games I was in the doghouse and he had enough. Dud. Don't you know, if you get as you punch somebody. I don't know if the rules changed. I don't know. If you get thrown out now you have to sit, but but I played like eight minutes, nine minutes, like I was like I'm out of here, like this dude is doghouse and me for some bullshit.

And those are also the games against the SHITTY teams like Southeast Missouri State right like Dude, I would have had fifteen assists. So the net net is at the end of that year we end up turning around, having a good year, having a good run at the end of the season and losing to Auburn Um Bruceton Coachter then Um um losing to Auburn in the second round

of the tournament. But I lead the country and assists, but I only played twenty six minutes of game, which is the lowest number of minutes per gamebably the highest efficiency rating, no question, like through the like per forty, forty, I was insane. This system. Like, look at everybody else who leaves the country and sists. They all average like thirty five, thirty six minutes. Again, and now part of it was my own doing, with like retrow shooting took

me out of games late. That hurt my scoring average as well. Oh, terrible, like forty something really. Yeah, well, I thought I was bad. I was like fifty six and that's bad. But I would go, I would I would start good and then I would always hit, like some mental thing. And it's such a mental thing. Oh, it's the worst. So, especially if it was a game where like so hit. My point is there was a really long way of getting around to like I completely understand.

Like had I I I find three assists short and at the time, like now, I'm like no, I'm eleventh. But like, had that doghouse not occurred, there's eight games stretch there, I'm probably third all time and assist in the third fucking third, like dude, third, nobody could, nobody will catch you anymore because, with the exception of like a covid guy, nobody plays long enough. Like I was like T J fourd. I was like, Bro, you gotta,

you gotta go pro. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's funny. I just like, for me, I mean you, you only means a lot more to you than it does me, but like it just it bugs me that for the rest of my life. Now I have to say I graduated the second all time leading rebounder and I wish I could just have it, I mean listen it. Having my my high school, I'm my boy, David Laalas Arian. He surpassed me and I was second, and I was second

all time and scoring down third. I had I had for everything else, scoring an assist, and he like what up me his senior years. But the only other way to look as well second. It could be worse, like I could be I'm on the I'm on the on the list. Fox Sports radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports radio DOT COM and within the I heart radio APP, Search F S R to listen live. Okay, so you get done playing, these guys are searching out

to you facebook. Um, how did you just? How did you pick an agent? UH, Jim Norton was, I think, connected to me through my add my my father worked for Nike for thirty one years. He Um, he started with them when they were blue ribbon sports and I think he was employee number two, oh four. He was very early. He started with Nike in the seventies and Um, uh, he made a lot of contacts through the years and one of one of his people like connected him with this Guy Jim, Jim notton out of Texas, who was

a sports agent in Europe for Europe European players. and Um, yeah, I just I remember standing outside the library in Durham and like Jim's pitch was the best one I heard. So I just signed with him. So, uh, where's your first team? Oh, stuny, Italy. That was also during the lockout until eleven. So like the European teams were like bolstered. So it kind of all the NBA guys came over and it kind of pushed everyone down. Um Division, second division.

Where's the stunny? It was stunts in Pulia. It's in this it's in the south. It's in the heel of the boot of Italy. I've never heard of it. It's called Lech Ta Bianca, which means the white city. It's all white washed limestone buildings. It's a great place to go on vacation. It's it's really amazing, the whole city. It's up on a hill. It's surrounded by alive trees like it's something out of like game of thrones. Um,

it's a great place to visit. Just you know you're living there for ten months now and I'm holy Shit, I'm in Italy and I think my first contract was like forty dollars. Wasn't much, but it's it's tax free and they give you a house, to give you a give you a car. Pretty good deal. And the car they gave me was a Fiat Marea. It was terrible stick shift. Aaron Johnson, who was U A B Guy, you might know him. He was assist leader into A. Yeah,

he was my point guard. Playing with Aaron Johnson was one of the most pleasant experiences of my life that that dude got me the ball. He would just drive into traffic and then disappear and then the ball just be in my hands. I don't know how he did it, but Um, yeah, we they went bankrupt with like four months left of the season. Didn't tell us. We kept playing. When we realized that, the team started, you know something, the guys started striking. For me, I didn't care. It

wasn't about the money. For me, I just wanted to put on display what I was capable of, and I think I lost like half my contract that season because they just stopped paying and like they that's the thing about Europe. was like, yeah, it's tax free, it's great. They pay you when they want to pay you. They pay if they want to pay you, and they have they have your Feba contract and then they have this thing called the image contract, and the image contract is

that black money. It's that untaxed envelope that you get at the end of, you know, every month, and it comes wrapped in like ankle taping pre wrap and uh, there you go. Um, and you know you can make more money signing a bigger image contract, but you're putting yourself at risk because if the team fails, then you are owed less money because it's not in the books. Um, played well, you know, obviously it didn't matter that we

went bankrupt. Then I signed with Sassery and Sassaries in Sardinia and I went from I went from Italy Sign Division to First Division. Um, a team consisting of travis diner, Drake Deaner, bootsy Thornton. Um. Who else was on that team? Tony? Easily, we were we. I went from like they gave me a BMW x six, like we it just like we're

in European Cup, we're in Euro Euro Cup. Now we're going to Serbia, we're going to Spain, we're going to France and man what and that playing for Sassary, just seeing Travis deaner manage everything on and off the court, was amazing. This dude is so talented it doesn't matter. You could make a game of flipping beer bottle caps into a trash can across him. He's going to get a competition. He's going to be better than you at it. Travis Deiner is the most, one of the most talented

dudes I've ever met in my life. And you know, I don't know how tally is and he's not the biggest athlete in the world, and you look at him you're like he's just a normal dude. He's just so skilled at everything and I've never the way he carries himself, the way he talks to the coaches, the way he talks to the refs, the way he manages the floor. It was like, maybe next to bootsy, no other player has impacted me that much in my entire life playing

with Travis Deaner. Um, just his general demeanor towards life and and competition and being a fucking man like to this day we still talk, we're still Um, we're still good friends and he's just he I don't even think he realizes how much he inspired me. When, Um, when you tell me the Israel story with your knee. Oh Oh wait, I mean, yeah, it's not. There's not really much to tell that. I went. So I year what you go? So that was year when Ostoony Sassery Trie

Este up in the northeast. That was cool city. It was. It was like it's the last city before he hits Slovenia. Um, back to second division. I averaged like twelve and eight that season. We weren't that good but um, we saved ourselves from relegation because the bottom team in the league goes down to division and we saved ourselves. Uh. And then from there I went to Israel. I signed with Gilboa Gilio, first division, in my agent, obvis Zilberman Oman,

don't worry, like you. Then you saw it was Jim's partners. Don't wor we put you on Gilbo. You average him ten in seven. Next year I put you McCoy Televiv. No problem, easy, easy, you'll do set the screen then Riman and everybody will be happy, you know, and like okay, Great. So I have to go to Gilboa, do decent and then I'll play from a copy next year and then Nokia arena. I'll be living in Tel Aviv, I mean

a celebrity in in Israe. Was gonna be amazing. And second game of the season I tore my a C L against Jerusalem. Um. I went up for a rebound and I just came down on my knee funny and it went. It went too far in. Um. No, nothing, it just it just. I just remember coming down and being like Whoa, my name went too far in and I I stood up because I was playing well, and remember the Tony Gaffney on their team. Who Else is

on that team? But I stood up and I was like, don't be a bitch, don't be a bitch, keep playing. You're you're like this is like this is a big opportunity to Jerusalem, and I started to walk in my knee just like wasn't working right, and then I was like I gotta come out of the game. So funny said, don't be a bitch. I was. I hung out with the University of Texas and their their first rule on their team is don't be a bit, don't be a bit. It's it's like, I mean you, you could throw that.

That's saying that a lot of things in life. Absolutely, I completely agree. And it's it's actually I had my my my son with the workout last night and we only had seven shop at our practice whatever, and so I had him at the end playing three on three full. Oh No, and so he was dying and he was like I can't even think. I go, do you know why? Because I'm just stupid, and I go no, dude, because

you're tired. You're fucking tired, and when you're tired you can't think, you can't you can't make shots, you can't do anything. You know, he's like he's like. So I's just like stop. I was like no, he cannot be a bit. You'll be a bit. Like it's a good rule at Um, like just if he just hey, I'm being a bit right. So I'm not a big technical guy, but you know, I can't give him the manual, but just just figure it out, Dude. I don't know, like there's no just be tough. I have one tattoo on

my wrist. It says that's it. Work Harder. It's not going anywhere. That's it. Okay, just work harder. That's all, um. So, yeah, so then my knee. So whatever, ten month recovery and UH yeah, the whole knee situation. I mean, I don't know, I think so. So here's what I here's what I recall you telling me, because I tried to get you to come to play the Maccabi Games with me in thirteen and you were like I can't. I was like what I mean? You can't? You're still playing. No, I

can't play in Israel because I get benefits. I tore my knee as an Israeli citizen. That's correct. So there was there. I'm not get any in trouble. By the way, by by this spot. No, no, no, it's true. And like, do you still get the benefits? I do because it altered my career. But it wasn't, didn't you get determined to be a career inting injury? Well, no, career altering injury. I lost money. I lost I lost money from that

injury and I like, so we have. They had a lawyer, my team stopped paying me and my payment went into the this like Israelly Fund or whatever. But we we just we asserted that, like, if I never got hurt, I would have gone on to keep playing in Israel heavy stead. I was going to pay and and you know in the you know. So, yeah, but it's true, like, I mean even to this day I still feel the

lasting effects from that injury on my knee. And when I got back, I went to see I went to play in Sienna Um and then I went to play in Verona and like I still like my knee definitely affected me. So we we launched this case. That just like it, that it changed my career and I might still be under deliberation exactly how it all. It's all working out. But uh, I mean, if I never got hurt, man, I would like probably still be playing in Israel right now in some capacity. Um, your your last two years

you played, Um. So. Then I so from the Verona and then there was the last one, four Lee. Yeah, four Lee is uh near Bologna. It's in Romagna. Um. So I played there. And then what's what's interesting, is I had a one plus one in four lead and they they cut it. They released me after my first year. Okay, fine. So I went home and I'm like, I want to play in Japan. Japan is good money. Once a week. What's yeah, yeah, and the the Americans just run the

show over there. It's good, like technology money, all that. You know, I've never been to Japan. I want to play in Osaka, the food capital Japan. So I hired this Um Italian um agent. Her name was Deborah, and met she sent me to she sent me to l a for this tryout and I did really well and then, like when it's coming around as signing time, late August,

she just like disappeared. She went a vacation and I was like, well, I'm not signed, it's not and there a whole falling out and I had been pushing away Italian teams because I was so hell bent up playing in Japan that now it's September and the Italian teams are full. You know, I've fired this woman and we're not working together anymore, and now I'm stuck. So I

trained for until I didn't sign until February. I went back to four Lee, who essentially waives me the year before, and it's like you dumbasses, might just keep me on the team like now, because they were struggling. Um, yeah, and then I played from February to May and then at the I was just done. I was just like, I was like, how are you I at the time? Oh, man,

thirty thirty, I think thirty one. Okay, so you so you're flying back middle flying back, but like, so, okay, before all of this, I want to host culinary travel television when I'm done playing basketball. That was my unscripted you and I should do this show, but I'm listen,

I'm all ears for for this. Um. So when I it started, when I went to Israel in two fourteen, I started creating food content overseas, because are going to go into eat things, both both cooking things and then like getting lost finding food and just like that, like street food and all that stuff because, like, to the American audience, who doesn't get who don't get to go to Europe? Who Don't get to go to Israel and Experience Rathschild Boulevard or or you know whatever, Europe is

easy because it shoots itself. Do you don't like America? You'RE gonna get real creative, because everyone's seen this ship. When you go to Europe, do you just show what's there? It's amazing, you know. So I'm building this content thing. I want to host unscripted culinary travel television. So I start making all this content and then so when my my final season in four Lee, I like I still

this throughout this whole process. I'm I'm trying to figure out what am I gonna do once basketball and that was my question about your ride home, and I'm looking for that thing to do. What am I going to so like I want something that's different projects all the time. So, like for basketball, it's different seasons, which is which is nice. I want to do something that require us, me to stay in shape all the time. Okay, just like pro basketball, and I want something as equal or as good of

pay as playing professional basketball. Right. So I'm home in Boston and I'm I'm like, I still don't have anything set. So I'm training for the next season of basketball and I got a phone call in July from Boston casting who had my information because I think I sent in a video. I saw an ad in the newspaper of few years before my mom did for Slenderman, the movie

slender man, and I sent in an audition tape. So they just had my information from years before and they called me and said, hey, we're shooting this movie in Boston called Free Guy With Ryan Reynolds and the big bad guys, this six FT eight muscle man, and we need you as a stand in. And I'm thinking, what the Hell's a stand in? And so I go down a set and I've never been on a movie set before and I'm thinking, okay, I don't know what this is or what her and while I'm there. So what

time of years? This is July and I'm still training every day. I go to Harvard by what's that? Yeah, Oh, no question. Um, I'm still training every day at Harvard University preparing for the next season. But every time I'd see Tommy America Walk Through the gym into the office. You Go, Dane Man, I wish we could have had you like Tommy. You could have. I would have went to Harvard in a heartbeat. I wish like but they

never offered me at the time. But, like is, he always hung that over my head and it's still to this day bugs me. I would have loved to go to Harvard, but Um, so, yeah, so, and while I was there, the stunt coordinator comes up and he goes, look, I don't know who you are, but your size, the way you're built, the way you move, like you need to be an actor. You just because you're you're tall, but you're proportionately tall and dad, DA, Da Da, and

I you know, Oh wow, and interesting. I never thought about that. And so like a standing. Okay, so you're a standing as someone who stands there. I know I mean listener for the listener some but I think people know right. You just stand it. But again, how about this?

So tell me what like the day of a standing that you're actually so it's interesting because you're very close to the main actors on set, whereas if you're an extra in a movie, they kind of like corral you, like like steer like cows and like, Oh, like like background holding like you're. The goal of my life has to never be in a place called holding. They have background holding, where they're like and they're like they are,

they're standing. You're right there on set with the directors, with the producer, with the main actors, because when they need you to, when they set up the lights for the scene, and you stand there while they set up the lights. Because how dare the main actors stand there when they're not shooting or anything? They go and sit down and rest, and which I appreciate and I understand it's also part of the union thing, right. There's only certain em vows are at something like that potentially. So

have to know the actor's lines. You have to know they're blocking and they're blocking well, because they're you're they shoot with the stand ins to figure out the lighting before and you have to know exactly what that actor so how do you how do you deal with the lines? They never used me. They never used me that day. I stood one day. One day I stood on the side. Did you meet Ryan Rayls? I saw him. Yeah, I saw him. Or do you meet him? I did not talk to him here. I got I was standing too

close to him because his daughter was there. On set. I was standing apparently too close to him because, excuse me, I was behind him and I saw him look back at me and I was a little too close and he he called the p a over and a p a he whispered something to him and then Pa went right at me, he goes, it seems there. Can you back up about ten paces, and I was just like paces, yeah, like just like I understand, but they actually used the word paces. I don't know, steps, paces. I'm just I'm

in fascinating, like who uses the word paces? I don't know, but this there was just some like seven teen year old day a kid that like Ryan. Okay, so back up. So that and I go and I sit in the producer's chair because I'm thinking like who's this gigantic funk up? WHO's this? WHO's this giant WHO's sitting in my chair?

So the P A, who had just walked away from me after he give me orders, looks, glances over his shoulder and sees me sitting down and like Sean Levy's seed or whatever, and sprints as police sir, can you get up and just get away from this area? And I learned real quick never sit in uh someone's chair that has their name on it. That is like a big I didn't know. I know, I've never been on the movie set before. I'm like, I'm from Lexington Massachusetts, on a six eight white Jewish guy who went to

New Hampshire. I've never been on a movie set. I don't know how it works. Um. So, anyway, so the sun, you know, I start I'm board. So I started talking to Ryan Reynolds, stunt double, his name is Daniel Stevens, and the sun coordinator's names Christal Harah, and we're just chip chatting shooting the ship about basketball and blah, blah blah, and that's when the suggestion came look, you should look into acting. You have a you know. So I was going to l a the next week anyway, to pitch

culinary travel television. I wrote a treatment and there was a producer that I was working with and while I was there, I reached out to some producers and, you know, people in the Biz and I said, Hey, you know, I'm Dangelegro, six eight basketball player, getting me in town pitching a show. Would love to meet with you, and cutting a lot of stuff out because it's a long story, but I ended up booking a Netflix show two weeks

later called sweet home. Um, it was it was a Korean it was the it was the squid game the year before squid game came out. So, yeah, I played muscle monster in this show and I'm like, Huh, acting, this is interesting. So when I flew home from that initial l a trip, I told my mom I'm going back to l a the next week to talk to more producers, and that's when I booked this show. It was like and then, yeah, it was a crazy thing.

And then I'm like, okay, I guess I'm talking to my brother's like why don't you just live in l a for a month and try out this acting thing and then you just go back to basketball? Sure, no problem. So I go and I end up going to Korea for a month to shoot this Netflix show and I did a really good job and I came back and then the pandemic hit and now I can't go back to basketball and I'm stuck in this tiny l a apartment that I thought I'd be here for, you know,

a month or whatever. and Um, do you make good money when you're doing that? When you did this the Netflix show, like yeah, that was a non union job. So they gave him a number and they took it. So I had a stunt Um agent advising me on some of this stuff. But yeah, I mean even as a union actor in just the normal acting whether if you're making scale, that's that's like a thousand, one thousand thirty dollars a day. Now, if you're working every day as a scale actor, making pretty good money. Um, no

complaints there. So it's yeah, it's decent money. If you what was the what was the language barrier? Like you had to Korea. I had three translators. Oh, this is a funny story. So I go to Korea and I'm playing this character called muscle monster. I'm wearing this, you know, pound foam late text costume that has four inches of foam late texts around. He's like a mutated bodybuilder. Um, and the creature shop that built this suit sent three people over with me to kind of manage these suits

that I'm wearing. I think that I have two suits Um, and they netflix provided these two translators for us, Kevin and David, and I just remember Kevin. He was like he looked like the Korean Harry Potter, but Kevin and David grew up in New Zealand, so they were they were Kiwi Koreans. Okay, the director, who was amazing, could not speak English and I didn't understand the process of acting and being on set and shooting a TV show. Typically you get your when you come in in the morning.

They give you your sides, your like your lines, they give you a call sheet and you go over all of your lines and all of your action, everything you have to do. So you can read that. When I came in the morning, nothing, just go, go to make up, get ready, Blah, blah, and I had my little tent on set in this sound stage with like this huge air conditioning tube that would go up my stomach to keep me cool. And then they would say, okay, Dane, well,

we're gonna we're shooting the scene now. You're gonna go, Um uh, she's gonna hit you in the nuts with a baseball bat and then you're gonna turn and smash her into a wall. Sure, great, let's go do it. Awesome, and you know, then you go shoot the scene or whatever, but it was just it was interesting the way the Korean hierarchy worked. So, Kevin, I could tell that let's get ad, no business being on set. His Dad was

like a producer or something. He so Kiwi, Korean. So we'd be on set and the director would tell him something and he didn't understand that. Like, as a translator, you have to tell me exactly what the director is saying, because it's hard enough there's a director to explain to

your actor what you want. So this director will talk to him cream and then he'd be everything started off with basically, and he'd go so basically, the director like, okay, so you're really angry and you're chosing this guy, but you're hungry, but you can't show you angry because you're hungry. So you turn the corner and you smash into the Kevin. What the wait, wait, wait, what? You can't give me the basics? You gotta tell me exactly what I have

to do with this guy. So okay, there, Shannon, my was my liaison from L A. I gotta get another translator because this is not I don't know what to do, because I'd shoot a scene in the director like no, no no, no, you can't it. So it was a whole it was a whole thing. But now I have like Kevin's like Um, New Zealand accent ingrained in my head basically from here. So you basically Um, and so it was just but I ended up doing a really good job and it

was a lot of fun. And so I come back and like they were like you, you can do this, you should. You know, it's about playing monsters, essentially, and I always figured playing monsters is great because I can leverage my athleticism to becoming an actor and then I can leverage that into becoming an actual actor as a backdoor into acting. Um. And I came back the pandemic hit.

Everything shutdown. Couldn't go back to basketball, obviously. Uh, you know, Italy was going through their own thing at the time. And Yeah, I'm now I'm in L A. The streets are empty. I bought a road bike and I just start riding to Manhattan beach and back every day from West Hollywood. Fifty yeah, they're and back. Yeah, they're and back. A home and home. Um, yeah, you ride to like the Manhattan beach. Peering back, it's it's about fifty miles,

something like that. So I just did that. I would hike, I would alternate. I'd hike one day, I'd bike the next day and I laid down artificial grass in my living room. It became my gym. Very functional, very functional living room. Wasn't too hot with the ladies, but it was good for me. I could do all my could

do all my movements in my training and everything. and Um, then I booked uh to be master chief in the xbox commercials for Halo and like you see, a fixed built of one of one custom moll in your armor for me to be master chief. And then things just started moving. Walking dead looking dead was interesting. I just walked in a circle for six hours in Calabasas. It

was really not that trying or difficult. Um, and then, yeah, just like things start moving, the pandemics starting to I was I was at the water world on show universal studios to learn stunts and stuff like that. and Um, and then I got a like a phone call. Meanwhile, I don't have a real theatrical agent. I'm doing everything. Have your a real theatrical agent and you're looking for a guy with incredible potential. His name is Dane, or a manager or manager. Yeah, yeah, so I'm doing this all.

I'm getting all these jobs on my own, essentially. and Um, this stunt agents helping me look over contracts, but essentially, you know, I'm garnering everything on my own. How did you get the Predator Gig? Okay, so then. Well, then there was American horror stories. Is First. They named the episode after me. That was just most of the stuff is just on instagram. Someone a D M me big hey, do you have a like? Are you around in May? Yeah,

I'm an. Do you want to be an American horror stories? Yeah, sure, and that's how that's how, that's how it goes. There's

no there's really no audition, there's no like vetting process. Um, in January of one I got a message on Instagram from a guy named Alec Gillis, who who runs the former studio a d I, and he said we need you, I need you to come in for a design pitch for a project, Um, we're working on in Canada, and I'm thinking interesting and he, I think he offered me launch or like two hundred bucks or something, and I said keep keep your money, just whatever. The job has

put me in for it. Yeah, they're shooting in Canada. L A's bringing in an L A guy. It's a bad spend. You know that. You get tax relief when you use a Canadian whatever. So I drive out to Chatsworth to the studio and what's going to happen is that he wants me to they're designing us a creature suit for a show, a movie, and the director, the director of photography and the producer going to come in and watch how this suit moves and the design of this head. And Alec told me he wanted me to

bring a balletics seltness to this character. Okay, what the Hell is boletics felt this? So it's my job to figure that out what that is. I get there and there it is, laid on the table as the Predator costume from the last movie. Now, did you? Did you? Were you a Predator fan? Yeah, sure, absolutely. I mean old school. You watched the old yes, of course. No, when I when I moved to Los Angeles to do

this creature acting thing either. These are quotes, because I do not want to be branded as a creature actor because once you get put into that whole yes, but I had two roles in mind that I wanted one. Number two was to be a predator. I thought that would have been the coolest thing of all time. Number one is to be Jason Vorhees, because that he is my ultimate horror icon. But to be a predator. I was a Predator Fan. I knew all the actors, I knew all the movies, I knew all the culture. I

was very excited. So I come in and there it is. There's the Predator costume from the last movie laying out in this table and Oh my God, and they had this three d iteration of a Predator had they printed out and they used like ropes as the dreads and I'm thinking that's kind of a Predator. It's kind of not. It's gross, it's weird. It looks like an insect, it looks like a bug. So they suited me up in this suit that was way too small for me. I

remember it was cutting off circulation in my hands. My hands were ballooning up and I was losing feeling in my fingers and I couldn't see anything out of this gray, three d printed plastic head. But Dan Trachtenberger, director, Jeff Cutter, Marta young they all come into the shop and I gave what I thought was Baltic smelting this and I'm thinking for Um. So this is like like like a Ballerina, like smooth and graceful, but like smelting, this is like

lean and dynamic. Right. So I'm thinking like feline, something like a cat Um, and I'm jumping up on tables, I'm getting really low, I'm like shifting my weight from side to side, I'm running through the shop, I'm sliding all over the place, I'm running through the parking lot. Um, there are a couple of I think people that were surrounding businesses were taking pictures because this was a scene. It was a big scene. Um, and at the end of the thing, Marty, they go I'll tell you. I said, well,

six nine. I'm six eight and a half. I danced between six eight and six nine. Six Nine, when you're monster role, you're six nine. It's better to be bigger. Oh, six nine. That is the height we're looking for. And in my head I'm like, they don't have anyone fucking cast for this role. And I go listen, guys, here's the deal. I will do anything to be your Predator, like I would kill for this role. I Want I want to be your Predator. I used to play professional basketball.

This is what I do. I trained to be an actor. I trained to be a monster, like I'm gonna give you blood. Yeah, all right, we'll see. We'll see. We'll keep you in mind, Marty say, we'll figure out a way to get you in there. So, yeah, so, yeah, and I ended up, you know, being the guy to play this role and I, you know, it just worked out. What is what was the premiere like? When you're Oh, we're not gonna talk about filming or anything, well, we'd have a filming and stuff, or just was filming it.

Like we shot in Calgary for three months in Canada. It was this time last year, beautiful September. I flew home. What's Today? September three, literally a year ago today, I flew home from Calgary. What was it like? It was crazy. It was hot. Um, you were another foam. So Foam Lake Texas an interesting thing. It's a sponge and you're wearing it. We had six suits and four heads. Um The heads there were two stunt heads, two amatronic kids.

These amatronic kids have thirty servos where little motors instide controlling the face. There's four people puppeteering the face of this character. So when we were doing a scene, I have to do what the predators doing. But I have to let my puppeteer is know what this exactly this Predator is doing, because they're controlling the emotions the face. So when I'm roaring, I have to cue them on exactly how I'm going to do that. I don't know. I would like lift my arms up before I swing

them back or something. We would go over that before every every scene. It's really like Bluetooth with these people. It's like it's crazy the synergy that's required to make

this character. Um. It's interesting. I listened Dan, our director, went on BBC The other day and he was saying like there are so many things you have to do just to not make just to make it look like you're not a door in a suit, and then you have to act so like the Predator's head was sitting on top of my head and it weighs fifteen pounds. I had to shrug my shoulders and shorten my neck and look at the ground to make the Predator look forward right like. So I shot this movie essentially blind.

I was looking out through two holes in the neck straight at the ground. So all my fighting scenes, all my act scenes, all everything, I can't see anything and we had to lay sticks on the ground for me to follow so I knew where to walk. I had a speaker in my ear so my first ad could cue me on things that I couldn't see, and then my fighting scenes, I. I we just had to rehearse it and I couldn't hit any of my cast castmates.

You know it is. It was scary. You're fighting amber mid thunder in a fight and she did most of her stunts. And if she doesn't duck when I'm swinging my spear, it's my fault. If she's in the way when I'm swinging my spear, it's my fault. If it's her fault, it's my fault. So because I'm the number three, she's the number one and I'm also like the dirty Grimmy, you know monster guy that you don't see his face,

it's my fault always. Ten out of ten. She could literally be like I'm going to get hit in the face intentionally and it's my fault. So terrifying. I can't see her and Um, it was just insane. There was a day my you know, my atronic head caught on fire, uh, because the battery pack short circuited. Just all the scenes the mud. That mud smells so bad. You've you've seen the movie. Have you seen? Okay, yeah, the mud. The mud pit was only supposed to be there for two weeks.

We were shooting on week eight. What are you doing? When you said you had sticks in the ground, though, but now there's just all this mud. Like, how do you how do you know where to move when there's the mud pit and the final scene? I understand, but how do you like, how do you're? You're describing it as you're operating blind, but you're essentially blind. I can see my feet. I can look at my feet still, though, but you're also doing all this other stuff with your body. Yes,

now you're throwing a mud pit. How does that work? The mudpit was I was like lower, you know, above my waist and the mud and it was what are you looking at? There? The ground, the nothing. Nothing. So how do you know what to do? They cue me. So my first a D was in my ear, with the with the with the speaker. He had a god Mike on him and he would tell me where to point the gun because I'm looking straight at the ground right. So he do you like bring the tip down, you

know a little bit to the left little bit. Hold it. Hold it and you're sitting up cameras if you're holding something, keeping your arm out, and it's you. It's only head to yeah, fifteen pounds. So I'm pulling a lot of levers. It's like it's like a little alien inside this giant body. They loved the breathing. I had to really focus on.

I had to actually breathe, show breathing, because they loved how tight the foam latex was to the suit and I did this kind of breathing thing that showed that, like, I have to think. I'm telling a story nonverbally, right. I don't have the luxury of using words like you know, amber and Dakota's characters have. I have to tell a story through posture and through movement. So, like I have to think about what are my hands doing? So, like are my hand so you know, even like sometimes you

catch frozen hands. So you have to do this with your hands. You have to open your hands, you have to kind of fan your hands out. So I have to think about what my hands are doing. How am I walking? Where's my posture? I also have to remember to shorten my neck and look at the ground. I also remember to do this breathing thing. I also have to remember I have four people relying on me to do cues if I make a big action. So that's just to look normal. Then I have to act. Then

I have to remember choreography and blocking. Then I have to remember fighting. So you, so, you, you go through this whole thing. It was unbelievable. Okay, do you know? Are you? Do you know what it actually looks like? No, I when we wrapped the movie, I told dance, I can't wait to see this thing. I haven't seen a damn thing this whole fucking shoot. Okay, so it was up there in ninety days or whatever. So you come back to when do you? When do you? When's the premiere?

The premier's August three. So there's like did you? Did you see anything before then? Yes, so I. So at first we had we had additional photography in February. So I went into so we let's get a little deeper. I went into this like post production depression when I got back because for three months I was relied on. I was the main antagonist of this major motion picture. Whatever seventy million dollars. I was I was accountable every

day I was needed. I was like, you know, you're in this sort there's the three crew members around you, and then you're in that inner circle of twelve people setting up a shot and it's like, Oh my God, right, you get home and get home, and now I'm like taking out my trash and collecting mail and like grossery and I don't have anything booked. I like barely scratched this job, like and now, do you get paid then,

or do you you get paid when it releases? You get paid, then you get paid then you sign a flat, flat rate, flat contract and Um, yeah, and then there's like overtime and stuff. But Um, I wasn't. I didn't have anything book I came home, I had nothing going on. NOPE, no one knows who I am. I like I got lucky with this job through instagram. That wasn't like, Oh, we gotta have Dane, his prowess, isn't you know. So, so the premiere so like. So we did a digital

photography in February. We added a couple of scenes, we changed things around and then in March I saw a cut, a version of the film Dan Had Dakota, and I come to twentieth century and we sat in the theater and watched it and he had to go through everything what we thought and what our ideas were. And, Um, when we shot this thing there there was no title like it shifted a little bit through time. The movie kind of evolved and when we were shooting this no

one really knew what this was gonna be. You know, obviously a period piece, adventure story with a little sci fi sprinkled and interesting Um. And then I saw the movie in March I was like, that's pretty good. Do you think you were good, or do you do you think I I'm in this stuff? Well, it's interesting because for a character like that, there's a lot of things that go on in the movie that that don't really

require like for me it's like a basketball game. First of all, acting and and pro sports are so similar, are so ridiculously similar. You come in every morning, you got your coach, you got your director, you got your GM, you have your producer, you have your teammates, you have your castmates. One common goal, make a nice picture. Okay.

How about role player? Okay, role in a movie. You come in, the bigger, the bigger the production, the bigger the jigsaw puzzle you're just a piece in the jigsaw puzzle. Show Up, keep your head down, keep your nose clean, do your fucking job, smile, say yes, be happy. Same thing at practice. Hey, I need you to sprint harder, I need you to set the screen. Do Your job. You're good at screening. Actually keeping your head down. Literally. Yeah, literally,

keeping my head down literally. Um, it's like coming in not complaining, knowing you have to do for this one common goal. I would rather work with eleven other less talented guys who are easy to be around, who I know I can rely on, than super super talented people who just suck being around. You know, something so like you're on set for, you know, a number of months with these people. You're with them every single day. The same thing on a team. You're in the locker room

with these people every single day. It's like being a good person to be around. It goes so much further than being super super talented. Um. And, like I said, pros like the transition from you know, other than off the court stuff, the politics of sports and and entertainment that come into play, but when you're in it, when you're working, it's so similar and Um, I don't even know where I was going with this. But your depression. Oh yeah, yeah, so, like, you know, the same thing

with the sea season ends. You come you come home and it's just like what am I doing? Like you missed that, you missed that energy, missed like connection with people, you miss being on a team. It's the hardest. There's the hardest thing about team sports and going into workplaces. You're you're used to being told what to do and be part of a team and you know, all of a sudden you have all this freedom, which you think is what you want, and you're like, you know what,

I actually really like being told what to do. It's almost like a it's it's a low level form of like institutionalization. And, Um, I listen and I know how lucky and fortunate I am to be able to have a job that kind of replicates what I got from basketball and everything I did, and now this is something that I can do for quite some time if I continue to experience success with it. Um, but I I was like really just going through a very strange time. I was in a doja cap music video in October.

I Um, it was just get into it, okay. I was the main alien overlord. I steal her cat. She comes in and slaps me in the face takes her cap back. Yeah, all right, this, this, this has to be we're gonna we have to do we have to do more. Did more of them, more of the okay, so I'll wrap on this. Okay, you go to the premiere. Let's go to the premiere. And it was unbelievable. We went to like six premieres that we went to comic con, Sandel Comic Con. We premiered the movie there for the

first time. So I see it on screen for the first time at Comic Con, the finished product, and I was like, holy sh it, this movie is good. Two standing ovations. When this movie, when the credits start rolling and I look over and amber's right next to me and she's tearing up and I'm I'm getting goosebumps now talking about it, but I started crying. This is real. Not to mention not to mention they gave me like

a single card crediting out. I don't know if you know about crediting or like how the crediting works in Hollywood. It's insane how contractually, how important credits are. Okay, yes, your position in the rolling credits, yes, very important. But they have these things called like the cards, single card,

multi card, shared card. A single card is like at the end of the movie, Tom Cruise's name comes in and comes out the order of the names, like if you if there's three names on the on the list, like top position, middle position, lower position, you know, and then there's the with Robert De Niro and will Farrell. These are all it's a very like crazy science behind all this. And they century gave me the single card and Dandelegro as the Predator at the end. That's for

like Robert De Niro, that your predators. I understand that, but you don't like you don't see my face. Did you kill it? What do you mean? Like when you watched, like I was good, that was good. So for me it was like it's like it's less the movies could have been bad, which it's not. It's amazing, but just

I just wanted the Predator to be scary. I wanted the predators convincing, and I feel like it was got great reception and I was super happy about that and I just remember crying at the at the World Premiere Comic Con, looking at amber during the end credit. It's not just like, holy sh it, there's like the big pinch me moment Um. I just could believe it, and they started chanting like make one more the crowd. What the Hell is it like? That happens a can or Venice.

So you'RE gonna YOU'RE gonna double your right next time. Yeah, well, let's I don't know. I don't know about that. That's if twenty century calls me for another one. But very last thing. Yes, UM, the next goal is the culinary show or to book legit acting roles. Legit acting rules the culinary thing. I feel like you can always, can always happen. Yeah, the more you grow as an actor than yeah, like that's the culinary Predator goes. The Predator

goes to Italy and tries all the monster in the kitchen. Yeah, but yeah, I mean that would be I imagine myself in like a bigfoot sasquatch suit in the back of it like a Japanese kitchen, folding dumplings with tiny with tiny women, you know, something like that. Um, but yeah, the reason why I couldn't get a cooking or travel show was because I essentially wasn't famous enough. So you that brand. Anyone could do a cooking show. Exactly exactly.

But okay, so the one you did, the Predator. Yeah, Jason Vorhees would be my next that's like if if, or like a Xeno morphrom the movie alien, but I wanted to be humans, i. i. You know the can you confirm or deny? There are some reports on the Internet about gardens of Galaxy Three. Can you confirm or deny? I can confirm it. There are reports on the Internet about gardens of the Galaxy. I. I don't I don't know anything. I all you're mumbling, you're stuttering. Okay, we're

gonna do this again. Is that cool? Yeah, okay, and so the next time, next time we do it. Okay, I want to do places you've been, stuff you've eaten, so I'll remember the things you've eaten. Okay. And then I didn't even talk about my butchery. And then the whole my my apprenticeship at the butcher shop in Tuscany. Even talk about that? You did not talk about that. No, that's a whole because we didn't go down the culinary path.

WE'RE gonna go down the culinary path. This was like and and we're gonna do is, we're gonna we need to pick them movie and but we we broke down your movie. You did. No, I mean a little bit, not enough. We want to go back to it. I mean we could, you could watch it and you can ask me question. You could ask me anything about the movie. I'll tell you. Okay, let's do that. Let's let's let's that'll be our next part two is culinary and behind

the scenes. and behind the scenes, Dane Lego, thanks for jam. Thank you. Awesome stuff there, I mean really, really fascinating. By the way, if you want to listen to the Doug Gotlieb show, you can download it and podcast form all three hours. Just type in Doug Gotlieb show listen to it live at was it three o'clock Eastern, noon, Pacific coast time, on your Fox sports radio station, your I heart radio affiliate or the I heart radio APP in the meantime. Thanks so much for listening and don't

forget to download, subscribe and right. I'm Doug Gotlieb. This is all BALLP