Speaker 1: It's the Ben and Skin Show, ninety seven point one
Speaker 1: The Eagle. Thank you for hanging with us today. More
Speaker 1: and more news just keeps coming down. The main thing
Speaker 1: is that people still have not gotten over the shock
Speaker 1: of Luka Doncic being traded to the Lakers. He had
Speaker 1: his press conference today with Rob Pelinka, the GM of
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and we sweet Christina went there and grabbed
Speaker 1: a bunch of audio that and we will go through
Speaker 1: that audio with you at five o'clock. And beware, if
Speaker 1: you are still angry about this, some of the things
Speaker 1: you hear might make you even angrier. But one of
Speaker 1: the things that Ben and I like to do back
Speaker 1: in our days at ESPN, whenever we wanted to get angry,
Speaker 1: we wanted to hook up with a guy that had
Speaker 1: an edge to him. We wanted to play basketball with
Speaker 1: the guy that would swing elbows. We wanted to throw
Speaker 1: down with a guy who took nothing from nobody. And somehow,
Speaker 1: through all this time we've remained good friends. And he
Speaker 1: is on the Ben and Skin hotline right now, probably
Speaker 1: from a different NBA city somewhere, not here in Dallas.
Speaker 1: Ladies in jail from ESPN, The Great Tim McMahon, Hello, Jim,
Speaker 1: how are we doing?
Speaker 2: Howdy Howdy partners. I agree with everything he gets said,
Speaker 2: except for the good friends part.
Speaker 1: Yeah, son of a bit, you know, the one thing
Speaker 1: you didn't say. Also, he's also the best Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: media person of all time and he doesn't even cover the.
Speaker 2: Cow Don't get me in trouble with with Aha and
Speaker 2: all those guys.
Speaker 1: You are the still You are the straw that stirs
Speaker 1: the drink. You are fearless. You're the only one who
Speaker 1: looked into Carlisle's cold dead eyes and just stood there
Speaker 1: and looked right back at him. And you did the
Speaker 1: same stuff with that, you know, with the Cowboys. I
Speaker 1: miss you covering that too. But dude, you're you're doing
Speaker 1: so so well. You're doing great at ESPN. You got
Speaker 1: a new book coming out in March. It's called The
Speaker 1: Wonder Boy, comes out March twenty fifth, and I would
Speaker 1: guess now there's probably another chapter to write.
Speaker 2: Well, yes, and eight thousand of those bad Boys have
Speaker 2: been printed already. However, the folks that get the those copies,
Speaker 2: there will be a final final chapter now that I'm
Speaker 2: going to crank that bad Boy out next week. That'll
Speaker 2: be available to them to download on a website. The
Speaker 2: final chapter will be in the rest of the of
Speaker 2: the books that are printed. I appreciate the plug there,
Speaker 2: but you know, it's crazy because, like when I agreed
Speaker 2: to this book deal and I didn't want to be
Speaker 2: like a straight biography, I knew Luca was gonna want
Speaker 2: to cooperate whatever, and that's fine.
Speaker 3: I said. Was an interesting angle to me is kind of.
Speaker 2: The pressure on a franchise once they draft the prodigty
Speaker 2: to kind of the build that continder around them or
Speaker 2: they might leave type of deal. So, as I'm writing this,
Speaker 2: and obviously I'm reporting stuff along the way, and things
Speaker 2: are unfolding along the way. I thought all along until
Speaker 2: really the last month the last regular season, going into
Speaker 2: the playoffs, I thought all along there was a pretty
Speaker 2: decent chance that the book might end with Luca Dombs
Speaker 2: just being traded. I thought it was because he was
Speaker 2: going to request to trade when they couldn't put.
Speaker 3: A contender around him.
Speaker 2: I never, my wildest imagination could have come up with
Speaker 2: this plot twist where they somehow scramble and are able
Speaker 2: to build a contender around him. They do go to
Speaker 2: the finals A few years after batching, after the Porzingist
Speaker 2: thing blows up, after batching the whole Brunson situation, they're
Speaker 2: able to put this supporting cast together. He goes for
Speaker 2: thirty four to ten and nine, leads the league, scoring
Speaker 2: danniar averages a triple double, takes him to the finals,
Speaker 2: and he's gone before the next trade deadline, where he
Speaker 2: feels completely blind sided and betrayed.
Speaker 3: I never could have seen this coming now.
Speaker 1: I mean it truly is one of the most shocking stories.
Speaker 1: And one of your buddies that used to work with
Speaker 1: that ESPN jumped on social media the other night and
Speaker 1: compared it to when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson
Speaker 1: in terms of just like shocking moments in sports that
Speaker 1: you really can't believe. And one of the things that's
Speaker 1: you know, great about you. I know, we have local
Speaker 1: people here that really know you, but you're plugged in
Speaker 1: all throughout the league, and so I'm curious as you
Speaker 1: talk to different people around the league, what has been
Speaker 1: the overall general consensus of what happened here and how
Speaker 1: it went down.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, clearly aside from the stock right, that's
Speaker 2: that's the number one thing.
Speaker 3: And you know, I've talked to all.
Speaker 2: Star players who are just you know, all these players like, man,
Speaker 2: nobody's really safe.
Speaker 3: It's almost like this and.
Speaker 2: The Jimmy Butler situation. It feels like there's a turn
Speaker 2: in the U in the player empowerment, you know, trend
Speaker 2: over the last generation. But as far as like talking
Speaker 2: to gms, talking to other executives around the league about
Speaker 2: their reaction to what the Mapicks actually did, there's two
Speaker 2: different two different.
Speaker 3: Things that are kind of themes.
Speaker 2: One is, you get, no matter how frustrated you are,
Speaker 2: no matter how many you know Bruski's he throws down,
Speaker 2: no matter you know how many concerns you have about durability,
Speaker 2: you just can't trade a generational talent before he reaches
Speaker 2: what should be his prime years when he doesn't want
Speaker 2: to leave. So that's one. The other theme is, hey,
Speaker 2: I understand wanting to get out of the Luca business
Speaker 2: because of those, you know, the concerns, the conditioning. Is
Speaker 2: his body going to break down?
Speaker 3: Is this going to be a.
Speaker 2: Situation I can bed with Philadelphia right now where you're
Speaker 2: paying seventy million dollars to get you know, hopefully thirty
Speaker 2: forty games per year they said, I can understand wanting
Speaker 2: to get out of Lukadancich's business.
Speaker 3: But you'd have to maximize the return.
Speaker 2: And I had not talked to anybody around the league.
Speaker 3: That feels like the.
Speaker 2: Magicks were able to maximize the return with this super secretive,
Speaker 2: one team only negotiation where Nico Harrison locked in.
Speaker 3: He wanted Anthony Davis. That's the guy he wanted.
Speaker 2: But you know, brob Flinkl was able to walk away
Speaker 2: with a picks, a first round pick still in his pocket.
Speaker 2: You know, I talked to another team and says, hey,
Speaker 2: we would have offered this young all star on our
Speaker 2: roster and at least four first round picks, and you know,
Speaker 2: would have could have built an offer from there. I
Speaker 2: wish they would have called us.
Speaker 3: And so there was, like I said, those two things
Speaker 3: just can't do.
Speaker 2: It was one, and I get why you did it,
Speaker 2: but you got a maximize their turnity he didn't with
Speaker 2: the other.
Speaker 1: We're talking to the great Tim McMahon from ESPN on
Speaker 1: the Ben and Skin Show ninety seven point one the Eagles.
Speaker 1: So let's just for the time being, let's say that
Speaker 1: the Mavericks decided they want to get out of the
Speaker 1: Luca business, and they also want to get the biggest
Speaker 1: possible return. They could. Wouldn't Luca and his agent and
Speaker 1: his team then step in and say, we're only going
Speaker 1: to this team. This is the only team we'll go
Speaker 1: to go get a deal done with them, or we're
Speaker 1: not doing business. It couldn't they have controlled it and
Speaker 1: steered it and really botched all that for the Mavericks
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: That was certainly Nico's concern with opening up the bidding
Speaker 2: process is, you know, Bill Duffy is one of the
Speaker 2: most respected agents in the league. He's been through a
Speaker 2: whole bunch of rodeos, and you know, if Bill is
Speaker 2: involved in the trade discussions, then he's certainly going to
Speaker 2: have an influence. They did not want. They did not
Speaker 2: want to allow that to happen. They did not want
Speaker 2: kind of the backlash to be thought of the Maverick
Speaker 2: shopping Luka Doncics from the fan base to influence things.
Speaker 3: They wanted to keep this.
Speaker 2: As hush hush as possible, and they succeeded in that goal.
Speaker 1: You know, Tim, you just said something that I hadn't
Speaker 1: really thought about, and it's like, you know, the idea
Speaker 1: of Okay, once you start shopping him, there's a fan backlash,
Speaker 1: and it's different than the shock of the fan backlash now.
Speaker 1: But I wonder if Nico was thinking, if I do
Speaker 1: shop him and the backlash starts happening, then the ownership
Speaker 1: group will understand that this is a really bad pr
Speaker 1: move and then back off of it as well. I
Speaker 1: hadn't even considered that idea.
Speaker 2: Well, and quite frankly, I'm I don't know that Patrick
Speaker 2: Dumont really had a firm grasp of the potential financial
Speaker 2: ramification to this. You know, you can see oh man
Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty million dollar commitment, and he hadn't
Speaker 2: you know, he hadn't played in over a month, and
Speaker 2: you're telling me just like you're afraid he's going to
Speaker 2: be constantly breaking down, like you can see those numbers
Speaker 2: and feel that financial risk. I don't know that he
Speaker 2: really had a firm grasp on just how much of
Speaker 2: a potential financial blow essentially dumping Luka Doncic could have
Speaker 2: for the Mavericks. I listen, there's there's going to be
Speaker 2: a lot of season tickets canceled. Anthony Davis, It's crazy
Speaker 2: that this first ballot Hall of fame or top seventy
Speaker 2: five player still an All NBA player is almost like
Speaker 2: an afterthought in this deal. But you're not selling as
Speaker 2: many number three jerseys as those number seventy substances. It's
Speaker 2: not going to be even close.
Speaker 3: And so I do think this is going to.
Speaker 2: Have some serious financial ramifications for the Mavericks franchise.
Speaker 1: We're talking to timick Man, Tim, so help help help us,
Speaker 1: help MAVs fans, help anyone scratching their head going, what
Speaker 1: in the hell how did this happen? How serious are
Speaker 1: those concerns about his conditioning, lifestyle, commitment, all those things.
Speaker 2: I mean, listen, you know these are saying like you
Speaker 2: have eyeballs and you see it right, Like it's not
Speaker 2: that none of this is like shocking. These are things
Speaker 2: that we've been talking about and been reporting on with
Speaker 2: Luca essentially since he stepped in the door. I mean
Speaker 2: midway through his rookie year, Doc Rivers, you know, flirted out. Man,
Speaker 2: if this guy ever gets in shape, look out, look
Speaker 2: at rookie Luca compared to now, and you're like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, look how lean that guy was. And again
Speaker 2: it's no longer about hey boy, if he ever takes
Speaker 2: conditions seriously, Wow, he could really maximize just this historic potential.
Speaker 2: I mean, if he ever takes conditions seriously, Like, we're
Speaker 2: talking about potentially one of the best players ever to
Speaker 2: walk the face of the earth. You So we're talking
Speaker 2: about a guy who might be able to get in
Speaker 2: a mat or in a Lebron Jordan kind of conversation.
Speaker 2: That's the type of talent he has. But it's no
Speaker 2: longer about maximizing the potential. It's about boys. How often
Speaker 2: is he going to be available? That's now a major
Speaker 2: major fear, especially with this calf. It's a recurring calft strain.
Speaker 2: It was a calf strain in camp as well as
Speaker 2: a contusion. They kept the strength thing under rafts, but
Speaker 2: so he strained I think four times in the last
Speaker 2: three years, including twice in twenty twenty four, and it's
Speaker 2: a it's a major, major concern.
Speaker 3: So all that stuff's true.
Speaker 2: Look, was Luke at the easiest guy to deal with
Speaker 2: from a franchise perspective, Absolutely not. And you know, his relationships,
Speaker 2: especially I think with with with Nico took a sour
Speaker 2: turn this year. The you know Lucas quote unquote body
Speaker 2: team and the Maverick staff, which, by the way, the
Speaker 2: Maverick staff being pretty significantly turned over as far as uh,
Speaker 2: you know, the performance group, the strength and condition group,
Speaker 2: and you know the medical group.
Speaker 3: That's how you.
Speaker 2: Know, those relationships were non existent essentially.
Speaker 3: That didn't help things.
Speaker 2: But as much as anything, this was them feeling like
Speaker 2: they could not trust Luca to be a three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty million dollar base of the franchise. And you know,
Speaker 2: Nico Harrison was determined to get a guy he felt
Speaker 2: like he could trust. The relationship with Nico and Luca
Speaker 2: took a very sour turn. Nico has known Anthony Davis
Speaker 2: and Sad he was a teenager, so AD's in Dallas
Speaker 2: and Luca's in LA was his buddy.
Speaker 3: JJ Reddick.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what, Tim, I know you're busy
Speaker 1: as hell, and we appreciate the time, and I look
Speaker 1: forward to seeing you Saturday at an NBA game in
Speaker 1: the afternoon that I think we'll have one of the
Speaker 1: strangest atmospheres of any game I have ever been to.
Speaker 1: That vibe is going to be very weird in that building.
Speaker 2: Dude, I would agree with that, and I would agree
Speaker 2: it will also be quite weird that same afternoon when
Speaker 2: I think Luca Dontris will make his Lakers debut against
Speaker 2: those cold, steely eyes Carlisle in the NP.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good, So all right, Tim safe travels.
Speaker 3: Dude, all right, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Phillos there he goes, he's really that was so nice
Speaker 1: him to jump on. He's too busy to jump on, right,
Speaker 1: he didn't have that time. He doesn't have that time
Speaker 1: when you have. He's on top of the biggest story
Speaker 1: really in all of sports. And also there's more trades
Speaker 1: going on. Trade deadline is Thursday. I know he's traveling.
Speaker 1: So thank you to our old buddy Tim McMahon. He
Speaker 1: has the biggest balls of anyone I've ever met in media.
Speaker 2: He does not care.
Speaker 1: He backs down from no one. And I cannot wait
Speaker 1: to read his book The Wonder Boy, coming out March
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, and look for a brand new shiny chapter
Speaker 1: and that Bad Boy too. I might wait for that version.