Speaker 1: All right, you're listening to the Benenscuin Show. We appreciate
Speaker 1: you making us a part of your daily routine. If
Speaker 1: you've been listening to us for a while, you know
Speaker 1: that the Luca trade it is directly in our heart.
Speaker 1: It has hurt our sports soul. But we've carried on
Speaker 1: MAVs basketball tonight. By the way, the play in tournament continues.
Speaker 1: Good luck to the Mavericks to night against the Grizzlies.
Speaker 1: That game will be right here on the Eagle. But
Speaker 1: there's also other news today with regard to the Mavericks,
Speaker 1: and that is that Luca did an interview, and now
Speaker 1: that interview is out there in the world, and so
Speaker 1: we'll get to take a listen.
Speaker 2: What do you got to key?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know if it's the full interview or
Speaker 3: how long you sit down, but the clip that's been
Speaker 3: servicing is about two minutes. So, yeah, this is Luca
Speaker 3: on ESPN with Malika Andrews.
Speaker 4: The night you're traded and you threw it.
Speaker 2: Yes, do you have that phone? Yeah?
Speaker 4: You still use that phone?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it still works.
Speaker 4: Let's go back to the night that you were traded.
Speaker 4: Can you just take me through what you did that night.
Speaker 5: Well, I was actually in the bed. No, my tea
Speaker 5: wasn't working, so I was a nightpay watching movie about
Speaker 5: to go to sleep. For seeing us said like probably
Speaker 5: three times.
Speaker 4: Just say you first, What are you feeling in that moment?
Speaker 5: Suddence. Mostly I was still in shock, like crazy shock,
Speaker 5: and I was, I mean, I felt like my heart
Speaker 5: was broken. Honest.
Speaker 4: Where did you rank that in terms of your all
Speaker 4: time performances?
Speaker 5: I would say top one, just because it was so special,
Speaker 5: you know, with the fans, with teammates just being there.
Speaker 5: It was something I've never seen in my life and
Speaker 5: it was just just specially the love between me and
Speaker 5: the fans.
Speaker 4: On your way out of Dallas, some pretty pointed criticisms
Speaker 4: of you on the floor, off of the floor, even
Speaker 4: about your body.
Speaker 5: I'll me to just play from depends how you take it.
Speaker 5: Mostly it came from Dallas, you know, so I just
Speaker 5: didn't want to talk back, but I really read that
Speaker 5: much stuff and just trying to focus on my journey.
Speaker 4: General manager Nico Harrison of the Dallas Mavericks, you had
Speaker 4: this closed door, no cameras meeting with reporters. The reporter said,
Speaker 4: you didn't believe that the team that went to the
Speaker 4: finals last year with Luca as a centerpiece, could contend
Speaker 4: and continue to contend for championships. And Nico Harrison said,
Speaker 4: I'll say this again, defense wins championships. What do you
Speaker 4: say to that?
Speaker 5: This is certain the way he's talking right now. But
Speaker 5: I never say anything bad about him, and I just
Speaker 5: want to move on the fans my ex teammates. I
Speaker 5: always keep it hard. It's time too for me to
Speaker 5: move on from that.
Speaker 4: Have you spoken to Nico Harrison since you left Dallas?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: Have you spoken to him on the night that you
Speaker 4: were traded? No? Was your intention to finish your career
Speaker 4: in Dallas?
Speaker 5: Of course, that's easy question.
Speaker 2: Jesus, I was healing.
Speaker 3: This is why I avoid it. I don't look for
Speaker 3: any Luca content at all. He's only going to make
Speaker 3: you feel bad.
Speaker 6: Dude.
Speaker 2: I'm avoiding it. Dude.
Speaker 6: You don't want to see Luca go up against ant
Speaker 6: Man starting tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: You know what I got in the mail yesterday? My
Speaker 1: first bit of Lakers gear.
Speaker 2: Oh what'd you get? I got some shorts? Got some
Speaker 2: Lakers shorts. You should have gotten in Austin Reeves, Jersey.
Speaker 2: There it is, and your Bingo card.
Speaker 6: Would you have felt different. I know it's tough, but
Speaker 6: if they did get Austin Reeves out of the deal.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, it would still suck. But like they
Speaker 1: should have gotten whatever else. Yeah, if they got Lebron back, man,
Speaker 1: they went and dealt from a place of weakness. Listen,
Speaker 1: we got a problem. We have to trade Luca because
Speaker 1: of all these problems. And then Rob Polinka the gym
Speaker 1: Lakers like, yeah, uh man, if we're gonna take this
Speaker 1: guy off her hands, sounds like he's pretty flawed.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna be able to give you that much
Speaker 2: for him.
Speaker 6: If you think about several things jump out out of
Speaker 6: that clip. If you think about the way that the
Speaker 6: fan base has reacted to this in general, all of it,
Speaker 6: every level of it, and especially whenever like the Nico.
Speaker 6: You know, I would call it a private press conference
Speaker 6: or a private media gathering. It wasn't secret, like people
Speaker 6: knew it existed. But when you look at that, in
Speaker 6: the way that the fan base has reacted to it,
Speaker 6: to hear Luca say, it's sad what is being said
Speaker 6: about him.
Speaker 2: I don't say anything bad about him him. You know,
Speaker 2: we need to.
Speaker 6: Move on the way he phrases that that is going
Speaker 6: to infuriate people.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he's taking the high road. Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: Mavericks are not. Once the Mavericks chose to make this decision,
Speaker 1: and I say, the Mavericks once Nico and dude, don't
Speaker 1: let Nico wear this on his own. Think I think
Speaker 1: there was probably a vote, and I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people that are lurking in the shadows that
Speaker 1: aren't wearing any of this. He's wearing it all himself.
Speaker 1: But whatever. When the Mavericks decided we were moving on
Speaker 1: from him, that in itself is one thing a decision
Speaker 1: to make. Then the return you get that's something else.
Speaker 1: But at that point they were screwed because there's nothing
Speaker 1: they can say. They can't say, well, other teams target
Speaker 1: him defensively, he was a liability defensive pep like wait
Speaker 1: what Like it's so emotional that you can't say anything.
Speaker 1: So the best thing that could have happened is if
Speaker 1: they had just stuck to their guns. First of all,
Speaker 1: they shouldn't have come out and made a joke at
Speaker 1: the first press conference, right, They should have understood read
Speaker 1: the room a little bit, right, But they you know,
Speaker 1: they should have said, Look, we were going in a
Speaker 1: different direction. It's a lot of money to pay somebody.
Speaker 1: We think his body, you know, he my body might
Speaker 1: break down.
Speaker 2: We don't know.
Speaker 1: We believe this identity will help us win. That's the
Speaker 1: only thing they could have done. Okay, here, and here's
Speaker 1: what I'd say.
Speaker 2: I agree with you.
Speaker 6: But the problem is that there's there's absolutely nothing they
Speaker 6: can say, because I would maintain, like, if you think
Speaker 6: about the way Malika Andrews position that Nico did not say,
Speaker 6: I think Luka Doncich's terrible defensively and his body is
Speaker 6: going to break down. He said, defense wins Champion. Like
Speaker 6: I think they're talking about the stuff that came out. Yeah, well, okay, again,
Speaker 6: that's all like that's not Nico publicly saying anything. That's
Speaker 6: reporters saying the Mavericks believe, you know. And that's that's
Speaker 6: the problem with that sort of game, Like there's literally
Speaker 6: nothing that Nico can say that the fan base will
Speaker 6: be okay with.
Speaker 2: And that's why he hasn't talked.
Speaker 6: But and then he went out there and talked, and
Speaker 6: he talked in kind of vague terms and everyone's like.
Speaker 2: Say, say, and he's like, I didn't say any.
Speaker 1: But also it's complicated because the return was so bad,
Speaker 1: like that's probably the worst trade in the history of trading,
Speaker 1: like in terms of the value return. And so there's
Speaker 1: nothing that really can be said right, because that's a
Speaker 1: problem itself, shortening the window by six years, getting an
Speaker 1: older player, that in itself is problematic, not getting a
Speaker 1: full return.
Speaker 2: There's so many problems for it.
Speaker 1: But unquestionably this Luca interview is going to hurt the
Speaker 1: hearts of mass fans.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I like the way you said it there.
Speaker 6: There's there's so many problems with it that even things
Speaker 6: that are valid, they can't be said right. They can't
Speaker 6: because no one, you know, we talk about this all
Speaker 6: the time. People have a reception strategy.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 6: It's like they hear the things that they want to hear,
Speaker 6: and there's literally nothing the man can say or do
Speaker 6: that will justify it to anyone on the planet. And
Speaker 6: so when he doesn't say anything, everyone kills him. And
Speaker 6: then when he goes out and says stuff and he's
Speaker 6: you know, it's dude, he's not like a dynamic public speaker,
Speaker 6: so everyone kills him for what he says. And the
Speaker 6: problem is the perception of the trade is established. Everyone
Speaker 6: feels the way they feel, and there's literally nothing the
Speaker 6: man can say. So killing him for not saying anything
Speaker 6: and then killing him for saying something. That's just the
Speaker 6: position the trade has.
Speaker 2: Put him in.
Speaker 6: Because the trade is universally hated except by Laker fans.
Speaker 3: It's like when it's it's summertime and you're like, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm not gonna turn my air conditioner on. Like, no,
Speaker 3: everyone turns the air conditioner on in the summer. It's
Speaker 3: just such an obvious thing. And that's why conspiracy theories
Speaker 3: about the team moving come up.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It makes crap like that easier to believe because the
Speaker 3: trade is so bad.
Speaker 6: Did you see that Adam Silver stuff the other day
Speaker 6: with Pat McAfee. Everyone's killing Adam Silver and he's like,
Speaker 6: all I'm saying is it's not a conspiracy. We didn't
Speaker 6: do this for ratings. Nico believes what he believes, and
Speaker 6: he also said, I've known Nico a long time.
Speaker 2: He's a good person.
Speaker 6: But again, to your point, the trade is so poorly
Speaker 6: received by not only maths but buy basketball media that
Speaker 6: you immediately start making up crazy things to justify it
Speaker 6: to yourself. And what I'm telling you is we've said this,
Speaker 6: not just me saying this. Nico believes that Anthony Davis,
Speaker 6: paired with Kyrie Irving, was going to win him a championship,
Speaker 6: and he did not value the relationship between Luca and
Speaker 6: the fans, and so he made a move that he
Speaker 6: thought was going to bring a championship. And it's like, oh, well, wow,
Speaker 6: this is how everybody feels. I thought everybody felt like
Speaker 6: Brian Winhurst right right.
Speaker 3: The more we get, the more my nuts hurt. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I'm I'm avoided.
Speaker 6: All right, Mavericks Tonight, Lakers and Timberwolves start tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the today game. It's fun. We'll do
Speaker 2: it next right after this on The Eagle