Exclusive: An Inside look at the Dallas Mavericks organization during the Luka trade | DZ 6-27-25

Mike Marshall, former VP of Content for the Dallas Mavericks, sits down to talk about his time with the team, specifically during the Luka Doncic trade.

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working for the Mavs when they made the Luca trade What is that like like cuz I I would just imagine most of most employees were just like they’re all like fans Should he state like what he was doing and what his roles were like that sort of thing sure Yeah I was uh VP of content with the Mavs for seven years So I oversaw social video photo uh offc court which is community Um dealt a lot with sponsorship uh had a good amount of interaction with the basketball side whenever we needed to You created Mavello no I actually didn’t Uh no I killed Mavello Okay Was that You want to talk about that it wasn’t prehe Oh okay It happened concurrently Matt the intro I’m trying to remember You were there when Mello So you were oversaw a lot of it but I was there when Mavell happened Uh I will take credit for killing it Okay Absolutely You didn’t like Mavello it got handed off It was somebody on externally was running it and convinced Mark it was a good idea and Mark’s like whatever try stuff Um and they did it and they didn’t want to run it anymore or pay for you know the Twitter handle someone running a Twitter handle someone doing the voiceover someone doing the animation So they tried to hand it off internally like look at this success Let me hand it off to you now marketing people to run with this They tried to force Mavello on you They did They did And I was like cool And I knew exactly where to send it where it would get tangled up and die But you didn’t do like a end of the story actually like they did with they do with some brands Yeah And they tried to write a story for like the death and rebirth of Mavs Man There was like a comic book story remember okay There was something to it cuz he’s like a he’s a robot now He’s like he’s a Power Ranger I like the old Mavs Man Me too Me too His skin was bald Had sex with a basketball Yeah Yes Or his parents did Well no it was him He was next to some chemicals Oh okay While he Okay Masman used to be badass They used to drop him down from the ceiling like upside down like spinning sparklers in his hand And it was a reunion which just felt like wild at all No it wasn’t at all But it was bad Owen Hart era Can you still uh can you still book him yes you can Like for parties and stuff I don’t know What is he i don’t know Change your oil for I’ve been saying it summer event or whatever winter event Let’s do a winter event Santa Claus Mavs Man every year I’ve been threatening my mom I’m like I’m a champion Mavs man show from other Santa Claus Mavs So people go up and get Let’s do that Yeah we’ll have at our Christmas That’s awesome You just go up sit on his lap Sit on Mavs Man Santa’s lap and take a photo He doesn’t speak so it’s like a real Yeah but limited That’s perfect It is Write that down Yeah I’m gonna have him like changing oil and like edging the yard like that [ __ ] your wife or whatever Or whatever So director uh of content VP of content VP of content Yeah Yeah Uh yeah So I mean So not Pants DJ I was not Yeah I was not there at that time I got brought in because all those people got cleared out Mhm Uh that was the timing on that Um Yeah Yeah I mean I experienced it probably similar to most people on that night or date I didn’t see it that night I actually went to sleep and uh woke up the next morning like the Sunday morning like uh it’s a million texts Yes Yeah Uh it’s my morning with the kiddo on Sunday morning So I get up a little early and start doing stuff and get ready and it is the first thing I see and then I check five different sources and I don’t know man I didn’t internalize it for a really long time because I don’t know if you understand what a VP of content does whenever there is a player like Luca on your team Like we have somewhat of a relationship I know all of his management I know all of his people We went to Madrid because of him a year before I’ve met his mom I’ve met his dad I know all these people and we went to Madrid strictly because of him and just like met all everybody out there that played with him and coached him and went to a Real Madrid game And it’s just I don’t know It wasn’t even I wasn’t feeling for him even at that point And I was like definitely feeling for myself cuz I helped whatever percentage you want to lay on what I did for him and his legacy Does he become a fan favorite or not without this messaging and without us doing as much as we we did i don’t know You know whatever the percentage is But I helped build his legacy I helped make him as popular as he was That was my job protect him and make him a global star And you just traded it You just threw it all away You threw all of it away And not just that he’s gone You traded him and you pissed every single person that in my heart of hearts I’m working for I’m working for the fans I always consider in that role I was working for the fans Not if if Cint wants something that’s great If the fans completely disagree like we’re going to have a conversation If Mark wants something that’s great If the fans revolt against it we’re going to have a conversation So I always considered myself working for the Mavs fan cuz I am one And the thing that you just decision you just made not only rips away the thing I’ve been working on for seven years but also pissed every single person off universally And furthermore it made us a target to be dunked on constantly for the next two three months And there’s some agreements you make whenever you start working somewhere Some unspoken agreements that you make with your employer And one of those is like you’re not going to use me as a human shield and completely tarnish my career’s work to that point And that broke that That completely broke that So that was my feelings at the time You mean like getting dunked on like Mav’s Twitter has to still exist yeah it has to still ex There’s still sponsorships that are happening to their credit or your credit or somebody’s I mean it probably would have been a story if you left the comments off Yeah So I don’t know that you actually deserve credit for that Well everything’s a story at that point That’s what sucks But I I would there is no move that’s not I would go to it just for the comments Yeah Just to see them hey welcome AD to town or whatever it is that you meekly tried to do Yeah I mean cuz you know this that’s the other thing is like not only is everybody turned on you and everything’s a story there are a lot of different opinions about how this should go now than there were the day before he got traded There are a lot of different people chiming in that you don’t know and you’ve never heard from in your life about how what should go All of it Okay we traded for AD We need to go get on the plane with AD tomorrow Like that type of stuff where it’s just like okay does basketball ops know y’all want that it’s go do this now Fix this thing Make people like us again right this second Oh and that’s on your your plate now Yeah So people that didn’t maybe care about what you were doing as much before all of a sudden now like hey let’s bring in the triage team Yep That makes sense because I think it’s also important to know uh and we can go through this I guess but you know everybody knows now that Scott Tomlin left the guy who was in charge of communications If you’re a Ms fan you probably know Scooter Tomlin by now Best dude on earth was fire He works for Dirk’s Foundation now Was here forever He’s the guy who brought Durk back out from the showers in 2011 You know he’s Durk was at his mom’s funeral the whole thing Uh the person he was replaced by I don’t really know despite my best efforts I’ve emailed four or five times trying to get you know this or that moving Even I believe at the end of our time on the ticket never got a response And like whatever I get it It’s us It’s podcast But it’s not like you hear a bunch of Mavs players on the ticket or the fan like you used to either And I started asking people like “Dude what is this person’s deal?” Like “Do I have the wrong email address?” Like the PR for a sports team will email you back and be like “Thanks.” No That’s what they do So the person that replaced Scooter to my knowledge uh had never worked for a sports team before right is that correct so like most people like Mike had worked for the Cowboys before the Mavs You don’t end up as the head of comms for an NBA team without having worked for like the Tulsa Drillers or something at least So now we have someone who’s never dealt with a basketball trade in any capacity or sports trade rather who is trying to manage the messaging and communication after the most controversial trade in the history of the industry Ex expand that a little bit as well There are I think six people on the basketball side that have VP and up positions uh Nico at the top before you well keep going further keep go all the way up of the people that are I would say leadership on the basketball op side four of the six had not worked for a professional sports team prior to this season ownership performance guys they’ve never they’ve never owned they’ve never owned a sports team Your GM has worked for Nike He did not work in a I guess this year is not fair Go further back This is their first job for a professional sports team The GM thing also we’ve talked about this quite a bit When he was hired it wasn’t really to be the full like you’re a traditional GM correct it was Cuban’s the GM But you’re now my relationship guy I got my quants over here I got you know the people I don’t know You can get in some of the rooms I can’t get into because I’m Mark Cuban and I’ve either pissed this person off or don’t have a relationship But yeah then when the sale happened and somehow you know Nico gets the confidence of the new owners and all of a sudden now he’s doing things he was not actually hired to do like make a trade all on his own Mhm But yeah and that magnitude That’s the one we talk about for sure But I do think it’s important like to his point that there were several people there This was completely new ground for them which is really in contrast I remember when Cuban bought the team and we thought he was gonna clean everybody out because he’s Cuban He’s wild and bombastic and I need my own guys and he’s got his own opinions about everything but he kept everybody in place Now he ended up pissing off Don Nelson eventually and getting in their little match and letting but at least for a few like he kind of kept the structure in place and realized oh yeah he kept Keith Grant there I need to kind of learn from them Yeah You need that foundation if you’re you need some guard rails if you’re new cuz you’re going to make mistakes You’re just you’re going to have bad opinions and and they buy a team that’s really good already Yeah Like it’s an NBA Finals you know at least a J you know pretty close They were in the All you have to say is they have a guy because there’s like eight of those They bought a team where they already had a guy Luca Yeah Okay There might And you say there’s eight of those I might limit if the Luca level there’s right like maybe three of those Yeah you’re in the the group of we can make some serious cash on this team because we’re going to be in the playoffs every year Gate which is where they make the money And the number one rule is you just so you don’t get rid of the guy Yeah And I I think speaking of getting rid of the guy that’s the part that’s interesting to me is just the way I don’t know anything about Patrick Deont Um I know a lot more about his mom uh but that they didn’t have those guard rails necessarily and you know I just wonder cuz like Mike and I are very close but I feel weird asking him about Mav stuff sometimes especially when all this was going on like I know it was hard for you I don’t think you thought about how hard it was for your friends very difficult to be like I want to talk to him but like I would also look at the Mavs tweet replies and while you were like laughing I was like I’m not sure I’ve ever had a friend in a worse professional position than this one right now Yeah And when I talk to you you write the tweets No no I managed you know I managed a social person that But still they’re h you’re having to be I promise Okay let’s just say this In the fallout what are the meetings like uh I mean they were ranged from where do we go now like the internal meetings were ranged from like what is our message now rick is in that Rick Welt is in that He was He was in one for sure No And Nico in one maybe No No I thought that was one Are you speaking up in those yeah for sure Like I just don’t know how opinionated you are in front of people like Rick Well like Yeah that’s a fair question but the answer’s always just going to be like yeah What about Mike or Machine like like you know I would Oh yeah But I also know others uh you might not He’s more you than me Okay The the president or I guess CEO Rick was he’d been there 40 days He wanted people to speak up number one and just like what’s next and I mean I I was one of the more tenured people that is skins on the wall across the board You and yeah me and Dwight Pal were kind of leading the organization at one point Uh no it was just people would look for me of like what should we do in service to the fans at this time or how to move forward and before the Cooper Flag thing it was very much like next year’s a hardwood classic year Like we got to remind people why they actually care about the Mavs originally And we can’t we got we got to talk as little as we can about this team that’s about to take the court as possible because it’s just gonna piss people off Is that when you reach out to Mark Aguire uh we’re doing that anyway But yeah I figured Yeah Yeah At some point What was the hangup there just him for No I don’t know I think people had left the organization that like Keith Grant left the organization right and retired and I think he might have been the conduit to Aguire I’m not sure Um but people just hadn’t reached out to Aguire and it was cool for him He was balling his eyes out Yeah Yeah Actually crying Yeah So uh does it get heated in those meetings um because I guess let me say at the core of it you can’t the the the root issue is not one that can be solved like what’s done is done So now cuz nothing like this has ever happened like Rick Weltz even tried to say you know when we traded Monte like come on bro not close there’s nothing like this Not close No it’s it and the reason the reason you do it is somewhat PR as well because in the end like if that superstar ends up asking out Okay Yeah Now it’s off of us Now the fans can still uh remain loyal You know LeBron we’re going to burn LeBron’s jersey cuz he decided to leave Um you want to come back you can’t Yeah you can’t Yeah of course Then you of course you accept them back if Yeah Uh I mean the first couple meetings were not productive in any way It was just people being very pissed off Who what do you mean everybody that worked for the organization on the business side when we were getting together we like couldn’t have constructive conversations cuz it was just like a whole bunch of just sitting there going like “Fuck [ __ ] Okay fuck.” Yeah Like every idea we had we were like “Everyone’s pissed at us.” And it there was nothing there was no ground to be made up It was like this is time is going to have to pass and I can’t make time pass faster for people just to like stop yelling at everyone that worked for the Mavs as if we were responsible Yeah You’re not a soup I imagine some soups could do that if you had that certain power I think that’s Oh I was going to say Stranger Things The Boys It was The Boys Yeah I don’t know He’s into a lot He’s He’s having I’ve seen a season Yeah you’ve heard him You heard him right There you go Did you see the one where the guy was getting yelled at because of the tweets for the basketball team he worked for the superhero He was a regular guy Just like you Turned green couldn’t turn it off Yep Yep Just like you So uh I was going to ask you about when the sale happened and Cuban was no longer majority governor and therefore I guess not involved in Well let me ask you how involved after that was he uh from before Did you just see him way way less like communicationwise because I imagine his role reduced on the business side and the basketball side like together or No no I mean he wasn’t really hands-on with the business side consistently in my time there Unless somebody came through with a dope idea like Mavello Yeah Unless Yeah exactly Unless you had the one silver bullet which is Melo Balovich Cubid time Yeah I mean he would he was like always on the periphery Like I’d see him and I’d be on emails with him every once in a while and if I had a problem I could definitely shoot him an email and he would be like “Okay here’s what I would do.” And then he would to his credit dude he would follow up Sure Like if I like texted you about something you might not like follow up like a month later and be like “Did that thing get resolved?” Yeah He would legitimately follow up and be like “Did that did that thing get fixed?” Again to your point or do you need me to talk to other people cuban will email you back that day and be like “I can’t do it today.” Yeah Yeah And so I mean he was in and out He was Cuban to email you back but not the PR director of the Met Yeah he wasn’t uh like chiming in on my inbox consistently and we’ve sat we sat in maybe a couple meetings uh over the five I guess five and a half years right um but on the basketball side cuz he’s on the basketball side I assume that entire five and a half year period and then obviously the sale the sale happens and uh I know December 20th is obviously the day it sold There were some decisions that were still lingering going into the next season a lot around broadcast in January or so December 23 Yeah Right Yes Uh January we’re trying to figure out where we’re going to be broadcasting on the next year if this is going to be another B’s year or if we’re going to figure out uh WFAA if a local per local station is going to take our stuff And I know he was still involved in that to the extent that someone mishandled something along those lines and they got run for it and he was involved in it um in the decision to let that person go Uh so but that’s pretty much the last time that I saw him involved in really anything on the business or basketball side was January 24 Um and it was very confusing for everybody internally extremely confusing So there’s never anything verbalized No No Is this this is now the structure this is whatever Yeah Well I mean they sent out the proper wording on it Like Patrick Dumont is now governor which is I know what that means We talked at the time I was like I don’t think this is what Mark is saying it is but he’s saying he’s still in control Yeah Seeing him holding the trophy after they win the Western Conference was like that should have been all you needed to know Yeah Just that we’ve never seen this person Yeah And just like the slow like divorce of like oh dad’s living at another house What does that mean like I don’t it was just really really weird directionally cuz there were people I mean you know Mark runs a unique business uh wherever he goes and there were people in the Mavs who kind of existed to respond to Cuban stuff to go like hey Mark wants to see this thing let me handle that I’ll run with that and and we’ll move on and he just wasn’t there anymore and it wasn’t explained what his involvement was and he would still chime in on cert certain things like maybe once or twice over that next like 6 to 12 months It’s a whole organization that was built to answer to what he wanted and now he’s not there and there’s not somebody in that role Sent did a great job of like just like filling in there and going like we’re going to do this and whatever and covering for I guess a lot of the stuff that eventually would happen uh and a lot of like light that would be shined on the new ownership group But man it’s it was super confusing just as far as like light being shine on them just as far as how disconnected they were as far as Yeah And their opin their opinions on things and how their value of employees and Okay Just across the board like Cint runs an organization significantly different than they would Um probably why she’s not there anymore Yeah maybe So So they bought the bought it when late 23 Uh December 20th 23 Okay So very quickly Cuban has kind of moved out You said January 24 is the last time you saw him in any significant at least on the business side He might have been hovering around basketball stuff and I don’t know where those where that tug-of-war kind of ended Um I know Did they travel in 24 to go see Luca did we send a party cuz I don’t think that was Cuban He was he was there Oh he was he was there Yeah Yeah Uh that was that was 23 That was 23 Okay Okay That was going into the 23 24 season that we went to uh Slovenia No Uh no no no That’s uh that’s Abu Dhabi and Madrid uh preseason Got it Uh Cubans there They were also there The Deonts Yeah Before they bought Okay Yeah They were a guest on the trip Uh Dance and Adlesen’s were there Wow Yeah They’re big fans of the region Uh um that’s wild I guess I didn’t think about that So was that when you were made aware of them uh okay Who’s the I mean I know who Aden is Like I can pick her out of any lineup cuz I’m just a person that knows I knew who she was but when you I had no idea that she was involved in buying the Mavericks until she bought the Mavericks No So back then were there leading up to December like that fall where internally you guys like something’s happening there’s always over the last couple years there had been like Mark’s really in the [ __ ] now like something’s gonna have to happen some crypto thing or something Yeah Yeah Whenever like FTX like the Tom Brady backed Jazelle Tom Brady crypto thing they’re like Mark man Yeah Yeah It was like all of that stuff and then you know we had a deal with like a crypto wallet company that went belly up and it caused like a whole bunch of like uh weird lawsuits and things like that And I knew Mark was staked on that stuff at some point right um and I know he was trying to launch cost plus drugs and things like that So his interests have always been kind of like it’s always there’s a side thing going on but you don’t know like how into it like he was or how much financially he’s into it Um and then there was just always whispers of like hey Mark might be exiting soon but I heard that for like three years leading up to that Uh so I never took it very seriously And so you didn’t know till it was announced no no idea So no idea How did things change then you said like Cuban kind of dissipated from the business side but like for you guys how did things change did anything get better did things get worse at all i’m trying to remember those the first six months or so that they owned the team it was same did not matter It didn’t We didn’t know them We didn’t see them The only thing I guess that would that raised kind of like a red flag in the first six months or so uh was nobody got playoff bonuses We went to the NBA finals and we did not get playoff bonuses And how is that different from the past then i’m that is the one on the side of the the 99’s on the other side 99 out of a hundred times that an NBA team has gone to the playoffs or finals they have gotten playoff bonuses I’d say all all people that work for the team Yeah Because you’re working overtime now We’re doing Should I remember one year my brother when he was working for the Saints I think he made like his salary and then he made like 80% of that again on like two playoff games He was making like 32 grand They made like 10k per game and the Saints won even one round Yeah You would get playoff bonus for sure Yeah I’ve been there when we went one round uh Clippers series Yeah And is your bonus what how much is it is it a percentage of your salary depends Yeah it depends what position you have that it’s not like life-changing but it’s you know 10 grand Yeah Yeah Okay Yeah Yeah It’s nice It’s pretty nice Yeah Especially after working for two extra months Yeah Because you know that like I said is where they’re making their money Yeah So if you’re going to work all that time extra they have to you know they got to give you a kiss Well I guess they don’t Yeah You You aren’t obligated to You went all the way to the finals Yeah Just like Just like you’re not obligated to like give Rondo a playoff check or whatever You You can You’ll realize this stuff if the situation gets weird enough Um but yeah we worked for two and a half extra months So that has to poison the atmosphere a little bit Yes Yes Yes Was it ever addressed uh it was addressed as if it was going to happen It was stated that it was going to happen and then it just That’s even worse Way worse cuz now you know they know and it’s not like oh shoot I didn’t know y’all do that Yeah And then it and then it didn’t get ultimately approved Um and that was one of the first ones where I was like “Huh that’s a really weird that’s I mean there’s very few ways you can tell an employee in a meaningful impactful way that I care about you and you’re valued and like I really appreciate what you’re doing.” Compensation is like number one It’s number one And if every other team does it and just about every other sport does it and we’re used to it and we’ve worked for a guy that was very generous with his money over the years and the first chance you get to go “Hey I really appreciate y’all Y’all are doing a great job This is meaningful Thanks for making us you know uh some number of million dollars per home game.” boy And that’s extra hurtful just because then they were told “Hey this is what everybody does This is how it’s done.” And they said “Okay we’ll pay.” And then they didn’t They didn’t Wow But if you think about like the timeline there was that whole pager attack to plan And that stuff takes money I don’t even know what you just said Just what I said I know what he said Okay Yeah they had Look Mark had other interests So do the Adsons I think I think it just happened to be a genocide To answer your your question Dan of like when did things start changing i guess the thing that for through the first like six to 10 months or so that started standing out because there was a lot of arena stuff that was planned because there was a lot of broadcast stuff that was happening What I slowly started to realize is they had no idea what they bought zero idea what they bought in terms of financials books future 3 to fiveyear plan how this works how this functions The broadcast part of it is probably broadcast was broadcast and I I bring that up because the broadcast part links directly to that bonus situation They bought the team and did not realize there’s going to be this gap year before Amazon jumps in where we’re actually going to lose money on broadcast no matter what And they got in and they had big plans early on and they wanted to do this and that and they realized someone tapped on the door and said “Um did you know we’re going to lose tens of millions of dollars on broadcast this year just because sinking and we aren’t on Amazon yet?” And they did not know that and everything changed from then Damn Well the good news is they were able to uh stay in the black Of course for the next couple years I mean but sports ownership is I mean Cuban famously would say “I lost money like every year I own the team.” Like okay Yeah But when you do sell the team then uh you kind of make it all back and a lot more For sure That’s part of owning a team It’s a long-term investment It’s a place to like private equity is getting involved in sports ownership for a reason Yeah Because a long long enough timeline long enough timeline you’re making a lot of money Um but they had no appetite for a loss That’s wild Anything you buy right like we bought a vac we bought the lake house and knew like well we’re going to lose money renting it out every but we’re going to profit when we sell it Is that No one told them that Yeah That’s the name of the game in sports So besides uh having to work tons of overtime and then really not getting paid for it um did anything else like significantly change just for you your job were there other people chiming in on what you should do or they kind of left you alone no from that point on it was not really I mean we we were really solid We were a large we had 25 people I think on my team Like we were one of the more stable one of the more competent engines of the organization So and I also don’t have to like They didn’t know what you were doing anyways They don’t know what I’m doing anyways They don’t care They’re just like “Yeah I’m just like we make four million each year off sponsored inventory Cool Everybody happy with that all right See you next year.” It was that kind of deal And even four million for a team I would imagine that’s kind of under the radar That’s it’s not Yeah that’s exactly That’s exactly right Like tickets is 80 to 100 million right uh other sponsorships inside the arena whenever you see whatever on the the skirt of the of the court is you know that stuff’s whatever I don’t know 50 million or something like it’s pretty low stakes but it’s also that’s the balance with doing any sports team and and being in content for a sports team is like it is the thing that fans know you by It is your most immediate connection to the fans is content and social and your presence in media but it also doesn’t make you like a ton of money So you got to thread this needle between like spending enough on it and doing it well but not getting where you’re dumping $8 million into it every season unless you are the Lakers or Warriors and can get crazy numbers on your sponsorships So were thing what was it like going into this past season then uh things were pretty good I mean it was good I You know you heard I think Luca was injured like really early wasn’t he there was a pickup game injury in the summer Yeah it was it was pretty normal Um no one was like yelling at people about budgets They did bring in a The summer was a little weird They brought in like a This is a funny story that I don’t know if I’ll spend uh a ton of time on but um they brought in a guy who was handpicked by ownership to be the chief financial and information officer So CFIO we have a CFO we have a CTO So he’s just over these people now And he’s there for a couple months And judging from what he did uh he was told to go find the money and fix the money Like he’s in there just slashing people’s budgets like just going nuts How did Round Ball talk it’s pretty low It’s pretty low spin Well this is after he’s gone Okay This was during the summer He comes in there and he’s there He’s a bushwhacker He’s there Yeah He He’s a bagman He is showing up to take the money out and I will find you I will get y’all even again And he’s there for maybe 3 months and he’s gone one day Just gone And I have to believe that scent going like “This ain’t working dude Like you got to get out of here Like I’m not standing for this.” Um and then yeah early on pretty early on in the season Cint let us know she was leaving which is weird I’d love to know her candid thoughts on working with the new Do you think it’s all related for sure For sure Yeah But she let us know I can’t remember the date exactly She gave us like a couple two or three months maybe of after this date Um you know retire Well it was end of the year Uh so it was maybe a month into this into the season She let us know uh she was going to retire and step away And then it instantly becomes okay like who’s there’s no one internal they’re going to bring in to do that Is this going to be someone from the family of ownership that runs like the the Sam’s company or something like that yeah I thought we were getting the nephew Yeah we have like a Kendall Roy fail son somewhere in the mix here and I thought he would take he interned for Cuban for the basketball team So do we believe do you believe that if Cuban never sold the team Obviously Luca is still there but Cint is still there You’re still there Um I don’t remember if Scooter left before that Uh because Durk hired him away Oh no He Tomlin was would have stayed I believe Tomlin would have gone Certainly the Casey would have stayed The Yeah athletic trainer who went on to win athletic trainer of the year Yeah With uh the Knicks I don’t think the issue was Tomman leaving It was that they replaced him with with somebody who didn’t do sports PR which Cuban would have done You know what I mean Even if it were a different person Yeah Talon left in before the 23 season the Abu Dhabi Madrid trip He was basically already gone but he he went on the trip because they let him bring his wife and have a nice goodbye trip How was Luca to deal with uh it was different from the beginning to the last couple years I would say like it got more difficult and more people to run things through and more people to like get a yes out of before you could do something later in time But that’s a global superstar That’s not it I’m not judging his like character or anything like that Was never upsetting No no no He was honestly great Like personto person cuz even us dealing with him after having dealt with Durk all those years That’s the thing when you raise the bar Yeah with personal relationships with Dirk you know and then all of a sudden anyone who follows Dirk you’ll say “Gosh they’re not Durk.” Right That’s not fair That’s not fair And I dealt with Durk a lot as well right and I I know going in there like I was hired the month after he was drafted And so I think I was Bobby was the first person to do anything with him on camera I was the second person to do anything with him in terms of a bit Bobby interviewed him I did stuff with him at the first media day So we’ve known each other for a long time Um and I’ve seen him kind of evolve where the first couple years it’s like his mom’s there and she’s the agent you know and it’s like very easy to get things done And um he’s just it’s like whenever a person is reclusive or doesn’t like the spotlight or whatever like I’m not mad at somebody for being that way at all Like I don’t judge you if that’s not your personality Just cuz it’s ours and we like to talk on radio and do video and all this [ __ ] and we’re comfortable with it Like if someone’s not I’ve never had a problem I know people would critique him and there’s been a lot written about like doesn’t like doing media hates media stuff and it’s like okay and yeah I think the bigger thing that people try to get a judge uh on someone’s character is like Durk would always treat everyone top to bottom really well Um that’s you know that’s the ideal right but you know Dan knows from his friend who works in Cleveland that like when Kyrie was early in his career he did not Yeah Uh and you know we know we’ve known enough guys who play for these teams and some of them don’t And that’s kind of probably expected Yeah He’s he’s on the he’s on the good side of that But I do know that% of how he treat small interactions Yeah It just seems like he’s got that part down I don’t care what you do after that Oddly enough because sometimes you say guys change for the worse Kyrie I believe has changed for the much better Oh he’s the very rare Kyrie Beltree He’s probably got he’s grounded you know got a little grounding shoes Uh did you actively look to leave like you’re at D magazine now We could talk about that But when the when the trade happened uh justific got to I got to leave Like this is happening This is happening these people are leaving Is it is that what hap like I I don’t want to answer your question for you Sure Like why did you leave i guess eventually Yeah I mean it’s you know you’re kind of the frog in the pot and it starts boiling and you don’t realize like it’s boiling around you You know what I mean like a lot of things were changing A lot of people were leaving Scent left I was like okay let’s see what Rick Weltz is about And uh I just I don’t have a relationship with him I I I don’t know what he’s about besides New Arena Um and then the trade happened and not I don’t want anybody to think I left because of the trade That is not what happened at all Uh but the reaction to and the way you handle things like that does shine light on everything that’s wrong with whatever is going on in your organization And so it just reminded me of a lot of things and things some things got worse and some decisions that directly affected me and I did not have say in Um and it was just time man It wasn’t like a spiteful kind of leave I wasn’t like I’m getting out of here type of thing to be honest Um you know wasn’t wasn’t a great two three months after the Luca trade before the the lottery I think everybody if you’re a rational person was kind of like “Yeah this is how things are now in this job I did not sign up for this This is not not what I agreed to do.” Um and so I was I’d gotten to an okay place after you know after the lottery I got to an okay place of cool well I’ll build Cooper Flag the same way I did Luca Um Durk will come back at some point and be a part of the organization And I I’m one of the people inside the organization that is constantly beating the drum for like hey guys we can we can acknowledge that the team existed before 2000 before Mark bought the team cuz that was never been a thing in my time there It’s a nice opportunity to lean into it too Yeah Yeah And that’s the hardwood classic year I was like I I dove into that really really hard Like I have a whole story board that we’re going to they’re going to execute next year and like all this stuff for Hardwood Classic So I just kind of dove into that And then you know the D magazine thing came along Um my friend works there Mike Pali who’s the sports editor and he’d mentioned they were trying to level up their game And met with him a couple times and I was like you know you start setting bars and standards and boxes you have to check for me to be interested in working somewhere at this point in my career Like I I’m not just leaving to go you know bartend or something like that I’ve I’ve reached a point in my career where I can kind of like demand a couple things and have people uh say yes or no And y’all been there obviously Uh and they kept saying yes and kept checking the boxes And I was like “Oh okay.” Like the toughest thing for me is not leaving the Mavs or leaving working for a basketball team or leaving the person I reported to or whatever It’s I had a team of 25 people that have been through the same things I’ve been through and that was probably the the toughest part of it The rest of it was it’s just business at the end of the day at this point Do you have a team and everything or the magazine yeah Do I for you now yeah you just Jake I just managed Jake actually Okay Yeah So that’s a different thing You’re Yeah Yeah No Uh no I’m pretty used to you just being like “Fuck f you.” Like So you’re a Mavs fan right you grew up Absolutely dude I grew up here in South Arlington And I went to Mavs camps Like I was 9 years old and losing my [ __ ] when Brad Davis walked into the gym at my Mavs camp Are you able to admit that that’s the second worst retired number in the NBA in the NBA that’s tough I don’t know all the numbers in the NBA Well he knows them all I researched them all Jungle Jim Loskov is the worst stat-wise for sure He has a white for the Celtics Okay A bench white They retired his number I think Bobby Phills might have more impressive numbers than Brad Davis I mean he was good at drinking Only got in there for for uh car racing for not being good at car racing No I was going to say car racing right that’s how he got in there for dying racing Well that’s what I mean He died drag racing Yes but it would be super funny if there was an NBA team and that guy like retired and somehow made it to F1 But he’s he was so bad at this like it was like the worst thing he could have done And uh You know what we should retire his number Yeah Yeah He he could play a little bit though I mean it wasn’t definitely not a jersey retirement level of player but what what is your uh fandom like now i mean I’ve had to kind of like negotiate that with myself as everybody has uh in the last probably whenever the lottery was I definitely want to experience the Cooper flag time with my favorite sports team of all time whether or not they’ve done things that I disagree with over the previous history So whenever he starts playing I’ll watch and I’ll be a part of it Uh whatever level I think more realistically for me to be all the way back in is it seems like they’re really setting up this three-year kind of time frame AD’s deal is up in three years Kyrie’s deal is up in three years Gafford’s deal is up in three years to where it’s going to be fully Cooper Flags team in three years from now And in that scenario there’s a new I you know I don’t think they’re going to sell the team but I think there’s probably a new leadership on the basketball side uh if things don’t go correctly And maybe then I’m I’m all the way back in whenever it is just Cooper Flags team and we can start all the way back over Yeah you got to you got to get rid of Nico to me this is my personal opinion is you just must you must uh get rid of that stench That is a stench on the franchise I even see and people on Twitter are people on Twitter so I you can’t react to that You know that better than anybody but like guys saying “Oh this is ridicul.” No not going to get over it Gonna boo anytime Why is he still working there he effed this whole franchise He totally like he got then he fell ass backwards into getting the number one pick unless you want to believe that fortune favors it’s rigged which uh I still believe even when I have people tell me exactly how it can’t be rigged There’s no way in Can I add some context to the fire and eco chance the other night uh cuz I was there I was standing in front of those people when they started doing it I heard a little bit about it but go on So the pick whenever the pick was going to be made they were going to switch to the ESPN version so people in house could watch the ESPN Adam Silver walk out thing Like they’re doing a live stream that’s on the court right there They put the ESPN version on the Jumbotron Of course he announces the pick and the camera on the ESPN feed not on the thing the Maz are producing cuts to Nico and the fans start chaining that and all the while uh Mark Aguire is on stage like losing his mind about how just being back in Dallas and people just embracing him and that kind of stuff And so obviously I mean I turned around and I was like guys like this is a weird this is really weird It was like a It was a collision of trains in my head because I’m watching Markuire sit there and like start balling about how Dallas is embracing him and then in my right ear like right behind me people are yelling fire Nico and uh I know follow got agitated by it cuz he just wants to get past that but that that exact moment it was I understand why people did it and I understand why people wanted them to stop doing it Like I get both sides Um but yeah that’s that was the context of that moment I know it comes out of it as like underdog sports just tweeting a video about people yelling fire Nico at the Mavs watch party It was 10 seconds Yeah we brought it up yesterday because I had heard from someone that said it played in there and I was just trying to get to the bottom of whether or not it was like surreptitious which it wasn’t It’s just the luck of the draw But you ha I do think you kind of have to know when ESPN’s going to do a little package before the pick It’s probably going to involve Nico and it’s probably going to involve people being upset with Nico So you kind of had to know it I was just suspicious because when I went to the Laker game in April one of his threes that he made it might have been the first one the inrena uh like the circle graphic was a Mavs graphic and it was a Hallelua graphic And only once did that happen And I thought somebody hey I was a board up What about I know that occasionally you press the wrong button You’re like someone proved to me that was a mistake Yeah How are you going to do it that’s the thing too in your job having to scrub Yeah Oh my god Any mention like he was the only mention that’s he’s the only thing that everything he’s on everything Yeah Yeah That’s like that morning after the trade Are you like Yeah Yeah I don’t I didn’t even know where to begin I was just like “Yeah we had a game We had a game at noon that day in Cleveland.” Like they had to do a press conference before the game Like did did someone call you like your boss say “You have to get Luca off the website You have to get Luca off this You have to get You have to black him out of the video.” I don’t really run Did you do that no I didn’t No one in the Mavs did that No one in the Mavs put like the Mavs logo over Luca’s face when he Nope Nope No one in the Mavs did that No one in the Mavs did that at all Uh DR whoever DRO had editing that video did that The rapper Yeah Uh and he put out a statement saying as much like that was that was their decision But no I mean I luckily don’t have to do a lot of scrub I don’t run the website We can’t It was impossible to even fathom deleting all the things on social media that he was on So we didn’t even try Um some banner images sure but it’s we it’s also one of those weird things of like it shows you the divide between like the business side and the basketball side That didn’t The trade opened up a lot of that but like the media guide page still had him on it I was like everyone else was told like update this stuff if it’s like a consistent running thing and then like you’d go to whatever the stats page and he’s just still on the virtual media guide and I like sounds like a wellrun machine Did Janna get the memo uh so no I didn’t have to scrub anything I think some of the social managers did But what’s AD like to deal with he’s actually fun He’s a fun dude I mean all that you know whether or not you think like the prank show thing is lame or not like I don’t know but I just He’s actually the truth on that Well I don’t I’ve never watched it I don’t know I’ve Well there’s only one episode as far as I know Really no I think Did Did it keep going yeah Did I miss the big wave of uh hilarity that it was just a special was it oh yeah I thought I thought he was announcing that it’s going to be a new show but then they only had one episode and now he doesn’t live in LA Oh that must have been next to all those dorks I mean for a dude that is a whatever 10 time all-star that has a little bit of a reputation uh of being either you know difficult or whatever my few interactions with him were really cool I whenever he got traded here I had to make the graphic like with his stats on it and he technically had not been to 10 All-Star games yet So I put nine All-Star games on there and uh he commented on it like “Hey it’s been 10.” And then I corrected it and we put it back out there Anyway the first time I met him I was like “Hey dude I’m the guy that messed up your graphic.” And he just like started laughing and like gave me a hug and he’s like “Dude it’s all good.” Like we had a we had a cool interaction Um I never got the idea He was like a bad guy I think he’s kind of a dork a little bit but uh I’ll take it No I I think he’s per for professional athlete that is going to be bumping up against billionaire status at some point like I pretty cool Deal with it Dan Did you have any interactions with Nico and what was that like uh very few Uh no one-on-one interactions No Um no I mean the only time I think I had an interaction with him that was with somebody on my team was uh I think it was maybe in Memphis or something Uh like a fight broke out in a lobby and somebody thought someone from my team was involved in it because it was super late at night Um and it wasn’t And some of the people from the basketball side were saying that it was this person and I was like just go talk to Nico like go talk to him and tell them you can’t you can’t do that in a workplace You can’t say like “Hey I think it was you downstairs like you’re still working whenever you’re traveling.” Um and yeah I didn’t think his answer on the the matter was adequate But did you work there in the you worked there a while like Donnie Nelson was around Haralab yeah Yes Pandemic Yes Donnie Nelson used to sit behind me on the plane We would we would talk a lot Ever talked to Harala donnie Nelson’s like the best Yeah Yeah In my interactions with just the friendliest dude Yeah You’ll ever meet You interact with Haralab though No I never did So we know him better than you Yeah you do for sure Yeah I like him a lot I want to book him again soon Yeah I think Bobby knows him pretty well And me and Bobby used to work closely but I dudes on the basketball side I would never like force my way into like knowing them or having some kind of relationship with them I think they appreciated that [Music]