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