Joining us now in the free hotline making his ninety seven one. Come on, it is new Mavericks acquisition. The man from El Dorado, Arkansas. Daniel Gang from the ward. Good morning, Daniel, how you doing man? Morning morning? I'm doing awesome. Man. We always wake up happy when the MAVs get a dirty little win. But speaking of waking up, we talked about you at six am this morning. We're like, he's six ' ten. We just pictured you in this bed diagonally. I have to
ask, what's the bed situation when you're a man of your size. Well, when I'm in at home, it's a decent size bed, more of a cal keen. You know, you said I'm diagonal. I'm pretty much diagonal right now because I figure you're not at home yet. You haven't, you know, Dallas is your new home, so it is. Is it a custom bed at home? Not necessarily, just pretty much one of those regular days that you can find in any mattress place. But it's more for
sure, just like a cal qing. Okay, I would always look for either a cal Quen or a king. You know, either won't work, and you got to go full agonal, right man? That hotel rooms yeah, pretty much in the hotel rooms. Yeah, pretty much just diagnaled the way to go for me. You just got traded at the end of last week and then here we are, like five days later. There's no way you're settled yet. How does it work getting your bag sent over to where
you're going? And I'm sure you're staying in a hotel near the arena, I would imagine. But what's your life to like last few days? I mean it's just been, you know, pretty much just chilling in the hotel. I brought a decent amount of stuff with me, just you know, to kind of hold me for the time being. Linnical house hunting, probably all star breaking and whatnot, but really just you know, taking my time to adjust. I've been back and forth to dollars and stuff as a kid,
just like you, traveling with family on so forth. So yeah, he's growing up in Arkansas. That makes, you know, logistical sense for you to come to the city. You really ain't nothing new to me, but just living up here now it's most differently, you know, dude, learn something about you last night, though I thought it was something I kind of connect with because follow well, the guy that does play by play for Maps TV here locally. You mentioned that you you went to high school in
Arkansas and you played football, but you also were in marching band. Now my question is, were you in one of those schools that was so small that you were one of the dudes that had to go out at halftime in your football uniform and play clarinet. Nah? No, So I only played football for one year and I kind of called it quit after that year. I wasn't. I wasn't really, you know, I had my expectations for myself way higher than what happened, and I understood I couldn't catch the cold.
It's who were given to them. So what about your musical career? Is this something you still dabble in at all? Or you kind of put the clarinet down and said, you know what, I'm done with this. I'm full, full on dedicating to to hoops. I've tried that comes through just like the clarinet and stuff. My wife has got me a clarinet for Christmas last year. She well, she is like really pushing me to just
really just get back into it, which I mean I want to. It's just just have to, you know, find the motivation and find the time and all that good stuff. You do want to get back into it. And once I do it, most definitely we'll be posted. It will be streams all that good stuff. Because she wants to put me on a high pedestal, comes to it. She wants to show me off to the world, So I got to do it for her. She wants to be married to a musician. Daniel NBA star just in enough, right, yeah,
enough, yeah, all right. This is Daniel Gafford chilling with us. We are the home of the Mavericks. This radio station you're on right now and honestly, welcome to DFW. We couldn't be happier. And that obviously is impacted by two wins and massive performances right out of the gate for you, nineteen to nine in Game one and then seventeen rips yesterday. Dude, I kind of know the answer. But how's things going so far with you on your new squad? I mean, everything's going great. You know.
I feel like I told just any other media when I came years just coming in, I felt like I was already a part of the moment, you know, just came in and guys were telling me just you know, being the right spot at the right time, which, in all honesty with my career I've been I'll played with guys that you know, be in the right spot at the right time, you get rewarded or you're in a position to get rebound at the end of the day, and then I'll just come play
defense to that. Pretty much my main job is to come in and play defense, gre rebound, have our interergy, you know, catch lot passes. Daniels. Obviously, you come in here and you feel a pretty desperate need that this team has had for a long time, and productions just in two games has been out of sight, you know, being fans ourselves and watching the games, We're just like, okay, this makes sense. How is it, like, I know, you've only been you know, two
games and maybe five or six days with the team. How does the vibe in the locker room and the dudes kind of getting to know them a little bit, and that I'm sure Luca being you know, the star of the team right now is his presence is what it is. But I mean, how do you feel like you're kind of gelling with the dudes as you as you're coming to a semi foreign situation. Oh, I mean it's it's like, you know, perfect for me. At the end of the day.
It feels like, you know, me being back in college. In all honesty, you know, I just came in took me to kind of like get you know, fully adjusted to talking to guys and stuff. With me. I'm pretty pretty much of a quiet guy myself, but I really try to come out of my shield a little bit more often and just kind of
you know, building those bonds and building those relationships with the team. It just it feels like that, you know, we've already been here, like I said, and just most of the guys that I've talked to on the team and stuff, you know, it's just you know, like we didn't know each other. So you kind of feel like the vibe of the of the locker room kind of fits your your personality type, you know, kind of more subdued and chill and having a good time, but nothing nothing too
crazy or demonstrative. Nah. Yeah, most definitely that's cool. I mean, you know, guys are laughing and stuff. You know, they included me into a couple of conversations at first, and then you know, I just kind of follow suit. This is one of your newest Mavericks here on the helme of the Mass Daniel Gafford. Now, you said a minute ago that you couldn't catch a cold, but Saturday, what are your first minutes?
First of all, awesome when you get entered into the game. Six minutes into the game on Saturday afternoon in the crowd gives you a big ovation that had to have been really cold with them. Luca kind of threw a hell Mary to you and you went up and Randy moss that thing and then dunked it home, and that was pretty cool right off the bat. Yeah, most depf you know, just playing with a guy like that. Like I said, they told me to be in the right spot at the right
time. You didn't get y'all would take getting someone of his like line of vision and he'll find you at the end of the day. And if he doesn't, he's going to have to be a lay pass to shoot it that
can be in a position to get the rebound. He just attracts so much attention here to Kyrie, and you know he's just doing for all the other guys on the floor, So you know, you just kind of have to be in a right spot that we worked on we practice on because the way we game plan is literally just like, Okay, Luca's gonna have maybe two or three guys come come and try to trap him. Somebody's gonna be open. I mean the same with Kyrie. So I mean I'm playing in the
NBA. You obviously playing across the league there's elite point guards. Is it even more elevated playing on a team with Luca and Kyrie where your head has to be maybe more heightened on a swivel to get that unexpected pass or or have that assist delivered in places that maybe you weren't accustomed to before. Oh
yeah, for sure. I mean just being ready for anything, honestly, expecting me unexpected because you know, comes to Luca, you know, you never know when you're going to get, but he's going to get it to you. With Kyrie, he's going to get down hill and maybe a lay pass. You know, the beg is coming over to try to block a shot, or maybe a pass over the top because they're trying to blitch you.
So it's just the best of both worlds in all honesty, And I just have to be in a position where I can kind of progress and make plays out of the pocket. I love it so far. It's so funny. I mean, it feels to us who've been watching every game this season, that's just this injection of its life and every everything we needed comes in the form of you and PJ. But I want to talk one more thing.
Last night, so seventeen boards kind of steals the show, but five should have been eighteen if Luca hadn't touched it before it landed in his hands. Get him to stop stealing his dozen rebounds he gets every night, but five blocks as well, So what's a better feeling? Like the nastiest scream dunk you can imagine, or swatting someone into the into the first row. I would think it's a mixture of both, because they're all plays sometimes where I get a block that I can go down and get a dug too.
But really, just in all, honestly, I love the energy on a defensive end because that's what gets me going offensively, you know, just kind of building my get my blood bulling on the other end and running the floor and going down is doing the right thing. On the opposite into this is
Daniel Gafford, one of the newest Dallas maths, joining us. So you know when when we make trades like this for all of our sports teams in town and so that we do when we're on the radio and get to talk about you guys lives, we go dig in and see what we can find out about you. Get to know you, right, uh? And I read something about you And and dogs. Do you own a bunch of dogs? Yeah? So I have four in my position. Now I have one
back in Arkansas. Hell yeah, so four in your possession like today, like as you speak, you like we're able to brand when you have traded not not not necessarily today but just really just in my household, you know, back in DC and stuff. So I have a pick, two Frenchies and a Cordy back and around my pit is name Malo. Frenchies are Yoshi and Snow, and then my Cordier name's Peets. And you got one back in Arkansas. Yeah, his name is Mellow. He's a husky shepherd nicks.
Wow, Dang, if I had room and money, I would have so many dogs. Good for you? Do they all sleep on your Do they sleep with you in your California King? Now we keep them in their own little area in our household so they can kind of be separate stuff. But well, my wife tells me all the time whenever I go on road trips and stuff, she at just brings one of them up to sleep with her because she feels lonely. Let me ask one more thing, Daniel Effort.
When I thought this was what Kevin was about to ask. But you how do you find out? How do you find out you're getting traded? I mean, you know your name is at least being thrown around, but I mean it's got to be weird to be suited up for one team and then someone tells you, hey, your whole life is getting flipped upside down?
How do you find that information out? Whenever I was in into the facility the same day, Will Dawkins he had called me, like right when I got to the faciity because we were getting ready to go to Boston. He was telling me, He was like, Okay, we're going to try to see we're gonna I think that there's gonna be a deal with you in Dallas coming up. So it's not, then I'll call you and let you
know, and if so, I'll call you and that you know. We called me again like maybe ten to fifteen minutes later told me that I was in the Dallas So that's how I kind of found out. And then after that I went in to the facility, said my goodbyees, grabbed a couple of pair of shoes, and you know, head it up here. Business as usual. Man, Well we are we are proud to have you here, and so far, so good. You know how like back in the day, a little kid would go up to a star athlete and say,
I want you to hit a home run for me. You know, we have a request to welcome you and our radio show. I see you've shot one career three pointer in your entire career, and we'd like it a hoist one up in the game against the Spurs, and then we'll know it's like kind of for us, but if it goes in, it's also for the team. Just for no reason out of nowhere, just launch a three,
Okay. I went through your whole game log and there's one you're oh for one of your career, and I'm like, my guess is end of the half and you just chuck one and it technically counts as the three, But do you remember how and why you launched that one? If I'm not. I can't remember which one it was. I think it was when we played Chicago and DC, that's the one. I think that was the one.
Yeah, it was kind of like at the end of the shot clock, at the end of one of the two, right, bro, you I got to get your percentage up to fifty for your career, man, so you've got to launch one tomorrow. Stop it. Daniel. Thanks thanks for the time this morning. Uh we know, just your head's probably spinning after the last five days and for you to take ten minutes to come hang out, it's a lot, dude. We really appreciate it. Man. Oh of course, thank you for having me on. Let's do it again.
Welcome to the city man, and best of luck this year, dude, Thank you so much. There he goes, There he goes, Daniel gaff How about di