This is a downbeat on ninety seven to one the freak internal not muslat socked me, don't I bush so lushy, that's hot. I think it's National Pancakes Day. It is Natural Pancake Day. So why didn't somebody bring us all these flat jacks? Corner Bakery? Okay, the other iHeart Stations pancakes, five trays of pancakes, one huge tray of bacon, bacon, audios. Acon was good for me, bacon. Those pancakes are delicious, the hardest I've had four pancakes so far. Go go to short stacks eight.
No, no, that's it, but thank you the cutoff. Yeah, yeah, I'm good. You need to have twenty five pancakes for Lucas twenty fifth birthday. Are there? Is there Hooty and Blowfish tickets at the end of this Yeah, I'll give you a pair. End of this journey, there's not before we do Luca than guys, say thank you to all the listeners who came out and met me and Mikey and gave a We were giving away these vote ninety seven to one the freak signs, and we only made
a hundred of them. And there's a whole contest. If you go to the Freaks, it's at ninety seven to one in the Freak. On Facebook and on Twitter and on Instagram, I posted the rules for all contest. We'll do a drawing next week on that. But I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came. I met a lot of people. It wasn't like, you know, you met some listeners that you kind of knew,
but there were some that I'd never met before. Yeah, and can we got their signs and they were out posting and putting these at all the election cycle, I mean all the election polling places because it's a primary week. I was driving home and I was gonna I kept one in my car for me, and I was going to put it at the Richardson Life Ibrary,
right near my house where there's a big pole polling location. And sure enough, as I was getting into that turn lane there, I saw the big Freak sign right there, and I was like, yes, is that it take it somewhere over there? Yeah, already there, already marked. So if you have them in obvious you can pull one in your front yard you want to keep it or whatever. But thank y'all for doing that and continue to doing that. Different polling places take the pics, post them. That's
great. Helps us out a little bit. I think I was surprised because you know, this dates back even weekend showed up my previous sit. You never know if anyone's I just hope people are listening and reacting to what you're doing. And then we went down there and those things just flew, all hundred of them. It's not like stand up comedy where you can see the crowd. Yeah, that's there, you know. And we have some hot listeners too. Yeah, how's that? You said? Have one guy,
dude, Paul perfect teeth. He must have gone seen doctor Troy. Incredible that one guy. There's another guy too, his names Red, and he goes, he goes, I'm gonna go to Andrews American Pizza Kitchen for long munch. Yeah, double whammy. Good job he took off. So thank you everyone. That was a lot of fun. And it's not over by any means, obviously, those signs still stand. I can't wait to drive by and see if it's still out there. Make sure no some nerd election
official, yeah, gitting passed out. No, can't have it. Not a real candidate, hopefully, this kid's still in the car. Birthday shout out seventeen year old Harrison Light in rock Wall. Hey, kiddo, you're seventeen years old. Now you're a man. Maybe tomorrow or next year. I don't know how it works, but you need to listen to the station twenty four to seven. Okay, Harrison, Tell your man friends, Tell all your man and woman friends. That's the most important thing for real.
Happy birthday, Happy seventeenth Harrison. Good name too, Harrison Light. That's a presidential candidate in the future, right there, rock Wall's finest or the name of a bad regional beer. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I'll go for the Harrison Light. It was forty cents cheaper. Yeah, sure, I'll take the Harrison line. Is that coming? Is that on draft? No? I'd find can can me? Okay? So we're forward celebrating Luca's birthday. Can I take you guys back to the year twenty eighteen
real quick? Because and Luca was born in ninety nine, right, he's twenty five years old, but twenty eighteen, and the NBA Draft is happening, and at the time I was doing we were all at different stations at the time, me and Ben and Skin were doing a show in the American Airline Center and Donny Nelson cut Pops on the show and he jokingly goes,
oh, we're gonna take DeAndre Ayton. Now, the Mavericks had at the time the fifth pick in the draft, and the names that you were constantly running into were DeAndre Ayton, Marvin Bagley, Jared Jackson, Junior Trey Young, Mobamba, Wendell, Carter Luca, those are a few names. So that happens, and he's kind of okay, eight, we're not getting eight, and we needed a center, a big man, so good aiighting story of our lives, Phoenix is number one, and we're like, wait,
are they going to trade for Aighton? Like what are they up something? And then Skin kind of starts, you know, working his connections. Ben starts working his connections. And then I see a tweet from an unverified guy in Atlanta and it's a guy i'd never you know, some mass fan or retweeted it into my timeline or whatever, and I get a hold of him, get him on the air, and he starts laying out an hour before it happens. Discussions that have been made why Atlanta really wants Trey Young in
this draft draft. Their new GM had a Golden State Warriors background, and Steph Curry Tray Young. You can make the connection there if you want to. And he starts laying out that Dallas is a team that they had talked to and this is just a TV reporter. So you're sitting there going, Okay, this guy really know any things. He's just starting stuff. When we get him on, he lays it out and then the wheel start turning and things start moving live on the air, and it was really exciting as
it's happening. Trade goes down. We just traded up to number three. Okay, what are we trading up to number three? Four? Well, this guy says, we're trading up for Luca. This guy in Atlanta, the skin's kind of working his connection still, and it moves on. Sure enough, the trade goes through. So eighton, Marvin Bagley goes to Sacramento and with the number three pick, the Atlanta Hawks select Luka Doncic and the
Mavericks at five select Trey Young and they ended up making the trade. And it was just like wild how that all happened, because that day, I don't think any of us knew that day that it was happening. He was very unknown what the Mavericks were gonna do. At number five, you're almost waiting and hoping a team passed up on a player you liked in the top four, and they ended up getting there because of a trade that they made with Donnie Nelson, and he deserves a lot of credit for making this happen.
So they were targeting Luca hard. And I remember before this draft when Jake Kemp and Mike Marshall too with my basketball basketball leaders were hot on Luca. But there is still just an element of the unknown, you know. I mean there have been very high drafted Europeans that are busted. It just don't work out. And it is also weird that Luca was drafted by the Hawks and Dirk was drafted by the Bucks, right, Yeah, that's just kind of strange. I remember, I remember like that was it trailer?
Yeah, but they knew what they wanted. They made it work as in peace and then you get this kid and it's like all right, here we go. And we saw what was it on some documentary or something just not too long ago about his first day with the with the team practicing at the practice facility. You know, they're like shaking hands meeting you, and they're like you could tell pretty quick that he wasn't intimidated by the whole thing.
And you know, it's been spoken about ad nauseum, the whole experience of being a pro in Europe. I mean, it made him very rude for this, and he just had it from like minute one special and the fact that we are where we are now. I've credited Korby for this before where he wants to one of the singing events saying Novitzky Numb to Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, and I thought it was a great song, but a great point, like we've become numb to what Dirk does every night. And I
was saying this to Kevin just yesterday. It's like whatever last night's game. We can talk about more if we need to, but there'll be a game and the MAVs win, and we'll be like, man, Kyrie was awesome, Man Kyrie did great. You know, he had thirty two, you know, and to Timmy was shooting the ball, well, you know, he mad four threes and it's almost like you don't even mention that Luca went
for thirty five and eleven and eight. Yeah, it's like the talking point starts after Luca absolutely dominates and annihilates everyone that we face, after what he he does game in, game out, because what can you can you do it every day? Just say the guys just unstoppable and amazing and apparently one of the greatest basketball players to ever live, Like, at least on that trajectory. Yeah, man, it is. I don't even want to say
it's incredible. Yeah, because in what we do, it's it's kind of incumbent am on us to come up with unique, fresh ideas and opinions and or something that kind of spikes. It's funny that he's so consistently incredible that the bar is so high for him that it takes a sixty point game right for us to really draw real attention to him. It's always about what the other guys did, because that's what he averages. Dude, he averages thirty
five and eleven and nine. That's what he does consistently and has since what Christmas. Yeah, I mean his pace is ridiculous and this was at the end of January. I think the average thirty five points or something like that. It's the type of thing that we ended up taking for granted with too. Dirk was doing this a lot and we just went, okay, now
who are the other parts? And you focus so much on the other parts and what's going to be able to take that because you have this consistent thing, you know, anything in our life when something's very consistent, would probably take it for granted, and then it goes away and you're like, oh my god, what it was. Like That's why I've never been I've always almost rolled my eyes at the any narrative of it's not fat Luca, but out of shape Luca, and I'm like, okay, yeah. But also,
he hasn't had any time off. He plays international ball NonStop in the summers. The the ref thing, yeah, that is annoying, Like that's that's the thing. And I don't think Dirk ever had an annoying trait, you know, except for maybe what we thought of him when he was a rookie. You know, maybe a haircut, but like you never had one. So yeah, that that thing is annoying, the ref thing. But I think it's becoming easier to grasp and he's happier now that they've made some
big move of scout and they're winning. And I've never been hard on the MAVs, and a lot of people are cool in the MAVs organization, like they've always tried, like the Mavericks, outside of not running the title team back and a strike here well whatever, but they've always tried. Porzingis was a big try, and Porzinkus is a damn good player. They take big swings, Kyrie try. Yeah, as much as people are willing to come
here, they take as big as swings as anybody. Yeah, And you know, Donnie Nelson is the one who wanted the Greek Freaks, and Donny Nelson should get credit, Nico should get credit, Mark Cuban, they should all get credit for finding a way to do this. There're huge stars, and now it's like getting past the finish line because we all always want more. And I think also living in a cowboys city has taught us that it's never good enough ever, you know, because you're still just at their punching
a mirror because the Cowboys can't get over the hump. But that should have nothing to do with Luca and the Mavericks. So today's Luca's twenty fifth birthday. And I think the thing that's most interesting is that he just keeps getting better. Yeah, better, a lot better. Here's dorkout on numbers for
one second, but I kind of looked AT's a bunch of stats. So this year, minutes, field goal attempts, field goal percentage, three point attempts, three point percent, free throw percent, assist, block, steals, and more. Most importantly, points are all at career highs or really really close. But most of those are career highs this season, and some of those numbers that are really impactful are up very big. I mean, three point it's kind of the biggest one is three pointers. That's why the
scoring numbers are through the roof. He averaged eight point two last year. Attempts he's at ten point two this year. Two more per game is a lot, and he's making them thirty four percent last year, thirty eight percent this year. That's insane. It's a massive leap, especially when you're shooting two more per game, and that obviously explains why the points go up. And the other thing is free throws. We kind of bitched about seventy four
last year, seventy eight this year. I mean, that's that's enough to make it not bother The average I believe is around seventy eight. He's a little higher than the league seventy seven something like that. You might be right, but the improvement, you know, as he's now twenty five. Look at the steels numbers. Yeah, no steals, he's absolutely The defensive effort on place five per game is showing, and he was in the first half the season. I've seen he's still banged up a little bit, right,
quad soreness. I mean even tonight on a back to back. I'm sure he'll be questionable on the injury, but I don't know. Maybe maybe they've already got that out and he'll be probable. But back to back when he was carrying the entire load and Jason Kids making comments, we can't run him into the ground playing forty minutes. Once you get Kyrie healthy, you don't have to do that as much. And you're seeing now spots in the rotation where Luka gets a couple of minutes here, and he gets a couple extra
minutes here, and it's in a big, big game. He's gonna play as many as can. But that's something too. The defensive effort is there he's moving his feet and he's moving his body and using his body. He's a very good post defender. If a guards were trying to get mess with him in the post, No, And like the whole thing about Luca being they want to be more conditioned, his size, his bulk. Did he uses that to his advantage. You're a problem with any of that. And
he s got a different body type. He's never going to have David Robinson's shoulders and arms. Yeah, it's just not going to happen for him. But to kind of slam that point home. Can I play something for you as it's twenty five seconds. It's Mark Keith Morris and this is in the middle of December when the Mavericks were Things were bad, players were hurt and markif Morris known as a villain for what he did to Luca years ago, right, And he's talking about Luca after getting to know him a little bit.
And I just thought this was so good, And I just remember this. I played with some great players. But when I tell you, the game is just so easy to him, like I've never seen nobody like damn near walk through the game. He plays the same way in practice. This is skill yeah, man, he's I don't see why he's not in the number one in the running for MVP. I just don't. I don't get it because he's doing it. He's carrying our team, you know, scoring
rebound assists on a nightly basis. That's a dad that didn't know him well until he got here. Reset For me and maybe others, that why he was the villain. Remember when he stepped on Luca's ankle when he played for the Clippers. Okay, unless that was Marcus, I think it was Mark Keith Morris, remember in the bubble. I don't remember which one it was. I think it's I think it's him. Okay, I just didn't remember that. But he should be number one in the MVP. I don't understand
why he's not. What he's doing, carrying the team up and down the court every single night, and now you're here and he doesn't have to do that. He seems happier that he doesn't have to do that. He did it last night. If it weren't for him, they are blown out by maybe twenty five points, I'm not kidding. They were down by fifteen, and he went on a very Luca, give me the ball I got this. I'm gonna get you guys back in this thing and give us a chance
to win it. And they have the lead by one with two point whatever seconds was left on the clock. It's game over, dude, it's game over. And it took a fifty nine foot wild running three point shot to win that game. It's a good team with no time against a very good team, the second best in the East. I'm sure they were disappointed, but it probably didn't take them long to realize, what are you gonna do? I mean, throw your hands up in the air and go all right,
good job, guys. You made a lucky one at the end. But we were right there and we probably odds would tell us we win that game night out of ten times with the exact same scenario playing itself out. It was Marcus. Sorry, Marcus. The stats are all amazing, but what's really hard to quantify is that he's just like a super nova that draws
the attention of defenses. They all crash down into him, they're sucked to him, and then he takes all that beating and either still scores it himself in traffic or find someone always and sets them up for a far easier shot, making their percentages go up, their numbers go up, their paycheck go on. Yes, Dorian Phinney Smith is the number one example of that. I think Maxi is another good example of that too. Yeah, guys,
wide up and looks helps you in your three point percents. Jalen Bronson probably benefited from that a little bit. I think you're gonna see PJ. Washington benefit from that. He's gonna start knocking down open threes. I would think that one of the most frustrating things about playing with Luca has nothing to do with anything Luca's frustrating you with. It's the frustration within yourself because how many times, and it seems like it's happening more frequently this season than I've seen
in the past. How many times you guys see Luca pass up on what appear for him open looks, especially in drives to the basket to where he out of the corner of his eye sees a dude open beyond the arc and just laser passes it to him through traffic and it gets there, and the guy just seeing that seeing him pass on open looks to share with his teammates, and then the guy's got the ball going, I have to make this,
right, I have to make this shot for him. Yeah, because if I make this shot, it's gonna make him look like an effing genius. The crowd's gonna go bananas, or the crowd's gonna get silenced if they're on the road. But it just completes the entire uh, the high the entire play, you know, the series or whatever. There's a good chance he's gonna be the first Maverick ever to win the scoring title, which even
if he doesn't win MVP, I think is pretty awesome. I did look this up, and not that it matters all that much, but do you guys have a guess on who the last white dude to be the leading scorer in the NBA was? Okay, Larry Bird will come, what's gonna mind? Dirk would be there, but probably I don't think it was ever was either one of those Steve Nash Nope, you know, I look up Steve Nash stuff the other day. He didn't even average nineteen points per game and
either of and MVP seasons. Because I was thinking of like the white guard that just fills it up and scores anyway they want. That's also what makes him this weird ass unicorn. But the last white dude NBA scoring leader Jerry West, it's Pete Maravich. Okay, I was about to go that far back in the seventy six seventy seven season, forty seven years, and not that that matters all that much, but I did find it interesting, and I think it's cool that he might be the first mav ever win the scoring
Title'll be very cool. Oh yeah, man, he's already sixth on the MAVs all time scoring list. Yeah. Today Luca's twenty fifth birthday. He's ahead of Jason Terry, ahead of Brad Davis, and Jet played eight full seasons for the Maps. Lucas played five and three quarters, and he's ahead of him. I mean, he'll be second behind Dirk in about three years. Three years. Yeah, it's all gonna happen. And then, honestly, you can't do this, but he's at ten eight hundred or so points
in his career. You can even quit for a little bit of uh that a little yeah, and add in some regression and basically in ten years, you know he's going to be a give or take fifth, you know, at these at this pace on the all time scoring list, ahead of two guys right behind him, Michael Jordan and Drkinovitch. Health is the only thing, no, and we're not no, no, no, But you can't help but think look at pace and whatnot. I mean, he's that good
and we got it. He also seems he's a very cerebral player. I think uh, And I think once he matures a little bit more, is able to check his emotions or be able to manage his emotions a little bit better. I think he's contrary to the amount of technical technicals that he gets, I think he's actually pretty good about managing his emotions through play. And you never see one single event in a game get him down to where he's so frustrated he can't play. He uses a lot of that as fuel and
will elevate his play because of his emotions. But I think he's also that mental mentally, that type of player that as his body gets older and breaks down, I think he's still going to be able to put up really good numbers just being a crafty, clever veteran player. We said, the three point attempts and percentage have gone up, and that's what's making the numbers through
the damn roof, and there's no accounting for height. But what I just can't get over is how he finishes, usually somewhere in the painter around there. He just he's forty nine percent field goal percentage from a guard who handles the ball as much as he does. He just always seems to have finish and getting hit. I mean, it's basketball. Put the ball in the hoop, that's the entire game. He's really good at that. He's putting the ball in myriad ways, in many many different ways, hands in traffic.
I've said this a lot of savants a lot since he first got here, and I know a lot of people may may have as well. But there's something about his pace. Where do you ever get the feeling that he's kind of playing ropodope with the other team, where he almost lulls the defense into this false sense of I'm slow. Yeah, he lulls them to sleep. Well, he almost his defenders weight against them, right, And I don't know if he doesn't think about this stuff. He's just it's a subconscious
mind of physics that he's got a great grasp on. He just knows it, we can do it forever. It's Luca's twenty fifth birthday, We wanted to just stop down and do a little hand clap and an applaud for a sweet boy twenty five years old today. Happy birthday to you and the people of your home planet, Luca Dontes and Audio Luca Birthday HJ right here on the morning show The Downbeach. Oh yeah, More birthdays, talkbacks and more next