This is a down beat on ninety seven to one. The freak Ben and Skin are going to jump in here and uh where relived that Zach Martin bar mitzvah prank that's coming up in about forty minutes, but right now joining us live via the power of zoom. This fellow has been a friend of mine for a long time and he is the beat reporter for the Dallas Mavericks. On the Athletic Tim Cato joined us Live as we discussed the story of the day. How you doing, Tim, I'm doing good. How are you
KT? And did well? What time do you wake up? Man? Because I'm We're gonna look at what are you saying? No? No, he looks it looks awake. I gave him the option of eight oh five or nine oh five, and he chose nine oh five. What was why I was after wording I said nine oh five for sure? Yeah, definitely nine oh five, KT says you guys are I try to go to bed earlier, but game nights are just sometimes not, especially a game light night
like last night, where I write off it after the night. I'm up till you know, two thirty three, but I'm here last night probably a little different than most game nights too, and this morning the same, I suppose. Gosh, we've mentioned one dribble from the game yesterday. We haven't mentioned the hook shot. We haven't mentioned that Dirk was on the broadcast the whole game, you know, and by the way, skin among the many MAVs topics he will be covering today, who'll I just went back there and
told him I need the full download of everything. It's like to work with the Dirty One for an entire game. So don't miss their show. But Tim is on to talk, I guess primarily about the news djore and the shocking news to us. How shocked How shocking was it to you to find out that Mark Cuban apparently has decided to sell majority ownership of our basketball team.
It was going to be shocking no matter what, just because of how long Mark has been the majority owner, how much his identity really is is like, you know, he's the everyman, you know, and and so much of what represents that is the fact that he sits courtside at this team that he was a fan of. And then you know, his whole story is he made it rich and and he's just like you and and I think that represents a lot of it. And so for that to change, and
especially for you know, a team I have watched and followed for over a decade, I always think it was going to be surprising. It was something that I had some inkling of. I didn't realize how quickly it was moving. Apparently it goes back further than I've even heard about it. But you know, there was rumors going for the past few weeks that he was exploring a sale and and and the main thing I was curious about was like why
and and and trying to understand that out. And I unfortunately have to tell you guys, I'm not way closer to having a great why behind this. You know, I think there's several reasons and and dots we can connect and things we can point to, but I don't know if we're going to get a you know, a a single clean this is why it happened right now as opposed to some other time. That's uh that that's that's coming anytime soon.
But uh, but we can definitely talk through all that. But yeah, shocking, you know, it's it's Mark Cuban and and even if he's still going to be on the sidelines and and still gonna be in charge of basketball operations in a very unprecedented way. It it's still a huge change to you know, the well, I guess the second most influential or standout owner and in the metroplex, but but certainly right up there with h you know,
the NBA's being being the NBA's Jerry Jones at times. Is it a huge change though, Like he's not gonna act any different, So, like, I don't know, I don't know what changes for him on a day to day. He's gonna be still gonna be doing Mark Cuban stuff. That's true. That's true. I know, I think that's absolutely worth pointing out. You know, I'm just very curious, like what what is it?
What does it mean to be still in charge of basketball operations, especially when he has not been the same type of influential person since Nico Harrison took the job as he has been in the past. From everything I understand, you know, people around the Mavericks tell me that, you know, it's it's it's much more Nico Harrison's show than, you know, than the way Donnie Nelson kind of ran, uh you know, ran the organization, and at times I had to like, you know, convince Mark of stuff or didn't
have his ear or things like that. So you know that that still could revert back, and you know, there there is a lot of influence Mark has over kind of the direction that the business side goes. And certainly the new buyers seemed very aligned when it comes to, you know, adding getting a new arena with a casino, in legalized sports betting and all of that
stuff. But there's definitely a lot of different ways that on a business perspective, which you know, as far as I understand, Marcus not retained control or or would not can maintain control of uh, you know, after you know, through the sale, there's certainly a lot that can change, you know, subtly. And maybe it's stuff that because I see it behind the scenes and it feels bigger to me and and it won't be as visible on on on the surface. But but yeah, no, there are there are
definitely significant changes that will come with this move. So I've stuck on why. I know you mentioned it. I was going to be my most simple of questions is why, And I know you have contacts. This is Tim Cato, the athletic that we don't really have access to, and I imagine you've been hypothesizing with them on that very question. So, I mean, do you have your best guess as to why My first reaction was, Oh,
is he actually going to run for president? You know, something he has openly flirted with over the years, something that I think he might have done had the twenty eighteen misconduct or culture of misconduct not come out. I think I think it's possible that he that he would have run after that before you know, that twenty eighteen story came out. That was my first reaction and and nothing I've heard indicates that that is what's happening. It's hard to
prove a negative. You know, I don't know, you know, the people I talked to are are you know, I assume this is something that I don't know how hard it would keep it, you know, it would be to keep it under under wraps. If if this is what he's doing, I sue pretty hard. And so I have no indication that's what's happening, even though that was my first reaction. But uh, you know, that's that's all I can say to that. You know, I can't I
can't you know say for sure that's not happening. I just I don't have any indication yet that's that's what's going on. And so that leads you to you know, other theories of you know, just you know, just needing the payout. You know, the taxes are expensive. You know, he's he's thinking to the future. You know, there are there are you know, when you put funds aside and and you know, for for the future, for for family, for for his children, for things like that.
You know, there's there's uh, there's certainly helps to have money on hand. You know, we've we've seen reports of of of Mark, you know, making a lot of crypto investments things like that. I I have no clue what his financial situation is, but I do know that a lot of his net worth was tied up in the Mavericks. And so, you know, as much as this is his identity, I'm beginning to think that they're there. It probably was inevitable at some point that he would make a move
like this. And then when you look at the buyer, you know, I think a lot of the tech billionaires who have recently come into the n b A, uh, the the younger billionaires the owners you are. You know, there are a lot of owners that are starting to follow in Mark Cuban's footsteps, and that means high visibility, more daily involvement in control,
or at least awareness. And so I do wonder, you know, out of all the people that that Mark could have, you know, out of all the buyers that Mark could have gone and found, I don't know how many would have allowed him to retain this figurehead basketball operations control, et cetera, just because you know, he kind of paved the way for people to
do what he does. And so when you look at the buyer and you think through you know, perhaps some motivations, you know, and what the Mavericks could represent, even on a business perspective, and why he's allowed to retain basketball operations and why it isn't somebody else. Those those are the dots that I that I see kind of swirling around, at least on my end. Yeah, Maria Addison might just be like, I don't know nothing about
basketball, you do it. But I was also thinking like us commoners without any money or I think we probably get caught up in the Republican Democrat thing more than people who are billionaires. But it would not make sense for him to run this year, if you if you okay, first of all, Battilson's big time donors to the Republican Party for a long time. If Cuban was going to run, that's my question. Would Cuban run as a Republican?
Was that crazy to ask? Right now? I know we don't talk about politics much on the show or anything like that, but you wouldn't be running as a Democrat because your president is currently a Democrat right now so destroyed by it. Earlier, Maybe it's to get your name out there, and then twenty twenty eight is go time, and by then his kids are out of the house, right and I don't want to by like his he's got too in high school right now or or you know, teenagers. They're all
out of the house in twenty twenty eight. I think that's the thing that makes the most sense to me. But yeah, you know, that's that's one thing that I kind of speculated through. I mean, I'd assume that he's more like a I'm just a I'm just a common sense guy, you know, with common sense politics, and you know he goes for a third party bid or or something like that, you know, it would I'll put it this way, would be it should be fitting when the person he bought
the team from was Ross Garoe junior. It'd be funny but not true. But yeah, I have not heard any indication, you know, for twenty twenty four or twenty twenty eight, that that's happening, which absolutely does not rule it out or means that it's not happening. It's just from where I stand, from who I'm able to talk to, from you know, the information that that is that has come my direction, even though that was an initial suspicion or thinking here, as of right now, I haven't heard anything
that would that would kind of confirm that as as something that's happening. This is Tim Cato, our buddy from the athletic So traditionally, if there's a new majority owner, they do have the power, and if this goes through, they will maintain the power. I mean right now, Mark Cuban maintains all basketball operations, but Missus Adelson has a son who I guess is the owner of an Israeli basketball team, so there's clearly some family aspirations to own
and operate a sporting team. I mean, is this something that in a year or two, the majority ownership could say, you know, we're not really happy with the direction and we're gonna we're gonna make a move as far as at least running basketball operations goes. I have no idea, I mean, so, so a lot of this, like determs on the you know, is determined by the terms of the deal, and until we have a
better idea of like exactly what this is. Because this is a very unprecedented move, I can't you know, maybe people on Twitter have found a you know, a similar example, but I haven't seen any examples of something like this being enacted in pro sports, at least not recently or you know, in over the past few decades. And so a lot of it just depends on, yeah, what does it mean to retain you know, betball operations? What what does that actually what? What what are the terms of it?
What is the language? What is you know, the responsibilities? You know, I don't I don't think they're taking away Mark's courtside seat. I'll say that for sure, and you know, and so but but is you know, is Nico is you know, especially if Nico has been you know, a a you know, someone that Mark has let's say, at least deferred to far more often over the past, especially over the past year.
You know, is is that part of his you know, you know, wanting to b GM is Has he just moved on from that totally as a person? Is It's something that if if he has he he you know, he has less to do, you know, if he if he's just you know, more idle with this time, he's all of a sudden it's gonna going to try to get back involved and and do those terms and and does this situation allowed to do that? Those are all great questions. I don't have answers to you right now. Well, Tim, we thank you for
your time this morning, and we appreciate it. We'll keep following you along at the Athletic. If you're don't give out your Twitter account or all that stuff for us, go ahead, fire away, Yeah, Tim Underscorcado. I I tweet when I have something to tweet, you know, which is sometimes not that often threads more often, what's your thread? I am not on threads? That's the one I didn't get on smart. I don't know why I feel like it. Well, if if you hear anything, let
us know. Man. Just show me a text, but also probably just do your job and probably post that first to the Athletic. Follow Tim at the Athletic. I love the Athletic and I love Tim. I mean, it'd be more fun to just like immediately hop on. Yeah. I just get off the phone call and it's like, here's some stuff I have that I haven't confirmed whatsoever, but yeah, I tell you guys, yeah again to find it out, jump on the morning show here with Magic Mike,
Kevio and the Boner and you'll get the adrenaline bump you need. See you, Tim, Thank you for your time. That's Tim Cato there, gentlemen, see at O there he goes kto Tim, kto Kato. Sweet man, good dude. He is a good dude, and I can tell you that it's a hung out with him. This is a wild day, man, It's a wild one. It's a wild one. It's a wild one. I know I just said it, but I was just talking to Skin
as they're preparing their show. Tend to to the Ben's Skin Show, and I think they're gonna have Mark Stein on, I believe, who has a Saturday show here on ninety seven on the Freak we of course the home of the Dallas Mavericks. But yeah, for real, I if anything happens in MAVs Land. I mean I almost never missed their show anyway, because they have a hot girl on their show that I like listening to. But today is the day to lock it in ten to two because they're gonna have stuff
that no one else does and they always do. And listen between the lines on Skin sometimes, oh yeah, listen closely. There's us a little reckless speculation. Some things. He can't really say that he kind of yeah, yeah, he doesn't. He's like much like us in the Adams Handler. He doesn't like to just give you no. He likes to give you a crumble up the cookie. Yeah, and then you have to get the whole
cookie on around to work a little bit. Plus, Skin will give you the entire behind the scenes story of what it's like to do on a massive television broadcast with Dirk Novitsky, Yeah, who apparently doesn't know when the producers just talking about him, and he's talking so funny. He goes Yogata, stopped talking in my ear. He says everything so damn fun It's getting got up to do the halftime interview. Oh where's he going? Yeah? That
was the postgame interview, the post game. Yeah, and he said, do it you out like friend on the couch, like you need to pull that anytime Skin stands out. He's in the bro you out amazing, incredible. Hey, JJ, we popped me up real quick. He has to make his wheel spinning noise. JJ, you know what, let's straddle why, let's do it right. I have a super segment coming up next. Yep, I'm calling it a super segment that's coming up next. And do
I need to tell you anymore? Super segment next on ninety seven to one, The Freak