Next on the drive. Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your NBA Daily assists.
Ban McMahon, Vanman Batted in all the Land, Texas flood a ticket Mud, He's Man Van McMahon, Van mcman the band man.
We got Smitty live in the studio. Man Richard Smith will be be with us for an hour. Spend forty years with the Utah Jazz Front Office. John Kimball, president of ray Al saw Lake in a little bit of breaking news. I'm told John will drop coming up in a bit three o'clock hour Tuesday afternoon. It means it is time for our weekly visit with a very important media member who has been very busy as of late. You know him, you love him, Ban McMahon. Tim McMahon Hap Tuesday, Sir.
How are you pardy partner. I'm just swell hanging out here in Oklahoma City, hoping that the sundric can make this a quick one. I'd like some rest between series. I don't think the Bruises can put up much of a fight.
I'm quite sure they'll make it a quick one. Tim, do you think Game two is at least a little more interesting than Game one?
I mean, I would hope if they could keep it a little bit closer than fifty one. You know, I think we're probably going to see something in that fifteen twenty twenty five point range. The Thestjase ain't a fair fight. One team's really really good. One team's looking for a nice vacation destination.
You know, I was thinking about this when I saw your name on the rundown because pretty much, you know, every week for the past three four months or so, after Okase kind of established themselves as the dominant team out west, I would ask you which team is keeping Mark Dagnoled up at night? And my question to you now is is any team keeping Mark Dagnoled up at night?
I don't know about keeping them up at night? I do like the Thunder aren't assuming they're just going to prove through the Western Conference. I think you know, they've they've talked about their challenge, their challenge now being basically, hey, you know, it's a competition within themselves. Don't get their heads gassed up after a fifty one point win. You know, stay sharp, stay focused, take care of your business here. But man, whoever wins this four or five series is
going to be you know, some competition. The Clippers look good, they look good. They look good for a while. Kawhi looks like the dude who's been a Finals MVP. I mean, we'll see if you can stay healthy, boat Man. That guy I saw last night was bouncy, was on fire. So I honestly think that the Clippers Thunder could be
a heckt of the series. Also with some crazy storylines the Paul George trade trade that obviously helped launch this rebuild, this unbelievable rebuilt in Oklahoma City, It can still pay off for the la Clips despite the site Paul George is no longer there. Because about that, there's no Kuai And again why right now? Man, he's looking like a guy that was worth giving up a whole lot of stuff to get.
Yeah, no doubt, and we'll get there in a moment. But you know, I wanted to kick the tires with you. And the best way I can describe this is you remember the classic Jim Carrey comedy Dumb and Dumber nineteen ninety four. You remember the movie yes him, Oh yeah, Remember when Jim Carrey as Lloyd Christmas approaches Lauren Holly as Mary Swanson and gently puts his finger over her lips to tell her to stop talking. You remember that scene.
I do, And every time you ask Nico Harrison a question, I just want to walk up to him and put my finger over his lips and say, buddy, that's enough. What if anything over the course of the past, you know a little bit as you have been in some other media members down in Dallas as well, been able to get access to Nico and ask him these questions.
What are your main takeaways about where we're at with a situation with the Dallas Mavericks That really feels like I hate to use the term unprecedented, but I don't know that in my entire life around this league, I've ever really experienced anything quite like this, because every day it seems like there's another thing that comes out and it's like, who is running the show over there? What's this experience been like for you?
Well, I mean, the similar fact is Nicol Harrison has been running the show and he's done. You know, it's crazy, you know, I had the story yesterday that kind of details just how Haywire things have been behind the scenes, and just how some of the behind the scenes decisions that he made drove birk away from the franchise, created friction Malucas and you know, played a role in They're just medical catastrophy this season. The miracle here is that
this team made the finals. Last year, this franchise made the finals with all the dysfunction, and it's a credit and large part to Lukadosch's unbelievable talent, which makes it even more inexplicable that they decided to dump that guy months later when he absolutely was planning on spending his entire career in Dallas. And look, you know, I know people say, hey, Nico, just shut up, to shut up. Well he did shut up for two and a half months,
and that didn't help either. Asard Dumont forceman do that weird you know, closed doors invite only thing. And I was certainly a part of that. And you know got my uh, I got, I got what I needed out of that. I was not there yesterday. I'm up here in Oklahoma City. I was playing on Meet the Mavericks here. They didn't qualify for the playoffs, but yeah, yesterday. It's just weird having him do two media availabilities back to back when he really hasn't answered any of the questions.
But you know, he thinks he built the championship caval team. It's all about you know, the injuries have prevented us from seeing that. Okay, but that's that It's championship or bus. That's the only way you could even convince yourself that this trade was anything close to a success for the Mavericks.
And that's an all the high bar to clears when you've got two you know, thirty some odd franchise cornerstones and very long medical histories and one of those guys is recovering from a torn acl right now, unpack.
This Casey Smith story for me, Tim, that I just learned about based off of your reporting. I mean, it's just another one of these scenarios and situations that just makes you wonder if Nico is really the right guy to be doing any of this. So I didn't know any of this until you reported it. Let's unpack this.
Well, I'll tell me you didn't read my book about tell me you didn't read my book. My goodness, I'm that's a shot to the heart.
We'll get there, Tim, I'll get there.
It's actually this stuff was hit in the final chapter that didn't make the first print of the book. But you can get it this with proof of purchase if you check my x account and find out linking. So long story short, Casey Smith as respected as anybody in his field. Longtime had athletic trainer for the Mavericks, also for Team USA, promoted the executive nine after fifteen years,
extraordinarily respected in his field. Also one of Jurdonvisi's best friends. Right, and so the long the cliff notes of the story that I that I printed yesterday on ESPN dot com is it's a big happy everybody's excited. It's Strk's Hall of Fame weekend. Right, Casey Smith's there, Nicole Harrison's there, a bunch of other people in the Mapeston They all fly up on the team playing fly back. Casey's got to get out of town. Unfortunately, his mother was great
to deal. She's in the final weeks of her life. So he heads to his hometown in Ohio days after Dirks Hall of Fame induction, which is in August, a couple of months after. Typically NBA personnel moves are made because you give people the courtesy have been able to go to summer league and look for the next job. Nickolarson reached his ouvocation and says, hey, we've got to meet cases is I'm with my greatly ill mother. I can't meet you in person. I'm in Ohio. Okay, let
me zoom. That's how one of the most respected and beloved figures over the last two decades, Dallas Mavericks, was fired. That's why Dirk's like, I don't want anything to do with this franchise. I'll be a Mavericks fan. I'm not involved in the francise anymore. I'm out. I'm out on this. He took their long time pr director Scott Tomlin, another of Dirk's best friends. Like Dirt, Casey and Scooter were kind of like the three amigos. Basically said, Scooter, come
work with me. You're getting out of there. And you know Luca, like Lucan the Dirt to Luca lineage, Like Lukey didn't learn everything from Dirt, but he learned a lot of things. And one thing he learned is that dude put all of your trusts in facing like this is a dude. You think trus this is the dude. He's always gonna look out for your best interest. He's a good dude. And so yeah, that created some friction with Luca. Now he said, wait, they went to the
finals last year. Well, there was also Jammy Holsapple, their longtime strength coach. He was kind of able to be the point person between his quote unquote body team and Luca put together and the Mavericks. Well guess who also got fired not in twenty twenty three the days after the finals run Jeremy holsopple cases fangs are a manual payables. These are all people that are really close to Luca.
No shock, there's all kinds of fritsual Luca. And then, by the way, the Mavericks can barely put eight guys on a floor for big chunks of this season, they will replace them at the for the head of their health and performance group and their head strength coaching, by the way, is not even doesn't even have the required certifications to be in that role. They're at each other's throat the whole year. Somehow, Derek Lively the second goes
through a four. We turn to play work out and they're like, hmm, maybe to get a cetsk and oh that's strained ankle. There's actually a stress fracture in it. I mean dude, the level of incompetence in the Mavericks helping performance group this year is staggering. And so you drive away the best player in franchise history of the legend. You create all kinds of friction before you decide to dump his successor the most talented player in franchise history.
The guy just led you to the finals a few months ago, and you've got a medical crisis on your hands all season long. Yeah, I would say Niko Harrison has done one hell of a job creating a mess. Yeah.
It just every day it feels like there's something else is coming down. Last thing here. It appears that you have redeemed yourself with Mavericks fans who at some point wanted to run you out of town. Is that accurate?
I mean, listen, I whatever post like. The simple fact of the matters is I haven't changed. I do my job the same way. Sure, I am direct, I am aggressive. My loyalties not to Mavericks fans. You know, when I come to the Jazz, it's not the Jazz fans. It's not to my sources, it's not just anybody. It's to be true to getting to the bottom of stories and
by the way. It's not just like swing a sledgehamer, like trust effort A lot about, for example, the brilliance of Luka Danci on the floor, you know, like the you know, the brilliantly when I was coming to jazz a lot, you know, the did the development, the emergence of Ruby will bears as a dominant defensive fours, historically dominant defensive furs. I'm gonna okay See, I'm gonna be right about okay See's defense. I'm gonna be right about
how ailsome Shakos Alexandrews. But when things go haywires, my job to get to the bottom of it. And it's not my job to even with the very best players in the league. John Moran is here, for example, I've written a lot of stuff on him. I've written about how awesome he was, and I've written about how messy it is off the floor, or certainly has it. And so I don't make a message. But it's my job to figure out what happened, and it's not my job to clean them. My job to point them out and
figure out just how messages were made. When there are messages that are made.
If Cooper flag is a jazz man. Next year, we're going to see you at juniors a couple of times as opposed to zero that we saw you this year.
Well, yes, certainly I would say that Cooper flying. I can assure you this Cooper flag will be getting coverage from ESPN during a group of year in the NBA, and if he ends up in Utah, I would certainly assume that I will be a large part of that coverage, probably the point man on that coverage. And you can absolutely find me a junior's you know, red rocks, Uh squattered, there's man, I missed my spots. I might even I might. There's a chance I'll make it out for Salt Lake City,
you know. You know, hey, man, I don't mind me some Salt Lake City.
Stuff, all right, we'd love to see. By the way, did you need me to voice the audio book for you? Did you need me to do that for you?
Listen, brother, it would have been better than this British dude that ended up doing it and misnounced some names like Gobert. Oh, you don't get me started. All right, Okay, we I think we've I think they've made the corrections. Uh, I've had some issues I've had. I've had a bit of frustration in that regard.
Okay, all right, well, Smitty, who's going to be in studio coming up next, wanted me to pass on that he has read your entire book and he very much enjoyed it. So there's little flowers for you, Tim on a Tuesday. But let's go back to clips nugs. And you know I talked about this earlier. I don't know how many years Lebron was the best player in pro basketball, if we call it fourteen or fifteen, I don't know,
something like that. And whenever the debate would come up about who's second to Lebron, I think Durant was the name the people would come up with, But for about four or five years, it was Kawhi, And even to the point where I'm not saying Kawhi was ever better than Lebron, but there were nights where you'd watch Kawhi and you'd be like, I don't know how many people are better than he is a what he does, and no matter what he does the rest of his career,
I'll always look back on Kawhi and wonder what could have been. He seemed like the perfect air apparent to Tim Dunkan, he seemed like the perfect spur And then I don't know if it's people around him or whatever. Want to live in Los Angeles wins the title in Toronto, but at least for a snapshot moment last night, if anybody forgot man, that's what that dude looks like when he's right. So in a vacuum, how did you digest that performance from Kawhi letterd last night?
Oh yeah, and the biggest things happened to Kawai. Forget changing teams and all that. It's just that the knee and the body has betrayed him. But he's healthy now, and dude, it's a reminder like there's a reason that they moved having on earth to get him. There's a reason that they gave up all that they gave up. And man, is it a lot shag of Alexander Jaden Williams picks to come to get him via the Paul George trade. You know again, it's the Paul George trade.
But the whole point of that trade was that's what Kawi said, if you do this, I'm there. And so that can still pay off and it's not like, hey, Kawhi's just turn it off for the playoffs. You look at like the last month month and a half of the regular season, he was playing at a first team All NBA level, But you're watching it and you can
just see it. You can just see in the ways move and you can see in the ways to elevate, like he's back to being like springing and man, you know, Kawhi has had some of the best playoff runs, and like the playoff run in Toronto is unbelievable. He's not some of the best playoff performances even in a Clippers uniform. You know, I remember they come to they come to Dallas and it's a game six in Dallas, master up
three two in that series. You know, he's dealing with Luka Doncic and Kawhi had forty some odd points crazy efficiency. He's guarding Luca down the stretch of that game. The Clippers pulled that game out, uh and ended up winning the series and seven. But I I don't know how many better playoff performances I've witnessed live with my own eyes and than the one that night. So he obviously hasn't been able to stay healthy.
Uh.
You know, they flamed out in the bubble that was the best chance. He hasn't been able to stay healthy for a playoff run since. But man, the Clippers have They've been playing really good basketball for a while. You know, your old buddy Jeff Van Gundy's doing a hell of a job as their defensive coordinator. You know, they they've got Kawhi Harden's playing at the high level Zubos has emerged. Is like Zubots is really really really high level type of player. Like he wasn't an All Star, but that's
the kind of impact that he had this year. And I don't know if the Clippers are going to be the Nuggets. Joker still a deep just player in the league. I think it's gonna be elve series and then you know the Clippers though, like dude, they're forced to be reckoned.
With I told our buddy Tom Habers show yesterday that as somebody who was on the sidelines watching Jeff and Gundhi hold on to Alonzo Morning's leg for dear life, and then watching Jeff take a punch from Marcus Camby trying to hold him back from Danny Ferry, seeing Jeff hold on to the basketball and basically forced to jump ball with Nikola Jokics brought a tear to my eye. That was a beautiful, beautiful moment for me. Tim Well, he.
Had a little bit of help in that other assistant. But you know, Christian Brown said the joke had of getting the weight room after that Van Gundy he was holding on type boy. He wouldn't letting go. And unlike Matteshpia a couple of years ago, there was no flopping. Nope, he was holding his ground, no flopping. And listen, the curse of that flop is haunting the Suns franchise. They have not won a playoff game since that night. That's all I'm gonna say.
Do you think gets a head coaching job a look at a job this offseason based off of what he's done with the clips?
I think he deserves a look. Whether he gets one or not, I can't say. You know, obviously, it's let's just be straight up. It's tough for a guy who would kind of be perceived as a retread, you know, like I know, like the Sun's one kind of a fresh, young, energetic type of type of leader. This go round a flaming out. You know, Vogel who By the way, thank Vogal did a much better job than Gout sent it
for in Phoenix. Obviously the bove thing. But Man asked TYLERU ask any of those Clippers players what kind of impact Jeff fan Guny's made there? I think there. I mean, we'll see how many jobs come availables the other thing. But you know, I think you can do a lot worse than having Jeff fang Gunny. He's read coach in the NBA.
Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. All right, So before I say you lose, you're in ok. See, we've already talked Riz Thunder after that game one yes situation where she didn't even play well and they still won by half a hundred. So let's do a little tea Wolves Lakers. You know, it was interesting Lakers going small and Coach Finch deciding to sit Rudy and those of us around here know what that's like. But of course the work nas Reed was good, and Minnesota just has so many big,
physical wing defenders. I didn't feel like Lebron responded at all to the physicality, and Luca got his. But what do the Lakers do tonight to get back into this tim What do you think.
Yeah, I mean it is kind of this dance sometimes with Luca when if he was really getting cooking early on, you want to make sure everybody else still feels part of the flow, and I think that that's something where he'll try to figure out a way to strike that balance a little bit better. But they just got a
hold on the rope. Like, dude, if this game, or if any of these games are close down the stretch, you really like the Lakers' chances because they've got two, you know, premier closers, and the Timwolves don't have one. Like the Timboleves really struggle protectionally to those late punch time situations, so they just can't let the Timbles run away in the third quarter like they did the other night.
Last thing, just because I'm contractually obligated. Do you have anything on the Utah Jazz at all? Anything at all?
Yeah, I think that's the I really like the purple. I'm glad they've leaned back into it, you know, like the mountains Man. Those are classic uniforms like that. The high light of yellow is a tough deal. I think the uniforms they've got that right, and now they got to work on the roster.
Tim McMahon on the uniform beat for the Utah Jazz, Thank you, my friend. Enjoy the game tonight. Appreciate it, brother, Tim stops by a courtesy of our friends it Advanced Window Products a great deal going on right now. If you need your windows replaced. The good news is they can get it done quickly and you could save a grip of money. You save twenty twenty five hundred dollars
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