Welcome to the best of the week for What's Right with Nick Right the best takes and moments from this week on the show. Enjoy Tim McMahon, who is as plugged into the MAVs as anyone with respect to Mark Stein. Telegraph this a bit yesterday on The Great Hoop Collective podcast, with he and Wendy and my pal timbon Temps talking that Nico Harrison could be fired and Nico Harrison, Now, I don't want to incorrectly report this as we record live or we broadcast live at ten thirty four am Eastern,
Nico Harrison has not yet been fired. In a truly mortifying end to a truly indefensible nine month reign of terror. Nico Harrison has a meeting with MAVs ownership in twenty five minutes where he will be fired. I gotta tell you, I'm not sure I'd show up to that. Meaning if Shams has it and the whole world knows that, you know what guys with, this can be assumed. So the impacts and implications of this are far reaching. Most notable is the following. And this might sound shocking, this might
sound drastic, but I believe this to be true. Teams around the league should immediately call Dallas and ask about Anthony Davis's availability. Certainly teams around the league that would be interested. And this probably is going to have to be something far later once you see him if he returns pre trade deadline, should ask about Kyrie Irving. And that is because the Dallas Mavericks are now in total build around Cooper Flag try to rebuild our draft capital.
To keep in mind, they do not either have they either don't have well, they either don't have a pick or don't have their own pick. In the next four drafts, they had gone all in around historically great superstar Lukadancic, and then, because of ego and hubris, Lukadanciic was traded in the middle of the night in the type of move that if there were ever cause for a fan base to file a class action lawsuit against management, this
would be it. You had one of the greatest players ever at the very beginning of the prime of his career, and I said it at the time and I will say it again, And because of nothing more than power and ego, you lit the franchise on fire. Power and ego. Everyone was searching for why Nico would have done this, and the only logical and it's not logical, but the
only reasonable explanation was he did. I didn't like the fact that someone within the organization had more power than him, and that someone was Luca, So we got him out of there. And it will go down in the annals of sports history as one of the single greatest gaffs in a front office has ever made. That is not an overreaction, that is not an overstatement. That is simply what it was the moment it happened, and now is being exacerbated night in, night out as Luca instead of
coming off an injury as he was last year, reminds everyone. Yes, I am the guy who dragged a Dallas Mavericks team to the conference finals when I was twenty two and to the NBA Finals when I was twenty four, And now I'm twenty six, and I have more first team All nbas under my belt than Steph Curry does, and you got rid of me and I don't. I also don't think this is an overstatement. Nico Harrison will never work in an NBA front office again. He's gonna have
to work for Nike or an agency or something. But this is you cannot recover from something like this and the arrogance that less than you know. We are a dozen games into this season and Nico after they spun a one point eight percent lottery ball chance into Cooper Flag, the fact that he said do you see the vision now was one of the most tone deaf, ludicrous statements. And I'm not a MAVs fan. Hell, I'm an adopted I guess Laker fan because that's who Bron plays for.
So the Lakers getting Luca, who's my second favorite player, was and he and Bron playing together was a true dream. And I'm still mad about this trade on behalf of mav fans. I can't imagine what this is. This was a sports felony inflicted upon a fan. And yes, now the villain has been captured and is facing justice, but it doesn't change the havoc he reeked and the long
term impact on your fandom. So I I want to just revisit before we get to last night's game, before we get to football, what I set off the top, and credit to Tim Bond, TIMPs. He's been talking about this for a while, but now it is to me a more because it was never gonna happen with Nico in charge, but the Dallas Mavericks have to consider a fire sale the so let me, let me. I want to give everyone the actual draft pick situation for Dallas.
In twenty twenty six, they have their pick, so my apologies, I said that wrong. Twenty twenty six, they have their pick. This year, they have their pick, and maybe that's good because right now they're terrible. In twenty twenty seven, their pick basically totally unprotected, protected only for spots one or two, so unprotected goes to Charlotte. In twenty twenty eight, Jesus, the rich get richer. The Thunder can swap with them. In twenty twenty nine, their pick goes somewhere in a
swap and they do have the Lakers pick. And in twenty thirty, my god, the Spurs can swap with them. So first of all, in twenty twenty eight and twenty thirty, the Mavericks first round pick is gonna go to the Thunder and then the Spurs. Holy shit. In twenty twenty nine, their pick goes somewhere. I can't figure it out. It says two most favorable of Dallas, Houston, Phoenix to Houston and then other to Brooklyn via Dallas and Phoenix to Brooklyn via Dallas, or Phoenix to Houston via Houston. Swap
for Dallas or Phoenix. I don't get it, but whatever, the MAVs will not after this coming year's draft. They do not have control of their their first until twenty thirty one until Cooper flag is in the midst of his second contract, so they need to recoop picks they need to figure out like Klay Thompson's contract is fully underwater. Kyrie's an interesting one, and I it's just and by the way, they're three and eight and I think, let me check. I think they have literally the worst offense
in the NBA. I know, so let's just check in real quick defense wins championships, because that's all we heard from this this guy. All we heard from him. Their offense is, oh, is it no longer dead last? The hold on? Let me, I had it. I thought they were dead last. Maybe I'm wrong because that says they're fourteenth right now, so oh that's last year. I'm looking at last year. It's like, hold on a second, this can't be correct. They can't be the Mavericks having the
fifteenth offense. No chance, All right, here we go? Oh no, if fair's fair, they don't have the worst offense in the basketball. They have the second worst offensive basketball to the Pacers. Who's best player Torre's Achilles in Game seven of the finals and second best or third best player left the team. Now, I mean this is just perfect, just chef's kiss. Perfect defense wins championships. The Dallas Mavericks are three and eight. They fired Nico Harrison. They currently
have the third best defense in basketball. Maybe that was a miscalculation because you have the second worst offense in basketball. Good luck, MAVs fans. I feel sick for you. Today's show is brought to you by representing sponsor hard Rock Bet, Florida Sportsbook, and the official sportsbook partner of your favorite Florida teams like the Jags, Bucks, Heat, Magic, and Panthers.
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Yeah, so, as you know, we don't usually get too deep into basketball until Christmas, but we got to talk about some things going on in the NBA. Wimby yesterday apparently was crazy. I didn't catch this one, but I saw the highlights. Is it possible that this guy is already the best player in the league.
I mean, here's the thing. Demon's eight. No, no shame in not catching it live Oh yeah.
I was watching vij edge Combe welcome himself to the NBA.
Oh you were watching? You were watching a different game.
I was watching.
Okay, Oh that's I thought. I assumed you meant you were. Oh good for you, buddy. Yeah, yeah, that's a VJ. Edgecombe all time record for points. Take you and the Sixers won that game despite him being.
Show and the almost got bad for VJ with him missing those two free throws at the end of the Celticspense pulled through. That would have been a damn That would have been a.
Great win for them. Yeah. Yeah. And and Maxie, our guy Maxie had forty cooked, but someone else had forty and he's a seven foot five problem. So I I was a gog at what I saw last night from Victor WindMan Yama. So he is the best defensive player in basketball. We knew that was going to be the case.
And he had three blocks, but that doesn't really explain it because he just dissuaded so much action because of his length that I don't know what the advanced stat is for, like shots not taken because you're scared this guy's gonna swat it into the first row. But he crushes in that so we had. So here's a good comp we had on the show yesterday, A kim Olajuan all right, and A Keem was never the best offensive
player in the league. But there was a two year period when Jordan was a year and a half when Jordan was retired, and the those two years when A Keem was the best player in the league because he was far and away the best defensive player. And those couple of years probably like the fifth or sixth best offensive player, and those two things can combine to make you the best player. He usually goes in the other direction, the best player in the league. Joker is far and
away the best offensive player, and then just for average defensive. Right, And to deal with it with you know, it's very rare you get prime. I shouldn't say it's very rare. It's just special prime Giannis prime, Bron prime, Jordan, prime, Kobe Kawhido. Also, I think was never the best offensive offense. Yeah, I'm talking about a guy who can win the scoring title while being the best defender in the league. Right, it's only a handful of guys. If Wimby's gonna give
you forty let me put it like this. Here's why it's so scary Tomanse and I loved that he only took two threes, that he is stronger, his handles better. I think Wimby. If Wimby averages twenty five points a game, he might be the best player in the league like that because of what he is defensively and if he's gonna put up thirty. I I'm sorry to Joker and
I'm sorry to Shay, but I just I am. I'm ready to have the conversation that this guy might just be the best, like the best player in the league right now.
In the beginning, well, here's what I was probably more on the injury side.
It was two things. It was two things. One was the injury stuff, which still anybody that size it worries me. But that's about it. Was my skepticism on Wimby. I guess was here were the three different levels of it.
I think it was him shooting too.
Yes, so I didn't like the style he was playing. To me, he was trying to be Durant, and it's like, bro, you're a half foot taller than Durant and Durant is one of the greatest pure shooters ever. You're like the So I didn't love that. The injuries potential concerned me because literally every player in the history of the league seven four or taller has dealt with injuries, and I don't consider the blood clot an injury. I do, though, I I'm gonna say it's.
Really I feel like that they're more prone to though, just because they're larger guys.
I was about to say that exact same thing. I was like, maybe this is dumb. Maybe a doctor's listening is like, that's not how that works. But in my head, that's how it works. It's like, I don't know, there's more there's more error, you know, mileage for there to be clots, like I don't know. But so that part, and then the other part was I just thought we were setting him up to be a disappointment by saying if he's not better than a Chema LaJuan, he's underachieved.
I'm like, jeez, Louise Man, like he walks into the league and it's if you're not one of the ten greatest players of all time, you've you have failed. Yeah. With that said, I mean I kind of get it. I mean, this is fascial. This is really really special and I don't know what you're gonna do with him, and it does. He has become after one game Demanse must watch every night and it makes me at least with Len leaving, well, yeah, there's that, but yeah, but
also and so a couple things. It makes me take the Spurs seriously. I mean, they obviously didn't even have Fox and they beat the third and well, so that's the other piece of it. If you were to ask me going into yesterday, okay, if you are if you can have any player in the league to try to slow down Wimby on the defensive end, who is your
number one draft pick? It would have been a d. Like that's the other problem, Like the is there anyone in the league demands a better in theory equipped to deal.
With Wimby on the Celtics. I think it's the last name is Vet someth Vet.
Okay, all right, you're I don't I don't know who you're talking about, and you're being ridiculous. There is the the I mean, maybe you're not the I don't know.
Nobody's guarding the van. Nobody can go the He's a freak of nature.
Hold on, who are you talking about you're talking about Queta. Okay, all right, yeah, okay, you were being silly. Uh No, I'm just saying like a d is seven feet can play on the perimeter, can play down low. It has been one of the of his era. Yes, and Wmby made him look silly. I don't so so, like who is the Spurs? What's the Spurs next game? So the Spurs next game is? Their next three games are New Orleans, Brooklyn, Toronto. The hell is anybody gonna do? Like? Who on New
Orleans is gonna be? Like it's Trey Murphy It I don't think New Orleans. I guess MESI I don't know, man, this is so I do think. I do think Demonde. It's on the board that he's the best player in the league this year, and that would.
Be mind is right too, Like I just don't see it's like he's going to do everything possible to stay afloat. I see him taking care of his body, taking care of himself and the.
Off Yeah, oh yeah, we haven't had a guy be in the argument for there's only been I just want to make sure I get this right. The only no one since Broun has had a real argument that they were the best player in the league. In year three, like Broun in your was second in MVP voting. He had a real argument. Tim Duncan in year three might have been the best player in the league, but he
was a four year college player. Shack in year three was I think, let me, I want to see if I have this, had an argument he was second in MVP voting and Jordan was retired, and they made the finals but lost to a team those are best player in the league argument? By year three, it's just the holy grail of NBA guys, really, and this is this is something else. This is really really something else. I'm amazed by it, and I I I'm lost of words. I didn't understand what I was watching last night. And
we'll see how it continues. Oh wow, what's the MVP Hodds.
Yeah, so he climbed the top two in MVP odds at plus two seventy five, and he was around plus twelve hundred in the preseason. So do you see you see after these three games him potentially being the favorite? I mean, I don't see.
I mean, maybe here's the thing. The thing is this, I just, in principle, if yesterday I could have gotten to bet at twelve to one. I can't bet it today at less than three to one.
And here's a lot of those tickets out there. I feel like one us. Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of those out there.
Oh yeah. And I would have told you. I would have told you one day ago those are dumb tickets, just because I would have said, you know this injury Fling, Well, he's coming off an injury. He might not play enough games, and it's so hard to win MVP if you're not a top three seed and you know how many games
are the Spurs really gonna win. By the way, if you're thinking about upgrading to the all new iPhone seventeen Pro, designed to be the most powerful iPhone ever, but you're also thinking about the traffic on your way to the store or transferring all your data, good news. When you order a new phone online with boost Mobile, they'll send an expert to your home. How about that or a home or work to deliver your brand new iPhone Pro and get you set up on boost Mobile within minutes,
no hassle. So you get the new iPhone, it comes right to you, and a tech comes in get all your stuff transferred, get you set up on the network. Visit boostmobile dot com to get started. Delivery available for select devices purchased at boost mobile dot Com. Terms of course do apply Lebron's back and I have a lot of takes. So no athlete in my lifetime has generated
more idiotic and immediately self refuting opinions than Lebron. And it's because I think it's because he's been for basically as long as daily sports television has existed, Lebron has been one of, if not the main character, and because he has played, you know, throughout the entirety of this medium, and because he has been at the eye of the NBA storm, which while the NBA has never in his career been the country's most popular sport, but it has
been at various times in his career the country's most talked about sport. When it comes to sports debate and sports TV and sports talk radio, Lebron is the Lebron commentariot has spawned just some truly ridiculous and upon reflection, hilarious moments. And these are for me, friends and foes alike. I mean, we are twelve twelve? Is that right? No, it's not right. Eighteen years ago, my dear pal Dan Lebtard announced Lebron was on the downside and Miami had
gotten the best of him. That was thirteen years ago. And I'm gonna talk about guys that I love an adore, so it doesn't seem like I'm trying to take cheap shots here. Famously, the owner and founder of this company, my mentor Colin, eight years ago said Lebron hanging up whenever you want. We've got the NBA's got it from here. It was actually nine years ago, and that's an all time clip. A because Lebron would go on to win multiple championships after that, but b because he was saying
that Ben Simmons is gonna take over. I listen, Colin, I was as high on Ben Simmons just about anybody. I have to hold that l as well. And there, of course is all the skip stuff with the clutch and then the latest stephen A stuff with the real personal I don't like that guy so much of it
just outright silliness. And then we got an unexpected dose of it in the week's leading in the week or so leading up to Lebron making his debut, which was Hey Will Lebron be able to fit in with the Lakers, even though we saw Luca and Lebron and Austin Reeves play together last year. Hey, will Lebron actually make the Lakers worse? Will he screw up what they have going on?
These were real conversations, real discussions about the most malleable, most uh flexible as far as how he can help your team player in NBA history, about arguably the only guy in the history of the league that can legitimately and has literally made an All NBA team at all five positions on the court. Check his Basketball reference for that was an All NBA center one year for the Lakers and an All NBA point guard the year after
that for the Lakers. Late stage, Lebron was an All NBA shooting guard as a young player early and then obviously All NBA small forward and power forward throughout his career. That that guy that can play all five, and certainly the younger version of him, and to a degree the older version of him can guard all five, that that
guy was gonna screw up a team. And then Lebron comes in keeps his double digit point streak alive, which is going to be a very fun and funny thing to watch this year because it's obviously an untouchable record and we'll get more on the Lebron untouchable record stuff in a moment, but he wants to keep it going. But he is, I believe, going to play a very different style this year. That game Tuesday Night, that's the fewest shots he's ever taken in a game he didn't
leave with injury. And speaking of the double digit point streak, one of those games that he left with injury, because there's only been two games in his career he took fewer than seven shots, which is what he took Tuesday night. One he didn't play the second half because he took an elbow from to Kim Bae Matumbo, and one he left early when Solomon Hill fell into his ankle and derailed the Lakers title defense in the twenty twenty one season.
But that game involves one of my favorite Lebron moments of all time, which is Solomon Hill falls into his ankle, Lebron recognizes he has suffered the first truly significant injury of his entire career up to that point and is going to be out months and his city at seven points and the streak is dead, and despite suffering an injury that is going to knock him out for the next two months, he pretends he's not hurt badly, stays in the game, gets the ball, takes a corner, three hits,
it keeps the double figure point streak alive, and then is out for the majority of the rest of the season. But that's sidebar Lebron being dropped in as a team's ultimate Swiss Army knife and Lebron taking pride in that ability, and Lebron then saying after the game with a smile, Yeah, I heard what was being said. I've been a you know, you could put me on any team and I would
make it work. Is just obviously true. And people's you know, people say that about Kevin Durant all the time, like, oh, you just drop him in anywhere, And yes, that's true about other players, great players, You drop them in and they would make any team better. The distinction is can you drop a player in and can they instantly do at a high level the exact thing that team needs
them to do. This Lakers team right now might need Lebron to be more facilitator, cutter, screener than score unlike some of the other great players in this league, he has the skill set at forty in year twenty three to be excellent all at anything. Now, is he the best player in the league anymore? Of course not. Is he a top five player in the league anymore? No? But is he still have a legitimate shot at being right around top ten? And is he, assuredly when he's healthy,
still a top fifteen guy in the league. Yes? And that guy with that malleyability helps any team in the history of basketball. Now, is it all right? Now a moot point for the whole NBA because of who and what OKC is. Maybe everybody might be playing for second this year, but we'll see things happen. And there's an element of, I don't want to say lack of appreciation, but numbness to what we are seeing at this moment.
And this is something that you know I've said before, but I don't know that people like fully take it in, and especially because you know Steph is playing at such a high level at an advanced age. Durant is playing at such a high level at an advanced age. But see whether you want to focus on the age forty part or the year twenty three. Part the it being without precedent is such a wild understatement, Like Kobe Bryant,
the late great Kobe Bryant. How old do you think Kobe was when he played in his final playoff game with the Lakers. I'm gonna give it a pause so you can actually think about it. How old was Kobe in his final career playoff game? Are you shocked when I tell you the answer to that is thirty two. Kobe Bryant did not play in a playoff game with the Lakers after the age of thirty two. Like a little context to that, Lebron joined the Lakers when he
was thirty four. So obviously, Jordan Fit, you know, stop what that was done with the Bulls at thirty five thirty six. Obviously, we've never seen a player play in a year twenty three, and the only one to get to a year twenty two was Vince It's I said this a couple of years ago and people laughed. I think we are now seeing it in real time. He'll simply never be bad and he could easily play at again, not an MVP level, but a high level throughout his forties.
Barring again, barring, you're always at this age of a catastrophic injury away, but he's ducked that up to this point in his career, and people can have the argument about the greatest player of all time that is going to age so well on my end and so poorly for so many other folks, because it is when it does come to And this isn't the whole discussion, but it is at least a piece of it. The record books.
With the way things are going right now as far as injuries, load management, guys not being able to make it through a full season, Lebron's longevity records are going to win. People look back on him in forty years. It's going to be like if you look at complete games in baseball right now and you're like, wait, a guy had forty in one year. Like all of these games, minutes, points, the playoff records are going to be Chamberlain esque, untouchable
and farcical in the numbers to future generations. And I'm very, very interested to see the full role Bron takes on with the Lakers, because in Game one of year twenty three, he was like, Okay, I'll be late stage Magic Johnson, and that's pretty damn good. There's one other Bron adjacent thing I wanted to talk about, And this is one of those things that I imagine will do well on social media or YouTube or and might cause me a little grief, but I just I can't leave it unaddressed,
and I don't. I'm not I'm not trying to start anything, but this is so it was maddening when I heard it. So the greatest sports podcaster of all time, the guy who in some ways invented the medium, and a guy I like a lot, Bill Simmons, brought the mail bag back, which is awesome. It's vented Simmons. It's part of the reason that he's who he is, and it's awesome, and
because I'm a fan who's listening. And he gets asked about the biggest sliding doors moments in NBA history, and he goes to the Draymond Groin shot of Lebron in Game four of the twenty sixteen Finals, which is a legitimate sliding doors moment, there's no doubt about it. And he talks about how if the Warriors win that title, Durant can't go, you know, to Golden State. So then who wins the next two does Lebron ever win in Cleveland. Does Lebron ever go to the Lakers. There's that is
you know, what does it mean for death? Back to back championships? He and Lebron then at that moment would have been two to two. He would have had back to back league MVPs, including a unanimous There are it's He's Simmons talks about all of it, and he's correct
about that being a sliding doors moment. But there's two pieces of that commentary that are just one is enraging and it's not about Bill, and the other one is I he just must talk to very different NBA people than me, because what Bill said was the conspiracy theory that people believe more than any other conspiracy is that the NBA suspended Draymond because they wanted Cleveland to win
the title. And I've literally never heard that. Now. I certainly have heard the conspiracy that they suspended Draymond because they hoped the series would go longer than five. But the idea that in real time, anyone outside of the Calves locker room, me and Zach Lowe, we're all on the record during this, everyone's doing media, nobody else when that suspension came down said, oh, well, now I think
the Calves are going to win. That Warriors team was considered the greatest team of all time and had dominated the Calves through the first four games of that series. So the first the first point is the idea that it is widely thought in NBA circles that the Draymond suspension was going to lead to the Calves winning the championship. We were all there in real time that was not a thing.
And then and then to the opinion piece of it, nothing is more.
Maddening for me as a Bron fan. Then the fact that when that happened, and then the Calves win Game five by fifteen and Lebron scores forty one points, the entire media asserts that would have never happened if Draymond was there. The Calves winning by double digits and Lebron scoring forty plus never happened if Draymond's there. And then in Game six, when Draymond is there, Lebron scores forty one and the Calves win by fifteen points. Game five
of those finals, no Draymond Bron scores. Bron goes. I'll give you his exact stat line, just so we all are on the same page. Forty one, sixteen and seven on fifty five percent from the field, sixty three percent from three and the Calves win by fifteen. So again, forty one sixteen seven fifty five sixty three splits, fifteen point win. Game six of the Finals forty one eight eleven on sixty five seventy five splits and the Cavs win by fourteen Like, what are we talking about? What
are we talking about? Oh? Hold on, I gotta do that, because I'm sure I have to fix that. I have to fix that. I apologize. I gave you the wrong field goal percentages. Let me let me do that again, because I want this to be accurate. I gave you.
So Game five of the Finals, No Draymond forty one, sixteen and seven on fifty three fifty splits in a fifteen pl point When Game six of the Finals with Draymond forty one to eight to eleven on fifty nine fifty splits in a fourteen point win, it's just revisionist history. And it's the the only other reason that's relevant to me right now is that game happened ten seasons ago and this guy's still playing. It's just a a career
that will never be even remotely approached. And it's if you're if you're listening to this right now and a sports fan of this era. The fact that we got to experience Tom Brady going more than twenty years of elite in the mix every single year, ten super Bowl appearances across multiple teams, while experiencing Lebron doing the exact same thing in the NBA, it's just unreal, just unreal,