Hour 4 – Thank you, Nico!

Bill Belichick downplays the NY Giants coaching vacancy in his weekly press conference.  And just maybe the Luka trade by Nico Harrison was the gutsiest trade we've seen in 20 years?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Let's give this. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Greatings and welcome in hour four of the program. Get
those fours up Jason Smith Show with Me Mike Harmon
here for the Fox Sports Radio studios. Having a blast.
Thanks to the squad making it sound so pretty tonight.
Getting it all across these socials, Twitter, YouTube, you name it,
we got it flowing. We still have an NBA game

(00:50):
still in progress and just beginning the fourth quarter as
we get into the wee hours of the morning on
the East Coast, isn't a great midnight bath?

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Getball Midnight Basketball.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Eighty seven eighty four, Denver, digging it, digging it for
submitted of the fourth We've had a little francas at
the end or near francas of a fall called on
on Yo kitchen. You got the ball thrown at him.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Way, so you know, maybe that becomes something in the
final minutes if nothing, If not, then this will go.
This will just be another game. Congratulations on a job done.
Deep into the coast to coast night.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Now, just really quick, you know, obviously we talked about
this really fast before we get into the Bill Belichick situation.
Uh Nicks one again tonight, one hundred and thirty points again,
third straight game, set a record with most threes.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
In a game. You can hang a better night.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Fifty five Oh yeah, yeah, we have very excited about
the fifty five.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, seven and three, yeah, yeah,
we're there. I want to say this down here, where
we're ten games in the Mike Brown era, and what
have I seen so far? They've moved past the early
season drama and the three biggest things that I can
see Mike Brown's imprint on the Knicks. Mickel Bridge is

(02:12):
a different player. He's the guy that's bought into everything.
Mike Brown is doing the most. He looks like a
different guy from last year, confidence wise, production wise. Karl
Anthony Towns is bought in as well. I don't know
what my role is now. Okay, pretty good sized role.
He seems to be more consistent, and they're playing the
bench guys, right. They figured they brought the right guys in,
whether it's Clarkson coming off the bench McBride. They have

(02:35):
some pretty good guys that they are giving minutes to
that are playing well. This would be normally a game
tonight where hey, all right, midway through the fourth quarter,
when you're playing some of your your bench guys, the
Grizzlies cut into the lead. All right, let's put all
the starters back out there. No, you don't really have
to write. Everything is going according to plan. You have

(02:57):
a little bit more of a bench now you play
nine guys. You know, Timms's rotation was basically six. You know,
Josh Hart would come in and that would be it.
So yeah, so far, the reviews for the Knicks pretty
bleeping good. I'm pretty happy.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
As a big fan of chaos in between the White Lions,
regardless of the sport we're discussing. It got to ten,
all right, Memphis battles back to ten, gets a turnover,
and then promptly turns the ball back over.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah, I cursed audibly.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah that was you're getting to single digits and now
they have to sweat the final four minutes.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
One of the other things that they did so brilliantly
is they excised the problem. Much like we talked about
Nico going away. Tom Thibodeau's had a fantastic career. Yeah,
Tom Thibodeau does not like his bench. No, no matter
who is on it. You could have had a prime shack,
you know, coming back off an injury where you need

(03:52):
to limit it his minutes a little bit. He would
have sat his ass every game. I got a seven
foot duet. That doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, you haven't seen any boy I, miss Tibbs. You
haven't seen any of that, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Five or six guys coming off the bench and yeah,
playing ten to fifteen minutes.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
You haven't seen any boy I miss Brian Kelly, boy I,
miss Tom Thibodeau, you have not seen any of that,
which should tell you all you need to know.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
The Brian Kelly thing is going to get fascinating.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
No, it's not sports talk radio worthy right now, because
it's just a report of how he got fired and
he wants his money. I'm fired for cause where's my money?
Where's my money? He got money for fake mustaches? Where's
my money? Yeah, that one's gonna get really leggious and problematic.
But you're absolutely right. Nobody crying for the return of
Brian Kelly.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Also, no one crying for the return of Bill Belichick
did a day after Brian Dable is fired as Giants
head coach. And look. One of the favorite things I
liked that The New York Post does is that every
time someone gets fired or cut or tray did the

(05:01):
next day, there's always these are the first pictures of
so and so since they got traded, cut off.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Fire, got fired, like Borest broken up, like when indicted.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
When Robert Sala got fired last year, was here's the
first pictures of Robert Sala, like running to the grocery store, Like,
there's him today was the first pictures of Brian Dable
after getting fired. And it's him in a Penn State
hoodie outside his house, you know, in the middle of
a snowstorm like that, here's the first picture, Like, oh,
I want to see what Brian Dabele is doing. Like
but it's like when you haven't seen a star for

(05:34):
ten years. Oh, so and so is unrecognizable, Like it's
been a day. I know what Brian Dable looked like
on Sunday. It only looks like on Monday. But okay,
yeah great, But I still like that. I don't know why.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
I just like that. He's the same guy, hasn't changed.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
So David is let go. And maybe it was inevitable.
But today at his weekly press conference, Bill Belichick, head
coach North Caroline, was asked about the Giants opening a
job that maybe he would have been good for once
upon a time. And here's Belichick getting the question and
giving a typical Bellichickian answer as to his interest level

(06:13):
in the Giants job.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
And when you got here, you said that you're not
coming here at TV.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
But as soon as the Giants job came over this year,
you nion got thrown out there. I'm ser sure with
other NFL jobs, what is your message to players to recruit?

Speaker 2 (06:25):
I'm sure people are asking me about that.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
But who want to come over?

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (06:29):
Rightfy for us? That's all I got this week.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
That's all I got for you.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Ron. The CITs like that made you know, Hey, now
I've won a couple of games. Now I can give
you my craptastic rude answers that I gave for the
better part of twenty years. When I was the head
coach of the Patriots. All we were doing is winning
Super Bowls. Notice earlier this year, when Belichick had lost,
it was longer answers. Well, you know, I've talked about this,
and I got to get into longer answers because I
don't have the cachet I did when I was winning.

(06:55):
But they win a couple of games in a row,
but Syracuse doesn't really count. They win a couple of
games out suddenly on to wake Forest. Listen, guys, I
just wanted to want to talk about wake.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Forest out just saying now four and five, he's got
three games left to be Bowl eligible. Now I'm tailing there. Now,
I'm chesty. I'm chesty about getting there. Well, I mean,
I'm sure he's had people close to him, maybe in
the organization or around his life that said, you know, Bill,
you got to go back to being Bill.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
Yeah, you can't. You can't suddenly become somebody else in
your seventies. You are. I don't know about that.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
All of a sudden in the seventies, I'm dating a
twenty three year old and hey, I'm tabloid fodder. Now
I've decided, Well, I don't know that he necessarily wanted
to be the tabloid fodder. You know, well, I think
you kind of know that that's gonna happen. I think
you had to know when the ring doorbell thing came out, Oh,
the story is gonna break, Bill, you walking outside without
a shirt on for some reason.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Well, and then you had investigative reporters that had to
recreate the shirtless moment. No, it's going to get out.
But that's fine, I mean, but otherwise, you know, in
terms of the coach and his general disposition, you're only
changing that so much. He may be a sweet and
tender guy in his downtime, but when he's in the hoodie,
he takes on a certain role.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
You know, one of those one of those, uh, one
of the moments I think of when I think of
the Belichick.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
In the beginning of the Jordan Hudson I mentioned Jordan.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Hudson, is I remember the first scene of Mister Baseball
with Tom Selleck, who plays an aging baseball player who's
in his mid to late thirties, and he goes to
Japan to keep his career going right, he loses his
job to Ricky Davis, who turns out to be Frank
Thomas and uh in his first in his first movie
role c But the first scene is Tom Selleck and

(08:39):
they cut him and he's in bed with with a
girl that he obviously hooked up with the night before,
and they slowly pan out and it's her in her
in her sorority room where there are two other roommates
in this posters on the walls.

Speaker 4 (08:53):
And he's like, oh man, this is a good look.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
And as Frank Thomas wish him well on his journey,
she'll like it too.

Speaker 4 (09:03):
Yeah, not gonna look good. Oh but very good, very good. Hey,
you do what you gotta do.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Let me just not to be the guy to pour
cold water on here, but I have a big bucket
of cold water. This is not happening. Bill Belichick is
not getting back into the NFL. He's certainly not getting
back with the Giants. Well maybe Jets for a day.
Oh well, maybe he'll retire. He'll retire from the NFL
as head coach of the Jets, like he do it.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Again where he shows up for one day and then
leaves on a nat you know, with a press conference
in the NATA I was here for a day. Now
I'm here for another day.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Like the Patriots hate me, So I'm just gonna retire
as head coach of the Jets.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Why not? I beat him enough, so why not?

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Uh, this is never going to happen ten years ago, Yeah,
and maybe five six years ago. Yeah, the Giants the
job that that Belichick maybe was the only one he
was made for besides the Patriots. Yeah, that could have happened.
Not now, not after you have proven that. Wow, you
ran the Patriots into the ground and now your life

(10:01):
is tabloid fodder and you're not winning at North Carolina.
That's not gonna suddenly make the Giants own it. And
I know the Giants own their.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
Old school to the Marrow, their old school.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
To Mars, but they're not gonna go back and say
let's go get Bill Belichick. If I'm Jackson Dart, I say,
then I want to trade. You're not bringing in some
guy that's gonna turn me from a great quarterback into
a good average quarterback.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
Not doing it.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
You need somebody coming in that is up with the
modern day National Football League. And if Bill Belichick was not,
look what we did with his drafts After Tom Brady.
It's like he knew I'm not gonna win anymore. I'm
gonna get fired. I'm just not gonna leave any talent
in the cupboard for the next coach. So when that
guy loses, they're gonna say, ah, maybe Bill really knew
what he was doing after all, Like it would him

(10:45):
coaching the Giants would be such a disaster because he
doesn't have his fastball anymore. Look at how it went
with New England the last few years. They couldn't wait
to get rid of him.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
They could.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
He was done. He lost to the Jets at the end.
The Jets killed him from the NFL. The Jets retire.
Does he killed him in the NFL? That's not happening.
It would, like I said, it would be a disaster
to bring him back. He missed his window right if
he wanted to go. It was ten years ago, five
years ago, whatever it was, that was his time to
go to the Giants. When the Giants would have hired him,

(11:16):
it would have been a no brainer. But when you
show you can't do the job, and there's more negatives
that I can tick off your box, and there are positives,
I'm not going to hire you.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
What positive.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Would you check off the box with Bill Belichick right now,
we'll be rude to the media. Great, we got that
in New York. Awesome. Like, I don't know what you
could say. The guy had a two interview lead to
be the head coach of the Falcons untill he didn't
get the job, Like, No, he's done. He's coaching North
Carolina until he finishes coaching in football. Maybe it's this year,
maybe it's at the end of this year, maybe it's

(11:48):
in the offseason, maybe it's next year. But he's coaching
until that ends, and that's going to be it for him.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
I find him fascinating, So I hope he's with us
for a while here in the coaching realm, currently sixteen
to one according to Draft Kings dot com. Uh in
terms of the odds they've put up, Mike McCarthy your
favorite at seven to one, Clinton Kubiak eight to one.
Spagnola and Rumos are all horrible choices. Those are you
want an offensive minded head coach that's gonna take Jackson

(12:15):
Dart to the next level. None of those guys are.
I think the guy that has the interim spot is
the guy that should be the guy uh, assuming it
doesn't melt down.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Lincoln Lincoln Riley. Lincoln Riley, he does not show up
on This solves USC's problem of getting rid of him.
He takes his quarterback ackt him into the NFL. You know,
Jackson dar will play well under him. About a guy
who knows Jackson Dart, Lane Kiffin, Lane Kiffin has had
his chance in the end of it didn't really go
that quat.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
It's a long time ago though. Yeah, but he's no.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
But if he's the hot guy, it went terribly. But
that was also Raiders. Any time the Raiders like your cats. No,
that's I've got to put an asterisk.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
It got to the point where when Lane Kiffen was
doing press conferences he was wearing a red windbreaker because
he didn't want to wear anything Raiders colors because he
was so mad at Alan Davis. I mean, that's not
a guy that I'm gonna say, yeah, let's bring you
back in everything.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
He's going to do great here. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
Does Jackson Dart's family hold any resentment toward Lincoln Riley
for bringing in Camleb Williams.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, I think I think all would be forgiven. I
think all would be forgiven with that.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Either way, Belichick sixteen to one. I hope, I'm glad
we're back to beyond the Cincinnati answers.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
I hope he goes to a bowl game and just waves.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
It everybody that's a disaster waiting to happen.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
I mean it would be fun for us, but wow,
bad for Jackson Dart, bad for the Giants.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
But if he's got But if Scataboa comes back, tell
me Bill Belichick wouldn't be enambored by that. Oh, sure,
neighbors a good defensive line, Jackson Dart and camp Scattabo
that he can run forty five times like he's the Jugger.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
And I'll give you the first question to Bill Belichick
to Game one, Bill Jason Smith, Fox Sports Radio. You
ran cam Scatta both thirty seven times, he gained sixty
five yards and Jackson Dart only threw the ball twelve
times and you lost. Can you take me through why
you went that way with your strategy.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
We won the game thirteen to six. You may not
like it, but it's winning football.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
Oh, that would be the best exit up about a
Fresca exit Swallen Dome Jason Smith, Mike Carman live from
the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Coming up next, we got
a hot take on the biggest story of the day.
Maybe a deal like the Luca Dantics trade that was
genuinely appreciated as the worst trade of the NBA in
the last twenty years, might be the gutsiest trade of

(14:47):
the NBA in the last twenty years. If you got
the guts, we'll explain why. Next, Jason and Mike Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays ten pm Eastern, seven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Fox
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(15:16):
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comment away.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon, Extra Cockfight.

Speaker 4 (15:44):
Still have an NBA game going on, yes.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Midnight Basketball the eight pm Pacific Coast time tip. Awesome
for the Nuggets and the Kings. Still five minutes left
to go. Nuggets leaded one, six to ninety three. It
was a really good game for most of the night.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
I mean, look, here's the thing, right, Jokica twenty seven,
fourteen and six, you only had to play twenty eight
minutes tonight. I just keep going back to the I
get that this is the NBA and they're doing something
new with NBC and Peacock and we're having the the
you know, the the coast to coast games. But like,
you want the most people possible to watch your your product,

(16:26):
which I getsch is why you wouldn't put it on streaming.
But you know, I get that, Hey, we have the
early game, we have the late game. You still want
some people on the East coast to watch this game.
And if you're starting the game at ten o'clock East Coast,
all right, some people are gonna stay up late. I'll
stay up and watch a little bit of the game.
It's a big game. Where Yokic is playing, or it's
Lakers and Spurs or something you'll watch. But that ten

(16:47):
to eleven window for people staying up and going to
bed is a really big deal. It's why primetime programming
ends at eleven o'clock because people go to bed or
they're going to watch the news and go to bed.
But you know, people don't really watch the news that
much anymore. So, but you start at ten, you'll get
at least some people from the East coast. He start
at eleven, You're not gonna get anybody. And I get

(17:08):
you're gonna get the West coast no matter what. Like,
people are gonna watch this game if they want to
watch basketball, okay, great, But like I don't know there
to be any any product that that succeeds by making
it available to fewer people instead of more people.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
No, but it's a global entity. I mean, you could
subscribe to Peacock anywhere. Right now, it's seven twenty four
am in Serbia. Before you're going to school or work,
you're hanging.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Out watching you I'm gonna get at four am and
watch You'll catch four am.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
But he's kind of a big deal.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
I think that what he is and then I take
care of his horses and be ready so he could
jump in the song key when he gets home.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Dude, I love the Jets, but if they were playing
at four o'clock in the morning, I'll tape and watch
it later. No, but it's the same argument we have
whenever there's an international game. Right, there's larger business things
that at play as you're rolling through when you're talking
about your new streaming services and partners and those agreements
that you roll through and you try something, and if

(18:04):
it doesn't work, and if the numbers say this is
a disaster, guess what, they won't do it anymore. It's
a coast to coast too that it's a stay up late,
stay up really late to watch.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
I dig it though. I mean, look, what do you
want to do stack all the games? Everybody gets mad
when you do that. On Monday night football. We don't
need to stack it, boy, you gotta stack it. What
can't you just have one Monday night game and then another.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
If you're playing a game at four thirty or five,
you can start the next one at seven thirty at
that day.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
No, if they're gonna run over, if you got time out,
not away games closed, otherwise this game now has been
gone on some other fugezy channel.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
That's how you end up with true TV in the Knicks.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
If if I want to watch the end of the
first game, I'll watch you uder the frint. I want
to watch a second game, I'll watch a second game.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
Let me get but oh, it comes back to the
same old Kevin Durant line, but say it, but now
I say.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
But a lot of times.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Look, it doesn't matter it because people are gonna go
to bed and get up for work at the same time.
No matter what time a game is played, right, people
have to get Let's just see six am. People are
getting up at six am, no matter if they go
to bed at nine or if they go to bed
at eleven thirty. After a basketball game, six o'clock is
still coming. You're still waking up to go to work.

(19:15):
If the game is on a little bit earlier, you
watch a little bit more of it. If the game
is on later, you're not gonna watch any of it.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
Maybe you stay and you watch it all and you come.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Back to the you're just saying that, like maybe I'm
not like if you don't show me numbers that nobody's watching.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
Guess what they'll change their philosophy, Yeah, gift the numbers
and the math. And for their television partner it becomes
a problem. They'll change what they're doing. But in the
short term, it's like all these other games, like when
everybody complains about the fractionalization of the viewing and opportunities. Right,

(19:51):
here's a game on this service and airs Amazon, Like
take football Amazon here, and I've got to have the
package to watch this. I've got to have NFL networks.
I either need cable or I need to subscribe to this.
Like all of that to say, like people have to
make their choices. I'm sorry, you're not gonna watch every game,
and a lot of people are gonna step and watch Denver.

(20:12):
But it's not it's not choice is it's not saying, hey,
here's a game you can watch or not watch.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
It's here's a game.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, I'd watch it, but no matter what time you
put this thing on, I'm not gonna no matter no
matter who the teams are, I'm not gonna watch it
at the time you have it. But but the fundamental
thing here is it's also on Peacock.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
So if you don't have Peacock. It doesn't matter, right,
you got part of the argument. You didn't take the
other part.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
With it too. If I don't have Peacock, I can't watch.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
This exit ut about a Fresco exit Swalling Dome. Jason
Smith Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios Today,
Nico Harrison was fired as general manager of the Dallas Mavericks,
which is making every fan in Dallas happy. They can
go to games on Wednesday and chant we fired Nico
and be excited about it.

Speaker 4 (20:57):
You think they will sell we fired Nico merch?

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Oh, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they'll be farewell Nico, or
they'll be all kind of there at sea. It's gonna
be like an early Christmas. They got rid of Nico
Harrison now this trade and now he got fired because
the Luca Dantis trade clearly did not work out for
the Mavericks. You have Luca out to a huge start
this year for the Lakers, playing an MVP level, and

(21:20):
the Mavericks are terrible despite the fact that they got
Cooper Fleck.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
They're bad. They're three and eleven.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
This is generally looked at as maybe the worst NBA
trade in the last twenty years. Now you want a
hot take, look at this a little bit differently, because
you got to go back and have a little bit
of you're doing a little bit of revisionist history when
you say, oh, Luca got traded. The trade is awful. Yeah,
look how the trade turns out. Yes, But at the time,
maybe it was the gutsiest trade we have seen in
the last twenty years. Because here's Nico Harrison knowing full well,

(21:51):
if this trade doesn't work out, I'm getting fired and
I'm probably never getting a job in a position like
this in the NBA again. But where were things when
they made this trade? Luka Doncic of course had led
the Mavericks to the finals, but what are they seen
in the ensuing months? Not in shape, injured. They didn't
like a lot of his off court habits. He's too

(22:13):
much hookah, you know, they didn't like it. How much
of that as an soul he was gonna come up
for an extension? Well you had and then you had it,
you know, at the celebratory postgame locker room experience going
to the NBA Finals. Michael Finley, assistant GM. Now the
GM taking a beer away from Luca. Dude, you don't
take care of your body. We're taking a beer away
from you while he's standing there with his dad. So

(22:35):
relationships with Luca and the team not at a high point.
They had to make a decision. Are we gonna give
him three hundred million dollars? And Nico Harrison's aspect of
it was, if we give it to him, I can't
guarantee you he's gonna take care of his body. I
can't guarantee you he's gonna stay healthy. And this contract
could be in albatross that we gave Luca. He had

(22:56):
a lot of power with the organization, and I don't
know that if we give him this money, if he's
going to turn himself around. We asked more. I asked
Mark Stein this last hour Mavericks Insider, NBA Insider. He said,
I would have to hope that Luca would have changed.
That's a big gamble to make at the time. Remember
that was the situation with Luca at the time with

(23:17):
the Mavericks. He was hurt, he wasn't the line, didn't
know what he was coming back again? Too much power?
Is he going to be a guy that stays in shape?
You give him three hundred million all of a sudden.
Does that make him say I want to stay in
shape and I want to be the best version of myself. Dude,
I just got three hundred million dollars. I was mailing
it in. It's a really gutsy decision to make to
trade Luca at the time. Now, as it turned out,

(23:38):
didn't turn out great, right, But when they made that deal,
it was, Hey, this is not going to be something
that works for us, so let's go make the trade weekend.
Now forget for a second, Hey they got ad he's
had trouble staying on the court. Kyrie Irving tears is
acl That's one thing. Now Luca here is with the Lakers.
This is part of what makes it gutsy is that, Yeah,

(23:58):
I know it could blow up in our Giving him
this money is a risk. Let's trade him knowing full
well that this is going to be the impetus that
Luca needs to get himself right. Oh, I just got
traded away from the only team I've ever known where
I was an absolute hero, where every kid in the
Dallas area is where in my jersey. This is an

(24:19):
eye opening thing for me. I better straighten up and
fly right. So what did Luca do? He got to LA.
I love it here. He got his body in shape,
he's come and motivated, and he's leading the Lakers. He's
the player he was before with Dallas. Nico Harrison knew
that all of these things could happen.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
Right.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
The trade might not work out for us, but signing
Luca wasn't gonna work. We could trade him away and
Luca's gonna wind up having his epiphany and I'm going
to now become that great player the back half of
my twenties that I was because I'm gonna work hard
at it. That's a huge risk. It's gutsy being able
to make that trade knowing that these are likely outcomes

(25:02):
for you. We're not going to be able to keep
everybody happy in Dallas with this trade. And he may
go to La and do this, but he wasn't gonna
do it with us. I know he wasn't gonna do
it with us. But yeah, we trade him to LA.
There's a good chance that WHOA on a new team,
he gets his head on straight and becomes this kind
of player. That makes it really gutsy to still make

(25:23):
that trade knowing these could be the results. But that's
what you got to remember back at the time is
making this Luka Doncige trade, is that maybe he was
gonna be this guy, but he would They didn't think
he was gonna do it with Dallas and up for
all that money, it wasn't a great investment for him. Look,
even mark Stein's, like I said, even mark Stein's, I
would hoped that things would have gone differently.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
That's all you can say about.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
It's not that all. We traded a guy who's going
to be a star for the next ten years. You
hope it would have went differently.

Speaker 4 (25:49):
No, but that's the.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
Thing, right either way, it's a lot of wishing and hoping,
and there's a fine line between bold and crazy or
bold and stupid, however you want to term the trade
as it's been categorically dismissed since the day it went down.
But to your point, through that lens, you know, for
Luka Doncts, Yeah, there's always the hope that a guy

(26:12):
is suddenly going to recognize that father time comes for
his body. And the more you abuse it, Slash, don't
do your rehab and be diligent about to carry a
couple extra pounds. Yeah, it's gonna get you though, especially
when you're talking about a guy with the usage rate
like Luka doncitz has, Like it's not a lot of
off time, you know, off ball, just kind of hanging around.

(26:34):
He's a guy in the throws in every possession. So
the wear and tear was certainly going to be huge.
So from a Dallas perspective, when you're talking about the
investment and what that investment means, you know, is winning
that paramount or is it, Hey, we've got a nice
superstar that the league loves. You're trying to figure out

(26:55):
what that equation is because if you're losing year after here,
guess what you've got Luca, you didn't win, You're done.
If you never replicate the highs of winning the Western
Conference again, Okay, maybe you do, maybe you don't. But
you make the trade, and what didn't work for Nico,
not only do you get Luca showing up on the
cover of fitness magazines and becoming that guy every guy

(27:19):
you traded for in the calculated risk, which were obviously
large risks we assessed at the time. If it breaks right,
great Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Clay Thompson and eventually Tadah
It's Cooper Flag, this could work. Guess what three of
those guys aren't in the lineup, and well, one guy

(27:40):
is he's no good anymore. Clay can't defend, can't shoot
Anthony Davis. You know, it's a fifty to fifty proposition,
particularly at the end of October early November, whether he's
playing any meaningful minutes for you and Kyrie's out indefinitely.
Cooper Flag's been great. He's eighteen years old. He's expected
to carry the weight of the world world on his

(28:00):
shoulders right now for the league and for this squad
and for Nico's job. That was a pretty hefty burden
as they've been terrible. So you you excize it and
move to the next era.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
And you know, the other part, just because this is
this is kind of an anstilly part of it, but wow,
it was a big deal. Is that there's still no
timeline for Kyrie Irving's return. Like it's been a bunch
of months where now, not that he's ready to come back,
but you should have a timeline by now of when
he's gonna play, and there's none there. And he's gonna

(28:35):
play three weeks Thanksgiving targets Thanksgiving. You know, maybe it's
more early part, middle part of December. But you know,
clearly I'm putting this out there. I want to give
you hope that I'm going to be back soon, even
though you know Joe Flacco's lighting it up in my
maybe hey, he's not that he's gonna take his job,
but I got to.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
Get back there.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Joe Flacco's throwing the ball really well. But like this
is where you really would think that at some point
you'd have a time frame for and you don't have
that at all.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
No, But that's it.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
So you've lost every every way you could lose this
trade you did, and now fans aren't coming to this
to the arena anymore either. So it's also immediately in
the pocketbooks, the negativity and the firing chance ownership. At
some point you just got to stop the lost because
I can only imagine what that's like in the locker room,
right that that's the chant that greets them. They could

(29:25):
go on a ten ozer run and it's still fire.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
Nkum.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
You know what the lesson learned here is, guys, what's
that Frostburg Never touch a girl man's beard?

Speaker 4 (29:33):
That's value. You might be right, that could have been
the moment that could be, especially in front of their dad.
That's right, Yeah, that's right, that's right. Boy one, I
would pay for that beer.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
Can you want to talk about memorabilia, the Otani ball
and all of those things. We're talking about moving mountains
and franchises over that beer.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
But just think about that. Think about how gutsy the
trade was to make it, knowing all of the things
that could happen, and Nico Harrison still did it.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
It's hard to know that you are probably going to
be the villain of the story. Most people are not
ready for that. Nico embraced it and will get a
statue in his honor. Let's find out what's trending in
the wide world of sports. And the guy who's gonna
build and commission that statue fe Crypto dot com. It
is special delivery, Steve disabed Oh Mason, clearly you have
me confused with somebody else.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
Everything is final in the NBA now just finished at Sacramento,
Denver beat the Kings one twenty two to one oh eight.
Nicola Jokic in thirty three minutes at thirty five points,
fifteen rebounds, seven assists, as well. Utah beat Indiana one
fifty two to one twenty eight Lowry Market in thirty
five points. The Pacers are one and ten, Brooklyn one

(30:40):
in ten after losing it home to Toronto one nineteen
to one oh nine. Oklahoma City eleven and one early
season after ripping Golden State one twenty six to one
oh two, Philadelphia edge Boston one oh two to one hundred.
The Celtics record five and seven. Knicks won their fifth
straight game one thirty three to one twenty over Memphis
Nicks from three point range twenty two four fifty five.

(31:02):
The Mavericks did fire general manager Nico Harrison today. Suns
guard Jalen Green will miss at least four to six
weeks with a strain hamstring. The NBA tonight announced a
new format for this season's All Star Game, the US
against the World, as the Clippers hosting LA in February
to college basketball number six Michigan and overtime winner against

(31:22):
Wake Forest eighty five eighty four, tenth rank Florida at
Florida State seventy eight seventy six at number twelve Louisville,
the Cardinals beat rival and number nine Kentucky ninety six
eighty eight wins for Illinois and Kenzaga. In women's hoops,
number two South Carolina pummel Clemson sixty five thirty seven.
Among the nine NHL games victories for Washington, LA and Colorado.

(31:46):
Dallas won in overtime at Ottawa, and Boston won at
seventh straight game, five to three over Toronto. In the
new College Football playoff rankings, the top five stayed the same,
led by number one Ohio State. Texas is up to
number ten, but right now now number eleven Oklahoma would.

Speaker 4 (32:01):
Not make the playoff.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
The ACC's highest ranked team would, that's Miami number twenty four.
South Florida would get in as the best of the
group of five teams. Jaguars rookie Travis Hunter is out
for the year after knee surgery. Defensive back JayR Alexander
now with Philadelphia, stepping away from football to get right
physically and mentally. The American League Manager of the Year

(32:23):
is Cleveland Stephen Vote. He won the ward a year
ago in his first season as a manager. He dominated
the voting last year and this year he won it
seventeen votes to ten over Toronto's John Schneider. The NL
Manager of the Year again as the Brewers Pat Murphy
both last year and this year. He got twenty seven
of the thirty first place votes. The Big MLB Award

(32:45):
results continue this week with Wednesday Cy Young Winners and
Thursday the MVP announcements. Carlos Alcarez won another match at
the season ending atp Finals. He has won victory away
from securing the year end number one ranking back.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Year Steve A Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Harmon coming up next.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
One NFL head coach said.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
I'm not worried long term about my quarterbacks.

Speaker 4 (33:10):
He should be. That's next.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.