CEOs You Should Know - Rick Welts - Dallas Mavericks

Rick Welts has one of the most remarkable careers in professional sports history, and it began at age 16 as a ball boy for the Seattle SuperSonics. In this episode, iHeartMedia Dallas–Fort Worth Region President Chris Long sits down with the CEO of the Dallas Mavericks for a wide-ranging conversation spanning five decades of basketball, business, and leadership.

Rick shares what it was like to be the 35th employee at the NBA league office in 1982, making cold calls no one returned, and helping transform a struggling league into a global marketing powerhouse.

He takes us inside the creation of NBA All-Star Weekend, the 1984 Slam Dunk Contest that changed everything, and the challenge of marketing the 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team to the world. From leading the Phoenix Suns through one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in NBA history, to helping build the Golden State Warriors dynasty and opening Chase Center, to answering the call to come to Dallas, Rick breaks down what it really takes to rebuild culture, earn a fanbase’s trust, and build something that lasts.

Plus, Rick shares where he was sitting during the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery, what Cooper Flagg means for the future of the Mavericks, and why a new arena in Dallas is more than a building. It is a district designed to create lifetime memories.
 
A Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer. A pioneer. And now, a Maverick.

CEOs You Should Know DFW features candid conversations with leaders shaping business in North Texas and beyond. Hosted by Chris Long, Region President of iHeartMedia Dallas–Fort Worth. Follow, rate, and subscribe on the podcast platform you are listening on.


CEOs You Should Know DFW features candid conversations with leaders shaping business in North Texas and beyond, hosted by Chris Long, Region President of iHeartMedia Dallas/Fort Worth. Follow, Rate, and Subscribe on the podcast platform you are listening on!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is CEOs you Should Know, with the Dallas Market
president of iHeartMedia, Chris Long.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I want to welcome everybody to CEOs you should Know
Dallas and I'm Chris Long, Dallas Market President, and I'm
very lucky today to have a guest who has done
a lot of interesting things in his career and we're
going to cover a lot of ground.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
I want to introduce my new friend, Rick Welts, CEO
of the Dallas Mavericks.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Thanks Chris, Rick, great to have you here.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
I'm gonna I told Rick when we're getting started, I
was going to try not to fanboy too much and
go full NBA because there's a lot to cover here.
But Rick, I told you that we have a question
we ask at the beginning of every episode, and so
I have to treat you like the rest of the guests.
You know, as an iHeartMedia, being the nation's largest audio

(00:54):
platform across eight hundred and sixty radio stations podcast streaming,
you know the deal. I have to ask this question
first concert and what podcasts are you listening to you
right now?

Speaker 1 (01:06):
All right? Well, I love the question. I could tell
you why I love the question as I ask it
of people all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
I don't think I haven't trademarked.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So okay, mine unfortunately dates me because my first concert
was in the Seattle Center Coliseum, Okay, same place where
I might have been a ball boy, and it was
the headliner was the Beach Boys, whoa not the fourth
version of the Beach Boys. This is Brian Wilson. Brian
Wilson and the Beach Boys. And the opening act.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Was Jan and Dean, WHOA okay, dead Man's Curve?

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah you got it?

Speaker 4 (01:41):
Oh wow?

Speaker 1 (01:42):
So yeah that that might put a little marker in time,
but I'll never forget it.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
So I told you when you came in that I'm
accused of being a wealth of worthless knowledge.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
The fact that I knew dead Man's Curve.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Dean, I think you and I may be the only
two people that listened to this pretty good.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
They were pretty good. They were a good match with
the Beach Boys. Awesome, same kind of genre.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
What about podcasting all things?

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Bill Simmons, Okay, yeah, really a friend and an interesting
guy who dives into the history of sports in a
way that I think nobody else does at his level.
So I enjoy Bill Simmons. I don't agree with them
most of the time, but I enjoy it.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
So, Okay, this I told you we might go off script,
and I'm immediately going off script.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
But I have to ask the questions.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
That's sports podcasts, and you know he dives into the history,
but he's also I'm sure talking about current things going on.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
As someone in the industry.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
You know they talk about athletes, do they listen, do
they pay attention.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
And things like that. Where do you fall on that
whole paying attention to the media.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
I do what everybody does, but I don't lie about it. Okay,
you talk to any player and coach, they've never read
anything anybody has read or said about them. I read
everything that people write and say if.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
You disagree, you ever follow up with them?

Speaker 1 (03:03):
I do, And it's actually it's actually a time tested
technique of mine. When I especially when somebody disagrees, I
love to pick up the phone or send them a
note and say, you know, I'd love to get together
for breakfast. That was a really interesting perspective because it's
so disarming to most media people when you actually do that,
and it usually ends up in developing at least a

(03:26):
relationship of respect that you oh list and that you're
prepared to have a conversation about it.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Oh absolutely.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
I mean that's going to be probably part of some
of the questions here down the road a little bit.
But I do want to get back to the subtle
ball boy comment that you made a few minutes ago.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
So tell us it started in Seattle with you.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
It did. The currency of my relationship with my dad
was pretty much going to games, didn't matter what they were.
I was going to University Washington football games when I
was three years old, and that's where we had our
time together, the two of us. And there was a
brand new team in town in nineteen sixty seven called
the Seattle SuperSonics, and we started going to games and

(04:08):
I became obsessed with the game. But there was something
else going on in Seattle with this team. This is
the first major league team that Seattle had, and seeing
the reaction of then fourteen thousand people in an audience
and what that meant to the city of Seattle was,

(04:28):
I think, more than anything else, kind of what pushed
me in this direction because it was such a source
of pride for the city. You know, we had never
been listed in for newspaper standings with New York and
Los Angeles and Chicago before. This was a big deal
and it really made a difference in how people felt
about their city. I really do think of the factors

(04:48):
that you know, ended up sending me on a career
in this direction, that was probably the biggest one.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
It's a strinth because as things change, as time goes on.
I think what you just said about the pride and
how it galvanizes the community, it still stands street today.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
It does. Absolutely. It's the last place where you know,
tens of thousands of people can gather together who have
nothing in common. Yes, they're common interest in whining that
home team win.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
I have to go sports for a second. We'll see,
I'll get a team again.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
I'm more confident now that I've been in a while.
You know the I thought for a while that the
NBA ownership had become so enamored with the concept of
starting a new league in Europe.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
Sure that we've.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Kind of taken our eye off the ball and expansion. Uh,
there's gonna be a big meeting in March NBA Board
of Governors where Adam Silver has promised this is going
to be addressed again. You know, the last meeting there
was a I sat through. There were some two economists
that came in and made a pretty compelling economic argument
to the owners for expansion. And remember they're weighing this

(05:56):
against the potential of just creating a massive new amount
of equity by starting a twelve to sixteen team league
in Europe from scratch, and weighing that against how Adam
describes it now as in effect, you're selling equity in
your league because instead of having thirty partners, you're now
sharing shared revenue thirty one or thirty two ways. And

(06:19):
not every owner thinks that the added value of that
extra team or two is necessarily makes the equation work.
But I'm actually very optimistic that this year the legal
start down the path of expansion, and Seattle absolutely positively
is the number one choice.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
Yeah they should.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
As someone that you know, as we spoke before we
started about the history of the league.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
You know, it's just it's silly they don't have a team.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
No, it's it's you know, I was lucky enough to
win a championship with the one championship that that team
did win in Seattle. I'm there a lot, I still
have family there, and kind of the pent up anticipation
and uh, and actually I will tell you that the
ownership of the Krack and the fairly new NHL team

(07:08):
there at David Bonderman uh bought that team. He and
are both University of Washington graduates. He liked hockey, but
he renovated that building and bought the Kraken because he
wanted an NBA team to come back to Seattle, because
we both grew up with that. He unfortunately has passed away.
His daughter, Samantha Holloway, is owner of the team right

(07:31):
now and she is as committed as David to make
that a reality.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
That's great.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Okay, So you go from ball boy to with the Sonics.
You finished at a pr.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, I you know, there was one day in my
life that is the only reason that I'm here sitting
with you, and that's you know, at Queen Anne High
School when my buddy Earl Woodson, who was the coolest
kid at Queen In High school because he was a
ball kid for the Sale SuperSonics, my favorite team, came
in one day with this very sad face and like, dude,

(08:02):
like what's wrong. As we're sitting in the back of
English like class, not listening to the teacher. He's like,
oh man, my family's moving out of town. Oh yeah,
earl buddy, like, you got to take me down, introduce
me to whoever that is that hires the ball kids.
And he did. I got the job. My career rocketed

(08:25):
at that point. Six months later, I became assistant trainer today.
That takes I think.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
Four grad there's a few degrees.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
I had to know how to use the washing machine
and the dryer and have the uniforms in the right
locker before the next game. That was kind of the
extent of my duties, you know. And it's always kind
of the punchline in an introduction. But I will tell
you there isn't a day that goes by that there
isn't a lesson that I learned there. So think about this.
I'm a sixteen year old kid in an NBA locker room.

(08:56):
I'm the guy who locks the door when the media leave.
I'm sitting in the listening to the coach do his
pregame speech. I'm seeing doctors, owners, media people coming in
and out of the locker room. I'm a fly on
the wall. Nobody's bang any attention to me. I have
to tell you the dynamics of a team like that
in the locker room have not changed that much. That's so,

(09:17):
And to be able to see those interactions there are
actually lessons. So I think really helped me along.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
The way as a former Seattle super Sonic. I think
it's important for you to know that there is a
eleven year old in Kansas City that tried the Slick
Watts headband.

Speaker 4 (09:35):
Wow, didn't really work for me in seventh grade?

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Did you shave your head too?

Speaker 3 (09:38):
That would have been the next step. So I decided
that I would go head bandless instead.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
Of shaving my head. But I had to drop a
little Slick Wats on you there.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
So okay, so you go up through the ranks. You
were with the Sonics for what nine?

Speaker 4 (09:49):
Ten years?

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah? Tim, Well, if you count my first ball boy year,
it was ten years. I was lucky enough to end
up with my dream job, which was media relations director
for sure, the public RELATIONSHS director back then Sure of
the Sonics. Bill Russell had just been fired as our coach.
Even you can't name Bill Russell's replacements as coach of

(10:13):
the Sonics. Next, I'm hearing nine hearing none. His greatest
qualification is he was Bill Russell's cousin. His name was
Bob Hopkins. So here I am my dream job. First season,
our first twenty two games, we are the worst team
in the NBA. Five wins, seventeen losses. Bob Hopkins, Bill

(10:35):
Russell's cousin, gets fired. We hire back beloved player who
had been with us, Lenny Wilkins, to be our coach.
That team that was five and seventeen went to the
NBA Finals that year. We lost to Washington in seven games,
came back the next year, went to the NBA Finals
and won the NBA Championship in nineteen seventy nine. So
my two years in that job, got the opportunity to

(10:57):
go to the finals twice and when an NBA championship.
But that that was pretty much Yet there were fifteen
people in our front.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Office, So you stumped me, which hurts my feelings. And
what I'm about to say, we'll only resonate with you.
Kevin Greevy, West Unseld, Bob Dandridge from the Bullets, some
of the guys.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, that we battled for two years in a row.
I remember Washington terribly named the Washington Bullets time, but it.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
Was the seventies.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Mean it's the Wizards now.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
So okay.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
One of the things I didn't know when we decided
to get together for this, I didn't realize that you
went on as CMO of the NBA.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Well that was that you just made like a seventeen
year jump. Yeah, oh, come from beginning to end. So
I yeah, I I was. I thought I left the
Sonics right after the championship because there wasn't really a
career there. And I started a little sports marketing company
in Seattle with somebody who worked with at the at
the Sonics. And you know you're into that. My phone rings.

(12:00):
You know, this was pre cell phone, Like some of
your staff probably doesn't remember when there were little pink
slips that you got on your desk and said while
you were out because nobody had a cell phone of course.
And there was one of those little phone messages on
my desk. It had a name I didn't recognize. It
had a two one two four oh seven prefix. I'm like, oh,
it's the NBA. So I called the number. This young

(12:24):
lawyer introduced himself, said hey, like I'm starting. I've been
charged with starting a business operation at the NBA. Now now,
mind you. All the NBA did at that point was
schedule games, you know, resolved controversies between teams, assigned referees.
There was no business operation.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
Okay, so what what year was this?

Speaker 3 (12:43):
So this was nineteen eighty two, okay, and so just
you know, you and I discussed this. But like for
a lot of people, they see the NBA and this
is where we're going to go. They see the NBA
for the the monster marketing machine that it is today
nineteen eighty two, like you know, and this was just
the beginning of you know, and magic, and it was
starting to have.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
A little bit of travel. It was a train wreck.
Beyond train I had this poor instant kid from Seattle
who went to championship parades and thought everybody loved the NBA.
My first job at the NBA is the thirty fifth
employee counting the mail room, was to go out and
try to convince respectable marketers to put hard earned advertising

(13:25):
marketing dollars in the NBA. Maybe the worst job ever created.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Okay, So we're going to talk about this because I
have a sales organization that I lead, and I think
there are some universal truths what you said, everybody has
that time as.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
A salesperson where people look at you like, are you
out of my mind? Why would I? Why would I
trust you with my money? Tell me? Do you give
a moment?

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Like do you sit there and you remember? I mean
every salesperson has one what's yours?

Speaker 2 (13:50):
No?

Speaker 1 (13:51):
I would sit at home in my little apartment every
night in Manhattan, far away from home in Seattle. I
was only allowed to call my parents one time a
week long distance collect the office. Now I didn't have
to call collect, but there we kept tabs. You can
only call once. So you know, we used to have
this big, thick red advertising book. I can't remember what

(14:11):
it was called the head like every agency and like executive,
and I'd be going through I would I would make
a hundred calls without getting a return call. It was
nobody with any self respecting marketing budget would ever invest
in the NBA because there was more talk about teams
going out of business than there was talk about teams
being you know, expansion or anything like that first league,

(14:33):
you know, uh tainted with widespread accusations of drug use
by its players, an ownership collection of owners that was
like you know, maybe there was a car dealer in there.
Somewhere and a and A and a league organization that
was very unprofessional. So I mean what saved the day

(14:54):
for me is that that young lawyer who was executive
vice president for business and Legal Affairs. I was nineteen
eighty two. The owners and their wisdom in late nineteen
eighty three elected that young lawyer, David Sterman's commissioner of
the NBA, who had hired me. So at that point
David had hired maybe ten or twelve young people. We

(15:17):
all fit the same mold. There were reason he hired
me is because I was passionate about the NBA, I
was young, and I was cheap.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
It was probably not that order.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Yeah, those were he had Till the day he died,
he and I disagreed over still agreed to disagree over
what he paid me. I swear he paid me forty
seven thousand dollars my first job in New York City,
and to his dying bed said it was not a
penny over forty two. I think I was right. But anyway,

(15:49):
that that was the beginning of everything I think for
the business of the NBA, because you know he was
he was hired commissioner at aged thirty five, Okay, this
was the forty two excuse me as a young as
a very young lawyer. Nobody had ever heard of the guy.
But in the past you've gone out and had a
high profile commissioner. Larry O'Brien had been the commissioner for

(16:12):
Chairman of the Democratic Party. His office Watergate had broken
into Kennedy cabinet. Was a time when the ABA and
the NBA were hoping to maybe merge without Congress paying
too much attention to it. So and he was born
in Springfield, Massachusetts, the home, the birthplace. All that was
his qualification for basketball. But Stern represented a whole new thing.
And we were such partners like you would appreciate this.

(16:36):
So like he and I would sit down, like if
in our wildest dreams, like who in the world could
we get to invest as a sponsor the NBA. We
made a list, Coca Cola, McDonald's, Bud Wiser, all these
brands who would want nothing to do with this, and probably,
like you, I ended up spending you know, a dozen

(16:57):
trips to Oakfield, Illinois, where McDonald's would headquarter, or or
Atlanta for Coca Cola. And you know what, like Stern
was my partner, the commissioner would come to me with
me to these meetings and create like these relationships with
senior executives that kind of made it okay for some
of the underlings, perhaps doing us a dollar to them.

(17:19):
We got them all like we eventually got.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
Them over time.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, you know, it's funny you talk about that. You know,
the one hundred calls a day and all that, and
the and the multiple appointments.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
You should drive my dad nuts because I would.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
I would say I learned two things in college, and
he's like, oh great, I spent all that money on
two things.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
But it was it was an older gentleman who.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
Was a adjunct professor and he was in the candy industry,
and it was a sales marketing class, and he said,
to me, remember these two things. Every note brings you
that much closer to it.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
Yes, so you have to just.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Make through the call, go through the calls, and really
you end up only being limited by how creative you
want to be.

Speaker 4 (17:54):
So I imagine you guys had to be super.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Creative to get on the raidar, to get on the radar,
to get the meeting, but then for them to go okay,
like you said, kick down a few dollars.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
David and Rick are okay, let's spend a little money.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
And the Winston start with coke and McDonald's. Owen started
my first deal. Oh God, bless him wherever you are.
Carl Janowitz, who was an advertising guy at Fujifilm, because
no way, Kodak whatever, Tash sure. So I actually made
a deal where he would he would invest five thousand
dollars a team in each one of our teams in marketing,

(18:28):
and I would. I thought they'd have a parade for
me and the deal that size, So twenty three teams
like a one hundred and fifty thousand dollars deal. That
was my That was my big moment.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
It's so funny you said that.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
I actually had a conversation last week with the salesperson
and they were kind of running up against walls, and
I said, you know what, sometimes you don't go to
number one, go to number four, force trying to climb
over three and two.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
Maybe you go to number four.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
And it's like, okay, so I'll get back to it
and let's you know, that goes. But so you know,
we'll talk about this towards the end. I have a
blo that you know, as you're building an organization, and
we'll get to your you know, time as CEO in
multiple places and the success you had, but building a
foundation and building a culture, really it's about filling in
those cracks and gray spaces. You don't always see the

(19:14):
big seismic moment, but though they happened. Now in this case,
knowing what the NBA went from and what it became
to you, what was that big seismic moment that you
saw and you're like, this is the change?

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Well, it certainly was the change for me, and I
think it started the change for you. So you know,
here's that poor kids in his apartment and another night
having sold nothing, and I flipped on the TV and
there was a baseball old Teimer's game.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
Okay, I remember those Washington d C.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Sponsor bike was called the Crackerjack Old Timer's Game. Crackerjack
was on the left field sign and some six year
old guy got up and hit a home run over
the Crackerjack sign. Okay. So again Stern had been elected commissioner,
hadn't taken office. He was going to take a office
at the All Star Game in Denver, Colorado in nineteen

(20:04):
February of nineteen eighty four. So this was late nineteen
eighty three. Carl Sheer, the president of the Denver Nuggets,
had come to town. We started planning All Star like
in November before February. The planning cycle is a little longer.
Now you're a historian, you know that Denver had a
storied ABA Harry Thompson before NBA, and maybe one of

(20:27):
the five most famous events in the history of basketball
took place at the Denver ABA All Star Game in
nineteen seventy six, at the ABA Slam Dunk contest, when
Julius Irving did something no one had ever seen before.
The player picked up the ball from one end of
the court, ran down the end, took up from the
free throw line, and dunked the ball. It's legendary if

(20:48):
you go to Denver. Now, I've talked to at least
fifty thousand people who were in the seventeen thousand, of
course Nichols Arena and saw that. Okay, So Carl had
come and said, I got an idea halftime of the
All Star Game to celebrate our ABA heritage, why don't
we do a slam don't contest like that would have

(21:08):
I one. I had to tell them, Carl, we got
like this feature on NBC at halftime, Like, that's not
going to work, but that is in my mind. And
one of the things Stern had said to us, which
you would appreciate in this time before he became commissioner
of the things he was going to do differently, was
we have no we haven't embraced our history at all.
We have no literally have no photographic archive. We have

(21:30):
no archive of our games on film or video, like
we have no relationships with play. We're going to change
all that. It's our job stewards of this sport to
embrace and celebrate the history, which is the foundation of
what we're doing today. Right, So fast forward Old Timer's game.

(21:50):
I got. I go in the office the next day, say, okay, David,
what if we added a second day at All Star?
Because up until then All Star, you flewent on Saturday,
you had a really bad comedian at a banquet on
Saturday night, You play the game on Sunday, and everybody
goes home one hotel, Okay, everybody, media players.

Speaker 4 (22:06):
It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
So what if we did a second day, do it
on Saturday? And what if we did a slam dunk
contest to celebrate the ABA heritage. I know they'll love that.
And what if we do an old timer's game and
we invite back all these former players that you want
to reconnect with. And he's like, I like that. So
he disappears out of my office, reappears that afternoon, goes, yeah, no,

(22:32):
that's that's not going to happen. The Commissioner's like thumbs down, like, okay,
onto the next idea. I don't know what happened. Like
three days later, Start walks back into my office says okay.
Commissioner says, you can do it, but two conditions. Number one,
you don't embarrass him on his last weekend in office. Okay.
Number two, there is no budget. You got to figure

(22:54):
it out paper.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
If you can do that typically.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Okay, So here we go, and then fast to February
nineteen eighty four, Denver All Star Weekend, the Electric Atmosphere
in the Brown Palace Hotel. We had to actually add
a second hotel for All Star. But you know, John
Halchuk was over there and Oscar Robertson was over there,
and the writers broadcasters were so excited. Julie serving God

(23:19):
bless him at the very end of his career in
the NBA, came back to participate again in that nineteen
eighty four and then we'd actually, I actually was able
to talk something called the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.
I don't know if you've heard of it, Okay, de spribably,
how few people know what that sounds.

Speaker 4 (23:38):
I know, you guys are running a truck and tractor
poll this week.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Well, no, they weren't doing any live events, but they
agreed to tape it and put it a show together.
And then what happened in McNicholas Arena that day, you know,
was much better to be lucky than true. The old
Timer's game chills down the spine as the as the
I can't imagine as the players were introduced. What Rick
did quite factoring is the difference between sixty year olds

(24:03):
playing baseball and sixty year olds playing basketball. Okay, not
exactly what you want to remember in terms of your
sports heroes, Okay. But and then Julia Serving comes back,
ends up in the finals against Larry Nance, rookie old school,
new school. Uh, and on the last dunk, Larry Nance
beats him. There's like a passing of the torch from

(24:26):
the older player generation to new and Stern has passed
the torch that day as commissioner. That's his first day
as commissioner. You know, the sports illustrator gave us six pages.
They never covered the All Star Game before and Stern.
You know, I was looking at Stern like, wow, this
dude's a marketing genius, like let's go and it. It

(24:46):
was a moment for him to launch in his his
very first you know days as commissioner.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
I didn't realize that was that was basically the kickoff
to his It.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Was that that day and I could sell something. I
was able to make our first deal with Gatorade to
sponsor the slam Dunk contest, and I was able again.
Jillete would never talk to me, so Shick on American
Airlines agreed to cover the costs of bringing all the
players out for the Old Timers game. So we sold
tickets for two dollars each. We sold with Nichols Arena,

(25:17):
and you know, the rest is history.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
You know, it's funny you said something when you talked
about being you know, young kid apartment watching the cracker
Jack Old Timer's Game, and this is something I talk
about a lot. I think every salesperson should you said,
what if? That's the question, right, what if?

Speaker 1 (25:38):
You know?

Speaker 3 (25:39):
And maybe it's not the original what if, but then
it takes its own life form hearing you talk about this.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
Sorry, sorry to do this to you, but I have
to for a second.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
I mean that became in the eighties as a kid
who group playing basketball. I work converse because of Doctor
j and All Star Weekend.

Speaker 4 (25:55):
Like you were staying home to watch All Star Weekend,
the slam Dunk and all the.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
Things that went on it in the eighties. As a kid,
it was such a well unique thing.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
And then we come to Dallas in nineteen eighty six
and Spud Web, the smallest player I had the poster right,
wins the slam Dunk contest, and we introduced a brand
new competition that instantly became legendary. When Larry Bird walked
into the locker room pregame for our first three point

(26:25):
contest and famously pointed around the room sad, who's going
to finish second?

Speaker 4 (26:29):
Then that was real.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Then went out and won the first three point competitions.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
At me, I'm trying to stay on track. So many
questions I do have to say, so I did have
the spud Web Slam Dunk poster on my wall.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
And when I first moved to Dallas Goshion two thousand
and three, I was going to the gym and I
walked into the locker room and spud Web was standing there,
and I ran out and found my wife. I'm like,
spud Web is here, and she's like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
It's spud Web. And it was one of those moments.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
It still works for us. That's you, really for our
G League team. Yeah, so anytime he wants spud to
come in, he's a little larger than he was, and
you remember him now, I'm not sure he could.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
Done I don't care about five six and he could
do the things he did.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah, he still has great stories.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
I mean, I would tell anyone who doesn't know who
Spudweb is to go you to him and look at
what he did as a player is amazing.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
He'd be Dominique Wilkins in the Slim Dunk Contest Human
Highlight Reel.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
So, Okay, that's that story. We could go on about,
but we've got we've got some interesting, more interesting things
to cover.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
So you were the NBA through the eighties.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
And at what point were you thinking, Okay, I want
to go team side again. You're because you're the league
for an extended period of time. What made you think
I want to go and run my own team.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
I think that's such a great question. So I ended
up spending seventeen years at the league in sure a
variety of different roles. And you know, because you're there
in front of the owners all the time at meetings
and things, you do get the chance is you know,
when you get talked to about, hey, maybe you'd like
to come back and join a team. It was never
for me exactly the right thing, but I always knew

(28:10):
that I would get back to a team because I
wish in our league more people had worked at both.
I'm very lucky.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
That's interesting.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
It's a completely different business environment, and we teams and
leagues talk by each other because they don't understand the
different pressures of one of the league. You know, basically,
half the team's pretty much a certainty you're going to
win every night, and half the teams are going to lose.
If the officials don't screw it up. It's a good night.
Somebody's going the championship. It's going to happen every year.

(28:42):
You know, such a different environment than when you're at
a team and you're so emotionally invested in the wins
and losses. It's so much more unpredictable. You think you
know what your team is at the beginning of the year,
and two months later it's not, And then there's something
else you have to But if you're if you like
walking into that arena with eighteen thousand people there and

(29:05):
seeing people vote on how good a job you're doing
every night, then you should be in a team. Like
a lot of people can't handle that. You know, you've
been around a lot of traditional consumer package cause cut people.
They come into the league and crash and burn because
it's like, the one thing you encounter is your product.
I know exactly how my product's going to perform, so
I can have to market exactly the performance characteristics of

(29:27):
this product at the right price to somebody. They'll buy it,
like good luck with a sports team right one hundred
percent okay, But.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
And that could change on a dime, depending on something exactly.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
But but you can't beat that emotional attachment. Sure nobody
wakes up in the morning saying, well, I love that
league office. Now they wake up in the market saying
I love those Mavericks. Yeah, and so if you're cut
out for that, I knew I would get back to it.
So it was just it was just a matter of time.
And by the way, both are great. I got to

(29:57):
see the world I got we went from. I was
thirty three employee. We had eleven hundred around the world
when I left at the NBA League Office, so you know,
to be a part of that was unforgettable and great.
But I knew i'd always get back to the team.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
So it's interesting you have such a well rounded business
view historical view of the league from multiple teams as well.
I mean even go back to the Sonics and Eras
and all of that.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
So you you get to the Suns and in the CEO.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
I think it's an interesting distinction for I think for
people to understand, you know, you're for everything sales, marketing
and putting, you know, showcasing the team. How much in
your role are you, you know, working with the general
manager as it relates to players and coaching and all
of those things. I mean, you're sitting atop the whole pyramid.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
Well, I've been very lucky to lead three different teams Phoenix,
Golden State, now the Mavericks, and each of them is
organized the way it should be, which is you have
an active engage ownership, and you have ahead of your
business operation and ahead of your basketball operation. You both
report to ownership, but in the right organizations, there's a

(31:11):
mandate from that ownership that you're hand in glove in
terms of what you're trying to accomplish with the team. So,
you know, I've been blessed to have that kind of
a general manager for me. That was Steve Kerr actually
at the first Brian Clangelo, then Steve Kerr in Phoenix,
most of them all my time in Golden State, you know,

(31:33):
that was Bob Myers, like we could complete each other's sentences.
We're still best friends, Like we're we I wasn't making
basketball decisions, they weren't making business decisions, but we both
talked about the decisions we were making and how they
would impact. Right. So that's the way a well run
NBA organization should run.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
So let's talk a little bit about when you got
to Phoenix as CEO. We talked about a little bit before,
but that was a that was an interesting situation and
people listening in Dallas were going to cringe on the
part of the accelerant to your success.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
Yeah, the So Jerry Clangelo is a legendary figure in
correct in basketball. He guy who grew up on the
wrong side of the tracks in Chicago, became the youngest
general manager of the Chicago Bulls, founded the Phoenix Suns
as an expansion team and did well enough he was
able to become an owner of the team. So he's
like like a regular guy like me, Like he's my

(32:30):
hero that he actually did that, and his philosophy was
what I explained, he used to do it all like that.
In his era, you ran business and basketball. Jerry made
all the basketball decisions, made all the business decisions impossible
to do today. But because of that, when he brought
me in to be president of the team, he had
split up the basketball and business operations. His son Brian

(32:51):
was going to become a general manager and I was
going to become president the team. And Phoenix has a
great history, but at that moment in time, two thousand
and two had had fallen on some pretty hard times competitively,
and they were not a well financed team. So you know,
we spend a lot of Fridays trying to figure out

(33:11):
how we're gonna make payroll the next week.

Speaker 4 (33:13):
That's so crazy to sit there.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Crazy to think about now. But we also weren't a
very good basketball team, and you know, we went through
a couple of not great seasons, and then we decided
to trade away our very best player, player Vun Marbury,
to the New York Knicks, and that year we won
twenty nine games. Awful, okay, just aff but Glangelow sold

(33:37):
the team at that moment. He and Robert Sarver, the
next owner, actually were there for a couple of years together,
but they together. On July first of that summer, which
used to be the first day of free agency, came
to Dallas, Texas and signed Steve Nash contract, and so
Steve came to our team. We went from twenty nine

(33:59):
wins to sixty two wins the next year, which is
still the biggest single uh leap in terms of wins
of any team in the history of the NBA. Mike
D'Antoni was our coach. Steve Nash rookie amos.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
An interesting higher because he came from the Italian league.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Right he was as a player even so, and Mariy
Stottemarer was our rookie, and we went again from twenty
nine to sixty two wins, and we competed for the
Western Conference championship every year after that, kept running into
this team called the San Antonio Spurs, however, and never

(34:35):
made it to the NBA finals. And Mike's actually Mike
changed Mike Steve Nash. They changed the game of basketball.
But gone were the eighty eight to eighty two games.
And D'Antoni and Nash turned this into a run and shoot.
Three point shot becomes an offensive weapon the team strategically
use and the game has never looked back. D'Antoni didn't

(34:59):
really believe it. Playing defense another reason why we didn't
quite ever to the promised land. Okay, but when I
talk about Golden State, you know, we really feel like
we were the next evolution of Phoenix, because you know,
we did all that in terms of offense, but we
also played defense and chalked up a few championship.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
So you talk about the emotion as a leader, you know,
and you have all of that success with the sons
intertwined with not quite getting over the hump, and it's
hard because in a you know, from a business perspective,
I'm sure I would imagine you probably were able to
look at it and see great growth and revenue and
all of those things as a sales leader that are

(35:38):
important and CEO, but at the end of the day,
the championship was never there. So it probably did emotionally
get really challenging, like I want to win, but you
were probably winning from all the other metrics other than
the rings I to speak.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah, well, this would open a whole new chapter we
don't have time to get into now. But I had
been there for ten years and made the decision it
was my time to come out as the only openly
gay executive at that level in professional sports, and that
was really the reason I decided to leave, and didn't

(36:17):
really know how that was going to play out career wise.
But shortly after I left Phoenix, I got introduced to
the two new owners of the Golden State Warriors, Peter
Gouber and Joe Lacub, and had one interview for that job.
I needed to be in the Bay Area because of
the new love of my life, and that team happened

(36:38):
to be the brand new team in the area that
had new ownership. Just just barely getting started, so ended
up becoming president of Golden State Warriors. Again. Can't believe
how bad the Warriors was.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
So wait wait I got to stop you there.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
So if you lead the Warriors, I mean, if someone
just kind of was flipping through and saw your history
and your trajectory and timeline and all that, they go, oh, wall,
you know, the Warriors were going to be great. You know,
everyone always sees the game.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
So simply a lot of it was based on personal life.
You wanted to live in the bar area.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
So it was kind of a convenience like Okay, yeah,
I'll give it a shot.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Yeah. Well, and I was lucky enough to get the
job because everyone in the NBA had looked at that
franchise and said, if you could ever get this the
right ownership and manage this is pretty Steph Curry, Right,
Steph Curry was already on the roust.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
Okay went.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
So we had missed the playoffs when Joe and Peter
bought the team missed the playoffs in sixteen out of
seventeen seasons. Now, this is in a league where more
than half the teams make the playoffs every year. I
defy you to write the plan to miss the playoffs
in sixteen out of seventeen years. But it was all there,

(37:41):
and it'll sound a lot like Dallas, an amazing history
of fans, support, an unbelievable corporate community, and you know,
a great place to live. Like. It had all the
factors if we could just organize them, present them in
the right way. And you know, whenever we started feeling
too good about how smart we were and putting together

(38:03):
that team, I would have to remind Joe and Peter
he did already buy a team that had Steph Curry already. Okay,
now he wasn't Steph Curry. In fact he was. He
was not a very good player at that point in time,
but obviously what he's turned into made all the difference.
So you know, it was it was getting the business together,
presenting the team in a very different way, getting a

(38:25):
coach at Mark Jackson, who finally had our players believing
they could win games. We had the same losing attitude
in our front office. It was like, never made the playoffs,
Everyone got a vacation starting in April, got a raise,
came back, do it all over again. What's what's not
to love? It was fine, so changing that from what
it's been to what it could be and getting people

(38:46):
to believe in that is the hardest part. And Mark
did that in the locker room. I helped to do
that in the front office. And then we started.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
Having some wins, winning the Greatest.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
And and it wasn't all a one sure, but it
did start to have some wins.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
So so understanding in those leadership roles. You know, any
leader will tell you, especially when you're trying to change
and restart a culture. So you said you had a
marketplace that you felt.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
You know it did because immediately when you talked about
Golden State, I remember in my head and I have
to do this in Al Addams as the.

Speaker 4 (39:20):
Coach Rick Berry cool uniforms.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
You know, there was a lot of history and there's
history runs the Bay Area basketball in general.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
You know, Gary Payton's from there, Jason Kidd.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
So you do that, But what is your philosophy going
in because you said, I keep coming back to this
as we're talking. You know, you remember what it was
like being the kid making one hundred calls, and I
think it's so important as leaders not to forget those
things because it's really easy to say.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
You know, it's kind of like thinking, you know, you
were always at a certain level, So what is it
that you feel like you brought in each the Phoenix
example and the Golden State example, which you said are
fairly similar, that started changing the culture outside of winning,
like with in the day to day and all of that.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
I mean, you have to believe, like you have to
have people who believe. I knew what this could be.
I knew because again, all the ingredients for success were there,
we just hadn't organized them. And so first stay there
from the whole staff, it's like, here's where we're going.
This is what this can be. And by the way,
you've been there for ten years, you've seen this, done this,
rolling your eyes like, if you don't really believe we

(40:23):
can do this, probably a good time, yeah, to move on.
And by the way, we'll treat you great. And I
was able to find a couple of real gems that
have been kind of buried in the organization is the case,
so able to elevate them, give them more responsibility where
their coworker could say, oh yeah, okay, okay, they recognized
somebody who I know is really good. Then I could
supplement that with leaders who you know, had skill sets

(40:47):
that we didn't have in the organization. And combine those
two and as I said, started to have some little wins,
both business side and basketball side, and it just builds
on each other. And if you're lucky enough to have
what happened with our basketball team, I will also say
we had a We had something that came out of
the locker room I talk about all the time, which
is usually your marketing phrases don't come out of the

(41:09):
locker room. Okay, this one did. Is called strengthen numbers.
What did that mean by Steve Kirk? He meant that
every player on that roster has a role. They understand
their role. Whether they're playing two minutes a night or
whether they're playing forty minutes a night, they're contributing a
success to that team. And if I make if they
can believe that, and I can make them understand what
that role is and how it contributes, we can feel

(41:30):
like a much better team. And that's just as true
on the business side.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
Oh, if people a clarity of vision and understanding where
you fit and understanding where we're going to go together,
I think that has to be done or you're going
to be treading water, trying to figure it out every
day and not understand why you're not having the success
so you have had. You had a ton of success
in Golden State. You've had a ton of success through seventies, eighties, ninety.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
Why come to Dallas? I want to wrap up. Why
come to Dallas? I'm glad you're here, by the way,
but nothing to prove.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
I am too, but I was happily retired for three
and a half years, engaged in a lot of great
activities around but not doing a crazy sixty hour at
your job. Adam Silver called and said, you know, like
these no owners, the no owner at the Mavericks, I
really like Sint Marshall, who had been a friend is

(42:28):
retiring a CEO. Would you just talk to them and
have a conversation about who they might pick? So, you know,
one zoom call, very disarming, like this is the nicest
billionaire I've ever met, who's actually asking me my opinion
about things and listening. Okay, that's interesting, which led to another,
which led to a meeting, which led to the question

(42:50):
like would you consider doing this? And by then I
was hooked because again I've been coming to games at
Reunion Area since nineteen eighty. I knew the passionate fan
support exists here in the Dallas market. If there's any
market equal to Golden State in terms of a corporate
base and companies that are changing the world, it's here

(43:13):
in Dallas.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
And a great business friendly environment and a promise by
Patrick Dumont that we're going to build an area. And
you put those three together, it's like, who could who
given the opportunity to be in that role, couldn't take that?

Speaker 3 (43:27):
That's amazing. I mean, with all the success, all the
things you've seen, it'd be really easy to you know,
still be super engaged but also enjoy, you know, walking
off into you know, I don't want to say walk
off into the sunset, but like to pick and choose, right,
it was pretty good. Yeah, well, no, I had I
had an old former leader early in my career, and

(43:48):
he had he had had a lot of success, and
there were some biots.

Speaker 4 (43:51):
That's when consolidation was going.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
On in radio in the nineties, and you know, all
of us younger, you know, twenty something's like, oh do
you hear much money he.

Speaker 4 (43:58):
Made in that acquisition? Blah bla blah.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
Came back and I asked him one time. I was like,
you know, don why did you come back? You only
play so much golf and the phone stops ringing, and
you know, as people that are looked to for decisions
and things like that, that can be pretty hard. And
then you have something like this put in front of you.
So I have a couple more questions and I'm getting
waved on that we're gonna have to wrap it up
where we might be have a four hour marathon here.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
I know where I was when the draft.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
Lottery happened last year and I almost fell off a
treadmill and broke my leg.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
Where were you and what were you thinking?

Speaker 1 (44:34):
I was sitting in the room, so you know the
way the room was set up. This is a McCormick
Center and a big convention center in Chicago. There's an
audience in the back, then there's a table for each
of the teams in the lottery. Then there's this stage
and you have ten seats at the table. Nobody else
from the Mavericks wanted to go to the lottery. I

(44:56):
happened to still have a condo in Chicago that hadn't
seen since I moved here was like, I'll go, so there,
I am sitting there all by myself stop at our table.
I will say it was a little weird when I
walked in because Orlando Blackman, representing the Mavericks, happened to
be dead center right above Deputy Commissioner's podium. That's a
good placement. And I look over my shoulder behind me,

(45:20):
and six feet behind me, I am the closest NBA
executive sitting sitting next to Cooper Flag. Okay, okay, I
actually have my phone. I sneak to selfie because this
is like the last time I'm ever the last time
I'm ever going to see this, right, So, so you know,
you get through the first four picks where we should
have been there, it's like, well, that means that the

(45:43):
Mavericks have moved up to the top four FLA, you're
kidding me, Okay, So then of course it's the NBA.
So as soon as we get down to the fourth
last four picks, like they take a what seemed like
one hundred minute commercial break, right, So re set the stage.
Now Orlando Blackman is sitting right next to Deputy Commissioner Tatum,

(46:06):
and number four comes out. Number three comes out. Now
it's between us and san Antonio, what are you kidding me?
Opens envelope. San Antonio spurs the Dallas Mavericks number one
back one point eight percent.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
I mean, if all the things you've seen in your
career you had to get, you had to be like,
come on.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
Well, we don't have time. I can. You may ask
at some point who was the NBA executive in charge
of the very first draft lottery of when Patrick Huting. Yeah,
but that's nice that went to the New York next
that happened to be. But I'm just from what I've
been told urban legend.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
So I will say and then I will give you
last question that we'll do our final question roulette. So
I was at the gym, as I said, and I
saw it on TV and I was like, oh, yeah,
that's tonight, and I'm watching, and like you said, it
got more interesting. And when it was down to the
final three, everyone in the gym stopped and we were
all gathered on a TV and everyone is looking at

(47:08):
each other, going there's no way, there is absolutely no way.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
And then you know, here we are.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Avick said, never moved up in come, so we're going
to be in it again. So let's well let's keep
our fingers, okay, but that that does.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
Lightning something interesting from around the last question. You know,
everything that happened a year ago with Luco and don't
need to discuss challenges this year, younger team and all
of that, I think from a interesting from a business perspective,
a leadership perspective, it's really interesting to me that you
and Patrick Dumont decided on tickets and renewals and things

(47:46):
for next year, no increases or anything like that.

Speaker 4 (47:50):
Is that right?

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yeah? It actually was a strange meeting because I've never
been in one like that in all my years, where
you know, your staff does a lot of science and
homework on what tickets sell for, what the resale market is,
where their opportunities were underpriced actually compared to most NBA teams.
And we went in to Patrick and you know, started saying,

(48:11):
here are some places we could tweak a little bit,
so we're not doing that. We didn't deliver on the
promise of what this year should be should be, so
no no increase in ticket prices. I'm thrilled where we are.
We now can build the future. We have a story,
we're now past the trade deadline, building future around this
generational nineteen year old player who has the potential to

(48:34):
become one of the greatest players in the history of
the game. So we have a really clear path and
I think fans can get excited about that. Every every
move we make, every pick we make now is meant
to develop a team around Cooper Flag that can compete
for championships. So we have a great story to tell
and it's going to be a I'm really looking forward

(48:54):
to the next three or four years.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
I mean, I'm glad we could touch on it a
little bit because in this era how owners are looked at,
you know, stadium deal. I mean, like, what are the
Bears thinking about moving to Hammond, Indiana? And yeah, I
mean and all you know, the facade goes away and
people just see greed. And again it's a business and people.
But I think that that's such a great to me

(49:17):
as a as a business leader, saying, hey, maybe we
haven't delivered on what we've wanted to and so you know,
to be in partnership with our fans.

Speaker 4 (49:24):
Because it really is a partnership.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Well, and the commitment, you know, we're gonna announce we're
going to build a new building Yep. The commitment is
we're hoping by July to be able to tell everybody
where that's.

Speaker 4 (49:35):
Going to be awesome.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
We're on the record saying we want to be the
team that wears Dallas on their uniforms, that actually plays
in Dallas.

Speaker 4 (49:42):
I think that's great, and we're.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
Doing everything in our power working with the city to
try to make that happen. So fingers crossed, it's going
to be an unbelievable investment in North Texas. We're not
talking about an arena. We're talking about a fifty acre
district that includes the best arena ever created, which is
probably part of the reason I'm here. Kispatrick really likes
Chase Center in San Francisco, got it. But when you

(50:04):
walk into that building, what I'm hoping is that you
walk in and say, Wow, they really understand Dallas. We're
not building Chase Center, We're not building into a dome,
We're not building crypto dot com arena. We're going to
build the greatest expression of basketball in Dallas it's ever
been thought of.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
That's exciting.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
I think that you know, I would imagine from your perspective.
Not to put words in your mouth, but it's been
a lot over the last year and now to be
aiming towards that, like you said, an announcement something that's
going to be Dallas, and I think just hearing what
you said that the you know, saying that the jerseys
are going to be really where the team is. I
think that's important to teams and fans and maintaining that

(50:43):
fandom because sometimes you get worried the way players move
around and things that happen. You know, you can't take
that for granted. And I think your history in the
in the in the NBA, you understand that probably better
than anybody.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Well. And I'll bring it back to your very first question,
which is why I love that question so much because
I ask it all the time because this will be
there'll be a lot more events other than basketball games
in this in this brand new arena, and that's what
these things are. These are places that create lifetime memories.
That's why I asked that question because there'll be some

(51:16):
kid who will be answering that question. I remember being
in that Mavericks Arena for that game when they won
the championship, and you know, in twenty seven, uh, and
that'll be their lifetime memory. That's what these things are about.
There are great places to play basketball games, but they're
about creating connections and lifetime memories.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
I love that, and it's it's it's funny because I
was talking to my son and I was telling him
I that we were going to be talking and I'll.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
Ask some of his questions a little bit later.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
But I told him I asked the concert question, and
as I it was barely out of my mouth, and
he goes, well, you know mine was Aerosmith, right, and
and people do remember, and it leads to and you
can't put dollar figure on that. And by creating that environment,
I think that's that's such a great thing and an
awesome thing.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
And to be a part of.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
So Rick, before we get you out of here, we
do something called question roulette, and we do it different
with every guest to try and have some of their
favorite things.

Speaker 4 (52:16):
All of our previous.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
Guests are big into cookies and sweets and candy and
things like that.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
And we hear that you are more into protein and health.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
You know, I think bad research. I go right for
the ice cream.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
Well it would have melted because you know, I have
been talking for a long time.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
So we have some protein options here in front of
you with an envelope and a each envelope is one
final question for you.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
So shoes, we have peanuts, we have.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
Protein bar definitely cashus over peanuts.

Speaker 4 (52:41):
Take it open and you have a question in there.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
So oh my glasses on you. They need to help man. Okay,
all right. I think this is as someone who has
watched the NBA for the last last fifty years, what
is your wow moment that you witness that you will
never forget. I think it would be Clay Thompson's thirty

(53:05):
four point quarter in a game. Never ever, when we
see that again, NBA all time record for a number
of points in a quarter. Now, proud Maverick believe I didn't.

Speaker 4 (53:15):
Realize that was him?

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Yeah before?

Speaker 4 (53:18):
I mean, how many threes did he head?

Speaker 1 (53:20):
I think he had. I don't remember, but I think
he had eleven dribbles, which was the most amazing thing.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
Oh wow, Okay, I have to ask one more question
then we will stop, Amanda, I promise this is the
Chris question that I have to ask.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
You mentioned Larry Bird.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Earlier, and there's a lot of talk about Cooper Flag
having seen both as rookies, how do they compare and contrast.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
I think they have a very different skill set. I mean,
Cooper's more gifted as an athlete, athlete is than than
But I think the thing that they share is this
unbelievable level of competitiveness. They want to win everything they
do every day, not not just basketball games, they want
to win it everything they do. And I think if

(54:07):
you want to pick one characteristic they share like that
would be hopefully, hopefully there'll be some championship.

Speaker 4 (54:12):
Hopefully there will be some championships for sure.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
You know you mentioned the three point shooting contest, the
legend of you know which one of you guys is
coming in second, which is so amazing about.

Speaker 4 (54:22):
Larry Bird for sure.

Speaker 3 (54:24):
As I said, Rick, I could have gone on for
a couple more hours, So I appreciate you taking the
time with us. This has been a lot of fun.
We're looking forward to the announcement in July and great
things to build around Cooper Flag and all the things
you're doing with the maps.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
Thanks for joining us, it was great.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
Enjoya