September 3, 2025 • 14 mins
"What would you do if someone paid you \$28 million… and you didn’t have to do a single thing?"In this explosive episode of The Ben and Skin Show, hosts Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray dive headfirst into one of the juiciest sports scandals in recent memory. The crew unpacks the jaw-dropping revelations from Pablo Torre’s investigation into Aspire KL2, a mysterious LLC tied to Kawhi Leonard, and a \$28 million “endorsement” deal that never actually happened.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Now let's go around the sports. KTD twins as all
the sports.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, oh yeah, I do have all the sports.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
So what's going on with this Kawhi Leonard thing.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
Well, that's an interesting question there, kat We've often theorized
about circumventing the salary cap.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
What does that mean?
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Well, in sports, you have a salary cap and you
can't go over that salary cap. But keep supposed to
keep a competitive playing field because obviously, like in baseball,
for example, the San Diego Padres don't have as much
money as the New York Yankees because of market size
and stuff like this. So we have these salary caps
and you can't go over the salary cap. So we've thought, okay, well,
(00:49):
if an owner really wanted a player, I mean, come on, dude,
they have other businesses. They have other ways that they
could line your pocket, right, they could get you involved
in real estate deal or things like that. Well, if
you guys remember a month or so ago, we played
audio from Pablo Torre. Finds out he's like a ESPN personality.
(01:11):
Now he does his own thing and he does a
bunch of investigative journalist stuff. Well, he started going down
the rabbit hole of a company called Aspire. Aspire is
like one of these environmentally conscious companies. And Steve Balmer
who owns the Clippers, and Microsoft guy worth.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Billions and billions and billions and billions and billions.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
He might, I don't know, he might be like fifty
billion dollar guy, he owns the Clippers. They signed Kawhi Leonard.
He invested fifty billion dollars in a company called Aspire. Well,
Aspire had a bunch of celebrity endorsers. Fifty billion I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, okay, fifty million, my apologies, fifty million dollars
(01:51):
in Aspire. So a year ago Aspire sometime in the
last twelve months, Aspire went bankrupt. So when you go bankrupts,
all these court filings and all these different LLCs and things,
and so you can go digging in there. Pablo Torre
went digging in there, and he found out that there
was an LLC called Aspire KL two. Okay, Kawhi Leonard's
(02:17):
number is two. Oh And Aspire paid Kawhi Leonard twenty
eight million dollars over four years to endorse their product.
All right, so seven million dollars a year over a
four year period, and then he started looking at well,
what is KL two. Well, the managing partner of KL
two is Kawhi Leonard, so you know, okay, we can
(02:40):
endorse something. The problem is that over the three and
a half year period, Kawhi Leonard never once mentioned Aspire
anywhere on the internet, never once endorsed it, never once
did anything. Whoo okay, So think about that. Steve Baumer's like, yeah,
I'll give your company fifty million, and twenty eight of
that million is going to go Kawhi Leonard for an endorsement.
(03:01):
He never did. There's Kawhi Leonard's reaction to the endorsement.
So Pablo Torre just started digging deeper and he ended up.
One of my favorite things in the world is an informant.
And you talk to an informant and they disguise the voice. Yes,
and man, you guys are gonna enjoy the information here.
(03:23):
But I think more than anything, you're gonna enjoy the
voice of the disguised informant. This person is an accountant
for a spire, all right. This person would see the money,
be told what it's gonna be for, how it's coded,
Sit back and enjoy this.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
I convinced one very important person who worked in the
finance department of Aspiration to go on tape.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And I didn't so much as discover it as I
was told about it.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
What was your reaction? What were you told?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
My reaction was what the fuck? And I was told like, oh,
these are the major contracts in the met players you
really need to be aware of. And we went through
a litany of, you know, really really top tier name
contracts and then oh, by the way, we also have
a marketing deal with Kawhi Leonard, a twenty eight million
(04:15):
dollar organic marketing sponsorship deal with Kawhi and that if
I had any questions about it essentially adult because it
was to circumvent the salary cast. There was lots of
lol when things were shared.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
Did you ever see proof of Kawhi Leonard marketing or
endorsing Aspiration in any way?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Never?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Not once.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
The same ole largest payment to an individual for marketing
that Aspiration ever made has completely evaded all press. It's
honestly incredible. Nothing. You didn't have to do anything.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
In other words, Kawhi Leonard got from Aspiration a twenty
eight million dollar no show job.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, it's amazing. I'm honestly so jealous. I mean, he's
got the dream, like it's within my beliefs to be
paid twenty eight million dollars and do absolutely call as well?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
All right, I can't.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I was a little distracted because I love like when
they do that someone's voice and informant.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
I couldn't tell if it was a woman or a
very sassy man. I think it's a former weather guy.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I feel like it's pretty obvious if you work in
that company, you you're gonna know who that is.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Right, Well, it's a company that has so many millions
of dollars involved, they probably have what's his name? Torre
said he talked to seven different people. Okay, the paper
trail here, right, yeah, Like, and you can find Robert
Downey Junior doing commercials for it, like it it was
a legitimate, big time company. But in this case, this
was just this is basically also aside from circumventing a
(05:47):
salary cap, this is kind of money laundering.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Why don't you cover.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Your tracks and shoot a commercial with Kawi? Then? Right, well,
now they're bankrupt.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Oh you're saying, why didn't they just do a little
bit of a better job, like something to like try
a little bit harder to guide it. He could have
done one single post online and been fine. But they
probably just thought that it would fly under the radar,
they would never get caught, and they thought that maybe
if he does do something, it shines attention to it.
Because remember, like I'll give you an example. Do you
(06:15):
guys remember when Cuban got busted because Dennis Rodman lived
in his guest house. Yeah, like that's how extreme the idea.
I mean, me and Ben were talking about this earlier.
I think like half of the nineties cowboys were involved
in this stuff personally.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Now, because you have.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
To like, this is bad in a league where everyone
is the competitive balance is off now, Yeah, so like,
how do we It's a huge problem, dude, This is handle.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
This is mark Stein's react, and you know, you guys
know how straight lace mark Stein is. His reaction to
this on Twitter told me everything I need to know. Like,
I think this is the kind of thing where they
may take first round picks away from them from a
for a decade, Like this is the most extreme, blatant cheating.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, since you.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Know, But if I'm them, I'm like, okay, okay, you
caught us. But if you're going to burn us down.
We're taking everyone down, and let's go do a deep
dive on every single team and see how all these
people are circumventing the cap because I guarantee you they
wouldn't be the only ones doing it, and the NBA
wouldn't even be the only sport doing it. This was
the fear with the Donald Sterling thing. When they decided
(07:22):
to take a team away from Donald Sterling, they were like,
there's twenty nine other businessmen going, do they want us?
Do we want the NBA in our business?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah? You know it. It's this is hit it with
a hit and run type of thing.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
This is why Alabama never turns in Georgia for recruiting violations.
I mean it's different now with an IL, but back
in the day, schools didn't turn each other in. You
think Oklahoma wanted to turn in SMU Hell no, you know,
excuse all right? Coming up in just over three minutes,
don't go anywhere. Another athlete just got a massive contract
(07:57):
here in DFW and it was not Micah Parsons will
tell you who it is next. Banan Skin Show ninety
seven point one, The Eagle, Thank you for hanging out
with us.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Today.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
All right, we have a America's favorite segment, the Today Game,
happening thirty minutes from right now. We never podcast that
you're gonna have to listen live, do not miss it,
but right now it's time for this.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Normally, in the world of sports, we did around sports earlier, right, yeah,
we sure did. It's part It's sports part two.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Normally in the world of sports, you know, we might
be talking cowboys here considering the season starts tomorrow. We'll
get to that at five. Okay, uh, we have MAVs news.
We have lots of MAVs news. Actually, so today finally
getting it official. PJ Washington four years, ninety million dollars
Dante Xum official and it looks like Omax prosper will
(08:41):
be a free agent.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Now he definitely is. They waived him. So there are
your MAVs moves. They're making moves.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Man.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
That sucks that you can't get anything for Omax.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
But oh well, yeah, I wonder why or maybe everyone
realized you're gonna have to cut him. Yeah, well you
were going to have to attach draft compensation for them
to take him. So they owed him three million dollars
and so basically you can do what's called a wave
and stretch. So instead of that three million dollars going
against the cap this year, it's one million dollars against
(09:13):
the cap for the next three years, So it's just
a one. By the way, did you guys know they
still have a cap hit for JaVale McGhee. Oh wow?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Ouch.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Well, but the big the bigger story, right obviously being
PJ Washington. Yeah, and let me let me do it.
A great piece to have be a part of this
moving forward. Yeah, and let me just say to wrap
that up before we get to PJ. The reason they
did that is because they wanted to sign Dante Xham
and they had to get rid of a guaranteed contract
because I think Dante xam actually just what I think
(09:43):
I know about kid, he might end up starting games,
well some of them, I get it. I thought he
was going to go play in Europe too, he was
talking about it, right, And so they got him for
a minimum contract. So anyways, then the next move to
Ben's point, PJ. Washington Junior And because excuse me, because
when they did it, he can't be traded this year,
(10:03):
so he will be a Dallas maverick no matter what
for this year PJ. Yeah, because for a while there
was a talk that maybe he could be traded right, yeah,
but not now.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
It took they waited too long to do it.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Well, it had to do with the time period from
when he was eligible for an extension. He wasn't eligible
I think until last week. And then also there's a
couple different things. There's a thing called base year compensation,
but even more importantly the time period with which he signed.
You can't trade him for six months. That's going to
be after the trade deadline. Oh, I got it, Okay,
So it assures that he will be a Maverick this
(10:39):
year no matter what.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
And I don't mind that, you know.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I also like the idea of it being a tradable contract.
If you want to go that direction, it gives you
some flexibility. But I like him. I think he's a
great piece to be involved here. Phenomenal defender. If you're
not asking him to be one of your two or
three best players, great if he's your fourth or fifth
best player.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Hell yeah yeah. And also like what he does.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I mean, we'll see how.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It all shakes out, but I really strongly believe that
by the time where it Thanksgiving I think him and
Cooper flag are both starting. Now, let's see what happens
on the injury front.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Derrick Gladly the second.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Ready to go?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
What what the injury?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
You mean?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah, there's there's speculation.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Did Cuban say the other day that their season depends
on how Lively shoots threes or something?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
He did?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Ben?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
What was I like that?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
I'm like, if it all comes down to how a
twenty three point shooter shoots threes?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Is here?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Who wasn't? What has he taken less than five in
his NBA? Someone else hit him? And Anthony Davis? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Yeah, And I you know, Anthony Davis is all right.
I don't think that's a huge strength of his, but
he can you hit threes here and there?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
He's let me just say, I don't agree with cuban possessment.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I think it's kind of what if CBS kind of
trolling a little bit. He guys kind of pushed me
out wrong here he was doing.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
I think the question was their season hinges on blank?
And he said, how well Anthony Davis and Derek Lively
does that get shoot threes?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
I would say it depends on.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
It depends on how soon Kay's back, how healthy he
is the rest of the way, and really healthy? How
healthy are they? That's what it comes down to. Anthony
Davis gets hurt every seven minutes. So if they can
stay healthy, they're gonna be really good.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
They're gonna be good.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
And you know, to your point, how quickly does Kyrie
come back? And at what percentage of him is he?
Is he eighty percent? Kyrie? Is he sixty percent? You know,
all that's going to make a difference. The Mavericks are
going to hang in games they're not. The West is
too tough for them to have one of the best
records when they're not, when they're missing one of their
two best players. The West is just too difficult. But
(12:51):
they're good enough to hang in there. And so if
they hang in there and then you get Kyrie back
and he's seventy five to eighty percent of what Kyrie
is with those guys around him, then suddenly you're the
proverbial team that nobody wants to play. They're going to
be And again it could be wrong, but I think
they're gonna play PJ. Washington Junior and Cooper Flag together
(13:13):
a lot, which means Cooper Flag is a two and PJ.
Washington Junior is a three. With Anthony Davis and either
Gafford or Lively behind him, that's a very difficult team
to score on. And especially if they do decide to
put Dante x Amount there, that's the best team in
the NBA defensively by a long shot. No disrespect to
Oklahoma City. The problem is does that team have enough shooting?
(13:35):
And that's kind of what Cuban's alluding to. Well, if
the big guys hit threes and everything's great, but if not,
they have spacing problems, which is why they may say, well,
Klay Thompson has to start, is Clay ready to come
off the bench. These are all things that jakd has
to figure out, right, I think just now it's like
when you trade Luca anything is fair game, Like I
used to worry about it.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
What Clay would feel like?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Is he gonna hurt his feelings?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Right? And are out the window?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Now?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
How many games does Meg the Stallion show up to
this year? Oh that's the over under? Well yeah, all right,
there you have it. A big new contract in town.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
PJ.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Washington coming up next. Let us ask you a question,
a very important question. Then, the Today game, then cussing
the Cowboys It's all coming your way. Next on the Eagle,
Now let's go around the sports. KTD twins as all
the sports.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, oh yeah, I do have all the sports.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
So what's going on with this Kawhi Leonard thing.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
Well, that's an interesting question there, kat We've often theorized
about circumventing the salary cap.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
What does that mean?
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Well, in sports, you have a salary cap and you
can't go over that salary cap. But keep supposed to
keep a competitive playing field because obviously, like in baseball,
for example, the San Diego Padres don't have as much
money as the New York Yankees because of market size
and stuff like this. So we have these salary caps
and you can't go over the salary cap. So we've thought, okay, well,
(00:49):
if an owner really wanted a player, I mean, come on, dude,
they have other businesses. They have other ways that they
could line your pocket, right, they could get you involved
in real estate deal or things like that. Well, if
you guys remember a month or so ago, we played
audio from Pablo Torre. Finds out he's like a ESPN personality.
(01:11):
Now he does his own thing and he does a
bunch of investigative journalist stuff. Well, he started going down
the rabbit hole of a company called Aspire. Aspire is
like one of these environmentally conscious companies. And Steve Balmer
who owns the Clippers, and Microsoft guy worth.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Billions and billions and billions and billions and billions.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
He might, I don't know, he might be like fifty
billion dollar guy, he owns the Clippers. They signed Kawhi Leonard.
He invested fifty billion dollars in a company called Aspire. Well,
Aspire had a bunch of celebrity endorsers. Fifty billion I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, okay, fifty million, my apologies, fifty million dollars
(01:51):
in Aspire. So a year ago Aspire sometime in the
last twelve months, Aspire went bankrupt. So when you go bankrupts,
all these court filings and all these different LLCs and things,
and so you can go digging in there. Pablo Torre
went digging in there, and he found out that there
was an LLC called Aspire KL two. Okay, Kawhi Leonard's
(02:17):
number is two. Oh And Aspire paid Kawhi Leonard twenty
eight million dollars over four years to endorse their product.
All right, so seven million dollars a year over a
four year period, and then he started looking at well,
what is KL two. Well, the managing partner of KL
two is Kawhi Leonard, so you know, okay, we can
(02:40):
endorse something. The problem is that over the three and
a half year period, Kawhi Leonard never once mentioned Aspire
anywhere on the internet, never once endorsed it, never once
did anything. Whoo okay, So think about that. Steve Baumer's like, yeah,
I'll give your company fifty million, and twenty eight of
that million is going to go Kawhi Leonard for an endorsement.
(03:01):
He never did. There's Kawhi Leonard's reaction to the endorsement.
So Pablo Torre just started digging deeper and he ended up.
One of my favorite things in the world is an informant.
And you talk to an informant and they disguise the voice. Yes,
and man, you guys are gonna enjoy the information here.
(03:23):
But I think more than anything, you're gonna enjoy the
voice of the disguised informant. This person is an accountant
for a spire, all right. This person would see the money,
be told what it's gonna be for, how it's coded,
Sit back and enjoy this.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
I convinced one very important person who worked in the
finance department of Aspiration to go on tape.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And I didn't so much as discover it as I
was told about it.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
What was your reaction? What were you told?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
My reaction was what the fuck? And I was told like, oh,
these are the major contracts in the met players you
really need to be aware of. And we went through
a litany of, you know, really really top tier name
contracts and then oh, by the way, we also have
a marketing deal with Kawhi Leonard, a twenty eight million
(04:15):
dollar organic marketing sponsorship deal with Kawhi and that if
I had any questions about it essentially adult because it
was to circumvent the salary cast. There was lots of
lol when things were shared.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
Did you ever see proof of Kawhi Leonard marketing or
endorsing Aspiration in any way?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Never?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Not once.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
The same ole largest payment to an individual for marketing
that Aspiration ever made has completely evaded all press. It's
honestly incredible. Nothing. You didn't have to do anything.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
In other words, Kawhi Leonard got from Aspiration a twenty
eight million dollar no show job.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, it's amazing. I'm honestly so jealous. I mean, he's
got the dream, like it's within my beliefs to be
paid twenty eight million dollars and do absolutely call as well?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
All right, I can't.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I was a little distracted because I love like when
they do that someone's voice and informant.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
I couldn't tell if it was a woman or a
very sassy man. I think it's a former weather guy.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I feel like it's pretty obvious if you work in
that company, you you're gonna know who that is.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Right, Well, it's a company that has so many millions
of dollars involved, they probably have what's his name? Torre
said he talked to seven different people. Okay, the paper
trail here, right, yeah, Like, and you can find Robert
Downey Junior doing commercials for it, like it it was
a legitimate, big time company. But in this case, this
was just this is basically also aside from circumventing a
(05:47):
salary cap, this is kind of money laundering.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Why don't you cover.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Your tracks and shoot a commercial with Kawi? Then? Right, well,
now they're bankrupt.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Oh you're saying, why didn't they just do a little
bit of a better job, like something to like try
a little bit harder to guide it. He could have
done one single post online and been fine. But they
probably just thought that it would fly under the radar,
they would never get caught, and they thought that maybe
if he does do something, it shines attention to it.
Because remember, like I'll give you an example. Do you
(06:15):
guys remember when Cuban got busted because Dennis Rodman lived
in his guest house. Yeah, like that's how extreme the idea.
I mean, me and Ben were talking about this earlier.
I think like half of the nineties cowboys were involved
in this stuff personally.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Now, because you have.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
To like, this is bad in a league where everyone
is the competitive balance is off now, Yeah, so like,
how do we It's a huge problem, dude, This is handle.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
This is mark Stein's react, and you know, you guys
know how straight lace mark Stein is. His reaction to
this on Twitter told me everything I need to know. Like,
I think this is the kind of thing where they
may take first round picks away from them from a
for a decade, Like this is the most extreme, blatant cheating.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, since you.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Know, But if I'm them, I'm like, okay, okay, you
caught us. But if you're going to burn us down.
We're taking everyone down, and let's go do a deep
dive on every single team and see how all these
people are circumventing the cap because I guarantee you they
wouldn't be the only ones doing it, and the NBA
wouldn't even be the only sport doing it. This was
the fear with the Donald Sterling thing. When they decided
(07:22):
to take a team away from Donald Sterling, they were like,
there's twenty nine other businessmen going, do they want us?
Do we want the NBA in our business?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah? You know it. It's this is hit it with
a hit and run type of thing.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
This is why Alabama never turns in Georgia for recruiting violations.
I mean it's different now with an IL, but back
in the day, schools didn't turn each other in. You
think Oklahoma wanted to turn in SMU Hell no, you know,
excuse all right? Coming up in just over three minutes,
don't go anywhere. Another athlete just got a massive contract
(07:57):
here in DFW and it was not Micah Parsons will
tell you who it is next. Banan Skin Show ninety
seven point one, The Eagle, Thank you for hanging out
with us.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Today.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
All right, we have a America's favorite segment, the Today Game,
happening thirty minutes from right now. We never podcast that
you're gonna have to listen live, do not miss it,
but right now it's time for this.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Normally, in the world of sports, we did around sports earlier, right, yeah,
we sure did. It's part It's sports part two.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Normally in the world of sports, you know, we might
be talking cowboys here considering the season starts tomorrow. We'll
get to that at five. Okay, uh, we have MAVs news.
We have lots of MAVs news. Actually, so today finally
getting it official. PJ Washington four years, ninety million dollars
Dante Xum official and it looks like Omax prosper will
(08:41):
be a free agent.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Now he definitely is. They waived him. So there are
your MAVs moves. They're making moves.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Man.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
That sucks that you can't get anything for Omax.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
But oh well, yeah, I wonder why or maybe everyone
realized you're gonna have to cut him. Yeah, well you
were going to have to attach draft compensation for them
to take him. So they owed him three million dollars
and so basically you can do what's called a wave
and stretch. So instead of that three million dollars going
against the cap this year, it's one million dollars against
(09:13):
the cap for the next three years, So it's just
a one. By the way, did you guys know they
still have a cap hit for JaVale McGhee. Oh wow?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Ouch.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Well, but the big the bigger story, right obviously being
PJ Washington. Yeah, and let me let me do it.
A great piece to have be a part of this
moving forward. Yeah, and let me just say to wrap
that up before we get to PJ. The reason they
did that is because they wanted to sign Dante Xham
and they had to get rid of a guaranteed contract
because I think Dante xam actually just what I think
(09:43):
I know about kid, he might end up starting games,
well some of them, I get it. I thought he
was going to go play in Europe too, he was
talking about it, right, And so they got him for
a minimum contract. So anyways, then the next move to
Ben's point, PJ. Washington Junior And because excuse me, because
when they did it, he can't be traded this year,
(10:03):
so he will be a Dallas maverick no matter what
for this year PJ. Yeah, because for a while there
was a talk that maybe he could be traded right, yeah,
but not now.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
It took they waited too long to do it.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Well, it had to do with the time period from
when he was eligible for an extension. He wasn't eligible
I think until last week. And then also there's a
couple different things. There's a thing called base year compensation,
but even more importantly the time period with which he signed.
You can't trade him for six months. That's going to
be after the trade deadline. Oh, I got it, Okay,
So it assures that he will be a Maverick this
(10:39):
year no matter what.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
And I don't mind that, you know.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I also like the idea of it being a tradable contract.
If you want to go that direction, it gives you
some flexibility. But I like him. I think he's a
great piece to be involved here. Phenomenal defender. If you're
not asking him to be one of your two or
three best players, great if he's your fourth or fifth
best player.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Hell yeah yeah. And also like what he does.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I mean, we'll see how.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It all shakes out, but I really strongly believe that
by the time where it Thanksgiving I think him and
Cooper flag are both starting. Now, let's see what happens
on the injury front.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Derrick Gladly the second.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Ready to go?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
What what the injury?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
You mean?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah, there's there's speculation.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Did Cuban say the other day that their season depends
on how Lively shoots threes or something?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
He did?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Ben?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
What was I like that?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
I'm like, if it all comes down to how a
twenty three point shooter shoots threes?
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Is here?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Who wasn't? What has he taken less than five in
his NBA? Someone else hit him? And Anthony Davis? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Yeah, And I you know, Anthony Davis is all right.
I don't think that's a huge strength of his, but
he can you hit threes here and there?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
He's let me just say, I don't agree with cuban possessment.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I think it's kind of what if CBS kind of
trolling a little bit. He guys kind of pushed me
out wrong here he was doing.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
I think the question was their season hinges on blank?
And he said, how well Anthony Davis and Derek Lively
does that get shoot threes?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
I would say it depends on.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
It depends on how soon Kay's back, how healthy he
is the rest of the way, and really healthy? How
healthy are they? That's what it comes down to. Anthony
Davis gets hurt every seven minutes. So if they can
stay healthy, they're gonna be really good.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
They're gonna be good.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
And you know, to your point, how quickly does Kyrie
come back? And at what percentage of him is he?
Is he eighty percent? Kyrie? Is he sixty percent? You know,
all that's going to make a difference. The Mavericks are
going to hang in games they're not. The West is
too tough for them to have one of the best
records when they're not, when they're missing one of their
two best players. The West is just too difficult. But
(12:51):
they're good enough to hang in there. And so if
they hang in there and then you get Kyrie back
and he's seventy five to eighty percent of what Kyrie
is with those guys around him, then suddenly you're the
proverbial team that nobody wants to play. They're going to
be And again it could be wrong, but I think
they're gonna play PJ. Washington Junior and Cooper Flag together
(13:13):
a lot, which means Cooper Flag is a two and PJ.
Washington Junior is a three. With Anthony Davis and either
Gafford or Lively behind him, that's a very difficult team
to score on. And especially if they do decide to
put Dante x Amount there, that's the best team in
the NBA defensively by a long shot. No disrespect to
Oklahoma City. The problem is does that team have enough shooting?
(13:35):
And that's kind of what Cuban's alluding to. Well, if
the big guys hit threes and everything's great, but if not,
they have spacing problems, which is why they may say, well,
Klay Thompson has to start, is Clay ready to come
off the bench. These are all things that jakd has
to figure out, right, I think just now it's like
when you trade Luca anything is fair game, Like I
used to worry about it.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
What Clay would feel like?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Is he gonna hurt his feelings?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Right? And are out the window?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Now?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
How many games does Meg the Stallion show up to
this year? Oh that's the over under? Well yeah, all right,
there you have it. A big new contract in town.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
PJ.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Washington coming up next. Let us ask you a question,
a very important question. Then, the Today game, then cussing
the Cowboys It's all coming your way. Next on the Eagle,
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