August 13, 2023 • 10 mins
After years of guesting on their show, Stein finally achieves some role reversal by bringing Ben and Skin on as HIS guests. All three were in Springfield together to attend the weekend ceremonies are share their behind-the-scenes tales
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is dirt and whiskey, andyou're listening to the Saturday Stein Line with
my guys Steiny on ninety seven onethe Freak. Everyone. An absolute pleasure
to rejoin you from Springfield, Massachusetts, the Saturday Stein Line presented by Panini
(00:20):
Trading Cards and Collectibles. And thisis a freet I am joined in a
real show of role reversal. AfterI don't know how many years I've been
their guest many times, this isthe first time they are my guests the
franchise, the faces of the franchiseat the Freak, well really rhiner is.
(00:44):
But let's just be nice to theseguys and tell them that they're the
faces of the franchise. Ben andSkin sitting with me in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The kids from Richardson, the BerkenerBoys are here in Springfield. How
did this happen? You guys arestop pinching yourself. It's really hard to
(01:07):
put into words the way the lastyou know, twenty eight hours as felt
from the time that we got onthe plane to sitting here with you now
in a studio that's not even fiveminutes from the Basketball Hall of Fame,
and we're here talking about Dirk andyou know, we rode with you this
(01:30):
morning, Steiny from We're in thisarea called Mohegan's Son, and we got
up early and got in a ridewith you and we rode over here and
it's an hour drive. And thathour drive just added to all the awesomeness
of the weekend. Because we werereflecting on when Ben first talked to you
into coming onto the Rogers report onCase Star. Ben should probably talk a
little more about that. Yeah,we uh, we go way back.
(01:53):
It's it's an honor to have thoseroles reversed and to be on your show.
And yeah, man, i'm myself. I feel like, you know,
Skin is an actual journalist. Imean, Skin is actually a brilliant
you know, he's incredibly He's becomequite the journalist, has it. He
become quite the polished suit wearing Well, he's sideline man. He's one of
(02:16):
the best analysts in the NBA.And I'm biased, but he is brilliant,
you know, son of a coach, and he's a total badass.
I am a tourist, like Iam, I keep expecting somebody to throw
me out of here and say,hey, you're not supposed to be here.
But somehow it almost did happen lastnight. A few times, to
be fair, I feel like it'salways teetering on the edge of happening,
(02:37):
Like it's always very close to happening. But you know, as a lifelong
basketball fan, a lifelong Maverick fan, to go on the twenty one season
journey that Dirk took us on asa as a collective fan base, you
know, that was insane. Andthen for Skin and I to sneak into
the media business and then ride hiscoat tails, you know, and build
(02:58):
a career out of this where wecan actually support our families. It's hard
not to be retrospective and look backon everything and get emotional because you can
see the way it's impacting the biggerman. You see the way it's impacting
him, and he is teary eyedand reflective, and man, he just
did everything the right way and therewill never be another dirt. I don't
(03:20):
know if I've ever asked you guysthis quite the way I'm going to ask
you now. But you know,throughout on the run to the championship,
fifty win seasons every year, Darkbecame an All Star, clearly one of
the best players in the league,but he was relentlessly doubted all the way.
You know, I always say hehas such a unique career arc because
(03:43):
in OZ six they beat San Antonioon their floor and I was working at
ESPN at the time, and BillSimmons said it, and I totally agreed
with him that Dirk is playing.This is the best forward play we've seen
since bird He that is the levelDirk reached in that series. But then
two rounds later they unravel it againstMiami, they lose the finals, and
then the next four seasons, youknow, he's just drifting farther and farther
(04:06):
away from the championship. So it'slike it seemed like he scaled the mountain,
then he comes back down. Wereyou guys worried it was just never
gonna happen? That twenty eleven wasthat there was never going to be a
championship. I mean, you guysare MAVs fans. First before your broadcasters,
tell me the truth, did youafter zero six and then those subsequent
(04:28):
rough years after, did you reallybelieve that a championship was forthcoming? I
didn't. I don't know that Ibelieve necessarily a championship was forthcoming. To
me, it got really bad whenthey traded for Jason Kidd with Avery Johnson
as the coach, because I'm lookingat this going. You guys know the
(04:48):
offense. You've been running this ideathat Jason kids just going to magically make
this team better when they are stagnant, like he's great when people are on
the move. And then they bringRick Carlisle in and remember they I did
instill the printed offense and scrapped itbefore camp. Uh So, I don't
know that I thought that a championshipwas forthcoming, but I did think.
(05:10):
I did believe in that twenty eleventeam as being a great team, and
once they came back in Game oneagainst the Lakers, I thought they could
get to the finals. I didnot think they were going to beat the
Heat. And I think that's themost you know, extraordinary thing about all
of it. I do want tosay this right quick, because you know,
Ben and I walked in and youwere talking about Tony Parker won this
(05:30):
many rings, and Pal did thisand all these sorts of things, and
everyone talks about twenty eleven, whichis a run that is so spectacular and
so special. But to me,when you're talking about Dirk's greatness and you
were talking about this. They wonfifty games eleven straight seasons. If you
want to see his excellence, goto that first year and look at the
(05:51):
roster, and then look at theroster eleven seasons later. Go to the
five, the six team that madeit to the finals, and then go
look at the two eleven roster.In an era where Tony and Duncan and
Manu played together for a decade,and Kobe had Shack and then had Pal
and there's these teams that were init every year, Dirk took two completely
(06:15):
different rosters outside of Jason Terry totwo finals five years apart in that era.
To me, that is so impressiveand just speaks to his brilliance in
ways that I don't know that anything else on his resume does. My
favorite thing about that story is afterSkin and I were talking about that,
I then brought it up to Dirk. It was just me, Skinn and
(06:39):
Dirk talking there and I was Icouldn't help it. I'm just looking at
him glowing in his greatness, andI'm like, this is a this is
who Dirk is. So I'm like, hey, Skin and I were talking
to I. Skin was mentioning thatlike you and Jet were the only guys
from those the championship run in twothousand and six and two thousand and eleven,
and he didn't. He goes,oh yeah, JJ wasn't. He
goes, yeah, he had neverthought about it. Most players would put
(07:02):
that on a necklace and wear itaround going I drug two teams to the
championship and it's like, that's whofive years apart, but that's who he
is. And yeah, no.In terms of I think sports, being
a fan of a team, diehardfan of one team, your local team,
is like buying a ticket to alottery. You know, it's like
(07:24):
a heartbreak factory. Most of thetime. You're like ninety nine point nine
percent of the time you're gonna loseand have your heart ripped out of your
chest. And that's just the waysports is. And so I was started
to think, all right, it'snever gonna happen. You know, I'm
a cowboy fan too. And thensince the mid nineties had had my heartbroken
time and time again, and Istarted getting real pessimistic. So going into
twenty eleven, and we were atESPN and they were like, hey,
(07:46):
you guys gotta get off the fencetalking to me specifically, you gotta get
off the fence, like, don'tsay I don't know if they're gonna be
good or bad. Tell us they'regonna be greater or they're gonna suck,
but have an opinion. Then they'repoking and prodded me, and I'm like,
all right. And that whole yearI called the MAVs the one and
done boys, gonna get in theplayoffs and get bounced out of the first
round. And I stuck to myguns the whole season. What an a
hole Because the first thing Mark Cubandid when they hinted him the championship was
(08:09):
they called us the one and duneboys. Way to go. Luckily you're
over it. He brings that upevery ten minutes. Shine oh man,
Well, I wish, I wishAmerica you could have seen last night party
at Tao Ben and Skin crashed it. Somehow. They handed out forty one
(08:33):
sparklers to try to create try torecreate a club effect, and Ben,
of course, was right in themiddle of all that, waving sparklers with
members of the twenty eleven championship team. It feels surreal you keep talking about,
you know, pinched me, andkeep thinking I'm gonna get thrown out.
(08:54):
I just I'm just honored to havebeen there. And anytime we've gone
on these adventures for us, we'reWe're from Dallas Fort Worth, you know,
born and raised, lifelong Maverick fans, and we're on that journey for
us. It's very important that whenwe share these adventures where we don't ever
want it to be Look what weget to do. You don't get to
do it. We're like, no, we're representing you come with us.
This is what's happening. And that'san important distinction. And so I wanted
(09:18):
to share a little bit of thatfrom last night. I put a little
bit on Twitter of those Sparklers arriving. It was surreal because I looked over
and I'm standing next to Holger who'stalking to coach Carlisle and Dirk's dad,
and then there's like eight members ofthe twenty eleven championship team. Nash is
there, We're hanging out with Roddyb. It was nuts, man,
(09:39):
it was almost too much. AllRight, we're gonna get We are gonna
tell some more stories from this weekendwhen we come back. We've got some
amazing sounds, some tributes to Dirkfrom teammates and every other luminaries from the
organization. We're gonna talk about DwayneWade and Dark Inner acting here. We're
(10:01):
going to get into some controversial goatdebate. All of that next here on
ninety seven one The Freak. Thisis the Saturday Stein Line Quiz Mark Stein,
presented by Pennini Trading Cards and Collectibleson your official home to all Dallas
Mavericks Games. Ninety seven one TheFreak
This is dirt and whiskey, andyou're listening to the Saturday Stein Line with
my guys Steiny on ninety seven onethe Freak. Everyone. An absolute pleasure
to rejoin you from Springfield, Massachusetts, the Saturday Stein Line presented by Panini
(00:20):
Trading Cards and Collectibles. And thisis a freet I am joined in a
real show of role reversal. AfterI don't know how many years I've been
their guest many times, this isthe first time they are my guests the
franchise, the faces of the franchiseat the Freak, well really rhiner is.
(00:44):
But let's just be nice to theseguys and tell them that they're the
faces of the franchise. Ben andSkin sitting with me in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The kids from Richardson, the BerkenerBoys are here in Springfield. How
did this happen? You guys arestop pinching yourself. It's really hard to
(01:07):
put into words the way the lastyou know, twenty eight hours as felt
from the time that we got onthe plane to sitting here with you now
in a studio that's not even fiveminutes from the Basketball Hall of Fame,
and we're here talking about Dirk andyou know, we rode with you this
(01:30):
morning, Steiny from We're in thisarea called Mohegan's Son, and we got
up early and got in a ridewith you and we rode over here and
it's an hour drive. And thathour drive just added to all the awesomeness
of the weekend. Because we werereflecting on when Ben first talked to you
into coming onto the Rogers report onCase Star. Ben should probably talk a
little more about that. Yeah,we uh, we go way back.
(01:53):
It's it's an honor to have thoseroles reversed and to be on your show.
And yeah, man, i'm myself. I feel like, you know,
Skin is an actual journalist. Imean, Skin is actually a brilliant
you know, he's incredibly He's becomequite the journalist, has it. He
become quite the polished suit wearing Well, he's sideline man. He's one of
(02:16):
the best analysts in the NBA.And I'm biased, but he is brilliant,
you know, son of a coach, and he's a total badass.
I am a tourist, like Iam, I keep expecting somebody to throw
me out of here and say,hey, you're not supposed to be here.
But somehow it almost did happen lastnight. A few times, to
be fair, I feel like it'salways teetering on the edge of happening,
(02:37):
Like it's always very close to happening. But you know, as a lifelong
basketball fan, a lifelong Maverick fan, to go on the twenty one season
journey that Dirk took us on asa as a collective fan base, you
know, that was insane. Andthen for Skin and I to sneak into
the media business and then ride hiscoat tails, you know, and build
(02:58):
a career out of this where wecan actually support our families. It's hard
not to be retrospective and look backon everything and get emotional because you can
see the way it's impacting the biggerman. You see the way it's impacting
him, and he is teary eyedand reflective, and man, he just
did everything the right way and therewill never be another dirt. I don't
(03:20):
know if I've ever asked you guysthis quite the way I'm going to ask
you now. But you know,throughout on the run to the championship,
fifty win seasons every year, Darkbecame an All Star, clearly one of
the best players in the league,but he was relentlessly doubted all the way.
You know, I always say hehas such a unique career arc because
(03:43):
in OZ six they beat San Antonioon their floor and I was working at
ESPN at the time, and BillSimmons said it, and I totally agreed
with him that Dirk is playing.This is the best forward play we've seen
since bird He that is the levelDirk reached in that series. But then
two rounds later they unravel it againstMiami, they lose the finals, and
then the next four seasons, youknow, he's just drifting farther and farther
(04:06):
away from the championship. So it'slike it seemed like he scaled the mountain,
then he comes back down. Wereyou guys worried it was just never
gonna happen? That twenty eleven wasthat there was never going to be a
championship. I mean, you guysare MAVs fans. First before your broadcasters,
tell me the truth, did youafter zero six and then those subsequent
(04:28):
rough years after, did you reallybelieve that a championship was forthcoming? I
didn't. I don't know that Ibelieve necessarily a championship was forthcoming. To
me, it got really bad whenthey traded for Jason Kidd with Avery Johnson
as the coach, because I'm lookingat this going. You guys know the
(04:48):
offense. You've been running this ideathat Jason kids just going to magically make
this team better when they are stagnant, like he's great when people are on
the move. And then they bringRick Carlisle in and remember they I did
instill the printed offense and scrapped itbefore camp. Uh So, I don't
know that I thought that a championshipwas forthcoming, but I did think.
(05:10):
I did believe in that twenty eleventeam as being a great team, and
once they came back in Game oneagainst the Lakers, I thought they could
get to the finals. I didnot think they were going to beat the
Heat. And I think that's themost you know, extraordinary thing about all
of it. I do want tosay this right quick, because you know,
Ben and I walked in and youwere talking about Tony Parker won this
(05:30):
many rings, and Pal did thisand all these sorts of things, and
everyone talks about twenty eleven, whichis a run that is so spectacular and
so special. But to me,when you're talking about Dirk's greatness and you
were talking about this. They wonfifty games eleven straight seasons. If you
want to see his excellence, goto that first year and look at the
(05:51):
roster, and then look at theroster eleven seasons later. Go to the
five, the six team that madeit to the finals, and then go
look at the two eleven roster.In an era where Tony and Duncan and
Manu played together for a decade,and Kobe had Shack and then had Pal
and there's these teams that were init every year, Dirk took two completely
(06:15):
different rosters outside of Jason Terry totwo finals five years apart in that era.
To me, that is so impressiveand just speaks to his brilliance in
ways that I don't know that anything else on his resume does. My
favorite thing about that story is afterSkin and I were talking about that,
I then brought it up to Dirk. It was just me, Skinn and
(06:39):
Dirk talking there and I was Icouldn't help it. I'm just looking at
him glowing in his greatness, andI'm like, this is a this is
who Dirk is. So I'm like, hey, Skin and I were talking
to I. Skin was mentioning thatlike you and Jet were the only guys
from those the championship run in twothousand and six and two thousand and eleven,
and he didn't. He goes,oh yeah, JJ wasn't. He
goes, yeah, he had neverthought about it. Most players would put
(07:02):
that on a necklace and wear itaround going I drug two teams to the
championship and it's like, that's whofive years apart, but that's who he
is. And yeah, no.In terms of I think sports, being
a fan of a team, diehardfan of one team, your local team,
is like buying a ticket to alottery. You know, it's like
(07:24):
a heartbreak factory. Most of thetime. You're like ninety nine point nine
percent of the time you're gonna loseand have your heart ripped out of your
chest. And that's just the waysports is. And so I was started
to think, all right, it'snever gonna happen. You know, I'm
a cowboy fan too. And thensince the mid nineties had had my heartbroken
time and time again, and Istarted getting real pessimistic. So going into
twenty eleven, and we were atESPN and they were like, hey,
(07:46):
you guys gotta get off the fencetalking to me specifically, you gotta get
off the fence, like, don'tsay I don't know if they're gonna be
good or bad. Tell us they'regonna be greater or they're gonna suck,
but have an opinion. Then they'repoking and prodded me, and I'm like,
all right. And that whole yearI called the MAVs the one and
done boys, gonna get in theplayoffs and get bounced out of the first
round. And I stuck to myguns the whole season. What an a
hole Because the first thing Mark Cubandid when they hinted him the championship was
(08:09):
they called us the one and duneboys. Way to go. Luckily you're
over it. He brings that upevery ten minutes. Shine oh man,
Well, I wish, I wishAmerica you could have seen last night party
at Tao Ben and Skin crashed it. Somehow. They handed out forty one
(08:33):
sparklers to try to create try torecreate a club effect, and Ben,
of course, was right in themiddle of all that, waving sparklers with
members of the twenty eleven championship team. It feels surreal you keep talking about,
you know, pinched me, andkeep thinking I'm gonna get thrown out.
(08:54):
I just I'm just honored to havebeen there. And anytime we've gone
on these adventures for us, we'reWe're from Dallas Fort Worth, you know,
born and raised, lifelong Maverick fans, and we're on that journey for
us. It's very important that whenwe share these adventures where we don't ever
want it to be Look what weget to do. You don't get to
do it. We're like, no, we're representing you come with us.
This is what's happening. And that'san important distinction. And so I wanted
(09:18):
to share a little bit of thatfrom last night. I put a little
bit on Twitter of those Sparklers arriving. It was surreal because I looked over
and I'm standing next to Holger who'stalking to coach Carlisle and Dirk's dad,
and then there's like eight members ofthe twenty eleven championship team. Nash is
there, We're hanging out with Roddyb. It was nuts, man,
(09:39):
it was almost too much. AllRight, we're gonna get We are gonna
tell some more stories from this weekendwhen we come back. We've got some
amazing sounds, some tributes to Dirkfrom teammates and every other luminaries from the
organization. We're gonna talk about DwayneWade and Dark Inner acting here. We're
(10:01):
going to get into some controversial goatdebate. All of that next here on
ninety seven one The Freak. Thisis the Saturday Stein Line Quiz Mark Stein,
presented by Pennini Trading Cards and Collectibleson your official home to all Dallas
Mavericks Games. Ninety seven one TheFreak
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