July 2, 2024 • 42 mins
Ben Maller talks shop on the biggest NBA free agency news with Klay Thompson choosing the Mavericks over the Lakers. Plus, Ben also talks about the Lakers being inactive, 76ers swinging big, Celtics selling the team and more!!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Maler
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It was not a payday, well kind of. It was
more of a clay day. Welcome in the beginning of
another night of the Benmahlers Show. We are in the
air everywhere, eyeball to eyeball, as we are soapbox racers
(00:53):
coast to coast, border to border in beyond on the
vast and magically powerful microphones of FSR emmnating live from
the soup the Alphabet Soup of sports talk about broadcasting
live from the tire rac dot Com studios tire rack
dot com. We'll help you get there an unmatched selection,
(01:17):
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thousand recommended installers. Our friend Eugene in Chicago has sent
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but not all of them. Tire raq dot com. The
way tire Buying showb is. We begin a new in
(01:40):
the second show here in the month of July. So
our lead this hour from pro Bouncy Ball. That's what
we are going to begin. The hot rumor overnight has
become reality. We pointed out in a previous episode of
the show that the clear front runner had emerged, and
when the sun came up, Klay Thompson had vacated the
(02:02):
Golden State roster. I assume you've heard by now maybe
you're a little slow. You actually have a life. You
don't pay attention to this stuff. So Klay Thompson no
longer a splash brother. He has agreed to a not one,
not two, not how about three, three year contract. Klay
Thompson goes to Golden State three year, goes from Golden
State outbound three year contract fifty million, and he will
(02:26):
take his talents deep in the heart of Texas to
join the mav Rex. The team that gagged in the
NBA Finals, embarrassed themselves. Kyrie Irving disappeared. We all love
that that was great. So that ends a thirteen year
run for Klay Thompson in northern California. Now, Klay Thompson's
camp want you to know that he did the noble thing,
(02:51):
that he turned down more money to go play with
Luke because he wants to win. He's a winner and
Klay wants to win that fifth title to stick it
to Draymond Green. And more on that in a minute.
The transaction is not your straight up free agent signing.
We are told it is more of a sign in
(03:11):
trade situation. The Charlotte basketball team was dragged into this,
the Mavericks dumping Josh Green. We're told that to guard
to the Hornets, and they also ended up in the deal.
Golden State got two second round picks. You can pick
your nose with those two, all right, So let us
discuss the question Klay Thompson headed to the Mavericks. How
(03:37):
do you react to Klay Thompson going from Golden State
to Dallas. So I've got jukebox, French and Swiss army knife,
and we will combine all of these things together and
i will point my finger at you, because if you
point your finger at someone, you've got four fingers pointing
back at you. All right, so a this Klay Thompson
(03:57):
contract is a suckers paradise, is what it is. Let's
not pretend that this guy has anything left. He is
d and E done. All right, Dallas, congratulations, you have
fallen for the booby prize. And we see this all
the time in free agency where a player changes teams
(04:20):
and a lot of low information fans and unknowledgeable media
hacks get all excited, they get all tingley because of
the accomplishments, the past accolades of a player. But that
player has very little left. And that's Klay Thompson. Now,
could Lay Thompson rare and appropriate have a nice game, sure,
but can you depend on him?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
No?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Mark Cuban, who somehow is still in charge of Basketball
ops even though he sold the majority interest in the
Dallas Mavericks. Mark Cuban, he's calling the shots. This is
a saw wei anemis. This is a saween anemis. Now
we imagine the Mavericks in the team headquarters there somewhere
in the Dallas Metroplex. There they had the jukebox playing
(05:03):
Mister C, a classic song from mister C back in
the nineteen fifties Perry Como's catch a Falling Star, because
that is exactly what the Mavericks have done. Congratulations, you're stupid.
What are you doing right? Never let it fade away? Well,
Klay Thompson's faded away, right, Save it for a rainy day, man.
(05:24):
Maybe he'll play well once in a while on a
rainy day. But you open up your pocket and that song.
One of the lyrics in the song was it's a
pocket full of starlight. But Klay Thompson, it's time to
take him out of the oven. He's cooked. At this point,
Dallas paid a premium for what he had been Klay
(05:45):
Thompson with the Warriors. There a player at this point
in the story is rapidly declining. His physical abilities have
gone down. Klay Thompson will turn thirty five, which is
old in sports, not in real life. I've put in
sports that's old. And the injuries have robbed him of
his superpower. Well, you could still shoot, okay, but you
(06:09):
don't pay big money for just that. There's other things involved,
and Klay Thompson cannot get to the rim anymore. And
in his salad days in Golden State. Maybe I'm wrong
on this, but I don't think I am. People remember
all the three point shots, but from time to time,
and more often than you remember, Klay Thompson would do
(06:30):
a head fake, pretend to shoot a three point shot,
and then zoom past a would be defender who was
overcompensating because of his ability to shoot the three point
shot and go to the basket and either lay it
up or hit a dunk. And Klay Thompson last season
in over two thousand minutes and eighty four minutes. You
(06:54):
know how many dunks he had last season for the Warriors. Two?
Two too more than you, two more than me. Now,
pre injury, Klay Thompson had that part of his game.
He doesn't have it, and he's not gonna find it
all of a sudden unless he goes to a really
special pharmacy somewhere in Texas. Now page two here. Why
(07:18):
did Klay Thompson take less money? I say that in
their ques less money to go to Dallas. The popular
opinion by popular people is that the reason Klay Thompson
did this is because he is the star that wants
to win and he's willing to sacrifice to take less
(07:39):
to help the greater good. Of the team. That's what
the posse of Klay Thompson wants you to know. The
noble star sacrificing. That's the narrative that's being spread. Embrace
the folklore. And to that, I say, excuse my French
bull pucky. That's bull pucking is what it is. As
our friend Jay Scoop, who occasionally listens live on the
(08:03):
iHeart app in Ukraine, would say, but when you crunch
the numbers, people brought up the factor, well he took
less money. I don't know about that. I'm not sure
about that. My instinct. My instinct is nobody takes less money.
They don't. They might take the same money, but they
don't take less money. And when you crunch the numbers
on taxation in the People's Republic of California, and they
(08:29):
just tax you right up the wazoo. In California, they're
a little more freeing of taxation. They still have taxes
in Texas, but not the same you live there, you know.
But Klay Thompson is gaining extra money, assuming the offer
was exactly the same, and we you know, I don't
believe it was more from somebody else. Assuming the offer
(08:50):
was the same. So he had same offer from multiple teams,
and two of them were in California and one of
them was in Texas. From what I read, if I
read this properly, Klay Thompson will save about twelve percent
of his money. But when you do the arithmetic and
you crunch the numbers and you move the decimal points around,
(09:12):
because he's not paying California state taxes, that's six million
extra shekels out of the fifty million that if he
lived in California to play the same job he would
have to give up. But because he does the same
job in Texas, he does not have to give out
that money. Now, that's nothing to seize that. Clay's made
a lot of Money's made a bunch of money, millions
(09:33):
and millions of dollars of the years. But hey, you
want to keep every single dollar so you can buy
another boat and go out and be the boat captain.
All right now, our last word here on his way
out of the Bay Area, we are now reading reports
of a rift that had never been talked about before.
(09:54):
Inside the walls of the Warriors' locker room, Klay Thompson
was said to be, among other adjectives, exhausting, behind the
scenes said to be sulking. It's another report and uncomfortable,
also presence in the locker room. All of those terms
(10:15):
buzz terms tossed around a passive aggressive Draymond Green, if
you will. While Draymond would just pop you in the
junk or punch you in the face, Klay Thompson would sulk.
That was what he did. So how do you process
the report? As Klay Thompson is going wheels up from
the airport and heading to Texas, how do you process
(10:36):
the report that Klay Thompson had created turbulence with the
Golden State basketball team. So this is something that you
normally get in baseball. Remember years ago talking to some
of my media friends in Boston and they explained to
me when a popular player on the Red Sox would
go to a different team, they had to bury the
(10:57):
player and sully the player's name. It's usually what you
do in baseball, and they do it a lot in Boston.
There's other cities in New York they do at Philadelphia
place like that. It's become more of the mainstream normal
situation when players change teams. These days were somewhat popular
and Klay Thompson was certainly popular with the Warriors. But
this is a trip to the Swiss Army knife shop,
(11:19):
is what it is. This is what's known as a
hatchet job. And we are in chapter number ten, chapter
number ten of the Idiot's Guide to Popular Athletes departing book.
And if you look at that book, you run the
smear campaign against the players. We had to get rid
of a player. See to me, I don't need all that.
I don't mind it as a talk show host. I'm
(11:40):
fine with it as a talk show host. It makes
for a good conversation. God bless you. But my position
is like I can't play the other Stuff's like, okay,
so you had issues. Let me let you in a
little secret. There was not a single locker room in
all of professional sports that does not have clicks. Boston
Celtics just won the championship. I will garin effing to you.
(12:04):
There are players in that locker room that don't like
other players, that are jealous of the attention. Certain guys
are again, just like in the NFL, Kansas City's went
back to back Super Bowls. And I will promise you
I will bet all of my money, all five dollars
I have in my pocket right now. I will bet
you that there are factions in Kansas City that think
Andy Reid gives special treatment to certain players and his
(12:26):
bull crap, and it's not fair, and it happens everywhere.
But when you win, it covers it up. It's like
nice deoderan or soap. It covers up the smell. We'll
take your phone calls if you'd like to be part
speak easy rules are in effect, but every single line
is wide open right now. We release the hounds and
you can get in if you want. Also on X
(12:48):
at Ben Mahler, That is at Ben Mahler if you'd
like to be part of said program. Will take your
comments on the X machine. And while we have seen
a bunch of name rand players change teams first couple
days of NBA free agency, is it true another domino
(13:09):
is about the fall? Are the Atlanta Hawks closing in
on a deal that will send Trey Young out of Georgia.
We'll get to the latest on that and we will
do it next. But as we begin a new it's
the a block of our number. WA. You've put it
(13:34):
off long enough. It is time to replace your tires.
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(13:58):
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ship fast and free to a recommended installer near you,
or choose the convenience of mobile tire installation. They'll bring
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That's tire ract dot com, slash Sports, tire ract dot com,
The Way Tire Buying showb.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Hey, it's Ben, host of the fifth Hour with Ben
Maller would mean a lot to have you join us
on our weekly auditory journey.
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You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I'll tell you it's a spin off of the Ben
Maler Show, a Colt hit overnight FSR.
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Why should you listen? Picture if you will a world will.
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We chat with captains of industry in media, sports and
more every week explore some amazing.
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Facts about human nature and more.
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Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller or the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
The rejection letter is in the mail. Welcome in the
beginning of another hour of the Ben Mallor Show. We
are in the air everywhere, face to face as we
come up through the ranks. We did coast, the coast, border,
(15:37):
the order in beyond on the vast and beautifully powerful
microphones of fsre amminating live from the dream as we
dream the impossible dream. We're broadcasting live from the Tirak
dot com studios tyraq dot com. Well help you get
there and unmatched selection, fast free shipping, the free road
(16:00):
hazard protection a over ten thousand recommended in stars, tyrerack
dot com. The Way tire buying. Should remember that guy
Dad Gummett that used to call the show back in
the day before he retired from calling the show. He
likes that number. Ten thousand yeah sor I lead this
hour from tinsel Town adjacent, we should say, from up
(16:23):
the hill. From up the hill from where we broadcast from,
there's a very ritchy neighborhood called bell Air. Bron spent
a lot of time there. Over the years. The Lakers
continue to be the laughing stock of the NBA. It
just gets better by the day. Not only did the
franchise that once prided themselves on winning hire a podcaster
(16:45):
as their head coach, they drafted the washed up star
Players kid, the NEPO kid, Scronnie Browny in the second round.
And everyone's laughing. But have you heard the latest on
this gets even better? The plot thickens in Lakerland if
he missed it so. At the start of free agency,
Lebron James, through his useful idiots his cronies in the media,
(17:09):
wanted every one of us know you and I and
everyone else to know that he was going to take
a massive pay cut. Lebron was going to take a
pay cut to help the Lakers, and he had his
eye on the prize. There were three players, three players
Lebron wanted, James Harden, Clay Thompson, and Jonas Valanciunis. That's
(17:31):
the list, period stop. And if one of those players
comes to the Lakers, Lebron would take a sizeable pay cut. Well,
one by one, they have all decided to give Lebron
the old poke in the eye, the cold shoulder. All
is quiet on the western front in Lakerland. So let
(17:56):
us discuss the question what does this lack of activity
by the Lakers say about the leadership of Lebron James.
So I've got elementary school fairy tale and jigsaw puzzle,
and we will combine all of these things together and
(18:17):
we are going to make an episode of the Office,
which for some reason is right right in front of me.
All right, So, num burwa all those old dusty trophies
and all the commercials and endorsements Lebron James has gotten
(18:39):
over the years, and the opportunity to play in La
in front of all those woke celebrities in Hollywood, and
it's not a big enough calling card. What does that say?
My entire life? The Lakers have always gotten the top
players whoever they wanted they got. Not right now, No,
it's not happening anymore. Have the mighty funt all in
(19:00):
all of a sudden, it does appear when you dig
a little deeper and you look at what's going on
in Lakerland. This is such an embarrassment. Lebron has yet
to win anything as a Laker. The Lakers have regularly
been an embarrassment with Lebron James on the roster, and
he is the owner by proxy and the GM by
(19:23):
proxy of the team. Genie Boss has raised the white flags.
She's just giving up. She says, I can't handle it anymore.
Do whatever you want, Lebron. You want to hire your
little podcast buddy, Okay, we'll do that. You want a
draft your kid who can't play, Okay, well draft your kid,
no problem, no problem at all. But that's one thing
he said, Well, anybody can coach. It's not that hard
(19:44):
to coach in the NBA, right, there's some real stiffs
that have coached in the NBA. And second round pick,
you can say, well, so, second round pick, and who
cares about a second round pick? Okay, but Lebron was
given the elbow room to improve the roster and make
any moves his heart desired. And if you look at
the scoreboard, there's a lot of goose eggs on the scoreboard.
(20:06):
There's a lot of goose eggs on the scoreboard. And
this does not whisper. It screams, is what it does.
That Lebron and the Lakers have lost the rasthma task.
They're frazzled. Lebron is frazzled. At this particular point, Lebron
James has been diagnosed. Doctor Mallard, that would be me,
has diagnosed Lebron James with an elementary school playground illness.
(20:30):
Lebron's got the cooties. Lebron has the gout. Now, what
is my evidence? May three players? There were three guys
Lebron was willing to take a pay cut for and
he made sure to leak this assuming one of them
would come to the Lakers. The three players who turned
down the Lakers and Lebron James Harden. Now that's understandable.
(20:52):
Harden wanted to play for the glamour team in Los Angeles,
the people's team. You can't really be upset by that.
Why would you want to play for the Laker when
you play for the Clippers. Right, they got the taj
Mahal of Arenas, better owner, better fan base, real authentic fans,
not fraudulent, fake phony fans like the Lakers have. So
they have historians, as we like to point out, So
(21:13):
that's understandable. You can't really rip Lebron for hard and
not wanting to play for the Lakers. Why would you?
Right then you've got Yonis Valentois. Now this is a
body blow, body blow, body blow because Valentutis who's getting
a little along in the tooth. He picked wizardry and
living in DC on a bottom feeding franchise rather than
(21:35):
play for the Lakers. That is a kick to the nuts,
is what that is. Now, that's not the most embarrassing, though,
the most embarrassing. And there's no way to spin this,
there's no way to spend This is Clay Thompson, who
grew up around the Lakers. His father played for the team.
(21:56):
I love the Lakers growing up, has connections to the franchise.
His father is a mouthpiece, a propaganda arm of the
Laker propaganda machine as a broadcaster for the team. And
yet he said I want nothing to do with you.
I want to go eat tex mex and live in
the Dallas area. And that's what I'm going to do.
(22:19):
So screw you. I don't want to play for your team.
You talk about a body blow, body blow, body blow.
That is a body blow. And now the Lakers are
trying to salvage things with Demarta Rosan, who is soon
to be thirty five years old next month turns thirty five.
One trick pony, mid range jump shot, no defense. That's
the Marta Rose And you can trade a bunch of
(22:42):
random spare pieces to get him. Good luck now page two.
Here we circle back. Now, circle back to Philadelphia. Consumed
a lot of media content so you would not have
to about Paul George by George podcast Pee heading to
the Delaware Valley to hang out with Fats and Philly
(23:03):
and all our friends in the greater Philadelphia area and
southern New Jersey. And so the Sixers. Here's the question,
will the Sixers end up regretting the Paul George contract?
And I'm not in my head. Yes, you can't see me,
but I'm not in my head. Yes. Pg. Thirteen is
the epitome of damaged goods, not quite to the degree
(23:27):
of Klay Thompson. We talked about Klay Thompson in a
previous hour and how he has just lost it. So
he's not that bad, but there are the telltale signs
of trouble on the horizon and that mushroom cloud you
see out in the distance, problematic, problematic. Klay Thompson has
(23:49):
his own issues. But Paul George, I'll give you some
numbers to back this up here. So now, last year,
Paul George, in a year where he knew he was
going to opt out of his contract, play in over
seventy games. He is relatively healthy. But the four previous
years prior to that, Paul George appeared in less than
sixty games. In fact, if you look at the side
(24:10):
by side with Kawhi Leonard, who is the personification of
lackadaisical and Kawhi Leonard just load management doesn't give a damn,
would rather hang out at his casa in San Diego
than play basketball during the season. So Kawhi Leonard and
Paul George the games missed within the same zip code. Now,
(24:33):
Kawhi's missed more, but not by that many, not by
that many. And another player who is rapidly aging in
Paul George and the Sixers overpaid for a guy who
is a glorified part time player who vanishes in big
moments and is another one of these players that is
living off past accolades. This is a big infestation around
(24:57):
the NBA, right past accolades. He left his home town team,
the glamour team in LA, the Clippers, playing a chance
to play at the taj Mahall with the richest owner
in sport. He left outside of the Saudiast. But he
left that team, right, He left that team, and every man,
woman and child knows how this fairytale ends. Once upon
(25:20):
a time, a long long time ago, Paul George turns
into a giant father fire breathing albatross, A giant albatross.
What could possibly go wrong? What could possibly go wrong? All? Right? Now?
Final point? We pivot to a bizarre transaction that Mike
(25:42):
from Oklahoma City requested that I at least mentioned this.
She said, you never.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Talk about this team, and why do you talk about
the thunder? What's wrong with you? You're on the radio here, Okay,
calm down, so I will pacify you. I will appease you.
We pivot to the dust Bowl, a big deal in
the Sooner state A big deal here.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
How does on God's Green Earth, former Knickerbocker center Isaiah
Hartenstein get eighty seven million over three years in Okay, see,
how does that happen? So it's to me this is
not that complicated. Isaiah Hartenstein is a medium level player.
He's an average NBA player. It's not roster spam. Roster
(26:26):
spam means you can't play. He can play, but he's
not the center of the universe by any means. He's
a player that you like to have on your team,
and he played well for the Clippers a couple of
years ago going to the Knicks. But the thing here,
you heard this when you were a kid. It's all
about timing. It's all about timing. And if you look
at the jigsaw puzzle and okay, see, they were a
(26:47):
fraudulent team. They had a great regular season record, they
were exposed in the playoffs. We all saw that they
were a joke in the playoffs. But the Thunder had
money to burn because all they've been doing is hoarding
draft picks over the years, and these big extensions haven't
really kicked in Other than shake Yogas Alexander who was
not a draft pick. That was a Clippers draft pick,
so they had money to burn. They had a clear
(27:07):
and obvious need in the middle, and so they think
that Isaiah Hartenstein will be the missing jigsaw puzzle piece
that that will push them where they need to go.
And so they're willing to start a bonfire and pay
a guy who's a mid level NBA player at best
and likely a backup on a good team, and they're
(27:28):
going to pay him almost thirty million dollars a year. Now,
keep in mind he averaged about eight points a game
and eight rebounds a game, and that's wheth thirty million
dollars to Oklahoma City. Thirty million dollars. A role player
who fills out the roster and doesn't suck when he's
on the court, but doesn't dominate at all. Thirty million
dollar player, thirty million dollar year player. Almost It is
(27:51):
the Ben Mahler Show. If you'd like to comment on
any of that, you can join us here. If you'd
like to be part, speak easy rules are in effect,
but you can call up, scream, shout, yell, and all that.
We will take your phone calls straight ahead. Also on
X at Ben Mahlor that is at Ben Mahlor if
you'd like to be part of the program. Too good
(28:14):
for Reality, Too good for reality, and an overreaction. We'll
get to all that and we will do it next.
But that's right, your friend Ben, and I should be
putting my feet up here, relaxing and enjoying myself. But
it's hour two the A block live read very exciting.
(28:35):
You put it off long enough. It is time to
replace your tires. Tire Iraq has tires that will elevate
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Go to tire i raq dot com to get started.
Not sure where to begin. Use the tire Decision Guide
to get a personalized tire recommendation the right tires for how,
(28:57):
what and where you drive. Choose from the full line
of Goodyear tires, ship fast and free to a recommended
installer near you, or choose the convenience of mobile tire installation.
They'll bring your new tires to your homer office and
install them on site. It doesn't get much easier than that.
Go to tire act dot com slash sports to see
their goodyear test results, tire ratings, and consumer reviews, and
(29:20):
be sure to check out all the current special offers
great tires in a great deal. What more could you
ask for? That's tire act dot com slash sports tireact
dot com The Wait Tire Buying Show Back.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Benmeller Show
weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It's a whole lot of green for a whole lot
of green. Wel come in the beginning of another hour
of the Benmahler Show. We are in the air everywhere,
one on one. As we say, when you got it,
you gotta fly on it, coast to coast, border the
(30:06):
border and beyond all the vast and spiffingly powerful microphones
of FSR ammading live from the Zen, the peaceful and
comm Zen have been We're broadcasting live from the ti
raq dot com studios. Tyraq dot com will help you
(30:27):
get there in unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road
hazard protection at over ten thousand recommend an installers tyrac
dot com. The Way tire buying should beat. John from Reno,
I think you said about ten thousand screwdrivers, and he's
having one right now, got the fireball going, having quite
(30:49):
the night there and enjoin the show. So our lead
this hour from the Business of Sport. I thought this
was an interesting store. It's one of the iconic franchises
in North Americans sport. The Shamrocks can be yours if
the price is right. I assume you've heard by now,
but maybe not. The team hasn't been sold, but the
(31:11):
plan is to sell them. So the Celtics ownership group
led by Wick Grossbeck, plans to sell one hundred percent
of the franchise, and they claim in a carefully vetted
and written statement that the Celtics can be yours of
the price is right because of a state and family
(31:33):
planning purposes. The terminology used in the news comes less
than two weeks after the Celtics won their record eighteenth title.
They're way ahead of the Lakers in terms of championships,
and so the team now having to decide who they
want to pay and who they don't want to pay.
It appears they want to pay everyone, as everyone's getting
(31:54):
a big contract, and so they had the top record
during the regular season. They won the championship, and now
the team is going on the open market. The flea
market is open and you can buy the shamrock shakes
of the NBA. So let us discuss thumbs up or
thumbs down, thumbs up or thumbs down in terms of
(32:16):
the estate tax being the real reason why the Celtics
are going up for sale. So I've got Latin Dance
enlisted and Ghostbusters and we will combine all of these
things together and we are going to make some hand moisturizer,
(32:38):
is what we're going to make. So first of all,
I'm gonna go thumbs down on this, So just for
the record, I'm on the record thumbs down. And while
I believe what was said in the press release is
a kernel of truth, right, it's a version of the truth.
It is not the whole truth and definitely nothing but
(32:58):
the truth. So that is my position on this. And
when you talk about these kind of news releases, you
have to be someone with a critical eye. You can't
buy what is said because normally what they do is
they sugarcoat everything with these news releases. And if you
go down to the stable, like a Churchill downs, you
go down to the stable the track there and This
(33:21):
is what's known as a stalking horse. The term is
stalking horse. There they're concealing your real intentions. You have
other ulterior motives, but you're just tossing this out because
people can understand where you're coming from. The estate tax,
which is better known by its gangster term death tax.
(33:45):
That's what it is. It's a death tax because the
Weasley politicians, even when you die, they want their share
of your riches, of your whole life, and they want
to take your money from you, so you can't pass
all that money on to your loved ones, and they
normally take about half of it. If you have enough money,
it all goes away. And so they say it's a
(34:06):
state tax, but it's really the death tax. And politicians
will rob the grave if they have to to get
their money too, so they can live their lavish lifestyles.
I got an education on this. I've lost both my
parents over the years, and I've learned through that process
or process, exactly what that's all about.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Now.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
They didn't have anywhere close to that kind of money,
so I didn't. It wasn't too bad for me, but
I didn't even know that was a thing. I was
completely naive today. So while it is true that this
is a factor, the death tax, the estate taxes they
call it, they're sugarcoating it. That said, if I'm right,
and I'm never wrong, I'm never wrong about these things.
(34:48):
If the Grossbeck family, the group that owns the Celtics,
wanted to keep the business in the family, if there's
someone some distant cousin or someone they wanted to pass
the team onto, they could navigate the tax code. There's
a where there's a will, there's a way they could
find a solution. It would be an expensive solution. So
(35:09):
when I see that and I realize what's going on here,
it's like a little Latin dance, not the sal salsa Latin.
It's like the old Latin carpdum seese the opportunity. What's
going on here is you've got the Celtics, who are
at the very top of the market. They just want
(35:30):
a championship. They have a stacked roster of players, the
core of the teams in their prime, and so Wick
Grossbeck will fetch the highest price ever paid for a
pro bouncy ball team. The minimum buy in if you
wanted to put a group together by the Celtics is
five point one billion. Five point one billion. Now, we
(35:54):
should also point out that something odd going on in
the NBA. We have seen a mass exodus in recent
years of ownerships changing over, not necessarily because of a
death by the owner, just because they're getting out of it.
In fact, if my math is correct, almost twenty percent
(36:17):
of NBA teams have changed owners in the last couple
of years or will change owners. The Celtics when they
sell with Grossbeck, that'll be the fourth NBA team changing owners,
with the Sons who just recently sold the Dallas Mavericks.
Mark Cuban sold out even though he's still hanging around
Lingering Mull Lingering and the Hornets. So that's four. But wait,
(36:40):
the Minnesota basketball team is currently going through arbitration. That'll
be the fifth team that changes hands. So five out
of the thirty teams, less than twenty percent, like sixteen
point six percent of NBA teams will have new owners
by the time the Celtics and the tim Wolves are done.
All right, now, why is that? Secondly, can you explain
(37:04):
in Layman's terms, why the Celtics, why the Boston Celtics
have been forking out jackpots Bonanzas. It's like the old bit.
There used to be this talk show host named Oprah Winfrey.
You probably don't know who that is, but she did
this famous show where she said, you get a car,
you get a car, You get a car. The Celtics like,
you get a contract, you get a contract, You get
(37:25):
a contract, you get a contract. They're forking out these
massive contracts. But can you explain why they are forking
out these massive contracts. So considering they're trying to sell
the team, So Wick Grossbeck he has enlisted something we
all wish that our bosses would do if you work
for a company that gets sold, Wick Grossbeck has enlisted
(37:46):
himself as part of the first Battalion, five hundred and
seventh Infantry Regimen. He's a paratrooper. He's handing out Golvin parachutes.
You get one, you get one one. He's playing the
role of Saint Nick Santa Claus and playing with house money.
(38:07):
He's not gonna have to pay most of that money,
and the Celtics aren't gonna be sold overnight. There's a
lot of lawyers that get involved in these kind of deals.
But nonetheless, Jalen Brown got paid a couple of years ago,
Jason Tatum, Drew Holliday White got paid, Derek White got
paid as well, and they've all gotten those cartoon checks.
And I would bet my last dollar dollars to donuts.
(38:30):
I would have bet my last dollar here that this
has been in the works for a couple of years,
like we can just get one more championship, one more championship,
and we can sell at the very top and get
out and we're done with it and we don't have
to worry about it. And it's we'll give out these
contracts and everyone's locked up, and so the headache is
(38:50):
on whoever buys the team. It's their problem, right. Final thought,
there is a rumor that's been bouncing around the pinball machine,
the echo chamber here. The rumor is that John Henry,
who has stopped trying with the Red Sox. My friends
in Boston tell me that he's just going through the
motions as owner, that he won his championships and it's
(39:12):
just another thing in his portfolio now with the Red Sox.
Now I'm not there, but my boots in the ground
teld me that's the case with John Henry, so he
is part and the face of the Finway Sports Group,
and the anticipation is they will make a bid to
buy the Celtics, that the people that own the Red
Sox are going to try to buy the Celtics. Now
(39:35):
Lebron James has entered the chat. Lebron is a partner
in the Finway Sports Group, which means Lebron owns part
of the Red Sox. He owns part of the Pittsburgh
Penguins and Liverpool as well. Liverpool FC that's part of
the portfolio. There's a bunch of other minor league teams
and other teams you've never heard of that are part
(39:55):
of the Finway Sports Group. So the question is rather obvious.
Lebron is a expected to sign a multi year contract
to continue stealing money from the Lakers and running that
franchise into the ground. Could he be a double agent?
Is it conceivable? Is there a path? Would Lebron James
be able while playing with the Lakers be able to
(40:18):
own a chunk of the Shamrocks the Celtics. So I'm
shaking my head. No one, this rather obvious, and here's
why the NBA has made it for Boten can't do it.
You can't even be a player coach in the NBA
these days, even though Lebron does it, you're not supposed
to do it. It's against the rules. But here's the problem.
(40:43):
The NBA has taken advice from Egon of Ghostbusters Fame,
don't cross the streams, and they put it in that
it's baked into the CBA. You can't cross the streams.
The NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement, the CBA X, explicitly prohibits
player slash owner agreements. Can't do it. Section twelve of
(41:08):
the agreement states that no player, no NBA player may
acquire or hold a direct or indirect interest in the
ownership of any NBA team, or in any company or entity,
whether privately or publicly owned, that owns any interest in
NBA in any NBA team. So, now that doesn't mean
(41:32):
Lebron wouldn't sell, wouldn't that be wild, or wouldn't quit. Rather,
there is a dimension in the multiverse where Lebron announces,
you know what, I'm out, I'm retiring from the Lakers
because John Henry's going to buy the Celtics and I'm
going to be the guy that gets to run the Celtics. Ooh,
(41:54):
the plot Dickens, Now that would be something I'm sure
he'd be welcome with open arms in Boston. What could
possibly go wrong? All right is the Ben Malor Show.
If you'd like to comment on any of that, you
can join us here speak easy rules are in effect.
We'll take some calls throughout the hour. Also, later this
hour we will have a riveting edition of Mallard's Amount
(42:15):
of Money. We will take calls up until then. Time
now for the Mallor Riddle of the day. You can
answer this on X at Ben Malar. That's at Ben Maler.
If you want to be part, you can answer it
on the X machine. So here's the Mallor Riddle of
the day. A candid microphone caught Chicago cub television studio
(42:35):
host talking about blank. They did not realize they were
being broadcast. A candid mic caught cub studio host on
television talking about blank. That is the Mallor Riddle of
the day. The answer, we'll get to it. We will
do it next
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Maler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
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You can find it there or stream us live every
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It was not a payday, well kind of. It was
more of a clay day. Welcome in the beginning of
another night of the Benmahlers Show. We are in the
air everywhere, eyeball to eyeball, as we are soapbox racers
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coast to coast, border to border in beyond on the
vast and magically powerful microphones of FSR emmnating live from
the soup the Alphabet Soup of sports talk about broadcasting
live from the tire rac dot Com studios tire rack
dot com. We'll help you get there an unmatched selection,
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fast free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten
thousand recommended installers. Our friend Eugene in Chicago has sent
me about ten thousand messages throughout the day thinks he
would like me to discuss I ignore most of them,
but not all of them. Tire raq dot com. The
way tire Buying showb is. We begin a new in
(01:40):
the second show here in the month of July. So
our lead this hour from pro Bouncy Ball. That's what
we are going to begin. The hot rumor overnight has
become reality. We pointed out in a previous episode of
the show that the clear front runner had emerged, and
when the sun came up, Klay Thompson had vacated the
(02:02):
Golden State roster. I assume you've heard by now maybe
you're a little slow. You actually have a life. You
don't pay attention to this stuff. So Klay Thompson no
longer a splash brother. He has agreed to a not one,
not two, not how about three, three year contract. Klay
Thompson goes to Golden State three year, goes from Golden
State outbound three year contract fifty million, and he will
(02:26):
take his talents deep in the heart of Texas to
join the mav Rex. The team that gagged in the
NBA Finals, embarrassed themselves. Kyrie Irving disappeared. We all love
that that was great. So that ends a thirteen year
run for Klay Thompson in northern California. Now, Klay Thompson's
camp want you to know that he did the noble thing,
(02:51):
that he turned down more money to go play with
Luke because he wants to win. He's a winner and
Klay wants to win that fifth title to stick it
to Draymond Green. And more on that in a minute.
The transaction is not your straight up free agent signing.
We are told it is more of a sign in
(03:11):
trade situation. The Charlotte basketball team was dragged into this,
the Mavericks dumping Josh Green. We're told that to guard
to the Hornets, and they also ended up in the deal.
Golden State got two second round picks. You can pick
your nose with those two, all right, So let us
discuss the question Klay Thompson headed to the Mavericks. How
(03:37):
do you react to Klay Thompson going from Golden State
to Dallas. So I've got jukebox, French and Swiss army knife,
and we will combine all of these things together and
i will point my finger at you, because if you
point your finger at someone, you've got four fingers pointing
back at you. All right, so a this Klay Thompson
(03:57):
contract is a suckers paradise, is what it is. Let's
not pretend that this guy has anything left. He is
d and E done. All right, Dallas, congratulations, you have
fallen for the booby prize. And we see this all
the time in free agency where a player changes teams
(04:20):
and a lot of low information fans and unknowledgeable media
hacks get all excited, they get all tingley because of
the accomplishments, the past accolades of a player. But that
player has very little left. And that's Klay Thompson. Now,
could Lay Thompson rare and appropriate have a nice game, sure,
but can you depend on him?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
No?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Mark Cuban, who somehow is still in charge of Basketball
ops even though he sold the majority interest in the
Dallas Mavericks. Mark Cuban, he's calling the shots. This is
a saw wei anemis. This is a saween anemis. Now
we imagine the Mavericks in the team headquarters there somewhere
in the Dallas Metroplex. There they had the jukebox playing
(05:03):
Mister C, a classic song from mister C back in
the nineteen fifties Perry Como's catch a Falling Star, because
that is exactly what the Mavericks have done. Congratulations, you're stupid.
What are you doing right? Never let it fade away? Well,
Klay Thompson's faded away, right, Save it for a rainy day, man.
(05:24):
Maybe he'll play well once in a while on a
rainy day. But you open up your pocket and that song.
One of the lyrics in the song was it's a
pocket full of starlight. But Klay Thompson, it's time to
take him out of the oven. He's cooked. At this point,
Dallas paid a premium for what he had been Klay
(05:45):
Thompson with the Warriors. There a player at this point
in the story is rapidly declining. His physical abilities have
gone down. Klay Thompson will turn thirty five, which is
old in sports, not in real life. I've put in
sports that's old. And the injuries have robbed him of
his superpower. Well, you could still shoot, okay, but you
(06:09):
don't pay big money for just that. There's other things involved,
and Klay Thompson cannot get to the rim anymore. And
in his salad days in Golden State. Maybe I'm wrong
on this, but I don't think I am. People remember
all the three point shots, but from time to time,
and more often than you remember, Klay Thompson would do
(06:30):
a head fake, pretend to shoot a three point shot,
and then zoom past a would be defender who was
overcompensating because of his ability to shoot the three point
shot and go to the basket and either lay it
up or hit a dunk. And Klay Thompson last season
in over two thousand minutes and eighty four minutes. You
(06:54):
know how many dunks he had last season for the Warriors. Two?
Two too more than you, two more than me. Now,
pre injury, Klay Thompson had that part of his game.
He doesn't have it, and he's not gonna find it
all of a sudden unless he goes to a really
special pharmacy somewhere in Texas. Now page two here. Why
(07:18):
did Klay Thompson take less money? I say that in
their ques less money to go to Dallas. The popular
opinion by popular people is that the reason Klay Thompson
did this is because he is the star that wants
to win and he's willing to sacrifice to take less
(07:39):
to help the greater good. Of the team. That's what
the posse of Klay Thompson wants you to know. The
noble star sacrificing. That's the narrative that's being spread. Embrace
the folklore. And to that, I say, excuse my French
bull pucky. That's bull pucking is what it is. As
our friend Jay Scoop, who occasionally listens live on the
(08:03):
iHeart app in Ukraine, would say, but when you crunch
the numbers, people brought up the factor, well he took
less money. I don't know about that. I'm not sure
about that. My instinct. My instinct is nobody takes less money.
They don't. They might take the same money, but they
don't take less money. And when you crunch the numbers
on taxation in the People's Republic of California, and they
(08:29):
just tax you right up the wazoo. In California, they're
a little more freeing of taxation. They still have taxes
in Texas, but not the same you live there, you know.
But Klay Thompson is gaining extra money, assuming the offer
was exactly the same, and we you know, I don't
believe it was more from somebody else. Assuming the offer
(08:50):
was the same. So he had same offer from multiple teams,
and two of them were in California and one of
them was in Texas. From what I read, if I
read this properly, Klay Thompson will save about twelve percent
of his money. But when you do the arithmetic and
you crunch the numbers and you move the decimal points around,
(09:12):
because he's not paying California state taxes, that's six million
extra shekels out of the fifty million that if he
lived in California to play the same job he would
have to give up. But because he does the same
job in Texas, he does not have to give out
that money. Now, that's nothing to seize that. Clay's made
a lot of Money's made a bunch of money, millions
(09:33):
and millions of dollars of the years. But hey, you
want to keep every single dollar so you can buy
another boat and go out and be the boat captain.
All right now, our last word here on his way
out of the Bay Area, we are now reading reports
of a rift that had never been talked about before.
(09:54):
Inside the walls of the Warriors' locker room, Klay Thompson
was said to be, among other adjectives, exhausting, behind the
scenes said to be sulking. It's another report and uncomfortable,
also presence in the locker room. All of those terms
(10:15):
buzz terms tossed around a passive aggressive Draymond Green, if
you will. While Draymond would just pop you in the
junk or punch you in the face, Klay Thompson would sulk.
That was what he did. So how do you process
the report? As Klay Thompson is going wheels up from
the airport and heading to Texas, how do you process
(10:36):
the report that Klay Thompson had created turbulence with the
Golden State basketball team. So this is something that you
normally get in baseball. Remember years ago talking to some
of my media friends in Boston and they explained to
me when a popular player on the Red Sox would
go to a different team, they had to bury the
(10:57):
player and sully the player's name. It's usually what you
do in baseball, and they do it a lot in Boston.
There's other cities in New York they do at Philadelphia
place like that. It's become more of the mainstream normal
situation when players change teams. These days were somewhat popular
and Klay Thompson was certainly popular with the Warriors. But
this is a trip to the Swiss Army knife shop,
(11:19):
is what it is. This is what's known as a
hatchet job. And we are in chapter number ten, chapter
number ten of the Idiot's Guide to Popular Athletes departing book.
And if you look at that book, you run the
smear campaign against the players. We had to get rid
of a player. See to me, I don't need all that.
I don't mind it as a talk show host. I'm
(11:40):
fine with it as a talk show host. It makes
for a good conversation. God bless you. But my position
is like I can't play the other Stuff's like, okay,
so you had issues. Let me let you in a
little secret. There was not a single locker room in
all of professional sports that does not have clicks. Boston
Celtics just won the championship. I will garin effing to you.
(12:04):
There are players in that locker room that don't like
other players, that are jealous of the attention. Certain guys
are again, just like in the NFL, Kansas City's went
back to back Super Bowls. And I will promise you
I will bet all of my money, all five dollars
I have in my pocket right now. I will bet
you that there are factions in Kansas City that think
Andy Reid gives special treatment to certain players and his
(12:26):
bull crap, and it's not fair, and it happens everywhere.
But when you win, it covers it up. It's like
nice deoderan or soap. It covers up the smell. We'll
take your phone calls if you'd like to be part
speak easy rules are in effect, but every single line
is wide open right now. We release the hounds and
you can get in if you want. Also on X
(12:48):
at Ben Mahler, That is at Ben Mahler if you'd
like to be part of said program. Will take your
comments on the X machine. And while we have seen
a bunch of name rand players change teams first couple
days of NBA free agency, is it true another domino
(13:09):
is about the fall? Are the Atlanta Hawks closing in
on a deal that will send Trey Young out of Georgia.
We'll get to the latest on that and we will
do it next. But as we begin a new it's
the a block of our number. WA. You've put it
(13:34):
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(13:58):
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That's tire ract dot com, slash Sports, tire ract dot com,
The Way Tire Buying showb.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Hey, it's Ben, host of the fifth Hour with Ben
Maller would mean a lot to have you join us
on our weekly auditory journey.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I'll tell you it's a spin off of the Ben
Maler Show, a Colt hit overnight FSR.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Why should you listen? Picture if you will a world will.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
We chat with captains of industry in media, sports and
more every week explore some amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Facts about human nature and more.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller or the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
The rejection letter is in the mail. Welcome in the
beginning of another hour of the Ben Mallor Show. We
are in the air everywhere, face to face as we
come up through the ranks. We did coast, the coast, border,
(15:37):
the order in beyond on the vast and beautifully powerful
microphones of fsre amminating live from the dream as we
dream the impossible dream. We're broadcasting live from the Tirak
dot com studios tyraq dot com. Well help you get
there and unmatched selection, fast free shipping, the free road
(16:00):
hazard protection a over ten thousand recommended in stars, tyrerack
dot com. The Way tire buying. Should remember that guy
Dad Gummett that used to call the show back in
the day before he retired from calling the show. He
likes that number. Ten thousand yeah sor I lead this
hour from tinsel Town adjacent, we should say, from up
(16:23):
the hill. From up the hill from where we broadcast from,
there's a very ritchy neighborhood called bell Air. Bron spent
a lot of time there. Over the years. The Lakers
continue to be the laughing stock of the NBA. It
just gets better by the day. Not only did the
franchise that once prided themselves on winning hire a podcaster
(16:45):
as their head coach, they drafted the washed up star
Players kid, the NEPO kid, Scronnie Browny in the second round.
And everyone's laughing. But have you heard the latest on
this gets even better? The plot thickens in Lakerland if
he missed it so. At the start of free agency,
Lebron James, through his useful idiots his cronies in the media,
(17:09):
wanted every one of us know you and I and
everyone else to know that he was going to take
a massive pay cut. Lebron was going to take a
pay cut to help the Lakers, and he had his
eye on the prize. There were three players, three players
Lebron wanted, James Harden, Clay Thompson, and Jonas Valanciunis. That's
(17:31):
the list, period stop. And if one of those players
comes to the Lakers, Lebron would take a sizeable pay cut. Well,
one by one, they have all decided to give Lebron
the old poke in the eye, the cold shoulder. All
is quiet on the western front in Lakerland. So let
(17:56):
us discuss the question what does this lack of activity
by the Lakers say about the leadership of Lebron James.
So I've got elementary school fairy tale and jigsaw puzzle,
and we will combine all of these things together and
(18:17):
we are going to make an episode of the Office,
which for some reason is right right in front of me.
All right, So, num burwa all those old dusty trophies
and all the commercials and endorsements Lebron James has gotten
(18:39):
over the years, and the opportunity to play in La
in front of all those woke celebrities in Hollywood, and
it's not a big enough calling card. What does that say?
My entire life? The Lakers have always gotten the top
players whoever they wanted they got. Not right now, No,
it's not happening anymore. Have the mighty funt all in
(19:00):
all of a sudden, it does appear when you dig
a little deeper and you look at what's going on
in Lakerland. This is such an embarrassment. Lebron has yet
to win anything as a Laker. The Lakers have regularly
been an embarrassment with Lebron James on the roster, and
he is the owner by proxy and the GM by
(19:23):
proxy of the team. Genie Boss has raised the white flags.
She's just giving up. She says, I can't handle it anymore.
Do whatever you want, Lebron. You want to hire your
little podcast buddy, Okay, we'll do that. You want a
draft your kid who can't play, Okay, well draft your kid,
no problem, no problem at all. But that's one thing
he said, Well, anybody can coach. It's not that hard
(19:44):
to coach in the NBA, right, there's some real stiffs
that have coached in the NBA. And second round pick,
you can say, well, so, second round pick, and who
cares about a second round pick? Okay, but Lebron was
given the elbow room to improve the roster and make
any moves his heart desired. And if you look at
the scoreboard, there's a lot of goose eggs on the scoreboard.
(20:06):
There's a lot of goose eggs on the scoreboard. And
this does not whisper. It screams, is what it does.
That Lebron and the Lakers have lost the rasthma task.
They're frazzled. Lebron is frazzled. At this particular point, Lebron
James has been diagnosed. Doctor Mallard, that would be me,
has diagnosed Lebron James with an elementary school playground illness.
(20:30):
Lebron's got the cooties. Lebron has the gout. Now, what
is my evidence? May three players? There were three guys
Lebron was willing to take a pay cut for and
he made sure to leak this assuming one of them
would come to the Lakers. The three players who turned
down the Lakers and Lebron James Harden. Now that's understandable.
(20:52):
Harden wanted to play for the glamour team in Los Angeles,
the people's team. You can't really be upset by that.
Why would you want to play for the Laker when
you play for the Clippers. Right, they got the taj
Mahal of Arenas, better owner, better fan base, real authentic fans,
not fraudulent, fake phony fans like the Lakers have. So
they have historians, as we like to point out, So
(21:13):
that's understandable. You can't really rip Lebron for hard and
not wanting to play for the Lakers. Why would you?
Right then you've got Yonis Valentois. Now this is a
body blow, body blow, body blow because Valentutis who's getting
a little along in the tooth. He picked wizardry and
living in DC on a bottom feeding franchise rather than
(21:35):
play for the Lakers. That is a kick to the nuts,
is what that is. Now, that's not the most embarrassing, though,
the most embarrassing. And there's no way to spin this,
there's no way to spend This is Clay Thompson, who
grew up around the Lakers. His father played for the team.
(21:56):
I love the Lakers growing up, has connections to the franchise.
His father is a mouthpiece, a propaganda arm of the
Laker propaganda machine as a broadcaster for the team. And
yet he said I want nothing to do with you.
I want to go eat tex mex and live in
the Dallas area. And that's what I'm going to do.
(22:19):
So screw you. I don't want to play for your team.
You talk about a body blow, body blow, body blow.
That is a body blow. And now the Lakers are
trying to salvage things with Demarta Rosan, who is soon
to be thirty five years old next month turns thirty five.
One trick pony, mid range jump shot, no defense. That's
the Marta Rose And you can trade a bunch of
(22:42):
random spare pieces to get him. Good luck now page two.
Here we circle back. Now, circle back to Philadelphia. Consumed
a lot of media content so you would not have
to about Paul George by George podcast Pee heading to
the Delaware Valley to hang out with Fats and Philly
(23:03):
and all our friends in the greater Philadelphia area and
southern New Jersey. And so the Sixers. Here's the question,
will the Sixers end up regretting the Paul George contract?
And I'm not in my head. Yes, you can't see me,
but I'm not in my head. Yes. Pg. Thirteen is
the epitome of damaged goods, not quite to the degree
(23:27):
of Klay Thompson. We talked about Klay Thompson in a
previous hour and how he has just lost it. So
he's not that bad, but there are the telltale signs
of trouble on the horizon and that mushroom cloud you
see out in the distance, problematic, problematic. Klay Thompson has
(23:49):
his own issues. But Paul George, I'll give you some
numbers to back this up here. So now, last year,
Paul George, in a year where he knew he was
going to opt out of his contract, play in over
seventy games. He is relatively healthy. But the four previous
years prior to that, Paul George appeared in less than
sixty games. In fact, if you look at the side
(24:10):
by side with Kawhi Leonard, who is the personification of
lackadaisical and Kawhi Leonard just load management doesn't give a damn,
would rather hang out at his casa in San Diego
than play basketball during the season. So Kawhi Leonard and
Paul George the games missed within the same zip code. Now,
(24:33):
Kawhi's missed more, but not by that many, not by
that many. And another player who is rapidly aging in
Paul George and the Sixers overpaid for a guy who
is a glorified part time player who vanishes in big
moments and is another one of these players that is
living off past accolades. This is a big infestation around
(24:57):
the NBA, right past accolades. He left his home town team,
the glamour team in LA, the Clippers, playing a chance
to play at the taj Mahall with the richest owner
in sport. He left outside of the Saudiast. But he
left that team, right, He left that team, and every man,
woman and child knows how this fairytale ends. Once upon
(25:20):
a time, a long long time ago, Paul George turns
into a giant father fire breathing albatross, A giant albatross.
What could possibly go wrong? What could possibly go wrong? All? Right? Now?
Final point? We pivot to a bizarre transaction that Mike
(25:42):
from Oklahoma City requested that I at least mentioned this.
She said, you never.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Talk about this team, and why do you talk about
the thunder? What's wrong with you? You're on the radio here, Okay,
calm down, so I will pacify you. I will appease you.
We pivot to the dust Bowl, a big deal in
the Sooner state A big deal here.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
How does on God's Green Earth, former Knickerbocker center Isaiah
Hartenstein get eighty seven million over three years in Okay, see,
how does that happen? So it's to me this is
not that complicated. Isaiah Hartenstein is a medium level player.
He's an average NBA player. It's not roster spam. Roster
(26:26):
spam means you can't play. He can play, but he's
not the center of the universe by any means. He's
a player that you like to have on your team,
and he played well for the Clippers a couple of
years ago going to the Knicks. But the thing here,
you heard this when you were a kid. It's all
about timing. It's all about timing. And if you look
at the jigsaw puzzle and okay, see, they were a
(26:47):
fraudulent team. They had a great regular season record, they
were exposed in the playoffs. We all saw that they
were a joke in the playoffs. But the Thunder had
money to burn because all they've been doing is hoarding
draft picks over the years, and these big extensions haven't
really kicked in Other than shake Yogas Alexander who was
not a draft pick. That was a Clippers draft pick,
so they had money to burn. They had a clear
(27:07):
and obvious need in the middle, and so they think
that Isaiah Hartenstein will be the missing jigsaw puzzle piece
that that will push them where they need to go.
And so they're willing to start a bonfire and pay
a guy who's a mid level NBA player at best
and likely a backup on a good team, and they're
(27:28):
going to pay him almost thirty million dollars a year. Now,
keep in mind he averaged about eight points a game
and eight rebounds a game, and that's wheth thirty million
dollars to Oklahoma City. Thirty million dollars. A role player
who fills out the roster and doesn't suck when he's
on the court, but doesn't dominate at all. Thirty million
dollar player, thirty million dollar year player. Almost It is
(27:51):
the Ben Mahler Show. If you'd like to comment on
any of that, you can join us here. If you'd
like to be part, speak easy rules are in effect,
but you can call up, scream, shout, yell, and all that.
We will take your phone calls straight ahead. Also on
X at Ben Mahlor that is at Ben Mahlor if
you'd like to be part of the program. Too good
(28:14):
for Reality, Too good for reality, and an overreaction. We'll
get to all that and we will do it next.
But that's right, your friend Ben, and I should be
putting my feet up here, relaxing and enjoying myself. But
it's hour two the A block live read very exciting.
(28:35):
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Speaker 2 (29:35):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Benmeller Show
weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It's a whole lot of green for a whole lot
of green. Wel come in the beginning of another hour
of the Benmahler Show. We are in the air everywhere,
one on one. As we say, when you got it,
you gotta fly on it, coast to coast, border the
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of FSR ammading live from the Zen, the peaceful and
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dot com. The Way tire buying should beat. John from Reno,
I think you said about ten thousand screwdrivers, and he's
having one right now, got the fireball going, having quite
(30:49):
the night there and enjoin the show. So our lead
this hour from the Business of Sport. I thought this
was an interesting store. It's one of the iconic franchises
in North Americans sport. The Shamrocks can be yours if
the price is right. I assume you've heard by now,
but maybe not. The team hasn't been sold, but the
(31:11):
plan is to sell them. So the Celtics ownership group
led by Wick Grossbeck, plans to sell one hundred percent
of the franchise, and they claim in a carefully vetted
and written statement that the Celtics can be yours of
the price is right because of a state and family
(31:33):
planning purposes. The terminology used in the news comes less
than two weeks after the Celtics won their record eighteenth title.
They're way ahead of the Lakers in terms of championships,
and so the team now having to decide who they
want to pay and who they don't want to pay.
It appears they want to pay everyone, as everyone's getting
(31:54):
a big contract, and so they had the top record
during the regular season. They won the championship, and now
the team is going on the open market. The flea
market is open and you can buy the shamrock shakes
of the NBA. So let us discuss thumbs up or
thumbs down, thumbs up or thumbs down in terms of
(32:16):
the estate tax being the real reason why the Celtics
are going up for sale. So I've got Latin Dance
enlisted and Ghostbusters and we will combine all of these
things together and we are going to make some hand moisturizer,
(32:38):
is what we're going to make. So first of all,
I'm gonna go thumbs down on this, So just for
the record, I'm on the record thumbs down. And while
I believe what was said in the press release is
a kernel of truth, right, it's a version of the truth.
It is not the whole truth and definitely nothing but
(32:58):
the truth. So that is my position on this. And
when you talk about these kind of news releases, you
have to be someone with a critical eye. You can't
buy what is said because normally what they do is
they sugarcoat everything with these news releases. And if you
go down to the stable, like a Churchill downs, you
go down to the stable the track there and This
(33:21):
is what's known as a stalking horse. The term is
stalking horse. There they're concealing your real intentions. You have
other ulterior motives, but you're just tossing this out because
people can understand where you're coming from. The estate tax,
which is better known by its gangster term death tax.
(33:45):
That's what it is. It's a death tax because the
Weasley politicians, even when you die, they want their share
of your riches, of your whole life, and they want
to take your money from you, so you can't pass
all that money on to your loved ones, and they
normally take about half of it. If you have enough money,
it all goes away. And so they say it's a
(34:06):
state tax, but it's really the death tax. And politicians
will rob the grave if they have to to get
their money too, so they can live their lavish lifestyles.
I got an education on this. I've lost both my
parents over the years, and I've learned through that process
or process, exactly what that's all about.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Now.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
They didn't have anywhere close to that kind of money,
so I didn't. It wasn't too bad for me, but
I didn't even know that was a thing. I was
completely naive today. So while it is true that this
is a factor, the death tax, the estate taxes they
call it, they're sugarcoating it. That said, if I'm right,
and I'm never wrong, I'm never wrong about these things.
(34:48):
If the Grossbeck family, the group that owns the Celtics,
wanted to keep the business in the family, if there's
someone some distant cousin or someone they wanted to pass
the team onto, they could navigate the tax code. There's
a where there's a will, there's a way they could
find a solution. It would be an expensive solution. So
(35:09):
when I see that and I realize what's going on here,
it's like a little Latin dance, not the sal salsa Latin.
It's like the old Latin carpdum seese the opportunity. What's
going on here is you've got the Celtics, who are
at the very top of the market. They just want
(35:30):
a championship. They have a stacked roster of players, the
core of the teams in their prime, and so Wick
Grossbeck will fetch the highest price ever paid for a
pro bouncy ball team. The minimum buy in if you
wanted to put a group together by the Celtics is
five point one billion. Five point one billion. Now, we
(35:54):
should also point out that something odd going on in
the NBA. We have seen a mass exodus in recent
years of ownerships changing over, not necessarily because of a
death by the owner, just because they're getting out of it.
In fact, if my math is correct, almost twenty percent
(36:17):
of NBA teams have changed owners in the last couple
of years or will change owners. The Celtics when they
sell with Grossbeck, that'll be the fourth NBA team changing owners,
with the Sons who just recently sold the Dallas Mavericks.
Mark Cuban sold out even though he's still hanging around
Lingering Mull Lingering and the Hornets. So that's four. But wait,
(36:40):
the Minnesota basketball team is currently going through arbitration. That'll
be the fifth team that changes hands. So five out
of the thirty teams, less than twenty percent, like sixteen
point six percent of NBA teams will have new owners
by the time the Celtics and the tim Wolves are done.
All right, now, why is that? Secondly, can you explain
(37:04):
in Layman's terms, why the Celtics, why the Boston Celtics
have been forking out jackpots Bonanzas. It's like the old bit.
There used to be this talk show host named Oprah Winfrey.
You probably don't know who that is, but she did
this famous show where she said, you get a car,
you get a car, You get a car. The Celtics like,
you get a contract, you get a contract, You get
(37:25):
a contract, you get a contract. They're forking out these
massive contracts. But can you explain why they are forking
out these massive contracts. So considering they're trying to sell
the team, So Wick Grossbeck he has enlisted something we
all wish that our bosses would do if you work
for a company that gets sold, Wick Grossbeck has enlisted
(37:46):
himself as part of the first Battalion, five hundred and
seventh Infantry Regimen. He's a paratrooper. He's handing out Golvin parachutes.
You get one, you get one one. He's playing the
role of Saint Nick Santa Claus and playing with house money.
(38:07):
He's not gonna have to pay most of that money,
and the Celtics aren't gonna be sold overnight. There's a
lot of lawyers that get involved in these kind of deals.
But nonetheless, Jalen Brown got paid a couple of years ago,
Jason Tatum, Drew Holliday White got paid, Derek White got
paid as well, and they've all gotten those cartoon checks.
And I would bet my last dollar dollars to donuts.
(38:30):
I would have bet my last dollar here that this
has been in the works for a couple of years,
like we can just get one more championship, one more championship,
and we can sell at the very top and get
out and we're done with it and we don't have
to worry about it. And it's we'll give out these
contracts and everyone's locked up, and so the headache is
(38:50):
on whoever buys the team. It's their problem, right. Final thought,
there is a rumor that's been bouncing around the pinball machine,
the echo chamber here. The rumor is that John Henry,
who has stopped trying with the Red Sox. My friends
in Boston tell me that he's just going through the
motions as owner, that he won his championships and it's
(39:12):
just another thing in his portfolio now with the Red Sox.
Now I'm not there, but my boots in the ground
teld me that's the case with John Henry, so he
is part and the face of the Finway Sports Group,
and the anticipation is they will make a bid to
buy the Celtics, that the people that own the Red
Sox are going to try to buy the Celtics. Now
(39:35):
Lebron James has entered the chat. Lebron is a partner
in the Finway Sports Group, which means Lebron owns part
of the Red Sox. He owns part of the Pittsburgh
Penguins and Liverpool as well. Liverpool FC that's part of
the portfolio. There's a bunch of other minor league teams
and other teams you've never heard of that are part
(39:55):
of the Finway Sports Group. So the question is rather obvious.
Lebron is a expected to sign a multi year contract
to continue stealing money from the Lakers and running that
franchise into the ground. Could he be a double agent?
Is it conceivable? Is there a path? Would Lebron James
be able while playing with the Lakers be able to
(40:18):
own a chunk of the Shamrocks the Celtics. So I'm
shaking my head. No one, this rather obvious, and here's
why the NBA has made it for Boten can't do it.
You can't even be a player coach in the NBA
these days, even though Lebron does it, you're not supposed
to do it. It's against the rules. But here's the problem.
(40:43):
The NBA has taken advice from Egon of Ghostbusters Fame,
don't cross the streams, and they put it in that
it's baked into the CBA. You can't cross the streams.
The NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement, the CBA X, explicitly prohibits
player slash owner agreements. Can't do it. Section twelve of
(41:08):
the agreement states that no player, no NBA player may
acquire or hold a direct or indirect interest in the
ownership of any NBA team, or in any company or entity,
whether privately or publicly owned, that owns any interest in
NBA in any NBA team. So, now that doesn't mean
(41:32):
Lebron wouldn't sell, wouldn't that be wild, or wouldn't quit. Rather,
there is a dimension in the multiverse where Lebron announces,
you know what, I'm out, I'm retiring from the Lakers
because John Henry's going to buy the Celtics and I'm
going to be the guy that gets to run the Celtics. Ooh,
(41:54):
the plot Dickens, Now that would be something I'm sure
he'd be welcome with open arms in Boston. What could
possibly go wrong? All right is the Ben Malor Show.
If you'd like to comment on any of that, you
can join us here speak easy rules are in effect.
We'll take some calls throughout the hour. Also, later this
hour we will have a riveting edition of Mallard's Amount
(42:15):
of Money. We will take calls up until then. Time
now for the Mallor Riddle of the day. You can
answer this on X at Ben Malar. That's at Ben Maler.
If you want to be part, you can answer it
on the X machine. So here's the Mallor Riddle of
the day. A candid microphone caught Chicago cub television studio
(42:35):
host talking about blank. They did not realize they were
being broadcast. A candid mic caught cub studio host on
television talking about blank. That is the Mallor Riddle of
the day. The answer, we'll get to it. We will
do it next
Host
Ben Maller
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