February 3, 2025 • 41 mins
Big Ben talks about the blockbuster NBA trade with Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis swapping teams, grades the trade for both the Lakers and Mavericks, claims the LeBron had no idea that this trade was going down, Maller to the Third Degree, Insta-Advice Line, and more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
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
station for the Benmatlers Show at Foxsports Radio dot com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
The Matador on the Moon, Wheeling in Dealing, Come on, come.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
On under the Big Top.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Well, come in the beginning of another week of the
Ben Mahler Show. We are in the air everywhere as
we cluster every show, a trip to the audio Safari,
coast to coast, border to border, hand beyond all thest
(01:01):
and humongously powerful microphones of FSRE emmading live from the
Running the Running of Our Mouth all night. We're broadcasting
live from the tiraq dot com studios.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Do it live. Tireraq dot com will help you get
there and unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard
protection over ten thousand recommended in Stars and Oh Slim
Tim on the Oregon Trail. He likes that number ten
thousand slim tim tire raq dot com, the Way Tire
(01:36):
Buying show be in our lead this hour. You know
where our lead's from. Yeah, that's where everyone's talking about
this here pro bouncy Ball. It's pretty funny because all
the media elites, the sports media elites, are in New
Orleans for the Super Bowl, and nobody gives a rats
ass about that game. Right now. It's all about these
NBA trades and what a week in It was a
(01:59):
hun dinger, a hum dinger of a weekend, a door buster,
door buster type trade. In fact, a couple of big trades,
but the biggest. We're gonna start play the hits. Play
the hits, mom, man, We'll play the hits. And uh,
if you didn't hear about it, I don't know how
you could have missed it. If you're a sports fan,
(02:20):
you're listening to a sports talk radio show at an
ungodly hour, I would think you've paid attention, but maybe not.
Luka Doncik is gone, traded, excommunicated from Dallas, bye bye,
as he was traded to the Lakers. The historians get
Luka Doncik part of a three team deal between Dallas,
(02:43):
LA and Utah Anthony Davis the big name going back
to the Mavericks, there's some spare parts in spam to
make the numbers work that change teams. The Jazz, they're
just there to help trades go through, to facilitate trades.
They take on draft picks and things like that, and
they help the money situation work out. The Jazz are
(03:06):
just a filler team at this point, not trying to win,
just trying to help the rest of the league out.
That's their role. So let us discuss the question, how
do you grade the mega mega mega mega mega trade.
Luca goes from the MAVs to the Lakers. For Anthony Davis,
those are the headliners. We focus on the headliners. So
(03:27):
I've got Puddy, Sandra Bullock, and Return of the Jedi,
and we will combine all of these things together and
we will follow our nose. Is wherever our nose takes us.
And I got a big schnaz, I got a really
large nas so I will just go wherever the nose
(03:47):
takes us. So my first thought on this is when
you're when you're grading, it's from the Mallord report card
when it comes to grading trades, and we are the
industry leader in great transactions. Absolutely, nobody is more trusted,
nobody in overnight delivery of a report card on transactions
(04:12):
on this show in the middle of the night on Fox.
Nobody has this kind of information. So on the Malor
report Card, the Malor report Card on the big trade
over the weekend, Dallas and La the Lakers reluctantly, I
will give them a B minus on the trade. I
will give them a B minus. The Mavericks get an F,
(04:35):
and then I don't know that I can go low?
Is there anything lower than an F? I would like
to go lower than F? Is there anything beyond F?
Can I go beyond F? Anyway? LA also picked up
a couple of roster span players in the trade, Maxi Kleibah,
who hit a game winning shot against them a while back,
(04:58):
and Mark he much traveled Mark Keith Morris. He also
goes to the Lakers. It is a foo bar situation.
It is I'm a chumping to still process the transaction.
The math ain't mathing on this one on many many levels,
many many many levels. They're Lakers were just handed on
(05:22):
a silver platter a Luka Doncik and they didn't have
to bid against anyone. Why why would you do that.
That's malfeasance, that's bad management, that's incompetence, that's wrong on
many levels. Why would you do that? Wouldn't you fire
(05:43):
the general manager if you owned the team and that
is how they did business. I think you would. But
it's like, oh, we're gonna call one team and we'll
just give you the buy now price and that's it
and you don't have to bid and just submit an offer.
We'll make it happen. Yeah. Now, back when the NBA
(06:03):
actually had leadership, you know, guys with hair on their
chest and balls and things like that. David Stern would
have vetoed this trade. He vetoed the Chris Paul trade, right,
he would have vetoed this trade. Also said, well, that's
not we're not going to do that. But it's playing
with putty. The whole thing's playing with putty, putty explosives.
We're talking ballistics here is what we're talking about, plastic explosives. Now, Luca,
(06:27):
he turns twenty six later this month, Happy birthday. There's
some great cake, great bakeries in Los Angeles. You love
the bakries in LA. And he was traded for a
player who is near the end of his athletic prime,
who has the superpower of missing games. His nickname is
(06:48):
street Clothes Anthony Davis, that's his nickname. He is more
known for not showing up the work than showing up
the work. And that's who the Dallas Mavericks had to
get their hands on. Why I don't get it, Davis
turns thirty two in the month of March. Now, these
aren't your daddy's Mavericks. That is fair to say. Anybody
(07:09):
it still thinks. And not everyone heard the news, but
Mark Cuban, who was a fanboy. I mean getting the
Mark Cuban's got a lot of issues there. But Cuban's
a fanboy, and he owned the Mavericks for a long
time and he sold out. Everyone's got their price, and
Magic Christian, Everyone's got their price. Mark Cuban sold out
for three point five billion dollars. And that's the cost
(07:31):
for Mark Cuban to allow this to happen. If Mark
Cuban still owned the Dallas Mavericks controlling interest of the Mavericks,
he would not have done this. This was not a possibility,
it was it. But that's not the case here and Cuban,
even if he felt he had to trade Luca for
whatever reason, would have rather sent him to an expansion
(07:55):
franchise in Papa New Guinea than send him to the
There's no way that would have happened. And of course
there's a lot of dumb people that don't know that
Mark Cuban sold out. He's a sellout. He sold the team.
Good for him three point five billion, and he's just
kind of there as a like a make a wish thing.
When he travels with the Mavericks and all that, it's like, hey, wee,
(08:17):
I don't really own the team. I don't control anything,
but I get to sit by the bench and the
players like me and all that. Yeah. Wow, so new regime,
new blood, and you get what you get. You get
what you get now, Page two. What makes the Lukka
the Luca trade so unique? What makes it so unique? Well,
(08:39):
this is like Sandra Bullock's Academy Award winning performance in
the old movie The blind Side. The blind Side. Listen,
if someone had called up this talk show and said, hey, Ben,
I'd like to make a trade. How about the Mavericks
s and Luka Doncik to the Lakers for Anthony Davis
(09:02):
in some spare parts, some pocket length to be named later.
We would have said something along the lines of, well,
what bath salts are you sniffing right now, sir, and
please go to the mini bar, and we would have
hung up on them. That's what we would have done.
A video game would have rejected that trade, would have said, no,
that's not a proper trade. No, no way. A twenty
(09:25):
twenty nine first round pick. That's all you're getting in
terms of future draft picks and scratcher tickets. One scratcher
ticket in twenty twenty nine. That's it. But here we are. Here,
we are the unthinkable, the unimaginable. It's the first time
in NBA history that two raining all NBA players have
(09:46):
been traded for each other at mid season, as the
trade deadline's not until later this week, but the trades,
the big ones have already happened at this point in
the modern era. This is the craziest trade, the Luca
trade of them all, and the thing that stands out
though in the world we're living in right now, twenty
(10:06):
four to seven round the clock and the business of basketball,
the currency of basketball. I've had this conversation with many
people over the years who are in this world and
the rumor and I ran a gossip site for years
before I was working here at the same time. But
I ran a rumor site for many many years. And
(10:28):
the rumor is more important than the reality. Like the
rumor gets people talk. And what happened with this particular
trade here, you know, it's it's stunning because there was
not even a peep, right, loose lips in the NBA
(10:48):
are commonplace. Happens all the time. They work clandestine is
how they worked this time is how they work. Cloak
and dagger. Mission zero dark thirty, everyone say, moving under
the cover of darkness. And twas the night before the
trade deadline week was upon us went all through the house,
(11:12):
all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not
even a unibrow. And then the Lakers they played the
Knicks Midtown Manhattan on National TV. Huhum, and then call boom.
The volcano exploded. But there was no bubbling up of this.
There was no chatter that Dallas is unhappy with Luca,
(11:34):
They're going to trade him. This came out of relatively
thin air, so much so people were convinced that Shams
was hacked. This was not real. There was some funny
business going on all right.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Lastly, so how does this Luka don Chick transaction play
with the electorate in Dallas. Now we're on in Dallas.
You guys can answer if you want to call in
and give the pulse of the people. But from the outside,
the way I see it, the Dallas Mavericks are cooked.
(12:08):
They have violated the bubble of trust. And once you
violated the bubble of trust, there is no going back.
You have done the thing you can't do at the
time you can't do it. You have sold the church
of Maverick Basketball, and you have just traded the deacon.
You have said, get out of here. You're done. And
(12:31):
as we understand it, despite enjoying a hearty meal and
not really taking conditioning all that. Seriously, Luca was beloved
and he was their next Dirk. They were just in
the NBA finals against the Celtics last summer, and it's
it's wild that you would make this particular move at
(12:52):
this time. And the sales pitch. We've seen the sales pitch.
The sales pitch played out. It's simple. The Mavericks. They're claiming, hey,
We seven years with this guy, and we were waiting
for Luca, for the light bulb to go off, for
the epiphany to take place for Luca, and it never did.
And so what we got was a character from Return
(13:13):
of the Jedi. You might remember Job of the Hut.
That's what we got. The guys out of shape. He
can score, that's it. He's never taken him, you know,
his job seriously in terms of being in top physical condition. Now,
Luca has been out since Christmas. Here we are in
early February with a strained left cap and the word
(13:35):
the streets of the NBA saying that there are factions
in Dallas that are convinced the reason he hurt himself
is because he's a fat pig and that's why he
injured himself and has been out since since Christmas. That's
just poor conditioning and all that. But doesn't that seem
like a temporary problem more than a permanent problem. You know,
(13:55):
I don't know, but that's the Mavericks. They're planning all
these stories to justify the trays saying you like two
hundred sixty pounds and MAVs ownership didn't trust him. I've
heard that bouncing around the pinball machine of the hot
take here that there was other mitigating factors. They didn't
want to pay him the supermax contract, they didn't want
(14:17):
to invest that kind of money this summer. Give him
another contract and well at bare it's already backfired. Networks
aren't winning anything with Anthony Davis. You come on, Anthony
never won with the Lakers. They never won a championship,
not a real one, fake one. They never want a
real one with the Lakers. Not gonna win now with Kyrie,
(14:39):
they're both going to get hemorrhoids playing rock paper scissors
on the bench while the other players are out there
playing yikes. And as far as Luke, listen, if he
had problems with self discipline with the Dallas Mavericks, wait
till you get to the Lakers and to all those
Hollywood f's, kiss your ass and invite you to all
those parties with pile of drugs and amazing food. And
(15:03):
you're on the A list everywhere in La because you
wear the historian's uniform. That's what Luca has to look
forward to. So if you can't conjoy yourself in Dallas,
I know those famous people in Dallas, I know those
rich people in Dallas, but it's a different animal in
La and the good luck, good Luck, Luca, good Luck.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Did he Know or did.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
He not Know?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Welcome in the beginning of another hour of the Ben
Mahler Show.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
We are in the air everywhares we form a band
and discover the call of sports radio coast the coast, border,
the border and beyond on the mast and sizeably powerful
microphones of fsre em monating live.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
From the box as we are on our soapbox. We're
broadcasting live from the ti rac dot com studios tyrac
dot com. We'll help you get there. And unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road hazard protection and over ten thousand
recomment it installers, not a burner and Danny in Miami
(16:20):
like that number ten thousand. Tire rack dot com the
way tire buying shoe so our lead this out. We
continue the conversation all night long here. It's what all
the cool people are talking about here, massive trade, so
much more to discuss, pro bouncy ball and the trade
heard round the association. Big weekend story, big weekend story here,
(16:46):
and we've got you covered in depth team coverage, which
is really just me because I'm awake here. Everyone else
is partying in New Orleans, but we're here. Luca Luka
Doncik putting himself into the transfer portal. Well, he didn't
actually put himself, The Mavericks put him in the transfer
port a. Luca sent packing as the Mavericks said bye
(17:07):
bye and get out of here. You're no longer needed
to their franchise player, the player that got them to
the NBA Finals where they lost to Jason Tatum and
the Celtics in the summer of twenty twenty four. And
here we are in February of twenty twenty five, and
it's asta la vista of even that Jay to Luca,
(17:28):
he's gone mega mega Mega trate happened after the Knicks
Lakers game on Saturday. Now, the part of the story
that I want to focus in on right now with
you and have a little chat me and you okay,
involves Lebron James because Luca was put in the trade
machine on Saturday. And did you hear the Lebron part
(17:51):
of the story. Maybe not so. The reporting over the
weekend claims that Lebron James learned of this massive transaction
in our little sporting world. Lebron learned of this trade
following the win over the next when it broke on
(18:13):
social media and he was out to dinner with his
family in Manhattan and he found out about the trade.
That's the reporting. We're told that James was surprised by
the news. Here no idea that this trade was in
the works whatsoever. So this was seemingly reported with the
straight face. We don't really know why, but it apparently was.
(18:34):
So let us discuss the question the NBA media lap
dogs claiming that Lebron James had no no idea that
Luka Doncik would be traded to the Lakers and Anthony
Davis would go back the other direction to Texas, and
(18:54):
that he found out while he was having a nice meal.
Believe it or not, that's the question. So I've got Unicorn,
Big Poppy, and we buy Uglyhouses dot Com. We'll combine
all of those things together and we are going to
make the chicken Schwarma is what we're going to make.
(19:14):
We'll make the chicken shwarma. So number all right, so
you gotta look through the lens of this unfolding drama
that's still playing out here as we head into the
early hours on a Monday. But Lebron, the way I
(19:35):
look at this, Lebron already had his alibi all laid out.
The thing that Lebron worries about more than anything is optics.
It's like when he's talked about watching movies or reading
books and asked about it, he has no clue because
he doesn't actually watch those movies or read those books,
and it's awkward for him, but he wants the perception,
the optics of being that guy, right, the guy that
(19:58):
loves the Godfather movies and reads the Malcolm X book
and all that, even though he didn't really know much
about it because he's not actually doing those things. But
that's Lebron. That's what we know Lebron to be. It's
all about the appearance, which is perfect for la. That's
what Hollywood's all about, right, It's about the appearance, the
illusion that you know what you're doing. So the guy
(20:19):
we're supposed to believe here, in order for us to
believe that Lebron James had no clue about what happened here.
We're supposed to be the same player that bullied the
Lakers to draft his kid who can't play, Bronnie James,
and then make sure that Bronnie was on the roster
to play right away and a father son duet when
(20:40):
his kid sucks. That we're supposed to believe that's that
same player had nothing nothing to do with this, that
this is completely foreign to him and came out of nowhere,
mister GM by proxy, going back to his days in
Cleveland and couldn't do that in Miami, although he did
(21:01):
form the team with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and
then was at Loggerheads with pat Riley and then went
back to Cleveland to run things and then went out
to LA But that same guy, lebron James, was out
eating linguinie and he was having an appetizer, maybe was
eating like one of those little piece of bread, and
(21:22):
then the trade happened. He had no idea. I just
eating linguini with a little piece of bread, maybe some
red wine in the trade. Hauten, What in the wall?
I mean, come on, if you believe this, I want
you to call me up because I have a pink
polka dotted unicorn. I would like to sell you It's
(21:42):
the most beautiful pink polka dotted unicorn you could possibly have,
and it's yours. I'll sell it to you for a
nominal fee. If you think Lebron had no knowledge of
the trade prior to the trade going down, I would
like to have you purchase this. I'll give you a
sweetheart deal. It's a pink polka dotted unicorn and it
can be yours and it's only going to cost you
about eighty thousand dollars. That's a deal. That's a deal.
(22:05):
You can have it right, tell me you're gullible without
telling me you're Google What was Lebron James role in
LA dealing? Anthony Davis Well, the way this works, and
I can't imagine it's much different here at that level
of player talking about Luka Dancik here and then Anthony
(22:28):
Davis Also, it's going to fundamentally change both the Lakers
and the Mavericks the direction. Some are convinced it's for
the better, some are convinced it's for the worst. But
in order for this to happen right, in order for
this to happen you need ownership the rubber stamp. But
also Lebron has to give his blessing. You know, I
(22:51):
want to upset Lebron James face to the NBA and
all that stuff. You do want to upset Lebron. And
as far as the reporting that he was just at
dinner and he had no idea, you know, it's against
the optic thing. Lebron has these NBA writers eating out
of the palm of his hand. He really does. Right,
It's like the the side of a mirror when you're
(23:12):
driving around, right, the objects in the mirror are closer
than they appear. Yikes, they're in the tank. They are
in the tank. Tank tank tank, and really just aggregating,
repackaging Lebron James content. At this point, Lebron's people send
a narrative over and then that's his version of the truth,
(23:32):
and they just repeat it and that's that all right now,
Pat Trewo, So, how does the dust settle with lukeca
who did touch down in a private plane? Because you know,
the one percenter is when you're a pro basketball player,
you travel in private planes. So Lucas in La now
explain how this all goes down? Now, the dust settles,
(23:56):
we'll look at the micro, not the macro in the
near Now. Luca's hurt right now, he's not playing. He's
supposed to come back. The Maverick said he was going
to come back before the All Star break. The All
Star breaks right around the corner here. It's in the
middle of February, and if you look at the calendar,
today's February third, so we're not that far away from this.
This is taking place. So it's not a one size
(24:18):
fit all situation. It's not. Now. This is the old
trope in basketball, which is true because it happens all
the time. There's only one basketball, there's only one ball,
and situations like this rarely work, rarely work because Luca,
while he is an absolute offensive dynamo and the beginning
(24:40):
of his career, there's no question he's one of the
top players this far into his career, he's historical. He's
a top five player offensively all time in NBA history. However,
you look at this, he's the big Poppy of the NBA.
He is a designated hitter like David Ortiz was to
(25:03):
the Red Sox in his heyday. He's all bat, no glove.
That's what he brings you and sounds like at this
point similar to Lebron James, a Doppo ganger, if you will,
of Lebron James and two ball dominant players that are
weak defenders. Essentially, the opposition against the Lakers will be
(25:25):
on the power play on offense, He'll be playing five
on three. Now, Lebron occasionally a couple times a game
will make a good defensive play, so he gets in
the highlights, but the rest of the time he's saving
his energy to work on the offensive side of the situation. Now,
the other part of this, the heel a monster in
(25:46):
the room, the Komodo dragon in the room, if you will,
is the poor work habits that Luca supposedly has. It's
been an open secret. Luca does not believe in things
like the gym. He does not believe in doing and
cardio and things like that. I believe the reporting that's
out there, and he's got bad work ethic. He's lazy.
(26:09):
He just has an I don't give an f He's
so talented he can get away with it right now.
And the argument is that it's not gonna work that
long term is he's been playing basketball since he was
a kid at a high level in Europe and it's
just not gonna that's what the Mavericks. If you believe
the Mavericks are not doing this intentionally just so they
can move the team to Vegas, and that this was
(26:30):
actually some kind of planned, out formulated effort to improve
the team, which I don't. But if you if you
believe that, if you're someone that wants to believe that,
that's fine. I don't agree with you. We can agree
to disagree. But if that's your mindset. If that's the
case here, and then like the MAVs are betting that
he will age like milk and we know that doesn't
(26:53):
go well. That just does not end up very well.
All right, now, final point, So, what was the oddest
part of this big trade between the Mavericks and the
Lakers that sends Luca to skid Row. That's who the
Lakers play right there on skid Row in La All
homeless people can sit right there the arena. Now, when
(27:14):
they built it, skid Row was not there, but the
good people of California have make sure skid Row moves
over to that area, so it's all there. So what
is the oddest part of the Luka Doncik trade, So
it would be the unorthodox tactics of the Mavericks. And
it's not even close right. Normally, a star player gets
put on the auctioning block. Now we saw de Aaron
(27:36):
Fox who was also traded. We'll get to that later.
It's on my big board, dearon Fox traded from Sacramento
to San Antonio. That had been talked about for about
two weeks. He's traded. That's how it goes. Jimmy Butler
has not been traded at this hour from Miami, but
Jimmy Butler's name has been floated out there. It's been
talked about on gas bag shows like this and blowhards
(27:58):
on TV. If talked to where Jimmy Butler's gonna end up.
And it's social media fodder for the bots on social media,
the fake accounts they get to talk about that go
back and forth, and so all of that, all of
that going on, and yet here you have none of
it in Dallas. If this is accurate and the matters
(28:21):
are all saying the same thing, it was early on
it was just reports and now it's like, this is
what we did, and maybe they're lying. I don't know.
It channeling Rod Serling from the Twilight Zone. Picture if
you will a world where you have a beach front
palazzo in Italy, a palatial home with millions of dollars,
(28:46):
and you decide not to list the home. You call
one person up and say, hey, would you like this home,
and just offer whatever you want. We'll take whatever you
send us. That's it. Here you go. It's like they
went to that we buy uglyhomes dot com or houses
or whatever dot com and they reached out to the
some company like that. There's a bunch of them out
(29:07):
there that just they'll take your home and maybe they
give you a good deal, maybe they don't. And that's
what they got. They just all right, that's it. You know.
It's like going on eBay and just paying the price
and there's no bidding. You're just like buying out price.
And that was it. The buying out price. You skip
the hassles of having to do the prep work for
the house, no showings. You took an all cash offer,
(29:29):
but it was really pennies on the dollar. And again,
if this is the way it went down and you
own the team, you would you would say, okay, we
are done. We're done with Nico Harrison. I'm firing him.
If I am someone that cares about the Dallas Mavericks,
and if I'm the owner, I fire Nico Harrison. But
(29:50):
they had the ownership had to sign off on this.
So now the other the other part of it. And
somebody text me over the weekend it said, well, there's
some scandal coming down with Luca and you don't know
about it yet, but they traded him and there's something's
going to come out about Luca in the coming days.
And what is that? You know, who knows? I wouldn't.
I wouldn't put past the world we live in today.
(30:11):
But at this point we don't know his scandal right
around the corner. So based on what we do know,
Dallas did not do their due diligence. The front office
of the Mavericks. They didn't even send a group text
to a bunch of gms. They just went and had
a cup of coffee. Nico Harrison and the Lakers executive,
(30:31):
well really the assistant GM Skinny Jeans under Lebron and
they took an all cash offer and that was it.
And it's malfeasance. It is malpractice, is what it is
to trade this to make this trade, and it's also
nepotism because the rest of the story. See, Nico Harrison
and Rob Polinka are besties. They're besties, ah, and they
(30:56):
go way back. Laker GM and the Maverick GM have
been buddy since Harrison was Kobe Bryant's marketing manager. We
understand at Nike and Rob Polenka was Kobe's agent, So
Kobe Bryant is responsible for this trade. Yeah, here is
(31:16):
the GM, Nico Harrison, and listen to him. Lick the
toes of Rob Polenka. Take a listen. This is illegal
in the Bible Belt.
Speaker 5 (31:25):
I thought Rob and I were able to have, you know,
really intense conversations over the course of three or four
weeks that started out as a coffee that you know,
was more hey, would you ever I don't know, would
I let me think of? You know, and then it
built upon that, you.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Know, out of context, doesn't it sound like they're talking
about a hookup like a booty call? Right? Can we
how about this? Let's try something. Let's play this again
and just say this is like they're talking about on
a dating show, how they started dating and how one
thing led to another. And just imagine Nico Harrison and
Rob Polinka are in a relationship and they're on like
(32:04):
the what the Hontingmooners is or what's the what it
was that show called? Is that what I'm thinking of? Anyway?
Speaker 5 (32:09):
Tell you listen, Rob and I were able to have,
you know, really intense conversations over the course of three
or four weeks. They started out as a coffee that,
you know, it was more, hey, would you ever let
me think of you know, and then it built upon that.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Oh my god, that's perfect. That is like a day.
How'd your relationship start? How do you guys start hooking up? Mike?
What do you got? Man? Yes? Look, God, I want
to play it again, play it again. So again for
this little exercise, imagine, if you will, Nico Harrison and
Rob Polinker on some dating TV show and Nico, Nico,
(32:49):
can you tell us how you and Rob started and
started your relationship back in the day? How did it begin?
Let me now?
Speaker 5 (32:54):
Plet me now, Rob and I were able to have,
you know, really intense conversations over the course of three
or four weeks. They started out as a coffee that,
you know, was more Hey, would you ever? I don't
know would I I don't think of you know. And
then it built upon.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
That one thing led to another, and that's so good.
I love it. It's so great. Nothing better than out
of context audio.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Here
week a Maler, how about that to the third degree?
This is one big Ben gets grailed.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
That was my first year in San Diego radio. The
Chargers played the forty nine Ers in the Super Bowl
and lost by a gazillion points. All right, Cooper, what
do we have here? Cooper?
Speaker 6 (33:45):
In a recent interview Bill's GM Brandon Bean said he
does not regret the trade for Amari Cooper Flyer. He
then revealed that Cooper's wrist injury was more serious than
anyone outside the building. Double liar, And he also noted
that the team averaged seven more points in games Cooper
played than in games that he did.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Those things aren't related, triple liar.
Speaker 6 (34:02):
Ben, do you think Cooper stays with Buffalo?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
No? Because who wants to stay in Buffalo? Come on,
let's be honest. Here, Andy the comic book guy, he
left Buffalo. Felexus is there, he tried to Felexis, try
to leave to go to Lexington, Kentuck. You know, I
think ultimately Amari Cooper goes somewhere else. He's at that
weird crossroads in his career where he's near the end
of his primly make up excuses for him being hurt,
(34:26):
but he's a twenty million dollar receiver. He didn't play
like a twenty million dollar receiver. I think he's gone next.
Speaker 6 (34:32):
Kevin Garnett took a profane shot at Jimmy Butler over
the weekend, saying, this is how non guarantees are going
to come into our league right here for s like this,
we effing fought our asses off through five or six
damn lockouts where we protect the integrity of the talent. Ben.
Do you think this Butler situation could have ramifications for
the rest of the league.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
I actually do, because the NBA owners are gonna look
at this and say, why are we giving out Why
does everyone get a guaranteed contract, Because then a guy
like Jimmy Butler can just be a And I like
Jimmy Butler, but he's been a complete a hole from
what I've read, So I think this is absolutely something
that will be brought up by a certain clique of
owners who are annoyed that they have to give out
(35:12):
only guaranteed. They're jealous of the in the NFL because
most NFL countries are not guaranteed next.
Speaker 6 (35:17):
Over the weekend, Many Machado expressed disappointment that the Padres
haven't made any moves this offseason. Now, Ben, the Padres
won ninety three games last year. Do you think they
can replicate that success or are they going to take
a step back? Well, no chance, they will win fewer games.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Although the nationally West, the Giants blow and the Rockies
are bad. Arizona's decent, but it's the Padres. They're still
unloading players like the team is in a holding pattern
right now because the owner died a couple of years ago,
and the family, the widow and the brothers of the
guy are sewing for control of the team. It's a
(35:54):
hot mess, all right. So the Potters are going to
unload a couple of pitchers, which my spidery like sense
is tell me is not good for the Podrays winning
more than ninety three games. I'll take the under. How
did we do you passed? That is a win? I passed.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Past her Dog and al fight pass path.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Hey you sports figure, guy or girl? Who got here
with you? Talking to Son? Here some instant advice? Hold
that thought. No one's paid attention to me for ten
whole seconds, and if you don't like it, and away
we go. It's time now for the great unwashed to unite.
Here who needs our advice in the world of sports
(36:48):
unscreened radio? The safety net comes down. Who needs the
wisdom the knowledge of the mal or militia. Well, that
would be the Dallas Maverick fan. This show booming in
to the great Dallas area. There's a lot of people
bummed out right now if they like basketball. Luka Doncik.
The franchise has been given away to the Lakers. So
advice to Maverick fans on dealing with the trauma and
(37:13):
drama of their GM and his mouthfeasance Nico Harrison sending
Luca to the Lakers and not even shopping him for
the highest offer, just giving him to the Lakers. Here
taking buy now price. So your advice to Maverick fans
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox is the number
eight seven seven nine nine six six three sixty nine.
We'll start out with you on line one. Hello, Line one,
(37:35):
you're on the air go line one.
Speaker 7 (37:37):
Become a Clipper fan. We got Patty Mills. It took
the clip. Baby.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Yeah that's right, baby, Champion, Patty Mills. He's coming to
l I baby all right. Line three, you're on here
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox. We giving advice
to Maverick fans. Hello, line three, first thing chircht two
in the hailshot Jr. Okay, well, sorry, we have time
to get to that right now. Line five. I knew
he would call it back. Line four, Hello, you're on
(38:00):
the Airline four in morning.
Speaker 7 (38:02):
Time, man, look at you fans. Let's meet up at
Man's house for pizza and talk about the tree.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah yeah, because it's morning time. Nothing better than pizza
in the morning, morning time, Rick and Maryland. Line four.
Line five, you're on the Airline five.
Speaker 7 (38:14):
Go.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Line five is not there. We'll go to line six.
Line six. Advice to Maverick fans on how to deal
with the Luca trade.
Speaker 7 (38:22):
Way off when you said Davia.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Wait, hell, OKAYO got some new jersey.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
No, it's the Goba ghoul. You gotta say it, Goba Gohogle.
Google Yes. Line two. Hello, line too, you're on the
airline too.
Speaker 7 (38:42):
Here up with Jerry Jones. Find a glory hole.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Okay, something about a glory hole and Jerry Jones. Line three,
you're on the Airline three. Hello. Line three, gotta be quick,
you're live on the air. You were not fast enough?
Line three. Callback. Line four, you're on the air giving
advice to Dallas Maverick fans. Line four. This is unscreen
radio advice on the MAVs dealing with the loss of Luca.
(39:05):
He's gone traded a more barbecue. Yeah, that seems like
it's good advice. That seems that everybody from Iowa sounds
like your buddy from Iowa. Line files ham no not no.
Line five. Hello, you're on the Airline five. That's Frank
the Tank from Iowa. Hello.
Speaker 7 (39:22):
Line five, Loraina play guilty by mob stright saying and
Barry Gibbs and then you know, what is.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
This a morning show? What are we doing? Requests? This
we a music show? Line six, you're on the Airline six. Hello,
I don't want it, but I beat it. I know,
I know. Calm down. Line one, you're on the ever
giving advice to the Maverick fan on dealing with the
trade of Luca unscreened radio at eight seven, seven ninety
nine on Fox.
Speaker 7 (39:50):
All right, gall ball beat Stevie.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Okay, thank you, stev Meet Paul. A little delay there.
It must be the satellite hookup. Line two, Hello, line two, body, Oh,
that's our buddy in Vegas. Right there. We gotta do that, Mallard,
meet and greet. I can't wait to go back to Vegas.
Back to Vegas. Right, we'll go back.
Speaker 7 (40:08):
Let me know, we'll put it together.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
All right, pick at dayton Raine. We'll pick a date
sometimes July. What do you think July?
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Maybe?
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Yeah? All right, you see okay. Line three, Hello, line three,
you're on the air. Line three.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
I can't wait for the Dallas Morning News to cover
what kind of cowboy boots eighty is wearing on the
bench tonight.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
What kind of belt does he have? One of those
big cowboy belts. Line four, you're on the air. We're
giving you have a supermarket See, we're giving advice to
Maverick fans. I'm dealing with the trade of Lucay just
stare in jail and playing Pantera. There you go, that's
all you gotta do. I recognize his voice too, boy,
All right, line how come I recognize everyone's with Actually,
(40:49):
why don't we do one more cool? Pick the final
call instant advice line for Maverick fans dealing with the
trade of Luca dontric Line three, line three, the last one.
Line three. You're on the air. Go ahead.
Speaker 7 (41:01):
You need to get a nice massage therapist for Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Yes, we Justin Tucker knows a good massage therapist. So
does Anthony. Well. The quarterback of the Browns there, Deshaun Watson.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
You know
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
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
station for the Benmatlers Show at Foxsports Radio dot com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
The Matador on the Moon, Wheeling in Dealing, Come on, come.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
On under the Big Top.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Well, come in the beginning of another week of the
Ben Mahler Show. We are in the air everywhere as
we cluster every show, a trip to the audio Safari,
coast to coast, border to border, hand beyond all thest
(01:01):
and humongously powerful microphones of FSRE emmading live from the
Running the Running of Our Mouth all night. We're broadcasting
live from the tiraq dot com studios.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Do it live. Tireraq dot com will help you get
there and unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road hazard
protection over ten thousand recommended in Stars and Oh Slim
Tim on the Oregon Trail. He likes that number ten
thousand slim tim tire raq dot com, the Way Tire
(01:36):
Buying show be in our lead this hour. You know
where our lead's from. Yeah, that's where everyone's talking about
this here pro bouncy Ball. It's pretty funny because all
the media elites, the sports media elites, are in New
Orleans for the Super Bowl, and nobody gives a rats
ass about that game. Right now. It's all about these
NBA trades and what a week in It was a
(01:59):
hun dinger, a hum dinger of a weekend, a door buster,
door buster type trade. In fact, a couple of big trades,
but the biggest. We're gonna start play the hits. Play
the hits, mom, man, We'll play the hits. And uh,
if you didn't hear about it, I don't know how
you could have missed it. If you're a sports fan,
(02:20):
you're listening to a sports talk radio show at an
ungodly hour, I would think you've paid attention, but maybe not.
Luka Doncik is gone, traded, excommunicated from Dallas, bye bye,
as he was traded to the Lakers. The historians get
Luka Doncik part of a three team deal between Dallas,
(02:43):
LA and Utah Anthony Davis the big name going back
to the Mavericks, there's some spare parts in spam to
make the numbers work that change teams. The Jazz, they're
just there to help trades go through, to facilitate trades.
They take on draft picks and things like that, and
they help the money situation work out. The Jazz are
(03:06):
just a filler team at this point, not trying to win,
just trying to help the rest of the league out.
That's their role. So let us discuss the question, how
do you grade the mega mega mega mega mega trade.
Luca goes from the MAVs to the Lakers. For Anthony Davis,
those are the headliners. We focus on the headliners. So
(03:27):
I've got Puddy, Sandra Bullock, and Return of the Jedi,
and we will combine all of these things together and
we will follow our nose. Is wherever our nose takes us.
And I got a big schnaz, I got a really
large nas so I will just go wherever the nose
(03:47):
takes us. So my first thought on this is when
you're when you're grading, it's from the Mallord report card
when it comes to grading trades, and we are the
industry leader in great transactions. Absolutely, nobody is more trusted,
nobody in overnight delivery of a report card on transactions
(04:12):
on this show in the middle of the night on Fox.
Nobody has this kind of information. So on the Malor
report Card, the Malor report Card on the big trade
over the weekend, Dallas and La the Lakers reluctantly, I
will give them a B minus on the trade. I
will give them a B minus. The Mavericks get an F,
(04:35):
and then I don't know that I can go low?
Is there anything lower than an F? I would like
to go lower than F? Is there anything beyond F?
Can I go beyond F? Anyway? LA also picked up
a couple of roster span players in the trade, Maxi Kleibah,
who hit a game winning shot against them a while back,
(04:58):
and Mark he much traveled Mark Keith Morris. He also
goes to the Lakers. It is a foo bar situation.
It is I'm a chumping to still process the transaction.
The math ain't mathing on this one on many many levels,
many many many levels. They're Lakers were just handed on
(05:22):
a silver platter a Luka Doncik and they didn't have
to bid against anyone. Why why would you do that.
That's malfeasance, that's bad management, that's incompetence, that's wrong on
many levels. Why would you do that? Wouldn't you fire
(05:43):
the general manager if you owned the team and that
is how they did business. I think you would. But
it's like, oh, we're gonna call one team and we'll
just give you the buy now price and that's it
and you don't have to bid and just submit an offer.
We'll make it happen. Yeah. Now, back when the NBA
(06:03):
actually had leadership, you know, guys with hair on their
chest and balls and things like that. David Stern would
have vetoed this trade. He vetoed the Chris Paul trade, right,
he would have vetoed this trade. Also said, well, that's
not we're not going to do that. But it's playing
with putty. The whole thing's playing with putty, putty explosives.
We're talking ballistics here is what we're talking about, plastic explosives. Now, Luca,
(06:27):
he turns twenty six later this month, Happy birthday. There's
some great cake, great bakeries in Los Angeles. You love
the bakries in LA. And he was traded for a
player who is near the end of his athletic prime,
who has the superpower of missing games. His nickname is
(06:48):
street Clothes Anthony Davis, that's his nickname. He is more
known for not showing up the work than showing up
the work. And that's who the Dallas Mavericks had to
get their hands on. Why I don't get it, Davis
turns thirty two in the month of March. Now, these
aren't your daddy's Mavericks. That is fair to say. Anybody
(07:09):
it still thinks. And not everyone heard the news, but
Mark Cuban, who was a fanboy. I mean getting the
Mark Cuban's got a lot of issues there. But Cuban's
a fanboy, and he owned the Mavericks for a long
time and he sold out. Everyone's got their price, and
Magic Christian, Everyone's got their price. Mark Cuban sold out
for three point five billion dollars. And that's the cost
(07:31):
for Mark Cuban to allow this to happen. If Mark
Cuban still owned the Dallas Mavericks controlling interest of the Mavericks,
he would not have done this. This was not a possibility,
it was it. But that's not the case here and Cuban,
even if he felt he had to trade Luca for
whatever reason, would have rather sent him to an expansion
(07:55):
franchise in Papa New Guinea than send him to the
There's no way that would have happened. And of course
there's a lot of dumb people that don't know that
Mark Cuban sold out. He's a sellout. He sold the team.
Good for him three point five billion, and he's just
kind of there as a like a make a wish thing.
When he travels with the Mavericks and all that, it's like, hey, wee,
(08:17):
I don't really own the team. I don't control anything,
but I get to sit by the bench and the
players like me and all that. Yeah. Wow, so new regime,
new blood, and you get what you get. You get
what you get now, Page two. What makes the Lukka
the Luca trade so unique? What makes it so unique? Well,
(08:39):
this is like Sandra Bullock's Academy Award winning performance in
the old movie The blind Side. The blind Side. Listen,
if someone had called up this talk show and said, hey, Ben,
I'd like to make a trade. How about the Mavericks
s and Luka Doncik to the Lakers for Anthony Davis
(09:02):
in some spare parts, some pocket length to be named later.
We would have said something along the lines of, well,
what bath salts are you sniffing right now, sir, and
please go to the mini bar, and we would have
hung up on them. That's what we would have done.
A video game would have rejected that trade, would have said, no,
that's not a proper trade. No, no way. A twenty
(09:25):
twenty nine first round pick. That's all you're getting in
terms of future draft picks and scratcher tickets. One scratcher
ticket in twenty twenty nine. That's it. But here we are. Here,
we are the unthinkable, the unimaginable. It's the first time
in NBA history that two raining all NBA players have
(09:46):
been traded for each other at mid season, as the
trade deadline's not until later this week, but the trades,
the big ones have already happened at this point in
the modern era. This is the craziest trade, the Luca
trade of them all, and the thing that stands out
though in the world we're living in right now, twenty
(10:06):
four to seven round the clock and the business of basketball,
the currency of basketball. I've had this conversation with many
people over the years who are in this world and
the rumor and I ran a gossip site for years
before I was working here at the same time. But
I ran a rumor site for many many years. And
(10:28):
the rumor is more important than the reality. Like the
rumor gets people talk. And what happened with this particular
trade here, you know, it's it's stunning because there was
not even a peep, right, loose lips in the NBA
(10:48):
are commonplace. Happens all the time. They work clandestine is
how they worked this time is how they work. Cloak
and dagger. Mission zero dark thirty, everyone say, moving under
the cover of darkness. And twas the night before the
trade deadline week was upon us went all through the house,
(11:12):
all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not
even a unibrow. And then the Lakers they played the
Knicks Midtown Manhattan on National TV. Huhum, and then call boom.
The volcano exploded. But there was no bubbling up of this.
There was no chatter that Dallas is unhappy with Luca,
(11:34):
They're going to trade him. This came out of relatively
thin air, so much so people were convinced that Shams
was hacked. This was not real. There was some funny
business going on all right.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Lastly, so how does this Luka don Chick transaction play
with the electorate in Dallas. Now we're on in Dallas.
You guys can answer if you want to call in
and give the pulse of the people. But from the outside,
the way I see it, the Dallas Mavericks are cooked.
(12:08):
They have violated the bubble of trust. And once you
violated the bubble of trust, there is no going back.
You have done the thing you can't do at the
time you can't do it. You have sold the church
of Maverick Basketball, and you have just traded the deacon.
You have said, get out of here. You're done. And
(12:31):
as we understand it, despite enjoying a hearty meal and
not really taking conditioning all that. Seriously, Luca was beloved
and he was their next Dirk. They were just in
the NBA finals against the Celtics last summer, and it's
it's wild that you would make this particular move at
(12:52):
this time. And the sales pitch. We've seen the sales pitch.
The sales pitch played out. It's simple. The Mavericks. They're claiming, hey,
We seven years with this guy, and we were waiting
for Luca, for the light bulb to go off, for
the epiphany to take place for Luca, and it never did.
And so what we got was a character from Return
(13:13):
of the Jedi. You might remember Job of the Hut.
That's what we got. The guys out of shape. He
can score, that's it. He's never taken him, you know,
his job seriously in terms of being in top physical condition. Now,
Luca has been out since Christmas. Here we are in
early February with a strained left cap and the word
(13:35):
the streets of the NBA saying that there are factions
in Dallas that are convinced the reason he hurt himself
is because he's a fat pig and that's why he
injured himself and has been out since since Christmas. That's
just poor conditioning and all that. But doesn't that seem
like a temporary problem more than a permanent problem. You know,
(13:55):
I don't know, but that's the Mavericks. They're planning all
these stories to justify the trays saying you like two
hundred sixty pounds and MAVs ownership didn't trust him. I've
heard that bouncing around the pinball machine of the hot
take here that there was other mitigating factors. They didn't
want to pay him the supermax contract, they didn't want
(14:17):
to invest that kind of money this summer. Give him
another contract and well at bare it's already backfired. Networks
aren't winning anything with Anthony Davis. You come on, Anthony
never won with the Lakers. They never won a championship,
not a real one, fake one. They never want a
real one with the Lakers. Not gonna win now with Kyrie,
(14:39):
they're both going to get hemorrhoids playing rock paper scissors
on the bench while the other players are out there
playing yikes. And as far as Luke, listen, if he
had problems with self discipline with the Dallas Mavericks, wait
till you get to the Lakers and to all those
Hollywood f's, kiss your ass and invite you to all
those parties with pile of drugs and amazing food. And
(15:03):
you're on the A list everywhere in La because you
wear the historian's uniform. That's what Luca has to look
forward to. So if you can't conjoy yourself in Dallas,
I know those famous people in Dallas, I know those
rich people in Dallas, but it's a different animal in
La and the good luck, good Luck, Luca, good Luck.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Did he Know or did.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
He not Know?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Welcome in the beginning of another hour of the Ben
Mahler Show.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
We are in the air everywhares we form a band
and discover the call of sports radio coast the coast, border,
the border and beyond on the mast and sizeably powerful
microphones of fsre em monating live.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
From the box as we are on our soapbox. We're
broadcasting live from the ti rac dot com studios tyrac
dot com. We'll help you get there. And unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road hazard protection and over ten thousand
recomment it installers, not a burner and Danny in Miami
(16:20):
like that number ten thousand. Tire rack dot com the
way tire buying shoe so our lead this out. We
continue the conversation all night long here. It's what all
the cool people are talking about here, massive trade, so
much more to discuss, pro bouncy ball and the trade
heard round the association. Big weekend story, big weekend story here,
(16:46):
and we've got you covered in depth team coverage, which
is really just me because I'm awake here. Everyone else
is partying in New Orleans, but we're here. Luca Luka
Doncik putting himself into the transfer portal. Well, he didn't
actually put himself, The Mavericks put him in the transfer
port a. Luca sent packing as the Mavericks said bye
(17:07):
bye and get out of here. You're no longer needed
to their franchise player, the player that got them to
the NBA Finals where they lost to Jason Tatum and
the Celtics in the summer of twenty twenty four. And
here we are in February of twenty twenty five, and
it's asta la vista of even that Jay to Luca,
(17:28):
he's gone mega mega Mega trate happened after the Knicks
Lakers game on Saturday. Now, the part of the story
that I want to focus in on right now with
you and have a little chat me and you okay,
involves Lebron James because Luca was put in the trade
machine on Saturday. And did you hear the Lebron part
(17:51):
of the story. Maybe not so. The reporting over the
weekend claims that Lebron James learned of this massive transaction
in our little sporting world. Lebron learned of this trade
following the win over the next when it broke on
(18:13):
social media and he was out to dinner with his
family in Manhattan and he found out about the trade.
That's the reporting. We're told that James was surprised by
the news. Here no idea that this trade was in
the works whatsoever. So this was seemingly reported with the
straight face. We don't really know why, but it apparently was.
(18:34):
So let us discuss the question the NBA media lap
dogs claiming that Lebron James had no no idea that
Luka Doncik would be traded to the Lakers and Anthony
Davis would go back the other direction to Texas, and
(18:54):
that he found out while he was having a nice meal.
Believe it or not, that's the question. So I've got Unicorn,
Big Poppy, and we buy Uglyhouses dot Com. We'll combine
all of those things together and we are going to
make the chicken Schwarma is what we're going to make.
(19:14):
We'll make the chicken shwarma. So number all right, so
you gotta look through the lens of this unfolding drama
that's still playing out here as we head into the
early hours on a Monday. But Lebron, the way I
(19:35):
look at this, Lebron already had his alibi all laid out.
The thing that Lebron worries about more than anything is optics.
It's like when he's talked about watching movies or reading
books and asked about it, he has no clue because
he doesn't actually watch those movies or read those books,
and it's awkward for him, but he wants the perception,
the optics of being that guy, right, the guy that
(19:58):
loves the Godfather movies and reads the Malcolm X book
and all that, even though he didn't really know much
about it because he's not actually doing those things. But
that's Lebron. That's what we know Lebron to be. It's
all about the appearance, which is perfect for la. That's
what Hollywood's all about, right, It's about the appearance, the
illusion that you know what you're doing. So the guy
(20:19):
we're supposed to believe here, in order for us to
believe that Lebron James had no clue about what happened here.
We're supposed to be the same player that bullied the
Lakers to draft his kid who can't play, Bronnie James,
and then make sure that Bronnie was on the roster
to play right away and a father son duet when
(20:40):
his kid sucks. That we're supposed to believe that's that
same player had nothing nothing to do with this, that
this is completely foreign to him and came out of nowhere,
mister GM by proxy, going back to his days in
Cleveland and couldn't do that in Miami, although he did
(21:01):
form the team with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and
then was at Loggerheads with pat Riley and then went
back to Cleveland to run things and then went out
to LA But that same guy, lebron James, was out
eating linguinie and he was having an appetizer, maybe was
eating like one of those little piece of bread, and
(21:22):
then the trade happened. He had no idea. I just
eating linguini with a little piece of bread, maybe some
red wine in the trade. Hauten, What in the wall?
I mean, come on, if you believe this, I want
you to call me up because I have a pink
polka dotted unicorn. I would like to sell you It's
(21:42):
the most beautiful pink polka dotted unicorn you could possibly have,
and it's yours. I'll sell it to you for a
nominal fee. If you think Lebron had no knowledge of
the trade prior to the trade going down, I would
like to have you purchase this. I'll give you a
sweetheart deal. It's a pink polka dotted unicorn and it
can be yours and it's only going to cost you
about eighty thousand dollars. That's a deal. That's a deal.
(22:05):
You can have it right, tell me you're gullible without
telling me you're Google What was Lebron James role in
LA dealing? Anthony Davis Well, the way this works, and
I can't imagine it's much different here at that level
of player talking about Luka Dancik here and then Anthony
(22:28):
Davis Also, it's going to fundamentally change both the Lakers
and the Mavericks the direction. Some are convinced it's for
the better, some are convinced it's for the worst. But
in order for this to happen right, in order for
this to happen you need ownership the rubber stamp. But
also Lebron has to give his blessing. You know, I
(22:51):
want to upset Lebron James face to the NBA and
all that stuff. You do want to upset Lebron. And
as far as the reporting that he was just at
dinner and he had no idea, you know, it's against
the optic thing. Lebron has these NBA writers eating out
of the palm of his hand. He really does. Right,
It's like the the side of a mirror when you're
(23:12):
driving around, right, the objects in the mirror are closer
than they appear. Yikes, they're in the tank. They are
in the tank. Tank tank tank, and really just aggregating,
repackaging Lebron James content. At this point, Lebron's people send
a narrative over and then that's his version of the truth,
(23:32):
and they just repeat it and that's that all right now,
Pat Trewo, So, how does the dust settle with lukeca
who did touch down in a private plane? Because you know,
the one percenter is when you're a pro basketball player,
you travel in private planes. So Lucas in La now
explain how this all goes down? Now, the dust settles,
(23:56):
we'll look at the micro, not the macro in the
near Now. Luca's hurt right now, he's not playing. He's
supposed to come back. The Maverick said he was going
to come back before the All Star break. The All
Star breaks right around the corner here. It's in the
middle of February, and if you look at the calendar,
today's February third, so we're not that far away from this.
This is taking place. So it's not a one size
(24:18):
fit all situation. It's not. Now. This is the old
trope in basketball, which is true because it happens all
the time. There's only one basketball, there's only one ball,
and situations like this rarely work, rarely work because Luca,
while he is an absolute offensive dynamo and the beginning
(24:40):
of his career, there's no question he's one of the
top players this far into his career, he's historical. He's
a top five player offensively all time in NBA history. However,
you look at this, he's the big Poppy of the NBA.
He is a designated hitter like David Ortiz was to
(25:03):
the Red Sox in his heyday. He's all bat, no glove.
That's what he brings you and sounds like at this
point similar to Lebron James, a Doppo ganger, if you will,
of Lebron James and two ball dominant players that are
weak defenders. Essentially, the opposition against the Lakers will be
(25:25):
on the power play on offense, He'll be playing five
on three. Now, Lebron occasionally a couple times a game
will make a good defensive play, so he gets in
the highlights, but the rest of the time he's saving
his energy to work on the offensive side of the situation. Now,
the other part of this, the heel a monster in
(25:46):
the room, the Komodo dragon in the room, if you will,
is the poor work habits that Luca supposedly has. It's
been an open secret. Luca does not believe in things
like the gym. He does not believe in doing and
cardio and things like that. I believe the reporting that's
out there, and he's got bad work ethic. He's lazy.
(26:09):
He just has an I don't give an f He's
so talented he can get away with it right now.
And the argument is that it's not gonna work that
long term is he's been playing basketball since he was
a kid at a high level in Europe and it's
just not gonna that's what the Mavericks. If you believe
the Mavericks are not doing this intentionally just so they
can move the team to Vegas, and that this was
(26:30):
actually some kind of planned, out formulated effort to improve
the team, which I don't. But if you if you
believe that, if you're someone that wants to believe that,
that's fine. I don't agree with you. We can agree
to disagree. But if that's your mindset. If that's the
case here, and then like the MAVs are betting that
he will age like milk and we know that doesn't
(26:53):
go well. That just does not end up very well.
All right, now, final point, So, what was the oddest
part of this big trade between the Mavericks and the
Lakers that sends Luca to skid Row. That's who the
Lakers play right there on skid Row in La All
homeless people can sit right there the arena. Now, when
(27:14):
they built it, skid Row was not there, but the
good people of California have make sure skid Row moves
over to that area, so it's all there. So what
is the oddest part of the Luka Doncik trade, So
it would be the unorthodox tactics of the Mavericks. And
it's not even close right. Normally, a star player gets
put on the auctioning block. Now we saw de Aaron
(27:36):
Fox who was also traded. We'll get to that later.
It's on my big board, dearon Fox traded from Sacramento
to San Antonio. That had been talked about for about
two weeks. He's traded. That's how it goes. Jimmy Butler
has not been traded at this hour from Miami, but
Jimmy Butler's name has been floated out there. It's been
talked about on gas bag shows like this and blowhards
(27:58):
on TV. If talked to where Jimmy Butler's gonna end up.
And it's social media fodder for the bots on social media,
the fake accounts they get to talk about that go
back and forth, and so all of that, all of
that going on, and yet here you have none of
it in Dallas. If this is accurate and the matters
(28:21):
are all saying the same thing, it was early on
it was just reports and now it's like, this is
what we did, and maybe they're lying. I don't know.
It channeling Rod Serling from the Twilight Zone. Picture if
you will a world where you have a beach front
palazzo in Italy, a palatial home with millions of dollars,
(28:46):
and you decide not to list the home. You call
one person up and say, hey, would you like this home,
and just offer whatever you want. We'll take whatever you
send us. That's it. Here you go. It's like they
went to that we buy uglyhomes dot com or houses
or whatever dot com and they reached out to the
some company like that. There's a bunch of them out
(29:07):
there that just they'll take your home and maybe they
give you a good deal, maybe they don't. And that's
what they got. They just all right, that's it. You know.
It's like going on eBay and just paying the price
and there's no bidding. You're just like buying out price.
And that was it. The buying out price. You skip
the hassles of having to do the prep work for
the house, no showings. You took an all cash offer,
(29:29):
but it was really pennies on the dollar. And again,
if this is the way it went down and you
own the team, you would you would say, okay, we
are done. We're done with Nico Harrison. I'm firing him.
If I am someone that cares about the Dallas Mavericks,
and if I'm the owner, I fire Nico Harrison. But
(29:50):
they had the ownership had to sign off on this.
So now the other the other part of it. And
somebody text me over the weekend it said, well, there's
some scandal coming down with Luca and you don't know
about it yet, but they traded him and there's something's
going to come out about Luca in the coming days.
And what is that? You know, who knows? I wouldn't.
I wouldn't put past the world we live in today.
(30:11):
But at this point we don't know his scandal right
around the corner. So based on what we do know,
Dallas did not do their due diligence. The front office
of the Mavericks. They didn't even send a group text
to a bunch of gms. They just went and had
a cup of coffee. Nico Harrison and the Lakers executive,
(30:31):
well really the assistant GM Skinny Jeans under Lebron and
they took an all cash offer and that was it.
And it's malfeasance. It is malpractice, is what it is
to trade this to make this trade, and it's also
nepotism because the rest of the story. See, Nico Harrison
and Rob Polinka are besties. They're besties, ah, and they
(30:56):
go way back. Laker GM and the Maverick GM have
been buddy since Harrison was Kobe Bryant's marketing manager. We
understand at Nike and Rob Polenka was Kobe's agent, So
Kobe Bryant is responsible for this trade. Yeah, here is
(31:16):
the GM, Nico Harrison, and listen to him. Lick the
toes of Rob Polenka. Take a listen. This is illegal
in the Bible Belt.
Speaker 5 (31:25):
I thought Rob and I were able to have, you know,
really intense conversations over the course of three or four
weeks that started out as a coffee that you know,
was more hey, would you ever I don't know, would
I let me think of? You know, and then it
built upon that, you.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Know, out of context, doesn't it sound like they're talking
about a hookup like a booty call? Right? Can we
how about this? Let's try something. Let's play this again
and just say this is like they're talking about on
a dating show, how they started dating and how one
thing led to another. And just imagine Nico Harrison and
Rob Polinka are in a relationship and they're on like
(32:04):
the what the Hontingmooners is or what's the what it
was that show called? Is that what I'm thinking of? Anyway?
Speaker 5 (32:09):
Tell you listen, Rob and I were able to have,
you know, really intense conversations over the course of three
or four weeks. They started out as a coffee that,
you know, it was more, hey, would you ever let
me think of you know, and then it built upon that.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Oh my god, that's perfect. That is like a day.
How'd your relationship start? How do you guys start hooking up? Mike?
What do you got? Man? Yes? Look, God, I want
to play it again, play it again. So again for
this little exercise, imagine, if you will, Nico Harrison and
Rob Polinker on some dating TV show and Nico, Nico,
(32:49):
can you tell us how you and Rob started and
started your relationship back in the day? How did it begin?
Let me now?
Speaker 5 (32:54):
Plet me now, Rob and I were able to have,
you know, really intense conversations over the course of three
or four weeks. They started out as a coffee that,
you know, was more Hey, would you ever? I don't
know would I I don't think of you know. And
then it built upon.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
That one thing led to another, and that's so good.
I love it. It's so great. Nothing better than out
of context audio.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Here
week a Maler, how about that to the third degree?
This is one big Ben gets grailed.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
That was my first year in San Diego radio. The
Chargers played the forty nine Ers in the Super Bowl
and lost by a gazillion points. All right, Cooper, what
do we have here? Cooper?
Speaker 6 (33:45):
In a recent interview Bill's GM Brandon Bean said he
does not regret the trade for Amari Cooper Flyer. He
then revealed that Cooper's wrist injury was more serious than
anyone outside the building. Double liar, And he also noted
that the team averaged seven more points in games Cooper
played than in games that he did.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Those things aren't related, triple liar.
Speaker 6 (34:02):
Ben, do you think Cooper stays with Buffalo?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
No? Because who wants to stay in Buffalo? Come on,
let's be honest. Here, Andy the comic book guy, he
left Buffalo. Felexus is there, he tried to Felexis, try
to leave to go to Lexington, Kentuck. You know, I
think ultimately Amari Cooper goes somewhere else. He's at that
weird crossroads in his career where he's near the end
of his primly make up excuses for him being hurt,
(34:26):
but he's a twenty million dollar receiver. He didn't play
like a twenty million dollar receiver. I think he's gone next.
Speaker 6 (34:32):
Kevin Garnett took a profane shot at Jimmy Butler over
the weekend, saying, this is how non guarantees are going
to come into our league right here for s like this,
we effing fought our asses off through five or six
damn lockouts where we protect the integrity of the talent. Ben.
Do you think this Butler situation could have ramifications for
the rest of the league.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
I actually do, because the NBA owners are gonna look
at this and say, why are we giving out Why
does everyone get a guaranteed contract, Because then a guy
like Jimmy Butler can just be a And I like
Jimmy Butler, but he's been a complete a hole from
what I've read, So I think this is absolutely something
that will be brought up by a certain clique of
owners who are annoyed that they have to give out
(35:12):
only guaranteed. They're jealous of the in the NFL because
most NFL countries are not guaranteed next.
Speaker 6 (35:17):
Over the weekend, Many Machado expressed disappointment that the Padres
haven't made any moves this offseason. Now, Ben, the Padres
won ninety three games last year. Do you think they
can replicate that success or are they going to take
a step back? Well, no chance, they will win fewer games.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Although the nationally West, the Giants blow and the Rockies
are bad. Arizona's decent, but it's the Padres. They're still
unloading players like the team is in a holding pattern
right now because the owner died a couple of years ago,
and the family, the widow and the brothers of the
guy are sewing for control of the team. It's a
(35:54):
hot mess, all right. So the Potters are going to
unload a couple of pitchers, which my spidery like sense
is tell me is not good for the Podrays winning
more than ninety three games. I'll take the under. How
did we do you passed? That is a win? I passed.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Past her Dog and al fight pass path.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Hey you sports figure, guy or girl? Who got here
with you? Talking to Son? Here some instant advice? Hold
that thought. No one's paid attention to me for ten
whole seconds, and if you don't like it, and away
we go. It's time now for the great unwashed to unite.
Here who needs our advice in the world of sports
(36:48):
unscreened radio? The safety net comes down. Who needs the
wisdom the knowledge of the mal or militia. Well, that
would be the Dallas Maverick fan. This show booming in
to the great Dallas area. There's a lot of people
bummed out right now if they like basketball. Luka Doncik.
The franchise has been given away to the Lakers. So
advice to Maverick fans on dealing with the trauma and
(37:13):
drama of their GM and his mouthfeasance Nico Harrison sending
Luca to the Lakers and not even shopping him for
the highest offer, just giving him to the Lakers. Here
taking buy now price. So your advice to Maverick fans
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox is the number
eight seven seven nine nine six six three sixty nine.
We'll start out with you on line one. Hello, Line one,
(37:35):
you're on the air go line one.
Speaker 7 (37:37):
Become a Clipper fan. We got Patty Mills. It took
the clip. Baby.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Yeah that's right, baby, Champion, Patty Mills. He's coming to
l I baby all right. Line three, you're on here
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox. We giving advice
to Maverick fans. Hello, line three, first thing chircht two
in the hailshot Jr. Okay, well, sorry, we have time
to get to that right now. Line five. I knew
he would call it back. Line four, Hello, you're on
(38:00):
the Airline four in morning.
Speaker 7 (38:02):
Time, man, look at you fans. Let's meet up at
Man's house for pizza and talk about the tree.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah yeah, because it's morning time. Nothing better than pizza
in the morning, morning time, Rick and Maryland. Line four.
Line five, you're on the Airline five.
Speaker 7 (38:14):
Go.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Line five is not there. We'll go to line six.
Line six. Advice to Maverick fans on how to deal
with the Luca trade.
Speaker 7 (38:22):
Way off when you said Davia.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Wait, hell, OKAYO got some new jersey.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
No, it's the Goba ghoul. You gotta say it, Goba Gohogle.
Google Yes. Line two. Hello, line too, you're on the
airline too.
Speaker 7 (38:42):
Here up with Jerry Jones. Find a glory hole.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Okay, something about a glory hole and Jerry Jones. Line three,
you're on the Airline three. Hello. Line three, gotta be quick,
you're live on the air. You were not fast enough?
Line three. Callback. Line four, you're on the air giving
advice to Dallas Maverick fans. Line four. This is unscreen
radio advice on the MAVs dealing with the loss of Luca.
(39:05):
He's gone traded a more barbecue. Yeah, that seems like
it's good advice. That seems that everybody from Iowa sounds
like your buddy from Iowa. Line files ham no not no.
Line five. Hello, you're on the Airline five. That's Frank
the Tank from Iowa. Hello.
Speaker 7 (39:22):
Line five, Loraina play guilty by mob stright saying and
Barry Gibbs and then you know, what is.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
This a morning show? What are we doing? Requests? This
we a music show? Line six, you're on the Airline six. Hello,
I don't want it, but I beat it. I know,
I know. Calm down. Line one, you're on the ever
giving advice to the Maverick fan on dealing with the
trade of Luca unscreened radio at eight seven, seven ninety
nine on Fox.
Speaker 7 (39:50):
All right, gall ball beat Stevie.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Okay, thank you, stev Meet Paul. A little delay there.
It must be the satellite hookup. Line two, Hello, line two, body, Oh,
that's our buddy in Vegas. Right there. We gotta do that, Mallard,
meet and greet. I can't wait to go back to Vegas.
Back to Vegas. Right, we'll go back.
Speaker 7 (40:08):
Let me know, we'll put it together.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
All right, pick at dayton Raine. We'll pick a date
sometimes July. What do you think July?
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Maybe?
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Yeah? All right, you see okay. Line three, Hello, line three,
you're on the air. Line three.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
I can't wait for the Dallas Morning News to cover
what kind of cowboy boots eighty is wearing on the
bench tonight.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
What kind of belt does he have? One of those
big cowboy belts. Line four, you're on the air. We're
giving you have a supermarket See, we're giving advice to
Maverick fans. I'm dealing with the trade of Lucay just
stare in jail and playing Pantera. There you go, that's
all you gotta do. I recognize his voice too, boy,
All right, line how come I recognize everyone's with Actually,
(40:49):
why don't we do one more cool? Pick the final
call instant advice line for Maverick fans dealing with the
trade of Luca dontric Line three, line three, the last one.
Line three. You're on the air. Go ahead.
Speaker 7 (41:01):
You need to get a nice massage therapist for Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Yes, we Justin Tucker knows a good massage therapist. So
does Anthony. Well. The quarterback of the Browns there, Deshaun Watson.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
You know
Host
Ben Maller
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!