May 8, 2025 • 7 mins
A few people were let go from the Dallas Maverick's organization
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now let's go around the sports kat fun tweets as
all the sports yea penalty is charged with the sports
from Tim McMahon at ESPN sources, MAVs g M Nico
Harrison is making major changes to the team's health and
performance group.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Again.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Among the dismissals athletic performance director Keith Belton, who was
Nico's higher last summer, and head athletic trainer Dion Calhoun.
I think we're only probably talking about this because it's
been a tumultuous few months and the big Tim McMahon article, Yeah,
did he talk a lot about what was going on.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Cato. Tim Cato had a big article for DLLs Sports
where he expanded on what Tim had talked about with
the blow up between Keith Belton. And there's another and
I'm blanking. I don't have his name in front of me.
It's he had come from the from Bob. He's another
medical guy with the.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Billsborough Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Billsborough.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yes, yes, they according to Tim Cato in his article
and I'm doing this off memory, Belton and Billsborough had
a big dust up that got physical to like to
the point where they got in each other's face. I
don't know if you know they throw those beads, but
they definitely got in each other's face and it and it,
(01:27):
you know, was a problem. That's according to Tim Cato's reporting.
And this is big news.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
It's all significant news because you know the deterioration of
whatever's happened with Nico and his rise within the Mavericks
to get to the point where he could trade Luca
and be unchecked.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
There.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
The story of how that got there is massively important.
And then to read McMahon, it would almost intimate that
man by firing Casey Smith, that decision right there ultimately
probably cast to Luca and maybe Dirk to infer what
he's writing there. But that fractured relationships so much that
(02:08):
it was pretty much I mean, and then you watch
the Knick. You know, Casey Smith goes on to the Knicks.
They end up having the healthiest season in the NBA.
The Mavericks then have the least healthy season or one
of the least healthy seas, not the most least healthy,
but it was top five, but they were ravaged by injuries,
ravaged by injuries, and there was the report of you know,
(02:30):
and again you don't know the details of these things.
But you know, it's just he didn't have the right
certification or certification or something like that. About Keith Belton, Yeah,
Keith Belton, I'm like, what is that? Like, what are
we even doing? But right, but you going, the Casey
Smith thing was massive in all of this. It's a
pretty important piece to this whole puzzle, I think.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, And it's it's hard for me to comment on
these things for a couple of different reasons. One, I
am not at practices. I am not on the team plane.
I'm not in the training room. I mean I know
people that are around, but I'm not there. But I
can say, like, you know, having been around the team
as long as I have a lot of people that
(03:12):
are friends of mine are gone. You know that that
happens in all kinds of you know, businesses and things
like that. But like when you're talking about Casey Smith
getting removed, that's a personal friend of mine that I
still text with. Because when you've known someone that many
years and me and Ben had to earn Casey's trust,
you know, Casey was a big protector and we were
(03:34):
sort of interlopers. And I really like the fact that
now me and Casey are really good friends. Because at
first they were looking at me and you side eyed, right,
they should be looking at us side eyes, especially me
and and I can't tell you how many times I
just wandered up to Dion and we just sat there
and had a quick conversation about hip hop because he's
he's younger than us, but not you know, he's a
(03:54):
fan of the hip hop of the early nineties. I
love Dion, That's my guy. So I just I hate
to see it. But also, you know, I mean, we
all need to come to grips with I think what
all of the things that have happened over the last
year two years has just shown you the difference in
(04:15):
the way most sports organizations are and the way this
thing was under Cuban, Right, like Cuban. Cuban did a
lot of things that drove me crazy as a you know,
someone that considers themselves an amateur basketball expert. You know,
I'm definitely an amateur, but there's a lot of things
he did that drove me baddie. But there's also a
(04:37):
lot of things he did that were created a family atmosphere.
And I think that the way that things are for
the Mavericks now is honestly the way it is for
most sports franchises. Most sports franchises are ran the way
that the Mavericks run things now, and it was just different.
We had Cuban for twenty years and it was different.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Right.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
But the Casey Smith thing that the training staff, you know,
there's people in Lucas Camp the closest people to Luca
are the same people that were in Dirk's camp, right, Yeah,
so you're talking about the synergy between Dirk's camp and
Lucas Camp was is thick, especially.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
With Laura Beth Sieger. People now know who she is.
She used to play in the background all the time,
but she went from working with Dirk to Luca met
her because of Dirk.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Right, And so you're talking about in Casey Smith, one
of Dirk's best friends, and that gutted Luca to lose
him as well, which then led to more riffs with
the organization. But I mean, I just I find that
to be a fact. You know, Tim McMahon wrote about this.
I wouldn't pretend to have any inside scoop on it
at all, but I think all of this stuff going
on with the training staff is a huge part of
(05:49):
the fractured relationship between Luca and then maybe even Dirk.
If you were to read what Tim road, I'm just like,
it's and that's gut wrenching to read all that. And
so I don't know, Oh yeah, I'm not on the scene.
I don't I don't know all the details of all
that stuff, but it's sure does seem significant in all
of this.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
The we weren't at the you know, the media thing
they did with you know, Nico and Rick Welts. It
was closed door, it was it was private. It's not
that it was secret, it was private. We weren't invited
to that. But the transcript was released and the back
and forth between Nico and Tim, there was a lot
(06:27):
of back and forth about the medical stuff. And you know, Nico,
by reading his answers, felt confident in the decisions he
was making. And he's made even more decisions now. And
so we'll see who they hire next, right, but.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
He I think somebody one of the bloggers had this,
and I apologize on which one it was, but it
was twenty two days after Nico publicly said we got
better with our training staff, that they let this guy go.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Jeez, yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I'm like, it's it's I don't know what to make
of it all, but it is involved in the story.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Lily is involved in the story.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
It's just wild, like him has kind of gone away
for three weeks and then here's another story, and it's like, Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I was actually always blown away that no one locally
wrote that Casey Smith suddenly wasn't around, Like I was
always like, is nobody gonna write about this? Like he's
been here forever and no one noticed. And that's one
of the reasons. Nico is like, why are you bringing
up Casey Smith right now? He's been gone for a
year and a half. What are you doing now? And
(07:27):
I think Nico has a point there, Yeah, like no
one asked about this last year. Why is everybody asking
about it now? So anyways, uh, just from a personal side,
it sucks when your friends get let go. I mean
we dealt with that with the freak. We lost a
lot of friends when this station flip. So it's the
way it goes.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
By the way, the lottery is Monday night, Yes, so
that could be the next best good news on the
horizon for the Mavericks. What did they end up with
a top four, pick eight and a half percent. Let's go. Okay,
we need it, we need it. Yeah, it's up Toro Londo, blackman,
don't let us down.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Rope
Now let's go around the sports kat fun tweets as
all the sports yea penalty is charged with the sports
from Tim McMahon at ESPN sources, MAVs g M Nico
Harrison is making major changes to the team's health and
performance group.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Again.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Among the dismissals athletic performance director Keith Belton, who was
Nico's higher last summer, and head athletic trainer Dion Calhoun.
I think we're only probably talking about this because it's
been a tumultuous few months and the big Tim McMahon article, Yeah,
did he talk a lot about what was going on.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Cato. Tim Cato had a big article for DLLs Sports
where he expanded on what Tim had talked about with
the blow up between Keith Belton. And there's another and
I'm blanking. I don't have his name in front of me.
It's he had come from the from Bob. He's another
medical guy with the.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Billsborough Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Billsborough.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yes, yes, they according to Tim Cato in his article
and I'm doing this off memory, Belton and Billsborough had
a big dust up that got physical to like to
the point where they got in each other's face. I
don't know if you know they throw those beads, but
they definitely got in each other's face and it and it,
(01:27):
you know, was a problem. That's according to Tim Cato's reporting.
And this is big news.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
It's all significant news because you know the deterioration of
whatever's happened with Nico and his rise within the Mavericks
to get to the point where he could trade Luca
and be unchecked.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
There.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
The story of how that got there is massively important.
And then to read McMahon, it would almost intimate that
man by firing Casey Smith, that decision right there ultimately
probably cast to Luca and maybe Dirk to infer what
he's writing there. But that fractured relationships so much that
(02:08):
it was pretty much I mean, and then you watch
the Knick. You know, Casey Smith goes on to the Knicks.
They end up having the healthiest season in the NBA.
The Mavericks then have the least healthy season or one
of the least healthy seas, not the most least healthy,
but it was top five, but they were ravaged by injuries,
ravaged by injuries, and there was the report of you know,
(02:30):
and again you don't know the details of these things.
But you know, it's just he didn't have the right
certification or certification or something like that. About Keith Belton, Yeah,
Keith Belton, I'm like, what is that? Like, what are
we even doing? But right, but you going, the Casey
Smith thing was massive in all of this. It's a
pretty important piece to this whole puzzle, I think.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, And it's it's hard for me to comment on
these things for a couple of different reasons. One, I
am not at practices. I am not on the team plane.
I'm not in the training room. I mean I know
people that are around, but I'm not there. But I
can say, like, you know, having been around the team
as long as I have a lot of people that
(03:12):
are friends of mine are gone. You know that that
happens in all kinds of you know, businesses and things
like that. But like when you're talking about Casey Smith
getting removed, that's a personal friend of mine that I
still text with. Because when you've known someone that many
years and me and Ben had to earn Casey's trust,
you know, Casey was a big protector and we were
(03:34):
sort of interlopers. And I really like the fact that
now me and Casey are really good friends. Because at
first they were looking at me and you side eyed, right,
they should be looking at us side eyes, especially me
and and I can't tell you how many times I
just wandered up to Dion and we just sat there
and had a quick conversation about hip hop because he's
he's younger than us, but not you know, he's a
(03:54):
fan of the hip hop of the early nineties. I
love Dion, That's my guy. So I just I hate
to see it. But also, you know, I mean, we
all need to come to grips with I think what
all of the things that have happened over the last
year two years has just shown you the difference in
(04:15):
the way most sports organizations are and the way this
thing was under Cuban, Right, like Cuban. Cuban did a
lot of things that drove me crazy as a you know,
someone that considers themselves an amateur basketball expert. You know,
I'm definitely an amateur, but there's a lot of things
he did that drove me baddie. But there's also a
(04:37):
lot of things he did that were created a family atmosphere.
And I think that the way that things are for
the Mavericks now is honestly the way it is for
most sports franchises. Most sports franchises are ran the way
that the Mavericks run things now, and it was just different.
We had Cuban for twenty years and it was different.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Right.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
But the Casey Smith thing that the training staff, you know,
there's people in Lucas Camp the closest people to Luca
are the same people that were in Dirk's camp, right, Yeah,
so you're talking about the synergy between Dirk's camp and
Lucas Camp was is thick, especially.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
With Laura Beth Sieger. People now know who she is.
She used to play in the background all the time,
but she went from working with Dirk to Luca met
her because of Dirk.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Right, And so you're talking about in Casey Smith, one
of Dirk's best friends, and that gutted Luca to lose
him as well, which then led to more riffs with
the organization. But I mean, I just I find that
to be a fact. You know, Tim McMahon wrote about this.
I wouldn't pretend to have any inside scoop on it
at all, but I think all of this stuff going
on with the training staff is a huge part of
(05:49):
the fractured relationship between Luca and then maybe even Dirk.
If you were to read what Tim road, I'm just like,
it's and that's gut wrenching to read all that. And
so I don't know, Oh yeah, I'm not on the scene.
I don't I don't know all the details of all
that stuff, but it's sure does seem significant in all
of this.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
The we weren't at the you know, the media thing
they did with you know, Nico and Rick Welts. It
was closed door, it was it was private. It's not
that it was secret, it was private. We weren't invited
to that. But the transcript was released and the back
and forth between Nico and Tim, there was a lot
(06:27):
of back and forth about the medical stuff. And you know, Nico,
by reading his answers, felt confident in the decisions he
was making. And he's made even more decisions now. And
so we'll see who they hire next, right, but.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
He I think somebody one of the bloggers had this,
and I apologize on which one it was, but it
was twenty two days after Nico publicly said we got
better with our training staff, that they let this guy go.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Jeez, yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I'm like, it's it's I don't know what to make
of it all, but it is involved in the story.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Lily is involved in the story.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
It's just wild, like him has kind of gone away
for three weeks and then here's another story, and it's like, Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I was actually always blown away that no one locally
wrote that Casey Smith suddenly wasn't around, Like I was
always like, is nobody gonna write about this? Like he's
been here forever and no one noticed. And that's one
of the reasons. Nico is like, why are you bringing
up Casey Smith right now? He's been gone for a
year and a half. What are you doing now? And
(07:27):
I think Nico has a point there, Yeah, like no
one asked about this last year. Why is everybody asking
about it now? So anyways, uh, just from a personal side,
it sucks when your friends get let go. I mean
we dealt with that with the freak. We lost a
lot of friends when this station flip. So it's the
way it goes.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
By the way, the lottery is Monday night, Yes, so
that could be the next best good news on the
horizon for the Mavericks. What did they end up with
a top four, pick eight and a half percent. Let's go. Okay,
we need it, we need it. Yeah, it's up Toro Londo, blackman,
don't let us down.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Rope
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