Speaker 1: This is Matt Barnes. You're listening to All the Smoke
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Speaker 2: Welcome back All the Smoke, coming to you from Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 3: Jack. What's up, bro?
Speaker 2: Yes, your stomping arounds not your city, but you're stomping arounds.
Speaker 3: The earth is your turf.
Speaker 2: We got a very special guest today, someone I've admired
Speaker 2: from Afar from a long time entrepreneur, businessman, father, owner,
Speaker 2: man and mini hats. Welcome to the show, Mark Cuban,
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. Guys, appreciate one.
Speaker 3: Is not the coolest owner, the coolest. Appreciate that man,
Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, your name has come up in several episodes. Kevin Garnett,
Speaker 2: Steve Nash, Jailer, Parsons, Two Chains, Muggsy, Paul Pierce to
Speaker 2: name a few, but it was all positive stuff and
Speaker 2: we just kind of wanted to give you a shout
Speaker 2: out because there's not many guys like you around that
Speaker 2: are really in touch. You know, obviously you know, whether
Speaker 2: it's hobby or you know, a job when you're an owner,
Speaker 2: like I feel like there's a disconnect between a lot
Speaker 2: of owners and their professional ball clubs. And I really
Speaker 2: feel like you have a pulse not only of your team,
Speaker 2: but of the city. Where does that come from?
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess it starts just because you know,
Speaker 3: I'm a ball as life guy man, and you know
Speaker 3: I like to play. I still get out there and
Speaker 3: make an idiot of myself, but you're gonna see me
Speaker 3: before games getting shots up, you know, enjoying the moment
Speaker 3: and enjoying owning a team. And I don't know, it's
Speaker 3: just once once I got into it. And I also
Speaker 3: had some good mentors, you know. I had Dirk, I
Speaker 3: had Finn, I had Steve Nash who came in at
Speaker 3: the same time I did, and it kind of guided
Speaker 3: me and you know, took me in and showed me, Okay,
Speaker 3: you know, here's what it's like in the locker room,
Speaker 3: here's what we need. And I just listened.
Speaker 2: And that's rare because, like you said, you listen to
Speaker 2: them a lot of times when you're coming in and
Speaker 2: spending all your money. It's normally your way or the highway.
Speaker 2: But for you like say that, you know kind of
Speaker 2: guys are even younger than you are showing you the
Speaker 2: ropes and you're taking notes at the same time. It
Speaker 2: makes sense by the organization is what it is.
Speaker 4: As a lot of owners or that's been around longer
Speaker 4: than it don't have a championship, so.
Speaker 3: Well I only got one, right, No, I know, I'll
Speaker 3: take it. I'll take it more.
Speaker 2: The current state of the MAVs Lucas coming up on
Speaker 2: year six, it seems like it's gone by fast. Last
Speaker 2: year he was thirty two, eight and eight. Unfortunately you
Speaker 2: guys missed the playoffs. What have you seen? What do
Speaker 2: you love about him? And what are you looking for?
Speaker 3: The lea? What leap are you looking for in him?
Speaker 3: In year six? You know what it's like? I think,
Speaker 3: who is it? You'll Kich said, you know, first you
Speaker 3: gotta be bad, then you got to get good, then
Speaker 3: you got to get humbled, then you get good again, right,
Speaker 3: And I think that's what's happened to us before, like
Speaker 3: when we got beaten two thousand and six seven by
Speaker 3: by Golden State, right, humble the shit out of us,
Speaker 3: and that put us back on a mission. It took
Speaker 3: us a few years to get there. But you know,
Speaker 3: I think the same things happened with Luca. He's obviously,
Speaker 3: you know, a top three talent in the NBA, and
Speaker 3: sometimes things come easy and then you got to learn
Speaker 3: what it takes. And I think last year humboled all
Speaker 3: of us, and Lucas come back with a vengeance. You know,
Speaker 3: he worked hard this summer. You know he when things
Speaker 3: don't go well, you get a better understanding of the game.
Speaker 3: When things are going well, it's easy. You know, it's
Speaker 3: when things don't go well that you find out who
Speaker 3: you are, who your teammates are, who the organization is.
Speaker 3: And I think Luca, more than any of us, really
Speaker 3: took that the heart. His leadership skills have improved, his
Speaker 3: communication skills have improved. You know, he's learned from Dirk
Speaker 3: you got to add something to your game every summer,
Speaker 3: and he's done that, so you know, all the pieces
Speaker 3: that you need to do to be a champion. I
Speaker 3: think he's pulled those pieces together. I want to back
Speaker 3: up a little bit.
Speaker 2: When did he get on your radar, because obviously you
Speaker 2: guys make a trade Draft day for him. How did
Speaker 2: he When did you guys start hearing about him or
Speaker 2: knowing about him?
Speaker 3: Shot? When when you know, when kids thirteen and he
Speaker 3: goes to play in Europe against grown men, you hear
Speaker 3: about it, right, right, and then you kind of question it.
Speaker 3: It's like, okay, it's Europe here, you don't really know.
Speaker 3: And then the scouts were saying, look, there's a sixteen
Speaker 3: year old dude, seventeen year old kid that's playing against
Speaker 3: OKC and he's fearless. Yeah, just fearless. And so then
Speaker 3: we started really paying attention. And it was interesting because
Speaker 3: you know, our scouts liked him, Our analytics guys loved him. Right.
Speaker 3: The scouts said, okay, you know they had eight number
Speaker 3: one our numbers, guys like, this is the only superstar
Speaker 3: in the draft. Wow. Yeah. So that's where that was
Speaker 3: really the impetus. And you know that trade. You know,
Speaker 3: we tried and tried and tried, and it was like
Speaker 3: fifteen minutes ago before our pick, and I called the
Speaker 3: owner at Atlanta. I'm like, you're not picking you know, Luca,
Speaker 3: and you know the guy you want, So let's just
Speaker 3: do this deal because he'll be there for you. We'll
Speaker 3: give you a pick, and you know, instead of the
Speaker 3: general manager is messing around. Let's just say this numb, right, And.
Speaker 2: So we got to you mentioned something interesting because I've
Speaker 2: always kind of been maybe I don't know the game
Speaker 2: or business enough from this standpoint, but how much of
Speaker 2: it is analytics and how much of it is the
Speaker 2: eye test with the scouting when you.
Speaker 3: Guys both play, it's both and you know, analytics folks
Speaker 3: have got their perspective, and then you've got to have
Speaker 3: the eye test because some guys they'd show up. The
Speaker 3: numbers are great, right, particularly coming out of college, and
Speaker 3: when you just watch them, you're not quick enough they played,
Speaker 3: you know, you know they're they're twenty six years old, right,
Speaker 3: you know, and there's just things like that. But with Luca,
Speaker 3: it wasn't you know, he's not the world's greatest shooter.
Speaker 3: He's not a pure shooter, but he's a killer. And
Speaker 3: there's not a lot of guys that have that killer instinct,
Speaker 3: that aren't afraid of any moment and want that moment.
Speaker 3: And that's the hard part to recognize that the analytics don't.
Speaker 4: Tell you I'll take a guy that can hit a
Speaker 4: shot anywhere on the court, than the poor shooting any.
Speaker 3: Day, right, Yeah, that I've ever seen the stuff Like
Speaker 3: we were playing New York last year here and we're
Speaker 3: down and he had to miss the free throw right
Speaker 3: in order to get got the rebound in on one
Speaker 3: motion put it up. I mean, you can practice at
Speaker 3: one hundred times, it won't happen. It won't happen, right.
Speaker 2: Right, incredible this off season. Kyrie Irving three years one,
Speaker 2: twenty six. What was the negotiations like with him? And
Speaker 2: what is your relationship with them? Obviously he gets a
Speaker 2: hard you know, yeah, he gets a rap or you know,
Speaker 2: stuff sometimes out of control. Sometimes it's just him being him.
Speaker 2: But what has your relationship experience been with him?
Speaker 3: I love him And it wasn't really much of a negotiation.
Speaker 3: Was like, tell us when you're ready, right and you
Speaker 3: know you got to you know, talk to other people,
Speaker 3: do what you got to do, but we're here ready
Speaker 3: for you. And I love Kai. You know I say
Speaker 3: this all the time. Kay is the dude that you
Speaker 3: become friends with in college that when you're sitting around
Speaker 3: in the dorm room, you know, or just chilling in
Speaker 3: your place, he's going to get into a deep conversation
Speaker 3: no matter what. You know, you could all be talking
Speaker 3: sports and Kay's going to ask you what's this mean? Yeah,
Speaker 3: what's this really mean to you? What's in your heart?
Speaker 3: And as long as you're cool with that, which I
Speaker 3: am and Jay kidd Is and the guys are, he's easy,
Speaker 3: you know, because his heart's always in the right place. Now,
Speaker 3: you might not agree with them all the time. There
Speaker 3: might be takes that he has that You're like, okay, Kai,
Speaker 3: and that's okay. Like I told my vaccines, we would
Speaker 3: have had an issue, right, But hopefully that never comes
Speaker 3: up again, you know, And we've talked about it, like, look,
Speaker 3: there's gonna be stuff we disagree with, and as long
Speaker 3: as we respect each other, that's fine, you know. And
Speaker 3: I respect him not just his talent on the court,
Speaker 3: but how he connects to people off the court and
Speaker 3: how he connects to other players. You know, you see
Speaker 3: it all the time. Guys will swap jerseys. You know,
Speaker 3: they known each other. Kai comes up. It's not about
Speaker 3: the jersey swap. He like he gives you a grandma hug, right,
Speaker 3: It's like the hug your grandma gives you that you know,
Speaker 3: you know that there's more than just a little connection there.
Speaker 3: There's a d connection there, and so you know, most
Speaker 3: people aren't used to that. Most people don't understand that.
Speaker 3: And so I like a lot.
Speaker 4: I love him. I go to war for him a lot,
Speaker 4: you know, through a lot of stuff. And I think
Speaker 4: what I love about the most is he loves people.
Speaker 4: Like he cares about people for real, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, regardless where they at, Like just he'll walk
Speaker 4: outside and see a homeless person to go over there
Speaker 4: and sit down and talk to him.
Speaker 3: He cares about people.
Speaker 4: And you don't have too many people, especially athletes about caliber,
Speaker 4: that humble themselves to take their time to care about people.
Speaker 3: Say it's all about us, it's all about us.
Speaker 2: But also he does a lot of stuff and it's
Speaker 2: not for the attention at all. Takes care of people
Speaker 2: and donates and does all this shit and there's not cameras.
Speaker 3: Like somebody reached out to me and it was an
Speaker 3: Indian basketball team and they needed some money, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: can I just text him like, Hi, I'm putting in
Speaker 3: half you want to cover the other half? The heart though? Yeah,
Speaker 3: and didn't think twice just done. Yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 2: A side of outside of health one thing you feel
Speaker 2: like your team needs to do to be in contention
Speaker 2: for the championship this year.
Speaker 3: I think just a little bit of time to figure
Speaker 3: out everybody's role. Last year we struggled with rolls right,
Speaker 3: different people wanted different things than what Ja Kidd had established.
Speaker 3: I think now we've got the roles. The hardest part
Speaker 3: for us is going to be rotations because we've got
Speaker 3: a lot of depth and too just getting d lively
Speaker 3: and omax some run so they get a little bit
Speaker 3: more comfortable, you know, because you can't be a rookie
Speaker 3: come in and just all of a sudden be the
Speaker 3: guy right and know exactly what to do. You got
Speaker 3: to go through those ups and downs.
Speaker 2: Signs though, We talked to Tyson Chandler about him before
Speaker 2: he ended up coming back, and he was saying that,
Speaker 2: I guess, did you say you or someone said there's
Speaker 2: a kid over here that kind of reminds us and
Speaker 2: we would love for you to come back. But yeah,
Speaker 2: he's he's been.
Speaker 3: Reached out for him. Yeah, because he's a baby, Tyson. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he's even got the same sh to him, right, Tyson,
Speaker 3: you know, quiet laid back, but when he dunks on you,
Speaker 3: you know, he's a mean dunker, right, and so the
Speaker 3: live has got the same thing. Oh Max is getting there.
Speaker 4: Y'all can build the identity now with Grant and the
Speaker 4: rest of the guys. You have some guys that can
Speaker 4: kind of play that tough role. That's that's been a
Speaker 4: physical physicalness and a tough guy is something that y'all
Speaker 4: been missing in my opinion.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, because there's guys that won't back it up
Speaker 3: right right, right, And Grants a talker, you back it up,
Speaker 3: but he won't back down from anybody, right, And so
Speaker 3: that's good. Guys know it, and it's sets a great tone.
Speaker 3: And it's like Luca, He's got Luca's back all the time,
Speaker 3: back what you need, right, and so you know, and
Speaker 3: d Jones, you know, it's kind of a little bit.
Speaker 3: He's not gonna be a tough guy, but he's We
Speaker 3: don't got guys that are back down guys, right, We've
Speaker 3: got guys that are the stand up. Yeah. Well, they're
Speaker 3: all competitors.
Speaker 2: We've recently started doing stuff in the communities. We started
Speaker 2: and Sacramento with this stuff with the Kings. We would
Speaker 2: love at some point to come back and team up
Speaker 2: with you and do a live show for your fans
Speaker 2: and your season ticket holders show.
Speaker 3: Talk about, yeah, we get out there in the community. Awesome,
Speaker 3: go to a school or something or something.
Speaker 4: Something that I and a lot of all the teams appreciate.
Speaker 4: One reason why you are to go to a lot
Speaker 4: of us talk about how how did the idea of
Speaker 4: coming about feeding the opposing team? Because if y'all don't
Speaker 4: know that to put an audience in the world listeners.
Speaker 3: Every time you play the datas Mavericks, whether you.
Speaker 4: Win or lose, you win, you get to eat you
Speaker 4: because it's a full buffet.
Speaker 3: Laid out in the locker room. Barbecue, beans, corn bread.
Speaker 4: Every biscuits, you name, links, links, all ribs, just sitting.
Speaker 2: There, barbecue sauce on the whose barbecue sauce that is?
Speaker 2: But it's good.
Speaker 4: And right next to it is a cooler full of
Speaker 4: any beverage you would love.
Speaker 3: What what? What? How did that come about? Though? I
Speaker 3: want to embarrass other owners, That's what it was like,
Speaker 3: because I would hear from God, you know, we don't
Speaker 3: get this. You know, we're guys. We would trade for
Speaker 3: you know, guys would tell me I just went from
Speaker 3: the outhouse to the penthouse. You know, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 3: I just want to rub it in a little bit.
Speaker 3: And so I'm like, we're cooking for our guys. Just
Speaker 3: make a little bit more and give it to the
Speaker 3: other guys. And I used to put in like really
Speaker 3: plush towels too, but y'all would steal them all and
Speaker 3: so it was like take them all home. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, that extra effort is definitely recognized. Like Jackson, you
Speaker 2: don't see it everywhere. KG called the Grandma's cooking. Yeah, Nelson's.
Speaker 3: First class. Then it's Cubans class class. Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 3: So flinting PlayStations, same thing. Right. It's just like you know,
Speaker 3: it's like there's downtime all the time. And this is
Speaker 3: before everybody had a phone and everything. You want guys
Speaker 3: in the gym. You want guys in the gym. You
Speaker 3: want guys comfortable coming in, right, and just during that downtime,
Speaker 3: it's like, okay, play some PlayStation. We had a TV
Speaker 3: in there, connected the cable and everything. Now it's not
Speaker 3: as important because guys got their phones. But back then
Speaker 3: it was like okay, and again I wanted to embarrass
Speaker 3: every other owner. We got a plane, right, and it
Speaker 3: gets with the plane. I used to tell everybody, and
Speaker 3: I told all the guys, that's like, tell everybody, we
Speaker 3: got a weight room on the plane. You don't have
Speaker 3: a weight room on the plane, right, But we would
Speaker 3: tell everything. Yeah, we would tell everybody we had a
Speaker 3: weight room on the plane. And we oh, for sure,
Speaker 3: for sure. We're still like one of the only teams.
Speaker 3: I think it's awesome. Maybe one other team has got
Speaker 3: their own plane and it's designed for seven footers, right,
Speaker 3: so you can come in, you're comfortable, play cards all
Speaker 3: the whole nine yards.
Speaker 4: Talk to us about the process of the purchase of
Speaker 4: person in the mass.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. So I sold broadcast dot Com and
Speaker 3: I was a season ticket holder, right, And it was
Speaker 3: the ninety nine, two thousand season. I can't believe it's
Speaker 3: been that long. And I was there with my girlfriend
Speaker 3: then wife, and it was opening night and I'm like,
Speaker 3: it was lockoup. No, it was no, that was ninety eight,
Speaker 3: ninety nine. So the next season, yeah, next full season.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, it's opening night, it's not a sellout,
Speaker 3: there's no energy in the building. I'm like, we're undefeated, right,
Speaker 3: I'm like, we got Nash, we got Dirk we got Finn,
Speaker 3: we got Sean Bradley, and so I'm like, I can
Speaker 3: do a better job than this. I was like ding
Speaker 3: ding ding ding d. Now I can afford to do
Speaker 3: something about it because I never dreamed of opening a
Speaker 3: team that we crossed my mind in a million years.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, okay. So I talked Markguire was doing
Speaker 3: some stuff with the MAVs. So my season ticket rep
Speaker 3: connected me to Markguire, who connected me with Ross pro Junior,
Speaker 3: who owned the team then, and two months later, three
Speaker 3: months later, I owned the team January of two thousand. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was really fast and actually I could have I
Speaker 3: probably could have gotten the team for less, gotten better.
Speaker 3: What did you get it out of five? So it's
Speaker 3: turned out, okay, turned out.
Speaker 2: It's trending north right, yeah.
Speaker 3: Right right, it's crazy. But the difference between the team
Speaker 3: now and when you purchased it, Oh, I mean the
Speaker 3: league is so different, right, I mean you were around
Speaker 3: back then. Just you know, the league goes through periods
Speaker 3: of time where the guys adapt to whatever it is
Speaker 3: that's going on, from the business side, from the social side,
Speaker 3: from the competitive side. So back then it was transitioning
Speaker 3: from a bangor world right where you had the nine
Speaker 3: lit bulls and you had the pistons, and you know,
Speaker 3: you still had Ben Wallace playing, and it was a
Speaker 3: you know, you guys know it was a bang bang
Speaker 3: bang bang business, right, and it was physical on the floor.
Speaker 3: And with Nelly we're kind of the run and gun team.
Speaker 3: And with Nash we were skilled and Dirk was getting better,
Speaker 3: but you know we weren't. We were skilled. And the
Speaker 3: other thing that was really different back then is not
Speaker 3: everybody could shoot right. You would always have one guy
Speaker 3: who was a defender and not even run to the
Speaker 3: corner right, and then the star could always guard that
Speaker 3: person right. Or it might be a big that you know,
Speaker 3: would bang. You were Bruce Bowen, right, Bruce Bowen, you
Speaker 3: know he got to the point where he hit a
Speaker 3: corner three right, but with the spurs, Dirk would guard
Speaker 3: Bruce Barber Bowen right. You know you're there or you're playing,
Speaker 3: you got to guard you. But there was always someone
Speaker 3: you didn't have to guard like fast forward now that
Speaker 3: doesn't exist anymore. Everybody can shoot you. You can't be
Speaker 3: a player that hey, I'm a great defender. I can't
Speaker 3: do anything else either. You've got to be vertical in
Speaker 3: block shots, or you got to be able to make
Speaker 3: a shot when the ball comes to you and be
Speaker 3: three and D or you got to be able to
Speaker 3: create a shot. And I think a lot has changed
Speaker 3: over the last five years, in particular because of social media. Now,
Speaker 3: like we're talking to you got a to fourteen year olds.
Speaker 3: I got a fourteen year old son. Right. They're on
Speaker 3: Instagram or TikTok all the time, watching dudes and everything
Speaker 3: that they do and trying to emulate that. Whereas when
Speaker 3: we were growing up, you know, maybe you saw a
Speaker 3: game on television, you know, and maybe you went online
Speaker 3: and you know, looked at some stuff on there, but
Speaker 3: not like now we're like on your phone and so
Speaker 3: and now you know, there's coaches online and everything. So
Speaker 3: everybody has training. Like there was no coaches when I
Speaker 3: was growing up, Right, you played basketball and football and baseball,
Speaker 3: played outside and you played outside, right, you played pick
Speaker 3: up wherever you lived, right, And so that's all changed now,
Speaker 3: for better or worse. Kids play year round, Yeah, and
Speaker 3: they've got all kinds of training and all kinds of
Speaker 3: stuff online that they can replicate. And you know, like
Speaker 3: now I was watching some stuff this morning and I
Speaker 3: sent something to my son, you know, about, oh here's
Speaker 3: a little hack for when you're playing in a game
Speaker 3: didn't exist. And so the skill level the NBA is
Speaker 3: night and day different than twenty years ago, and that
Speaker 3: that's really changed things a lot.
Speaker 2: I feel like, and this is not a not to
Speaker 2: any of the current players that I don't personally know them,
Speaker 2: but I feel like the skill levels highers have never been.
Speaker 3: But I feel like the IQ was lacking a little.
Speaker 2: Bit because it's so much one on one training and
Speaker 2: by myself and dribbling, and you see guys off the ball,
Speaker 2: do not how to play off the ball and not
Speaker 2: to cut, not a screen and play for sure.
Speaker 3: They're just waiting for the ball, right the ball. And
Speaker 3: that's a lot of what we have to work on.
Speaker 3: You know. I don't know that the IQ is because
Speaker 3: we try to focus stile. Maybe yeah, the style is different,
Speaker 3: right because everybody's got to be able to hopefully create
Speaker 3: and definitely shoot. And if everybody can definitely shoot, what
Speaker 3: do they want to do?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: They want to shoot, you know. So I think that's
Speaker 3: where the game has changed a lot.
Speaker 2: Last five years, we've had international MVPs and obviously that
Speaker 2: looks to the growth of the game worldwide. Thoughts on
Speaker 2: just kind of the global expansion.
Speaker 3: Of David Stern. David Stern David Stern and I, you know,
Speaker 3: I used to question it because like back when I
Speaker 3: first got in the league, he'd be like, China, China, China.
Speaker 3: I'm like, there's no money in China. There's no money
Speaker 3: in China, right, so I've still got to be there
Speaker 3: and we'll be around the world. Make this a global sport.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, David, we make we don't have an
Speaker 3: We don't make enough to pay a minimum player, like
Speaker 3: not even half a minimum. He was right, I was wrong, Right,
Speaker 3: He's gonna like you just wait. And so China grew, Now,
Speaker 3: Africa is growing, Europe obviously continues to grow, India their building.
Speaker 3: It's a global sport where like we're the first or
Speaker 3: second rank sport in these countries where you just would
Speaker 3: not imagine basketball is being played. And that's to the
Speaker 3: credit to David Stern. And it's not going to stop.
Speaker 3: Now the train has left the station. The Olympics. Now
Speaker 3: you're seeing teams that you know are really high quality.
Speaker 3: It's not like the USA has got all the best
Speaker 3: players anymore, and it's going to change. Thoughts on the
Speaker 3: upcoming TV deal, that's a great question, man. I think
Speaker 3: this next one will be good. I don't think it'll
Speaker 3: be as long as the last one. I don't think
Speaker 3: it'll be ten years. I think it could be shorter.
Speaker 3: I don't I don't know. They don't tell me. But
Speaker 3: I'm worried about the next one after that, because if
Speaker 3: we don't get into the streamers right, it makes sense
Speaker 3: for the streamers like Amazon and ESPN, Disney to want
Speaker 3: to work with us long term because we help reduce churn.
Speaker 3: But that's not a sure thing. That's not a sure
Speaker 3: thing at all, because I think when people forget, you know,
Speaker 3: we said, okay, the team's worth billions. Teams are worth billions.
Speaker 3: People are playing billions. People forget, Like when you guys
Speaker 3: were in the cap was like flat, right, it was
Speaker 3: just like forty million to fifty million from two thousand
Speaker 3: when I bought the team, And there were years where
Speaker 3: it was down, you know. I remember when we got
Speaker 3: your kids sitting there saying, dude, the cap went down, right,
Speaker 3: I got less money to spend now. And then in
Speaker 3: twenty ten, remember New Orleans, no one would buy it.
Speaker 3: The league had to take it over. And so I'm
Speaker 3: not saying it's going to be like that, but the
Speaker 3: point is it's not automatic that everything always gets better, right.
Speaker 3: You know, interest rates are way up. The stock market
Speaker 3: isn't blowing up, right when interest rates are up, that
Speaker 3: hurts the That makes it harder to invest in broadcasting everything.
Speaker 3: And then you add to that that old school television
Speaker 3: is dying, right and streaming is taking over. So old
Speaker 3: school television, linear TV, cable satellite needs us right now
Speaker 3: because we pull better ratings. Right, Because what's really changed
Speaker 3: is like and we see it with Shark Tank and
Speaker 3: other things. I do. Like, it used to be you
Speaker 3: knew that what shows were coming on ABC, CBS and NBC,
Speaker 3: right there was the big you know, this big show,
Speaker 3: that big show. Now all the big show's going to
Speaker 3: streaming except for Shark tingk all the big shows going
Speaker 3: Friday night on ABC. All the big shows go to streaming,
Speaker 3: right and so, and they're not going to linear television.
Speaker 3: So it's all sports on linear television. That's good in
Speaker 3: the short term, but it's not sustainable in the long term.
Speaker 3: So it's gonna be really interesting to see. I think
Speaker 3: this deal from you know, from again, they don't tell
Speaker 3: me shit, but this deal will be good. But the
Speaker 3: next one is the one I'm worried about in season tournament.
Speaker 3: You know, my first thought was why right? And then
Speaker 3: my second thought was why not? Okay, okay, why not right?
Speaker 3: What's the downside? Right? You know? I was like, I
Speaker 3: agree with your first one. I'm like, what's the point, right?
Speaker 3: But if it gets somebody excited, and you're gonna have
Speaker 3: a championship game in Vegas and you can bring people in,
Speaker 3: bring sponsors in, and bring advertisers in and all that
Speaker 3: kind of stuff, and it gives you something other than
Speaker 3: the All Star Game to pimp out. So I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 3: let's just see what happens and works in soccer, so
Speaker 3: it's worth trying. There's no downside.
Speaker 2: I liked a lot of people didn't like the play,
Speaker 2: and I liked the playing because I just thought it
Speaker 2: brought more excitement.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for surely faster for sure, as I did come
Speaker 3: from soccer. Yes, yeah, because they do it in soccer
Speaker 3: all the time, so like even the MLS and around
Speaker 3: Europe they have cups during the year and all that
Speaker 3: and even European basketball's got it. Remember there's like the
Speaker 3: euro Cup and there's the EuroLeague and they have different tournament.
Speaker 3: You've got, you know, a league that's just Spain the league,
Speaker 3: you know, so they do that stuff all the time.
Speaker 2: For someone who's very in touch with just fans, players, community,
Speaker 2: how do you feel like the fan experience will change
Speaker 2: in the next ten to twenty years.
Speaker 3: And when it comes to basketball, that's a great question too.
Speaker 3: You guys are ripping these out there, you know, guys,
Speaker 3: good job producers here. So there's a bunch of different
Speaker 3: levels there. One we talked about television, right, Like you know,
Speaker 3: we grew up. You love the teams that your parents
Speaker 3: loved right wherever, what city you were in. You know,
Speaker 3: I go to Pittsburgh, it was Steelers, Penguins, Pirates, right,
Speaker 3: there wasn't an NBA team come down here. It's Cowboys, Rangers,
Speaker 3: let's go Rangers, make closest shit out one game, one game,
Speaker 3: you know, the Stars, the MAVs, and so you just
Speaker 3: automatically love those teams. But now my son is like,
Speaker 3: you know, and it's about the players, all about the
Speaker 3: player more than the team, right, And so so now
Speaker 3: we have to realize that teenagers are getting all their
Speaker 3: MBA from from social media. And that's when I when
Speaker 3: I'm you know, talking to board governors meetings, I'm like,
Speaker 3: that's where we got to go get the money because
Speaker 3: TikTok and YouTube and Instagram they're killing it off of us,
Speaker 3: like on old school. Like I was talking to somebody like, well,
Speaker 3: why does the NFL kill you on television? Because television
Speaker 3: viewers are older, right, the average age you know is
Speaker 3: sixty five seventy seventy five now, and that those people
Speaker 3: are not on social media, whereas we dominate the NBA
Speaker 3: dominates the NFL more on social media than the NFL
Speaker 3: dominates us on television, right, And so that means we've
Speaker 3: got to stay closer to kids on social to really
Speaker 3: keep them connected to us. And that's a lot more work,
Speaker 3: and it changes all the time because our fourteen year
Speaker 3: olds are different than the fourteen year olds of ten
Speaker 3: years ago, and it's going to be different than at
Speaker 3: four ten year olds of ten years from now, and
Speaker 3: so that's going to change how we connect to fans
Speaker 3: and then getting them into the arena, then I don't
Speaker 3: think is going to change as much like there's more digital,
Speaker 3: the screens are bigger, right, people are gambling. That changes
Speaker 3: a bunch. But when you come to a game. I
Speaker 3: was just having this conversation with our people last week,
Speaker 3: it's got to be more like a wedding, right, where
Speaker 3: when you walk in, everybody's got to be hype about
Speaker 3: what's going on. Right, there's a unique energy when you
Speaker 3: walk into a game. What makes it different than watching
Speaker 3: the game is the energy you feel when you walk in.
Speaker 3: You guys feel it right when the crowd's there. You
Speaker 3: know the difference between the joint where the crowd is
Speaker 3: rocking and the music getting them going. And so I
Speaker 3: don't think that changes because that's what makes going to
Speaker 3: a game special. When that ball is in the air
Speaker 3: at the end of the game and you're screaming and
Speaker 3: yelling or everything stops because you're like that Lucas shot, right,
Speaker 3: everything stops and then the whole place erupts, you know,
Speaker 3: and if that's a game winner, you're hugging people you've
Speaker 3: never seen before. Yeah, that you know, you don't ever
Speaker 3: want that to change. That's what makes sports special. But
Speaker 3: everything else is going to change.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we crossed past a few times two thousand and three, yeah,
Speaker 4: and San San Antonio seven with the Warriors.
Speaker 3: Even in four.
Speaker 4: I just told him I came here with the Hawks
Speaker 4: at thirty six in the first half.
Speaker 3: I remember we got an ass whip though. Yep, we
Speaker 3: got though.
Speaker 4: But two thousand and three, you remember those finals San
Speaker 4: Antonio when.
Speaker 3: Dirk was out? Oh yeah, fuck yeah, it killed me.
Speaker 4: Tell me I we we was talking about it. You
Speaker 4: think the series different, Dirk doesn't get hurt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I even say that, and I was for
Speaker 3: sure because remember we were up Nick Fanelso went off
Speaker 3: ni Oh my god, Parker getting the business again. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean he went off forty and now she was good,
Speaker 3: Finn was good, and we were up against you guys.
Speaker 3: We were down three two, and we were up in
Speaker 3: the going into the fourth quarter, and Steve Kerr just
Speaker 3: went off and won the series for you guys. Wanted
Speaker 3: for you guys. No, if we had Dirk, you know,
Speaker 3: because it would have been different. It would have been different, right, We.
Speaker 4: Probably would have been a seven game series, sure, for sure.
Speaker 4: During that time. What is what what was your assessment
Speaker 4: of Tim Duncan.
Speaker 3: Oh he was a man, right, I mean, obviously I'm
Speaker 3: a Dirk back and forth. You know t d was,
Speaker 3: you know, mister the big fundamental right, and there was
Speaker 3: nothing flashy about him. And you know he had his
Speaker 3: own way of talking ship that you know that I appreciate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was telling us about that right, the one
Speaker 2: or two line too late, two words too.
Speaker 3: Late, nice try, nice try, right, Dirk said that ship
Speaker 3: coming back, right, Dirk like circus, just a circus. You
Speaker 3: you'll talk to Dirk and he'll tell you all that
Speaker 3: shit more than I can. But yeah, not having Dirk,
Speaker 3: but you know, just the respect that we had because
Speaker 3: of the going back and forth and finally being you
Speaker 3: all in two thousand and six, finally and probably one
Speaker 3: of the best series ever. I remember talking to Avery,
Speaker 3: who was our coach at the time, I'm like, it's
Speaker 3: like a fucking war. Like there was like no rest
Speaker 3: for the weary at all. Every game was a beastly battle.
Speaker 3: And who knows that in that case of TD hadn't
Speaker 3: gotten hurt going into the overtime, it might have been
Speaker 3: because at that point Sagana Job dominated. If TD was
Speaker 3: hurt and Sagana Job came in to play center for
Speaker 3: the overtime, it just could have been trouble. How how
Speaker 3: much did you hate us in O seven? Get it out?
Speaker 3: But I also had one of the best moments as
Speaker 3: an owner, ban right in Golden State. So we're playing
Speaker 3: you guys. Obviously we were the favorites. We had a
Speaker 3: great year, but you guys had crushed during the season.
Speaker 3: You guys would be we felt good. Yeah, you should have, right,
Speaker 3: But two things, right, two things That was the Tim
Speaker 3: Donahey here, no question right. So here's something you probably
Speaker 3: don't know. There was a game you all played against
Speaker 3: the Bulls and you guys had Andrew Brons right, and
Speaker 3: it was a game that ended up going into overtime.
Speaker 3: Bidrons is in the defensive three right, sitting there, Tim
Speaker 3: donaghe reaches out, pushes them out of the paint, literally
Speaker 3: pushes him out of the paint instead of calling D three. Now,
Speaker 3: it was a tie game if it was d if
Speaker 3: and if they had called that D three, right, Ben
Speaker 3: Gordon goes to the line, right, eighty percent free throw
Speaker 3: shooter makes that three. Now, you guys got a foul,
Speaker 3: and that's you guys just barely made it in. If
Speaker 3: he calls that the other way, you don't make it
Speaker 3: into the playoffs a period, all period, all right, So
Speaker 3: that's that was number one. We had. We had questions
Speaker 3: by it. When he was on us oude. He threw
Speaker 3: us out.
Speaker 4: He threw us out you yeah, not us you and
Speaker 4: he was he threw man beat out in the playoffs
Speaker 4: game too, yeah.
Speaker 3: Me and he threw us a Watch that guy.
Speaker 2: I walked you to the back and put a talent
Speaker 2: front of his face because he was and he was
Speaker 2: cussing everybody out. So I wasn't out the game, but
Speaker 2: I just walked because you know, you can exit right
Speaker 2: behind our bench. I had a talent front of Jack's face,
Speaker 2: so he didn't get us in. No more trump walking.
Speaker 3: Wait. But so then here's the fun part. Even though
Speaker 3: we lost. Now was brutal back in in the arena
Speaker 3: right every time I walked in, like so guy to
Speaker 3: be out of the court warming up before the game.
Speaker 3: I would come through the tunnel, and the minute I
Speaker 3: stepped on the court, everybody was going, cube bin sucks,
Speaker 3: Cube bin sucks. I walk out. They stop. I walked
Speaker 3: back in sucks in Golden State. It happened. It happens
Speaker 3: in San Antonio and happened to go, which I love
Speaker 3: because I walk out, see if they do it again.
Speaker 3: I walk in. They were watching for him, you guys
Speaker 3: looking around. What the hell is going on? And it
Speaker 3: what happened in San Antonio too, Like because I sit
Speaker 3: right on the bench, right behind the bench, and I'd
Speaker 3: get the Cuban sucks right, So I'd wait until TD
Speaker 3: was at the free throw line at the end of
Speaker 3: the game, and I'd stand up and they started and
Speaker 3: he's looking around throw line. What's going on?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Nelly was so ready for that. He had us
Speaker 2: so prepared. I've never seen him like and everyone else
Speaker 2: thought he pretty much after we won that, it was like.
Speaker 3: He checked out, checked out?
Speaker 2: What is I mean we we would hear a little
Speaker 2: bit about it. What was the issue if you can
Speaker 2: speak about it between Nelly and either the organization or
Speaker 2: Nelly and you, because there.
Speaker 3: Was he was like I said, he it fell apart
Speaker 3: on the dirt stuff right, Because I was like Nelly,
Speaker 3: you know, the doctor say he could play so well.
Speaker 3: I had that injury, you know, the same injury. I'm like, Nelly,
Speaker 3: it's not a little different. Yeah, things have changed. Well,
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, And that was it. Really, that's it.
Speaker 3: That's wheah.
Speaker 4: Now that we're not sitting in the locker room smoking
Speaker 4: cigarettes making beers at halftime like that was doing.
Speaker 2: You know, it's got different doctors and stuff, going to
Speaker 2: back up to six, you guys go up to nothing.
Speaker 2: You guys are just killing me with all this. It's
Speaker 2: just this one area, this one area.
Speaker 3: The rest is.
Speaker 2: The rest is you and Dallas celebration.
Speaker 3: But up two excuse me two? Oh uh? D Wade
Speaker 3: goes on a run that we get s okay, so
Speaker 3: talk to us about this. So I remember standing up
Speaker 3: behind the bench we're up to oh, we're game three
Speaker 3: in Miami and it's the third quarter and we're up
Speaker 3: like fourteen, and I remember thinking to myself, we might
Speaker 3: sweep these motherfuckers, right and right then Donna's has them
Speaker 3: steps in front of somebody gets a break away and
Speaker 3: they start coming back. And then this is when we
Speaker 3: had Damp and there was a play like a couple
Speaker 3: of possessions. Later, Shack literally pushes Damp out of the way,
Speaker 3: pushes They call it on Damp, and I'm going nuts,
Speaker 3: like what the is going on here? Shock even crazier
Speaker 3: hits two free throws. Shit, and then you know, you know,
Speaker 3: Bennett Salvador just turned d Wade. I mean, he shot
Speaker 3: more free throws in one game than we did the
Speaker 3: whole series, which was just insane, and you had t
Speaker 3: Mac and other people saying, Okay, something's up with this,
Speaker 3: and obviously donnahe Now do I think it was fixed.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it was fixed, but I certainly
Speaker 3: think that all the fifty to fifty calls we're not going.
Speaker 4: To You have to think about it because if he
Speaker 4: was in the game, he had some type of influence
Speaker 4: because that's what he was on.
Speaker 3: So you have to think that, yeah, what is this is?
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously this could be a little touchy, but
Speaker 2: you know, coming from someone who is so keen on
Speaker 2: everything that involves the game, we had a hard time
Speaker 2: believing that it could be just one person, especially when
Speaker 2: kind of what was going on wasn't that And we're
Speaker 2: not trying to point no finger to start no ship,
Speaker 2: But to me.
Speaker 3: I really think he was the only one that gambled
Speaker 3: on the games, right, And but the rest of the
Speaker 3: us were human, right, I mean, and so when they
Speaker 3: got pissed to me, like some of them liked me,
Speaker 3: and I could tell the ones who liked me because
Speaker 3: I was trying to change things and we're like, this
Speaker 3: ship needs to change. And there were others that just
Speaker 3: hated me. Yeah, it against your team. Yeah, and they
Speaker 3: would hold it and you know how that works.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, any truth. We had Paul Pierce on our
Speaker 2: show and he told us he was considering the one
Speaker 2: time he considered leaving Boston was trying to come to
Speaker 2: you guys, and.
Speaker 3: We traded for Paul Pierce. We were on the trade
Speaker 3: call for Paul Pierce. Now it wasn't oh seven because
Speaker 3: we had tried to trade. It was later in his career.
Speaker 3: I forget which year. It was, maybe on nine, but
Speaker 3: we had We were on the trade call and it
Speaker 3: was a three way with Boston, Atlanta, and US. And
Speaker 3: we had told Atlanta, were you know what the deal
Speaker 3: was going to be, but we need it was with
Speaker 3: Boston and we get on the trade call and Atlanta says, no,
Speaker 3: you got to throw in the first round. Some of
Speaker 3: the A I forget, all the other pieces I forget,
Speaker 3: but it was Paul Pierce coming to us. It was done.
Speaker 3: It was done, and they said you have to throw
Speaker 3: in another first, and we didn't have another first to.
Speaker 2: Throw around the same time you were doing Dancing with
Speaker 2: the Stars.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, talk to us about that twinkle toes. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm good to go back mark Cuban dancing. I'm telling
Speaker 3: you I got some skills. I'll surprise you all for sure.
Speaker 3: That was fun. That was the scariest thing I've ever done,
Speaker 3: by the way. Interesting. Yeah. So yeah, doing a live
Speaker 3: ballroom dancing in front of twenty two million people. It
Speaker 3: was like, oh, it was insane. But I know where
Speaker 3: you're going because it was the same time I was
Speaker 3: talking to the Lakers about Kobe and there was this
Speaker 3: dude who was a PA called His name was Elvis, right,
Speaker 3: and he kept on because we were shooting in l
Speaker 3: A and he said, Kobe's the beast, Kobe's you know,
Speaker 3: it's all Kobe, all Kobe, all the Lakers, all Lakers.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, hey, Elvis, guess what. I'm talking to
Speaker 3: the Lakers right this second, right here, and we're close
Speaker 3: to doing something for Kobe. And I literally thought we
Speaker 3: had something done. And Kobe had to go convince doctor
Speaker 3: Buss that this was going to be a good deal
Speaker 3: and Plinka, who was his agent, but it could happen.
Speaker 3: But Kobe, you know, Mitch Kupchak talked him out of it,
Speaker 3: and I thought it was done.
Speaker 2: Because I remember too they were talking about he was
Speaker 2: There was some Clipper talk too, and the Clippers were
Speaker 2: going to build a facilla or the stadium out in
Speaker 2: Orange County, form and everything.
Speaker 3: And he was ready to go too. He was just
Speaker 3: ready to get out of there. All this shit with
Speaker 3: him in Shack was a mess, and so he was
Speaker 3: ready to go, but just didn't happen.
Speaker 2: Any cool stories or you have with Kobe or.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Kobe and I talked more after he
Speaker 3: retired business. Yeah, it was all business stuff, right. I
Speaker 3: would text him and like literally, you know, there'll be
Speaker 3: times we'd be both watching a game or something and
Speaker 3: text back and forth, but just talking business. Yeah.
Speaker 2: That was the one thing we found interesting when we
Speaker 2: talked to him, when we were talking to them before
Speaker 2: the last interview we did with him, He's just like,
Speaker 2: you know, this last twenty years, I don't want people
Speaker 2: to remember him by that, Like, watch out for this
Speaker 2: next twenty years.
Speaker 3: Right, And I would tell Him'm like, now you're on
Speaker 3: my turf, bro, you know you really go then come on, right.
Speaker 2: A lot of tough stuff happening on that journey to
Speaker 2: twenty eleven. To me, that was one of the greatest
Speaker 2: journeys to get there beat a lot of good teams.
Speaker 2: Talk to us about that journey. You guys end up
Speaker 2: beating the Big three with bron Dy, Wade and Bosh.
Speaker 2: But that was a hell of a road.
Speaker 3: It was incredible. Like we started that season like twenty
Speaker 3: nine and five, nobody was beating us. Then then what's
Speaker 3: his name Koran got hurt and Koran was our number
Speaker 3: two score and then all of a sudden we didn't
Speaker 3: have a score or second score, and then Dirk gets hurt,
Speaker 3: and we go on this road trip in like January
Speaker 3: and lose six in a row and get obliterated. So
Speaker 3: as we had no Kuran, even Roddy Bouboah, who's a
Speaker 3: guy who is really coming on, was hurt, and so
Speaker 3: we were struggling. And we get to the playoffs and literally,
Speaker 3: you know, we were playing Portland and it was they
Speaker 3: were favored over us and we were the higher seed,
Speaker 3: and so we were playing playing LaMarcus and Brandon Roy
Speaker 3: and that grew and we win the first two games.
Speaker 3: Here we go up twenty something there in the third
Speaker 3: game and Brandon Roy puts on the last show he
Speaker 3: ever put on. I mean, the dude was super skilled,
Speaker 3: but you know, with his knees and just comes back
Speaker 3: and beats a single handily and we lose. I think
Speaker 3: we lose the next game and then come back and
Speaker 3: fortunately close it out. But that having our you know,
Speaker 3: just being destroyed like that by Portland instead of putting
Speaker 3: us down really like had it helped us figure it
Speaker 3: out and I think we wore them down, won that series.
Speaker 2: Goes smacked us, Yes, swept us, beat the dogs out
Speaker 2: of us.
Speaker 3: That was insane because I remember sitting there going Slakers,
Speaker 3: coming back to back, back to backs, and everybody, no
Speaker 3: one gave us a chance. And so we go there
Speaker 3: and playing in in your court and you no, where
Speaker 3: did it open up? We were the highest. Yeah, So
Speaker 3: we played here first and had to come from behind twice, right,
Speaker 3: and came from behind, and then we go there and
Speaker 3: what was that? That was the the Corey Brewer game
Speaker 3: I think where we were down like fifteen and Corey
Speaker 3: Brewer just went off and no, no, we started there
Speaker 3: because we closed it closed. Yeah JJ. Yeah, So we
Speaker 3: go there and we come down from behind both games
Speaker 3: and as I'm walking on, I go to Jack Nicholson,
Speaker 3: who sits right by the visitors, like you need tickets
Speaker 3: or anything, and Dallas, you just let me know. He goes,
Speaker 3: We're coming back. Don't worry about it. I'll see you
Speaker 3: back here. Then we get to game four, we win
Speaker 3: game through, get to game four and we can't miss.
Speaker 3: We're up like twenty something that half to like nine
Speaker 3: in the first half. And I told my buddy, who
Speaker 3: sits next to me, he's always sat next month, like,
Speaker 3: if you touch me and wake me up out of
Speaker 3: this ship, I'm going to beat the ship out of
Speaker 3: you because this is a dream and I don't want
Speaker 3: to wake up. And then buying them towards the end, right,
Speaker 3: And then Jerry West even called me after that, and
Speaker 3: he goes, you know that's just not you know, Laker basketball, right,
Speaker 3: It's like yeah, and JD doesn't care. JJ is tough dude.
Speaker 2: And then a young OKC and then we.
Speaker 3: Went, yeah, that whole crew kind of like the Clippers,
Speaker 3: this year's Clipper team back then except for Kad right,
Speaker 3: and they were they were a tough squad, but they
Speaker 3: beat us the first game, I think, and then we
Speaker 3: won the rest. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then in that finals, what did Tyson say? Someone
Speaker 2: hit the shot in front of d Wade hit the
Speaker 2: shot in front of the bench and kind of rubbed
Speaker 2: it in.
Speaker 3: And then you got fifteen. Yeah, and he looks at
Speaker 3: us and you know, he does this and this and
Speaker 3: all the ship and she turned on the light. No.
Speaker 3: And then what people don't know is like that they
Speaker 3: won the first game, and then that second game when
Speaker 3: we're in Miami halftime, that's the same game. They're up
Speaker 3: whatever fifteen or whatever, and what's his name? Oh my god,
Speaker 3: I'm facing fucking the GM. Pat Riley Kim pat Riley
Speaker 3: says to me at halftime is I'm walking through because
Speaker 3: you know you had to walk through it the middle
Speaker 3: park right there. He goes, not long enough, not strong enough. Mark,
Speaker 3: they said to you, We're just too quick and too
Speaker 3: too long. I'm like, I didn't say anything bad. It's
Speaker 3: pat Riley, right, I'm not going to disrespect him. I'm like, okay.
Speaker 3: And then we come back and.
Speaker 2: Then interesting, yeah, interesting.
Speaker 3: And then cool part because Mickey Errson is cool too.
Speaker 3: I like Mickey a lot. And he goes, you know,
Speaker 3: we close it out and we're getting the trophy down
Speaker 3: in Miami and I see Mickey shakes my hand. He goes, oh,
Speaker 3: the irony, right, because we were supposed to be supposed
Speaker 3: to bet him two thousand and six and then they
Speaker 3: were supposed to kill us in twenty eleven. Crazy how
Speaker 3: that works.
Speaker 2: Obviously, a ton of accomplishments in the business world. Lord,
Speaker 2: does that eleven championship rank for you?
Speaker 3: Oh, I've got Larry O'Brien in my office, therapy in
Speaker 3: the face every single day, right. You know. The good
Speaker 3: news is it was amazing. The bad news is it's
Speaker 3: been twelve fucking years, right, you know, and so you
Speaker 3: know it's like, yeah, I went out with the hottest
Speaker 3: girl in high school. Right, That don't do any good? Right,
Speaker 3: So so now it's frustrating. But I think we're on
Speaker 3: a good path here.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you remember this, but twenty fourteen
Speaker 4: recalled I was your coach and he was doing TV
Speaker 4: in the summertime. He came down to San Antonio. He
Speaker 4: was like, I'm going to go back to Mark because
Speaker 4: I want you to come to Dallas.
Speaker 3: Do you remember that? Oh? Yeah, for sure, Yeah, a
Speaker 3: couple times because you had Dan Fagan Rest in peace Dan. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and Dan always always like what about Jack always working?
Speaker 3: And Dan and RiPP were close to.
Speaker 4: And so that's but actually that's how I got paid
Speaker 4: in Indiana through Dany Rick.
Speaker 2: So since we're talking about what could it would have been,
Speaker 2: uh DeAndre Jordan's situation.
Speaker 3: And then you end up getting them a couple of
Speaker 3: years later.
Speaker 2: But that was the fiasta because I remember talking to
Speaker 2: you on the phone about it, and and they put
Speaker 2: the full court press on him. They went out to
Speaker 2: uh the Clipper, the Clipper corps went out to uh
Speaker 2: see him, to see him and didn't let him out
Speaker 2: until he changed. But DJ told me he was coming
Speaker 2: to you. No, DJ told me.
Speaker 3: He was coming. Danny was coming his agent right, And
Speaker 3: I remember we just sat in it was a hotel
Speaker 3: in Houston. We were in the lobby and there was
Speaker 3: dude named Steve who was Deandre's money guy, who was like,
Speaker 3: I thought this thing was done. And the weird part
Speaker 3: was the dude who was bringing us coffee and everything.
Speaker 3: You know Beliza that played in the league. It was
Speaker 3: his brother. It was just like this weirdship. But we
Speaker 3: couldn't get a hold of DJ. He just went radio silent.
Speaker 3: And then you know, the rest is history. And you know,
Speaker 3: DJ made the choice. He made, that's up to him.
Speaker 3: Now he's got a ring and so he can talk
Speaker 3: ship and do whatever he wants.
Speaker 2: That was an interesting time one of year. Any anything
Speaker 2: that we may have slipped our mind, your best funniest
Speaker 2: viral moment court side when it comes to refts.
Speaker 3: You remember how we met.
Speaker 2: Was it the thing in Sacramento?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Basketball?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So we played and we went on and
Speaker 2: partied that night too.
Speaker 3: Had a good time. Yeah, good time. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So anything with refs or April, that's still historic.
Speaker 3: Right. So our guy, our marketing GUYT Fitzgerald said, Mark,
Speaker 3: we want to do this April Fool's joke, and we
Speaker 3: want you We've already checked it with the refs and
Speaker 3: they're cool with it. We're bringing a fake reff and
Speaker 3: you're gonna get into a fight with them. And so
Speaker 3: we told everybody. We told you know, we told the team,
Speaker 3: we told Nelly, even told Del Harris, and I'm like, okay, cool,
Speaker 3: this is gonna be hysterical because this is when I'm
Speaker 3: yelling and screaming and everybody thinks it could be real.
Speaker 3: And so the timeout happens, we're playing New Orleans. The
Speaker 3: timeout happens, and I see the fake ref come out,
Speaker 3: and he walks over and start talking and start talking, start,
Speaker 3: then it gets real animated. Then I push him and
Speaker 3: I can just hear twenty thousand people going nuts, right
Speaker 3: because they didn't realize it was a fake. And then
Speaker 3: we started wrestling and everything, and Del Harris is like
Speaker 3: in shocked, is like you forgot the memo, right, And
Speaker 3: so then Evan A. Shmeier can like separate us and
Speaker 3: we starts, you know, cracking up and be April Fols
Speaker 3: Evan Shmeier Jersey one.
Speaker 2: Something we found really interesting, you know, obviously because I
Speaker 2: lost my mom the cancer. When you went into the
Speaker 2: luxury tax with Muggsy Bogus and give a three year
Speaker 2: situation when his mom was going through that just kind
Speaker 2: of speaks to who you are as a man, always
Speaker 2: beg and bigger than basketball. But can you speak to that.
Speaker 3: I don't remember the whole story, honestly. It was like
Speaker 3: my first year, okay, yeah, and we traded for Muggsy
Speaker 3: and he was like, I can't report, and you know,
Speaker 3: and his contract wasn't fully guaranteed, and I just guaranteed it.
Speaker 3: That's big.
Speaker 2: You are someone who really likes to get former players
Speaker 2: back involved in your organization, to name a few, said
Speaker 2: Mike Filmy, Sean Marion Rowando black Men. What's your philosophy
Speaker 2: behind that?
Speaker 3: So that's another interesting story. Like when I first got
Speaker 3: into the league, they were like, yeah, you were in
Speaker 3: the nineties, right, you played, Yeah, so you knew. There
Speaker 3: were like three or four coaches, right, and there were
Speaker 3: no development coaches whatsoever. None. And I get to the MAVs,
Speaker 3: I'm like, this is insane, right, we spend more training
Speaker 3: people on software than we do supporting development of players.
Speaker 3: And so I go to Nelle, I'm like, every former
Speaker 3: mav get fifteen of them, because you know, former players
Speaker 3: always want to get back into the game, right. I'm like,
Speaker 3: we're not really going to pay, and we'll pay them
Speaker 3: like twenty five grand, but they can come travel with us,
Speaker 3: be on the court before a game, you know, more
Speaker 3: than Wilie. You know, was our first true head of
Speaker 3: development and stuff. And the rest of owners hate it,
Speaker 3: right because players loved it. Right. They always had somebody
Speaker 3: to rebound, somebody to work with them, some develop them.
Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden, other teams realize we're winning, right,
Speaker 3: and this shit's working. Our players are getting better at
Speaker 3: a whole lot faster paced than their players, and so
Speaker 3: that kind of started it, and that changed the whole league.
Speaker 3: Like I still have guys come up to me that
Speaker 3: our head of player development and other teams and like
Speaker 3: thank me twenty some years later because there were no
Speaker 3: player development. And then we took it even one step
Speaker 3: further where we got a bunch of interns that are
Speaker 3: just on the court all the time. Right, So instead
Speaker 3: of having the development coaches come back in, you know,
Speaker 3: don't work with the players, but have somebody interns that
Speaker 3: can like run plays and just you know, run through
Speaker 3: things just to help them understand the game, you know.
Speaker 3: And then beyond that, you know the guys who really
Speaker 3: contributed whatever they want, right, So when Tricks wants to
Speaker 3: do something, yes, TC wants to come back and work, Yes,
Speaker 3: Dirk obviously to go whatever he wants for sure, and
Speaker 3: so all that stuff, we're just down with whatever. You know,
Speaker 3: you got to support I love it.
Speaker 2: Brief stint when you first got the team, Dennis Rodman, Yeah,
Speaker 2: ten days? Was what was that like? And did he
Speaker 2: really stay with you or is that just urban legend.
Speaker 3: No, it's true. He had lost his driver's license. And
Speaker 3: so I have a I have a guest house behind
Speaker 3: my house. I'm like, just stay there, I can take you.
Speaker 3: It was funny. I loved that, right. He was just
Speaker 3: and he would come up to my house and he
Speaker 3: would just sit there watching cartoons all day for real,
Speaker 3: you know. Or he's sneak Carmen Electra through the back
Speaker 3: door back to the guest house. But he was a
Speaker 3: cool dude, right. But you know, we had a team
Speaker 3: vote because we couldn't rebound at all, and we're like, well,
Speaker 3: he's a rebounder and he needs a job, and the
Speaker 3: guys Nelly had the guys vote on they said yes,
Speaker 3: and I never We're playing sack one game and he
Speaker 3: was supposed to guard Chris Webber and now he's like
Speaker 3: guard Chris Chris Webber and instead of guarding him, he
Speaker 3: just pointed at seaweb and see what, Boom, hits a jumper.
Speaker 3: Bet you can't hit that again? Boom And the other
Speaker 3: guys like what going on? Yeah, that was the end
Speaker 3: of it. So let me just tell you I learned
Speaker 3: more from Dennis Rodman about PR and marketing than I
Speaker 3: learned in any NBA class, anything I've ever done. The
Speaker 3: man was a master of marketing. Interesting, like he knew,
Speaker 3: Like we'd go place he was still super hot. Then
Speaker 3: we go someplace and there'd just be masses of people
Speaker 3: that were just excited to see him, and you know,
Speaker 3: he'd be like, Okay, you just got to keep on
Speaker 3: refreshing and coming up with new stuff and letting people
Speaker 3: know you're going to be there. And so him and
Speaker 3: Paris Hilton are my two like marketing and pr Googles.
Speaker 3: But Dr d Rod was like a machine. He knew
Speaker 3: exactly what he was doing.
Speaker 2: Interesting twenty twenty posted a photo on Instagram of Delonte West.
Speaker 2: Can you share your connection with him? And yeah, first
Speaker 2: try to help.
Speaker 3: He played first with for a year and we knew
Speaker 3: he was bipolar. And it was during the pandemic that
Speaker 3: someone sent me a video of him panhandling at a
Speaker 3: corner in North Dallas and I figured out where it
Speaker 3: was and so I went and got him. I mean,
Speaker 3: I mean I would have done the same thing for
Speaker 3: any player. It wasn't just it was Delante or we
Speaker 3: had a special relationship and it was like you was
Speaker 3: I was just and so I put him in my
Speaker 3: car and got him a hotel, got his mom's number
Speaker 3: and told her what's going on, and said, okay, let's
Speaker 3: just get you some help. And so we took him
Speaker 3: down to Rebound that that Jason runs, and we thought, okay,
Speaker 3: he was on the path. Jason saying, this stuff's working.
Speaker 3: He's in Florida, right, He's doing all this stuff he's
Speaker 3: supposed to do. He's doing these you know, events and
Speaker 3: stuff you know that are supposed to help him rehab.
Speaker 3: And then he just took off. And then we're like, okay,
Speaker 3: it's not unusual for somebody to have a relapse. Whatever
Speaker 3: it's it's a hard process. Let's go get him again.
Speaker 3: And so Jason Williams goes out and finds him. We
Speaker 3: get him again, and I set him up again. White
Speaker 3: chocolate Jason Williams, No, no, no Jersey. Jason went through
Speaker 3: his own ship and so we set him up again,
Speaker 3: put him in Rebound in Florida. Takes the stuff, throws
Speaker 3: it over the fence, gone done. His mom would be like,
Speaker 3: one more time, I can't, I can't, can't.
Speaker 4: We were for the Big Three and that was my
Speaker 4: first time seeing it. I seen him that's when we are.
Speaker 4: That's when that's when it actually hit the internet. We
Speaker 4: were for Big Three, and we remember leaving the Big Three,
Speaker 4: and that's when I was like, God, he hasn't and
Speaker 4: what what what? I respected you so much for doing it,
Speaker 4: But what killed me was how many people that you played,
Speaker 4: how many teammates that you can play with that don't
Speaker 4: have the heart to reach out to you.
Speaker 3: Know, they do though, they do, Like I heard from
Speaker 3: a bunch of his teammates, right from Saint Joe to
Speaker 3: you know, guys in the league don't want he just
Speaker 3: you know, he wasn't registering. It's just he has a sickness, right,
Speaker 3: he's by polar and you know, I think he wants it,
Speaker 3: you know, and I think part of it is just
Speaker 3: you know, he's getting still gets pressure from his family,
Speaker 3: you know, to I mean I was hearing from his family.
Speaker 3: He's thirty nine years old, you know, all the shit
Speaker 3: he's gone through. Oh he can still play. No, he
Speaker 3: needed to save his life. He couldn't. He couldn't make it.
Speaker 3: And that's what I would say with the three right right,
Speaker 3: which is yeah, it's tough, right and so and then
Speaker 3: he no showed the Big Three. Yeah, because you guys,
Speaker 3: you guys are ready. He could have gotten paid, right,
Speaker 3: drafted you guys, you guys were ready just to help him.
Speaker 3: Somebody was gonna draft him just to give him a job, right, exactly, right, exactly,
Speaker 3: And so you know he didn't show there. And it's
Speaker 3: just like all lots of guys wanted to help him,
Speaker 3: he just couldn't help himself. If you're out there, man,
Speaker 3: were sending love to you. Bro. Since we on it,
Speaker 3: what's your take on Big Three? I mean, I like it,
Speaker 3: but it's a tough business, yep. You know, like if
Speaker 3: you go back and look like during the lockout in
Speaker 3: the nineties when Patrick, you and everybody tried to put
Speaker 3: on a traveling show, right, it was impossible for them
Speaker 3: to sell tickets, right, It's hard to sell tickets. It's
Speaker 3: hard to sell to anything. And so I mean, I've
Speaker 3: known Jeff Kwantwitz for twenty some years, super smart guy, Cube,
Speaker 3: super smart, both sharp business guys, and I you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's just going to be hard because there's no
Speaker 3: there's no anchor for it, right, you guys going out
Speaker 3: there and watch you play like I've gone to the games,
Speaker 3: right and it's fun right now. I like to see
Speaker 3: the guys and everything, and you get good crowds, but
Speaker 3: it's hard to get the revenue from those tickets too.
Speaker 3: What's that consistence crowds? It's hard to get right. Sometimes
Speaker 3: it's like, oh shit, you know, people are like, we helped.
Speaker 3: We tried to, Like when you guys came here, we
Speaker 3: tried to do all the everything. Yeah, we showed up.
Speaker 3: Rick was there, you know, I was there. You know,
Speaker 3: we always try to help. But it's just it's just
Speaker 3: a tough business. And you know, if you look at
Speaker 3: like the TBT, the basketball tournament was winner take all, right.
Speaker 3: I talked to those guys too, and they're about break even,
Speaker 3: right because people have to pay to enter, right, and
Speaker 3: they have the games where they know they're going to
Speaker 3: get the biggest crowds, right, And so is there something
Speaker 3: where it could be a winner take all type thing?
Speaker 3: And it's just because you guys want to get paid
Speaker 3: because it's a physical toll there, and it's a catch
Speaker 3: twenty two. How do you generate enough revenue to get
Speaker 3: the guys paid enough to go through all the all
Speaker 3: the things you have to do to stay in shape
Speaker 3: and play. I don't have a good answer, you know,
Speaker 3: and hopefully you know, TV will help because you guys
Speaker 3: are broadcast, but there's just not a lot of money there.
Speaker 4: And even with tvt TV, TS transferruning football, they're gonna
Speaker 4: start doing football, turm.
Speaker 3: Soccer, yeah, yeah, soccer, yeah, because I told them they
Speaker 3: should do soccer right, because they make their money the
Speaker 3: same way pickleball makes their money, right by pickleball doesn't
Speaker 3: make their money by people coming to watch the pro
Speaker 3: pickleball players. They make their money because every amateur thinks
Speaker 3: of the world's greatest pick a ball player, every soccer
Speaker 3: player that ever played in college and every they still
Speaker 3: want to compete, and so they pay all the entry
Speaker 3: fees and so to play in the pickleball amateur it's
Speaker 3: like golf where they have an open, right, all those
Speaker 3: people pay their money to compete. And that's the difference
Speaker 3: versus the Big Three TBT they all pay entry fees.
Speaker 3: TBT Soccer they all pay entry fees. You know, pickleball
Speaker 3: amateur open, they all pay entry fees. That's where the
Speaker 3: money is made. Interesting, right, so like maybe they do
Speaker 3: a thing where you do you have an open that
Speaker 3: gets to play the big three winner or gets to
Speaker 3: play Big three and you make money that way because
Speaker 3: you know how guys are, right, everybody thinks they can compete, right,
Speaker 3: everybody thinks they you know, they would have been the player,
Speaker 3: right only if if right cost plus drugs. Yeah. Thanks.
Speaker 4: I think that was something beautiful because I know so
Speaker 4: many of my people, you know, especially where me and
Speaker 4: my little brother from in our city, A lot of
Speaker 4: people died of us growing up, not being able to
Speaker 4: afford medicine, not being able to have just just the
Speaker 4: bare minimum things. So to be to to create something
Speaker 4: where people can't get their medicines at the affordable price,
Speaker 4: what was the thought into that process?
Speaker 3: Just that right? Care about people? Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 3: crazy rocking science right about people. Yeah, and it's an
Speaker 3: easy business. We buy drugs, we sell drugs, right, but
Speaker 3: we'll be familiar with that too. Yeah, A little different,
Speaker 3: little different, Oh my god, not going to go there.
Speaker 3: But you guys don't know where I grew up, man,
Speaker 3: I can tell you talking about. But yeah, in this
Speaker 3: day and age, that people you know, have to choose
Speaker 3: between their rent, their daycare, wealthy food or their medications, right,
Speaker 3: is insane And a big part of The reason why
Speaker 3: that shit happens is because there's these big companies that
Speaker 3: are just like, let's just squeeze wherever we can. And
Speaker 3: so what we decided is we're going to create costplus
Speaker 3: Drugs dot Com. And what's going to be different than
Speaker 3: all the other ones. If you go to cost plus
Speaker 3: Drugs dot Com, know something you know and you put
Speaker 3: in the name of the medici medication that is prescribed
Speaker 3: by your doctor, right, and you put it in there,
Speaker 3: you'll see what our cost is. You'll see that we
Speaker 3: market up fifteen percent, and you'll see what we're charging
Speaker 3: for the mail order side or where you can pick
Speaker 3: it up and do it locally. Right. But it's all
Speaker 3: transparent because before us, if you think about what happens,
Speaker 3: like you've had prescribed medications. You go to the doctor
Speaker 3: and you say, okay, you need to take you know
Speaker 3: this maxicilin, right, and the next question out of their
Speaker 3: mouth is, okay, what pharmacy do you use? And then
Speaker 3: they send it to the pharmacy and you get there,
Speaker 3: you have no idea what it costs. And if you
Speaker 3: don't have insurance where you have a high deductible, it's
Speaker 3: scary as shit. You know, we've all heard stories about
Speaker 3: people being in the pharmacy and somebody in front of
Speaker 3: us can't afford their meds because they didn't know what
Speaker 3: it was going to cost. So by only marketing up
Speaker 3: fifteen percent, our prices are like dramatically lower. And it's cool,
Speaker 3: you know, you talk about being able to help people.
Speaker 3: I'm used to people coming up to me because of
Speaker 3: Shark Tank, used to people coming up because of mass.
Speaker 3: Now people are like wherever I'm at, hugging me, rying
Speaker 3: right because you know, and I get stories all the time,
Speaker 3: like Isaiah Thomas. We have a mutual friend from Indiana
Speaker 3: where we both went to school, right older idea Thomas
Speaker 3: not number four, And so he called me up because
Speaker 3: we have a mutual friend who lost his insurance and
Speaker 3: this kid was in a car accident and just paralyzed.
Speaker 3: And this drug, Droxadopa was going to be one thousand
Speaker 3: dollars every three months, and I'm like, we don't carry it,
Speaker 3: but let me check. Turns out we could carry it.
Speaker 3: We go out and get it sixty one dollars a month.
Speaker 3: Crazy man, God, I mean I can tell you a
Speaker 3: story after story, like people who like need a matnet
Speaker 3: which is like a crazy Oh my got chemotherapy drugs
Speaker 3: like down from two thousand to twenty six dollars, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, because you know, when you walk in and
Speaker 3: you need this drug to survive, you pay whatever you
Speaker 3: got to pay and they see you coming, right. But
Speaker 3: we've changed all that changed it completely. Now you know,
Speaker 3: they're using our website to see what the real price
Speaker 3: is and so like, no, I'm not going to pay that,
Speaker 3: I'll go to cost plus. And so this just changed
Speaker 3: the game. So it's been fun, it's it's exciting to
Speaker 3: be part of that. That's beautiful. You know how many
Speaker 3: times as a kid.
Speaker 4: Growing and where we where we grew up that our
Speaker 4: grandparents or somebody eldy're telling us, baby, can't you grab
Speaker 4: my medicine?
Speaker 3: Can you start grab my medicine for you? Because they
Speaker 3: couldn't afford it.
Speaker 4: Yep, they asking somebody of one of they is somebody
Speaker 4: that's stopping and grab their medicine.
Speaker 3: I heard that too many times in my life.
Speaker 2: That's dope just renewed for season fifteen. Yeah, talk to
Speaker 2: us about that. The business behind at the entertainment factor,
Speaker 2: do you guys actually make money off some of these investments.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know this is our fifteenth year. Next year,
Speaker 3: sixteenth year is going to be my last year.
Speaker 2: So this is a more year ago breaking news.
Speaker 3: Yeah, shoes up, Yeah, right, it's time, right, But I
Speaker 3: love it because it sends the message of your American
Speaker 3: dream is alive and well, like you guys are entrepreneurs.
Speaker 3: You guys know what it takes to start a business.
Speaker 3: You guys have been through it. Okay, you know, investing this,
Speaker 3: investing this from other people. Now you start this and
Speaker 3: you run it. And I feel like, in doing Shark
Speaker 3: Tank all these years, we've trained a generation of entrepreneurs,
Speaker 3: multiple generations of entrepreneurs that if somebody can come from
Speaker 3: Iowa or Sacramento wherever and show up on the carpet
Speaker 3: on Shark Tank and show their business and get a deal,
Speaker 3: that's going to inspire generations of kids, right, And that's
Speaker 3: what happens. Right. So now we got people coming on. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I watched you when you were ten years when I
Speaker 3: was ten years old, right, fifteen years ago. I'm like, fuck,
Speaker 3: but we're helping them, right, And you know, I've invested
Speaker 3: in I don't even know how many hundreds of companies
Speaker 3: and on a cash basis, I'm down a little bit.
Speaker 3: But on a marked market meeting, the companies are still
Speaker 3: in operation to do. I'm way up. Like I've got
Speaker 3: this company, Beatbox Beverage, that I bought a third of
Speaker 3: the company for a million dollars and I've been diluted some,
Speaker 3: but they just did a raise at two hundred million, right, dude,
Speaker 3: wipes if you've ever seen them, right, I gave them
Speaker 3: I don't even remember, like two hundred and fifty grand
Speaker 3: for twenty percent of the company. They're doing fifty million
Speaker 3: dollars a year. They'll do one hundred million dollars in sales.
Speaker 3: They're killing it. So I've got all these companies that
Speaker 3: are killing it, but it's not you know, they're not
Speaker 3: sold yet or anything. So on a marked to market basis,
Speaker 3: I'm up ten. Next.
Speaker 2: That's dope your infatus on the show for kind of sniffing.
Speaker 3: Out the bullshit. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: Anything you look at before they even start talking, body language,
Speaker 2: eye contact.
Speaker 3: Just listen to them, right, you can just tell you know,
Speaker 3: and body language matters because the harder they have to
Speaker 3: try to sell, the worst to deal, right, because like
Speaker 3: you guys don't have to sell this right, good, guys,
Speaker 3: it sells itself right. Guys know, they know what it's about.
Speaker 3: They know what you guys are about, and you connect
Speaker 3: or you don't, right, And when someone walks in on
Speaker 3: a shark tank, you can tell it to trying too
Speaker 3: hard or I have this rule. The longer the backstory,
Speaker 3: the worse to deal. Meaning the minute you start telling
Speaker 3: me your how hard it was for you, it's hard
Speaker 3: for every motherfucking entrepreneur. Right, I don't need to hear
Speaker 3: your backstory. Tell me about your business, right, tell me
Speaker 3: why you're going to be successful, tell me what's different
Speaker 3: about it. You know how you stand out like you
Speaker 3: name a podcast, all the smoke you're going to stand out, right,
Speaker 3: everybody else tries to avoid you. Guys just took it
Speaker 3: head on, right, And so that's how you're different, right,
Speaker 3: And that's what I look for. And I look for
Speaker 3: ideas where it's like, damn, why didn't I think of that?
Speaker 3: And you know sometimes I get those deals. But how
Speaker 3: would you describe your hoop game? My hoop game? Yeah,
Speaker 3: I play.
Speaker 4: It was when since I first seen you warm up
Speaker 4: before games has always been slow.
Speaker 3: So were you up fast? No? About the team when
Speaker 3: I was in my four I was forty one, right
Speaker 3: and by the time you saw me, right, yeah, I
Speaker 3: could play. I play against NBA players all the time.
Speaker 3: Right now, I'm not good enough for you know, athletic
Speaker 3: enough to like play play, but you could put me
Speaker 3: on a court anywhere anytime and wouldn't embarrass myself. So
Speaker 3: for league right now, you'll kill I'm sixty five mother
Speaker 3: years old.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sixteen up, I would kill it was sixty yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: man a compliment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I take that. It was sixty yeah, forty enough.
Speaker 3: I can stand in the corner and make shots. Right.
Speaker 3: But like you were talking about, like yesterday, I played
Speaker 3: with my son and I couldn't walk for two days, right,
Speaker 3: you know. And but I've been getting back in shape and.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you and talk shit to you like my
Speaker 2: kids do. Hell yes, everything. Yeah, but you have done
Speaker 2: three times and that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, because it takes me a while. He always
Speaker 3: beats me the first game, right, I take it to him.
Speaker 3: I did not know you was in your sixties, yeah
Speaker 3: for sure. Yeah, so now it's just a lot more
Speaker 3: painful than it used to be. But like where I
Speaker 3: still play today, you know, it was back in the day.
Speaker 3: It was like the only court where there were runs, right,
Speaker 3: that was open. And so I played against Karl Malone,
Speaker 3: Avery Johnson, Derek Harper and Matrick Johnson, all these guys.
Speaker 3: And I'm not saying like I taught them anything, right,
Speaker 3: not at all with them. Yeah, I'm just hooping, right,
Speaker 3: I'm not embarrassing myself, and I'm just passing me the ball,
Speaker 3: right for a reason. I'm for a reason now, I'm
Speaker 3: hoping for a reason. Right, Yeah, magic stuff shooting that ship. Right,
Speaker 3: He's the basketball here that you what you what is?
Speaker 3: What is it that you have against Elon Munk? I
Speaker 3: don't have anything against him, right, I think he's fucked
Speaker 3: up Twitter. But the guy the genius, right, he's like
Speaker 3: probably the best entrepreneur of our generation. Right, so I'll
Speaker 3: give his profits nobody. You can't just say it is dropped. Yeah,
Speaker 3: for sure you can't. Right, You're just gonna go get
Speaker 3: shipped unless I'm talking about costplus or putting up props
Speaker 3: for somebody, you know my because you're just gonna get
Speaker 3: shipp about everything. It's successible, right, But you know I
Speaker 3: drive a Tesla. You know I'm not gonna give I mean,
Speaker 3: I'll give him his proxy, right, he built some of
Speaker 3: the you know he's the but you know you can
Speaker 3: have you know, multiple right, can't win them all. I
Speaker 3: can't win them all. Are there any owners.
Speaker 2: You have like a friendly rivalry or not even a
Speaker 2: maybe not friendly, just kind of like a riot that
Speaker 2: you really enjoy beating or going up against.
Speaker 3: Not really, I'm not really close to to the other owners.
Speaker 3: How could you be though? So much different? Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: like you know, the young like I don't know mattis
Speaker 3: very well. I just said hi to them. The guy,
Speaker 3: the new guy in Phoenix, you know Ryan, the Ryan Smith,
Speaker 3: the guy in Utah's cool. We'll talk Walmart will talk some,
Speaker 3: but it's always just NBA business. It's not like we're
Speaker 3: just learning out or doing anything. I've never just gone
Speaker 3: out and hung out. And you know, I got my friends.
Speaker 4: You know, I would want to win a championship for
Speaker 4: you so bad because that's seeing you parted with the
Speaker 4: team with y'all want.
Speaker 3: Man, I know it'll be crazy. That's Rockey seventh figure too, right,
Speaker 3: let's done, my god, that's Dirk about us going out
Speaker 3: and having fun.
Speaker 2: Definitely, Who is Mark Cuban outside of business and basketball.
Speaker 3: Just dad, just a normal dude man, a kid who
Speaker 3: grew up in Pittsburgh. You know, my best friends are
Speaker 3: still my high school friends and my college friends. I
Speaker 3: played rugby and college and those are my guys forever.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not out there trying to be cool
Speaker 3: to anybody. I just, I mean, I'm a lucky motherfucker. Bro.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm just. You know, when I die, I
Speaker 3: want to come back as me. That's dope.
Speaker 4: That's really you know I said that, Oh he is
Speaker 4: at all times.
Speaker 3: I don't know. When I die, I want to come
Speaker 3: back as me. I do. Yeah, that's really dope.
Speaker 2: Balancing fatherhood and any advice you give your kids, they did.
Speaker 2: They actually they listened to because I'm.
Speaker 3: In the same boat. Oh my god, you your pocket
Speaker 3: is different, Oh way different. Yes, I'm just talking what
Speaker 3: this kid is coming with.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about in one ear out the other.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't matter why they find things. You know,
Speaker 3: everybody else kisses your ass. Dad, we're knocking. You know.
Speaker 3: It's like, I've got a twenty year old daughter, a
Speaker 3: seventeen year old daughter, and a fourteen year old son.
Speaker 3: The fourteen year old son is into sports, right, so
Speaker 3: that's cool. So it'll be like I'll get by the
Speaker 3: time I look at my phone, I'll have checks. It's
Speaker 3: Kyrie plain tonight. Right, why didn't we get James Harden Right,
Speaker 3: we could have made a better deal for James Harden.
Speaker 3: You once I took him into the war room on
Speaker 3: draft night and he was in Evan and Evan right,
Speaker 3: because we had all these deals that we were doing
Speaker 3: and everything, and I'd go, Jake, you good with this deal?
Speaker 3: And I don't know, let me think, yeah, okay, I'm
Speaker 3: good with that deal. So my fourteen year old I'm
Speaker 3: close to and it's really easy. My middle daughter's athlete,
Speaker 3: the real athlete. She's a rower and she's going on
Speaker 3: her first trip to She doesn't let me talk about it,
Speaker 3: but yeah, she's got she's getting getting recruited and everything.
Speaker 3: And then my oldest is they're all super smart, but yeah,
Speaker 3: they're they talk. I try, I tell you to do it.
Speaker 3: You were running the team one day. N I wouldn't
Speaker 3: put it through it, right, I wouldn't put them through
Speaker 3: it because no, no, because you know, he's fourteen, and
Speaker 3: I've talked to all of them about it, and I
Speaker 3: don't know, but like I'm sixty five, right, and ten
Speaker 3: years he's still only twenty four. Yeah, and my oldest
Speaker 3: is still only thirty. And that's not you know, you're
Speaker 3: not going to learn it then. Am I going to
Speaker 3: be eighty five trying to turn it? No? I don't
Speaker 3: want that to be me, right, So you know, I'll
Speaker 3: bring in somebody at some point. But Nico does a
Speaker 3: great job. Sint Marshall does a great job. Nico's Yeah,
Speaker 3: he's just changed just dramatically. I love the guy. Sint
Speaker 3: Marshall changed just dramatically. And so you know, and it
Speaker 3: goes back to like what we said about the television
Speaker 3: side of it, Like if the television doesn't kick in,
Speaker 3: because I know media, I know digital, I know all
Speaker 3: that shit cold, right, you got to bring in, you know,
Speaker 3: some other investors that know like real estate and development,
Speaker 3: because that's where the money is going to be coming
Speaker 3: in from potentially, right and definitely you know, you look
Speaker 3: at Golden State, how can they afford all it? Because
Speaker 3: they own everything, right, and they do all the development
Speaker 3: around there, and you see what Bomber's doing. The money
Speaker 3: that they see coming in isn't from the local TV deal, right,
Speaker 3: because Bali's is falling apart. You got to have and
Speaker 3: I'm not a real estate guy. So it's like I
Speaker 3: want I just want the manage to win. So if
Speaker 3: I have to bring in a partner who knows that shit,
Speaker 3: I'm fine with that. I just want their mams to win.
Speaker 2: Speak to the importance of hiring Cynthia Marshall.
Speaker 3: She's a beast. She is. She's like, she's smart, she's driven,
Speaker 3: she understands business, she knows what she doesn't know, and
Speaker 3: the things she's good as she's great at. You know,
Speaker 3: I think what people what I'm a big believer in
Speaker 3: for all my businesses. Let me take a step back.
Speaker 3: What's missing in almost all businesses this day and age,
Speaker 3: which really really changed in business is the number one
Speaker 3: product for every business has got to be trust. Like
Speaker 3: we talked about costplus drugs. You got to trust us
Speaker 3: and we do that through transparency. And I think with trust,
Speaker 3: you can connect to your customers and to get trust,
Speaker 3: your customers want your workforce to look like them. It's
Speaker 3: a representation. Yeah, I mean, it's just like if I
Speaker 3: see somebody who walks in like me, right, I see
Speaker 3: someone from Pittsburgh. I know, whatever the doors open for trust. Right,
Speaker 3: if there's nobody that looks like me, or there's nobody
Speaker 3: that looks like you or you, it's like, okay, what's up? Right?
Speaker 3: But if I see somebody that I can connect to,
Speaker 3: it may not guarantee trust, but you're at least going
Speaker 3: to be open to it. And Since gets that. And
Speaker 3: so when you look at our workforce and you look
Speaker 3: at how she's trained, and when you look at how
Speaker 3: she's developed trust among our customers, she gets it. She
Speaker 3: gets it right. And I wish I had people across
Speaker 3: all my businesses that I've invested in as smart as her.
Speaker 3: And so she's really been a godsend from that perspective
Speaker 3: because she's good at business and she understands how to
Speaker 3: build trust. Because I don't care what kind of company,
Speaker 3: if it's a podcast, no matter what it is. If
Speaker 3: you don't have trust, you don't have a business.
Speaker 4: Before working for you, and probably still is, Nico is
Speaker 4: probably the most has the most influence of a basketball
Speaker 4: but under the.
Speaker 3: Radar, Oh yeah, anybody, oh, anybody I'm talking about from
Speaker 3: our era to there, you know to now? Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: I remember he'd come in, like going back to two
Speaker 3: thousand and three when he started at Nike right around then, right,
Speaker 3: and I'd be like, who's this dude, And that's Nico.
Speaker 3: Not one person has a bad word, not a damn.
Speaker 2: Also too, if you got to think you're doing some shit,
Speaker 2: if you can go by just your just one name,
Speaker 2: your first.
Speaker 3: Name, yeah right, yeah, you know you right, but your
Speaker 3: last name, it's just Nico, right. No. I love Nico. Man.
Speaker 3: He's changed, he's changed. He's smart, he gets the work done,
Speaker 3: and he's prepared. He doesn't wing anything. Man. He calls
Speaker 3: himself the silent assassin. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2: Well, Mark, we appreciate your time. Before we get you
Speaker 2: out of here. We got a few quick hitters. It's
Speaker 2: the first thing to come to mind. Let us know,
Speaker 2: biggest risk you've ever taken.
Speaker 3: Dancing with the stars flop bad, right, Because I'm believe
Speaker 3: or not, I'm not a big risk taker. Like I
Speaker 3: come and prepared. I do the work. You know. Bobby
Speaker 3: and I, the old school coach of Indiana used to
Speaker 3: the same that he's talking about. He goes, everybody's got
Speaker 3: the will to win, but it's only those with the
Speaker 3: will to prepare that win. And that's the way I
Speaker 3: approach business, Business is the ultimate sport. You compete, you
Speaker 3: guys know, right, and basketball eighty two games, thirty teams? Right?
Speaker 3: How many podcasts are there? Bill? You compete against everybody,
Speaker 3: and those competitive juice takes over. So I always look
Speaker 3: at business as the ultimate sport. But you got to
Speaker 3: be prepared. I'm gonna get to my question, but do
Speaker 3: you have it? Are your action junkie? Action JUNKI No,
Speaker 3: I'm terrified of heights man. You can't. Yeah, what's your
Speaker 3: guilty pleasure? My guilty pleasure is just eating like a pig.
Speaker 3: But what I like to do just go shoot really yeah,
Speaker 3: just get shots up, like when I'm stressed. That ball
Speaker 3: going through the net. That takes your mind off everything
Speaker 3: like that. I love it.
Speaker 2: Worst piece of advice you've ever heard.
Speaker 3: Oh damn, yeah, one more round won't hurt.
Speaker 2: Take that as you may. Classic, best piece of advice
Speaker 2: you've heard.
Speaker 3: Be nice, Be nice, And today is the youngest you're
Speaker 3: ever going to be. Live like it. My dad can
Speaker 3: tell me that all the time. Yeah. Dallas Mavericks all time,
Speaker 3: starting five, Jerk Tyson at the Center, Rolando Derek and
Speaker 3: I'll go with Mark aguire Rolando Blackman. If y'all don't
Speaker 3: know who he's talking about, he was.
Speaker 2: Married to Jenny Jones, right, the lady that was on TV.
Speaker 2: They used to have the talk show. I think he was, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it wasn't he.
Speaker 3: I don't think his talk show. No, I don't know.
Speaker 3: He's white. Maybe tripping, Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Most trusted person in your contact list if you need
Speaker 2: some advice on any type of business.
Speaker 3: My wife, really, Yeah, she'll tell me the truth on
Speaker 3: anything and everything. And then probably no, probably Todd, you know,
Speaker 3: business business. Probably my partner, Todd Wagner, the guy we
Speaker 3: did the streaming business with. You know, we grew up
Speaker 3: in this together, and he'll always tell me the facts. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he won't need that. Something you wish you were better
Speaker 3: at jumping? You know I'd done for the first time
Speaker 3: when I was thirty seven years old. That's dope. Thirty
Speaker 3: seven years old.
Speaker 2: Yeah, childhood crush, Fara facet.
Speaker 4: Ooh oh, five dinner guests dead alive?
Speaker 3: Oh damn? Ted Turner, Warren Buffett, probably Elon Dirk and
Speaker 3: fair of facet there you.
Speaker 4: Okay, if you could see one guess on all the smoke.
Speaker 4: Who would it be? But you have to help us
Speaker 4: get your answer on the show.
Speaker 3: Who you know?
Speaker 2: You got a hell of a rollerdex too. Yeah, did
Speaker 2: you hear that last work?
Speaker 3: Yeah? The last you guys said Obama on No, I'll
Speaker 3: tell you my quicker boum to help us get him
Speaker 3: on the show. We appreciate it. We were in I
Speaker 3: was in Nico's office with Finn and a bunch of
Speaker 3: guys and Obama calls me right about a charity thing,
Speaker 3: you know, at which you'd expect no big deal, right.
Speaker 3: I'm like, Hey, this is Obama. You know, they're like
Speaker 3: cool everything, and so hang up. Is only like a
Speaker 3: two minute conversation. And then I put my phone in
Speaker 3: my pocket, and you know, Obama's got a distinct voice. Right,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, I heard hello, Hello Buttonal Obama.
Speaker 3: That's fine, that's fine. I hope you heard that. We
Speaker 3: need you come on, but Mark, we again.
Speaker 2: We want to thank you, obviously for your time, but
Speaker 2: also I mean for all the great stuff you do
Speaker 2: across the board. It's not just sports to do. It's life,
Speaker 2: like you said, you know, being nice to people. You
Speaker 2: never know who is who, and how you can help people,
Speaker 2: and I think that the stuff you do in sports
Speaker 2: and business really helps people's lives. Man, we appreciate you
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a wrap, Mark Cuban.
Speaker 2: You can catch us on Showtime Basketball, YouTube and the
Speaker 2: iHeart platform Black Effects.
Speaker 3: We'll see y'all next week.