 Run it up, they run it back. Run it up, they run it back. Run it up, they run it back. Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Run It Back. Right here on CrayonDoolTV. I will do the intros now as we've got lots to get to and two great guests coming up. Stadium Insider, Shom Sharania. My name is Michelle Chandler. Lou Will on the end. And we finally had some hoops last night. But before we can get to that, you know what's fun is when chucking the boys make fun of you. And that's exactly what happened last night, Shoms. Let's take a listen. Shom Sharania reporting. The design is believed to have suffered a left hand string injury, sources telling the athletic head that 40 and 11. How can we believe him? His name is Shams. Shams. Shams. I'm just kidding. Man, I can't tell that. No, Shams. That's actually one of your better ones. I mean, it's a fair question. How would you like to answer that? How can we believe you? I mean, you know, you have a lot of pronunciations of your name, you know, I've come to accept them. My name is Shoms though. We do respect, we do respect Charles Barkley in the inside of the NBA. We, this is the gold standard. This is the greatest thing in the show. Yeah, you're doing something right. They're making fun of you on national. Yeah, exactly. You have. Shoms. I would say you've made it, but you've been making it. Thank you, Chandler. Yeah, yeah. Shams and Shoms. All right, so the games last night, let's just go ahead and get into it. Warriors Kings will do that one first. Kings eliminate the Warriors. They did it and it was not close. 10 Cs are now 0-7 in the play-in. Keegan Murray had a night 32 points. He was 8-13 from 3. Clay Thompson is the one we're going to start though because 0 points, 0 for 10, 0 for 6 for 3. First game without a made field goal. This is not when you want to do it. Since his rookie season and afterward, Steve Kerr said that they need him back. This is obviously now the beginning of what happens to Clay Thompson, so what are we hearing? Clay Thompson is very open to seeing his marketplace in free agency. We've discussed it, we've talked about it. The Warriors offered him an extension. Before the season, two years, 48 million. He declined it. He believes at that point, and I think still as the years have gone on, that he is worth more, deserves more. I'm told his free agency is going to be about respect. It's going to be about principle as far as where he stands in that Warriors organization for championships. He's come back from an ACL injury. He's come back from an Achilles injury. Because of what he's done, feeling like he's deserving, and he has a lot of thinking to do this summer, he's going to have interest in the marketplace. There's going to be teams that want to play Thompson. You look at his second half of the season though, 19 points a game, 45% from the field, almost 42% from three-point range. It's going to be the hardest call in his life to make if he does end up finding another spot to leave as far as calling Steph Curry, calling Dream Andre, calling them and saying I'm gone. But he is going to be open to testing the market. This is going to be weird, man. Free agency usually comes down to one thing and one thing only, Shoms. It's not respect, it's not, it's money. And he, maybe he thinks he deserves more money than the franchise thinks he does. And he did show flashes this year that he still can play, he still can explode and have big games. He's healthy and to go through the injuries and the recovery that he has gone through to get back to this level is super impressive. So I do think there's a smaller market team out there that is going to throw him a lot more money than Mike Dunleavy and the Warriors are prepared to do. So I do. Is he regretting turning down that 248? I don't think so, because I think he will end up getting more than that or a longer deal this summer. I really do. And I think he deserves that. He's a huge name. He's going to bring in a lot of different, to a team like Orlando, for example. I know we keep talking about that. That is exactly what that franchise needs. They're a team on the rise. He's a great locker room guy. He's a great vet. He provides them shooting that they just have never had. So I do love it. And I hate that we're even open up with his bad game because this is one game of his entire legendary hall of fame career. He had a big time second half of the season. He did. So he's put himself in position to go. And again, this is respect with him and his team, his franchise. It would be very weird to see him on another team because it just wouldn't, he's one of those guys that makes sense that he finished his career. But at the end of the day, players have a short window to make the most money possible. Let's be honest. And he has that opportunity now to go and get another bag. Go get it if the Warriors don't want to pony up. It was hard to watch last night and we'll talk about this game, obviously a lot. But it was just the clay part of it, the body language, the moment you realized they knew that this was done. I don't know. If you're Clay Thompson, do you really want to leave Golden State? Or do you need the fresh start? Maybe it's a need thing at this point, Lou. Yeah. I think he's gonna take a look this off season and really have a, like this looks like the end. Like how he's... Of course it looks like the end. Yeah. How he's soaking everything in. I think he understands that this may be an end of an era and he's gonna have to weigh his options. He's either gonna come down, in my opinion, it's gonna come down to a pay cut. It's gonna be a deal that probably wasn't there for him at the beginning of the season at a lower number or he's gonna go get the money somewhere else. I hate to see this team, this dynasty come to an end in such a fashion for Clay with the things that he's been able to accomplish with this group. But I think he has his future somewhere else. And it's interesting because he's could be a free agent and he can go and get it back somewhere else, but they also can move some other, they also can try and get off Dreamwon. They also, Chris Paul is probably coming to an end soon. So there's also, there's other ways they could do to keep him while making it kind of mutually beneficial for both him and the franchise. I wonder if we could give staff true zero what he would want. Look, they missed the playoffs for the third time in the Steve Kerr era and afterwards Steve Kerr talked a lot about it, said you don't get to stay on top forever. It sounded like he's sort of conceding that this dynastic run that they were on Lou is officially over. Did you get that vibe? Yeah, it's over, but nothing short of spectacular. These guys put numbers on the board. They changed the game during that run. Steph Kerr became one of the most fascinating players and basketball became one of the greats. They were able to put four championship banners in the Raptors. Nothing short of amazing for this group. Everything comes to an end and I think this is time. Yeah, I don't think he's conceding it, but you look at every franchise that had historic runs or the Celtics, the Bulls, the all at some point. When the Spurs lost to Memphis, that was felt like it was different. Yeah, at some point it all comes to an end. I don't think that's him throwing in the towel. I do think they've done a great job this year. The beginning of the season, I tell you, ah, they're a future. Once this time, it kind of traced Jackson and pods it. You know what I mean? I didn't know. All those guys have become, yeah, this is, I love this, I love the peniness. But all those guys, those young guys have developed. So they're gonna have a lot of decisions to make this year, but they're not just gonna go into rebuilding me. They still have Steph Curry who's playing at the elite level, and they still have those three or four young guys that have proved themselves that they can play in this league and be very productive. What the heck was Nurkett's thinking? What does Nurkett's got to do with it? What's he doing? Well, you know, him and Jermon, they've got the whole beef. It is funny though. He's been sitting on that. Jermon's living rent-free, you know what I'm saying? It's also crazy because he's getting ready for the playoffs, too. He is, too. He's just so stoked that they're out. I wouldn't have done that. Yeah, like there's a lot in the air with this team, Joms. There is a lot. Steph and Curry Jermon, we know they're gonna be back. Jermon Green's still under contract for three more years after this season. I mean, unless there's a massive change. He, they're still building around those two guys. Steve Kerr is obviously extended locked in. Clay Thompson, if he's gonna come back, he's part of that core, too. But beyond that, it's the young guys, right? It's Jonathan Kominga, Brandon Podzemski, and Trace Jackson Davis. And I think everyone else on the roster, I mean, is gonna be up in the air. You think about Chris Paul. He's got a non-guaranteed contract for about $30 million next season. Could he be used in a potential trade? You think about the money that you need to go get a star player out there. You need significant salary. Andrew Wiggins, they explored. Andrew Wiggins trades heavy at the trade deadline. I would expect him to be a name to be talked about, too. Those two guys are really the only options you have to really improve this roster at a high, high level, but they're gonna have to lean into their young guys. And Jonathan Kominga, we saw the second half that he had 17 points a game, five rebounds, three assists, great splits from the field. He's a guy that they're gonna need to take the next step. Is it because those three young guys are so good that we don't even mention Moses Moody anymore when we're talking about their young guys? Is it because Trace Jackson, Pazinski, and Kominga, those are the guys? Cause he played great last night. Yeah, he showed flash as well. That's what I'm saying. So this isn't like a fire sale, everything. They still have assets and they still have Steph Curry. They still dream on green go back. So, but they have big decisions. How do they get off Wiggins? What are they gonna do with Chris Paul? What are they gonna do with Clay Thompson? And then they're still gonna be right there next year if they do make the proper moves. Do you think that the fact that they've been so loyal and I get it and we all sort of feel it as fans, like just even talking about Clay Thompson and leaving feels weird, but they were loyal to Clay. They were loyal to Dreymon. Do you think they wasted time that could have been used building again around Steph? Yeah, possibly, especially if Clay ends up leaving and then they end up shipping Dreymon somewhere. Then yeah, there's always that doubt. There's always that, did we make the right move? But when you have an historic run like the Warriors did and you change the game and you won at such an elite level, you have to show respect. It's weird to me to think and that Clay Thompson's gonna go play on the Magic for two years, then go back to Golden State and be like the president of basketball when he retires. It doesn't check out. He's a warrior. He's there, so I mean. I think they should do right by him, but again, who knows? He's got every right to go and to see his options. In keeping with the theme all season long of the disrespect that the Kings have felt, we were just gonna mention that they did win the game and we're gonna move on to the next topic. Lakers fell like this. Isn't that crazy? They played unbelievable last night. We didn't. They really did. They crushed. This game, for a minute there, thought it was getting out of hand and then we had a game. But the Lakers do win, 110, 106, the seven seed is theirs, three and O in playing games. They love it. Zion, though, big story of the night. He had 40, 11 rebounds, five assists and then did end up leaving. We'll get to that in a second. But LeBron and AD, 12 for 36 from the field and they get a win. Shocking. Yeah, I mean, that's a good sign. This team has been constructed pretty deep, pretty balanced and when you see, and you look at them, six of 20 from the field for LeBron and six of 16 and they still find a way. They go up big, they went on huge runs and the game did get really close there at them, but this is the balance attack that we were talking about. You need to see D'Angelo Russell make big plays on the stretch. He had a huge corner three. Austin Reeves, Rui's been solid towards the end of this season. Spencer Denwood, he played five minutes last night. It's crazy where one guy goes down, it's another guy's night and they have to have this. It's gonna take everybody in this series they got coming up, but this is an impressive one to go on the road in this kind of scenario. I think, what are they, three and O now in playing games? LeBron loves it. He loves it now. The Lakers, they look good. They looked really, really good. Lou, I mean, there was a lot being made and rightfully so. LeBron was out there taking charges. Like it was nothing. That's why the shooting percentages doesn't really matter. It came down to a stops game. It was a low scoring game. They adjusted. I thought at first the Lakers were a jump shooting basketball team. They were living and dying by trying to make jump shots when New Orleans was playing with, they were playing with force. Zion was in the paint. Those guys were getting down hill and getting a lot of paint touches and I think the Lakers made an adjustment and they had to match force with force. And that's what worked for them. And with that, you got to put your body in front of a big old moving train. I mean. And Zion, Williamson, these guys were successful. There's taking charges, there's taking charges on Zion. Yeah, that is. It's completely different. And Zion last night. So I did give a little turn there naturally to try and cover up a little bit. But that's the kind of stuff that the fact that he's doing that as everything he's done at his age, we always talk about it. But the fact that he's willing to do that in a play and game, just the chance to get in the playoffs shows where his head's at and his mindset is. The Zion part of things, that was a little heartbreaking because this was the Zion, Williamson, that I think everybody has wanted to see. He had the 40 points, he was everywhere and then he leaves the game. But the timing of having this kind of a game for Zion, I think we're all rooting for him. Was this just perfect? And then of course, the stupid injury comes in and ruins the dream. I mean, he looked great. 40, 11 and 15 or five, he was efficient, he was explosive. And so I hope this is nothing serious with the injury, but he was dominant and he kept him afloat when the Lakers would go out and run. He got to the basket. This is the type of performance that I love to see. His first real postseason big game. He was unbelievable. So I hope this is nothing serious because as good as the Kings looked last night, they need him for that game. They need him to keep their playoffs alive. And now you know New Orleans and Sacramento, they're both thinking, all right, let's get this game because then we have a real shot at the Thunder. That's crazy that that's where we are. By the way, so afterwards, Willie Green said that he left with the soreness. What is the latest? Can we expect to see him? The Pogans believe that Zion Williamson came up lame on his hamstring. He pulled a hamstring. There are tests coming today to see just how bad that's exactly what it is, what the severity is. But there's obvious concern. Anytime you have a hamstring last season, Zion Williamson missed quite some time. Several months with the hamstring strain on his opposite leg, his right leg. This year it's the left hamstring that's impacted him. But this is the best, that was the best game to me. And I think to a lot of people of Zion Williamson's career, you saw how he was attacking, how aggressive he was. And just the stakes of that game, I mean, it was a near-playoff game that he had. And the energy that he played with, you could tell he was really working himself to exhaustion in that fourth quarter, playing really hard. Teammates felt it, coaches felt it. And I think they'll know more today just how bad that hamstring injury is. It's devastating if they don't have him. I will say this, Pelicans, that they battle, obviously, the Kings, they're 5-0 against them this season. Now, the Zion part obviously is up in the air, Chandler. Do they have a chance without him? They definitely have a chance, but they need C.J. McCollum. He can't have nine points. And the rotations also, I know Brandon Ingram just got back, but he barely played in the fourth quarter, wasn't in down the stretch. That was interesting to me. So I think with the uncertainty of Zion, I would obviously take the Kings right now and I don't know if the Lions came out or anything like that. And they got a little bit from their bench last night, but they're gonna have to have C.J. McCollum be better. He's been so good towards the end of the year. He's had these explosive games where he goes and can get you 30. He's got to do that. He's got to challenge Fox on the defensive end. And he's got to be big for them, especially if Zion's not 100%. I don't know, Lou. It's the two teams that probably got the least amount of respect all season long as they were fighting things out in the West. What do you think? Who do you favor here? I'm favoring Sacramento. That was a dominant performance last night. They looked like they were clicking on all cylinders and the Pelicans just have a little uncertainty going to this game. We don't know where Zion is. We don't have a real reason why Brandon Eagle didn't play the last seven and a half minutes of that game. The Kings look like they got it figured out. Big-time performance. They got to go down to New Orleans though. They're a different basketball team when they play in Sacramento. That's gonna be a key factor, but I still like them down there. How about this? On Sunday, the Pelicans could have clinched the six seed if they beat the Lakers. Now they could possibly lose two home games and not even make the playoffs. Oh, remember in the year they lost the Spurs as well. There were some bad losses that they could have laden the or they could have locked in a spot. That would be a brutal, brutal finish to a season where they looked really good all year long and now two, three huge losses towards the end. West is so competitive and so deep, they could be done in 24 hours. By the way, shout out to Pelicans fans. There were not a lot of Lakers jerseys visible, but there were also a lot of empty seats and I heard that tickets yesterday were going for like 12 bucks before the game. Pelicans Lakers game for 12 bucks? Pelicans Lakers game for 12 bucks? I guess because it's a play-in. I don't know if that has less value. They should have brought her. Tickets are cheap. They should have got her in the house. Lakers get the rematch with the Nuggets, of course. And this was back on media day when Anthony Davis said that they cannot wait to play them again. Well, they've beaten them eight straight times. The Nuggets have, what kind of a chance are we giving them, Lou? That sounds good. I don't know how badly I'm gonna play a team that's smacked me eight times in a row. Yeah, this is something that he said before the season, they got swept. The great thing about basketball is you get a fresh opportunity in the playoffs. You got a fresh set of from four to seven games to have an opportunity to prove yourselves. But the Nuggets have that number. This is a matchup problem for the Lakers. You know, usually the AD can get in this bully bag. You can't really do that with the Joker. Gar played with DiAngelo Russell in Austin Reeves. Denver Nugget, they got guards that can match that with Reggie Jackson and Jamal Murray and how Michael Porter Jr. is playing. They just can match them from point A to point B and this is gonna be a tough one for the Lakers. This to me where the value of Aaron Gordon is huge too because you don't have to ways Jokic on guarding Anthony Davis. And Anthony Davis should have a mismatch. He's much bigger. He's much more physical than Aaron Gordon. But Aaron Gordon is such a versatile player where he can guard small guys, he can guard big guys. I look for that matchup to be really, really key early on because you don't want Jokic's guarding Anthony Davis. You don't want him exhausting himself on both ends of the floor. You want to run your offense through him and let him dominate on that end and let him kind of float on the defensive end if you can. He's not gonna be able to do that guarding Anthony Davis. So Aaron Gordon has to take on this huge challenge and make sure that he cannot kind of offset AD. Shout out to Aaron Gordon. How about these playoffs? We're getting the Western Conference on the first round. It's kind of fun. I kind of love it. We got some more tonight. We're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, Mark Cuban joins the show when Running Back returns. Run it up, run it back, yeah. Run it up, run it back, run it back. Run it up, run it back, yeah. The Dallas Carbazette, NBA Champion. If you can do what you're ready, yeah. Mark Cuban, check this out. I always do what I can better than you. Oh, it's zone hype video coming in now. Long time owner of the Dallas Mavs, of course. I don't even know the intro. Mark Cuban joins the show this morning. Good morning, sir. And we got to start with Chandler. Obviously spent some time in Dallas. Is your biggest fan of the team, the organization, always, always there. I need an embarrassing story for seven. Oh my God, I don't even know where to start. I mean, we're just talking about him banging me so that, like, I had, we were in New York not long ago, and I was walking into a restaurant and, like, he had the door. He lets the door go, and it's this big, heavy door, smacks me right in the middle of the forehead. So now I'm walking into a restaurant, blood dripping down. This did happen. This did happen. But I'm telling, the guy's stopping, taking pictures of everybody, kissing babies, shaking hands. Like, well, I'm gonna go in, so I'm gonna grab the table, and I thought he was looking, and the door just comes and just wags him right in front. Oh, dude! He's literally holding it. You're not a good friend. It was an accident, I'm sorry. He was mad, because everyone wanted to take pictures. Did he sign his contract in a nightclub? Yeah, yeah, for sure in Orlando, absolutely. We got pictures and everything. It was great. I mean, we always had fun. There was never not having fun with CP. It was a great run. Cubes was the man. I will say this, ever since I retired to, obviously everyone knows him, Shark Tank, as well. Every investment I've ever done, I email to him, the guy responds within 10 minutes. Usually when he says no, I turn it down. He says yes, I invest a lot of money, so I appreciate that, Mark. You've always been very, very good to me, besides that contract. And I know it's work, Chandler. I know it's work, because you can afford that haircut. I don't know how much you spent on that, but get your money back. I'm getting ready for stagecoach. I've never been, so I'm challenging my wife. You are the dorkiest person in history. I'm going to inter-wide trash. I'm in history, I'm in school. Who gets ready for stagecoach? All right, Cubes, the Mavs. They play the Clippers in the first round. Siri starts on Sunday. What worries you, if anything, the most about the Clippers? I mean, Kawhi, Kawhi, Kawhi. I mean, you know, this is a battle to see, you know, how we can deal with Kawhi when he's playing defense and on both sides of the ball. And so we have to be able to contain him. And if we can do that, I like our chances. Hmm. Mark, obviously, Luka Donchich, Kyrie Irving, those are your two leaders. They've played at high level. Luka Donchich, MVP Calver, Kyrie Irving, 26 points a game, five rebounds a game, five assists a game. Is this what you envisioned when you made that trade for Kyrie Irving last season? Is it exceeding your expectations? Yeah, it's what we envisioned and now it has exceeded our expectations simply because they're playing together so well. You know, when you get two superstars together, sometimes it's my turn, your turn. And that's just not the way they play together. They play together where they read the tempo of the game. They read the circumstances and they get the ball to the guy who deserves it. And so when someone tries to trap Luka, you know, Ky's going right to the center of the court, you know, free throw line and playing four or three. It's just their ability to just play the right way together is everything. See, that's what happened when I signed in Dallas. You got two superstars with me and Derek and that's why I didn't pay it out, Q. You guys, you guys. It was hard to be. We had to try though. Mark, you guys were 10 and 18 after trading for Kyrie last season. Was there ever a moment where you thought maybe we made a mistake and this wasn't going to work out? You never know, right? You know, it was more, you know, last season, you know, when Ky came here, Luka was hurt and then we had to just quickly try to integrate the two together. They didn't really get a chance to know each other. There was, you know, you know how it goes, Luhuel. There's just a lot to talk around. Everybody's trying to figure things out. So yeah, I was concerned, but once we got to the summer, it was pretty obvious that this was going to work. Mark, there's obviously, you're on Twitter a lot. One of the things you are tweeting a lot about is MVP for Luka Dantje. I see you tweeting every single day about MVP. Why do you think he should be the MVP over Shay Gilts Alexander, over Nikola Jokic, any other candidate? No disrespect to those guys, but I mean, Luka has just put up just generational numbers. I mean, you know, the numbers speak for themselves. There's every statistical analysis you can put together. Luka shows up on top. And people talk about, okay, well, you know, we didn't have a great start to the season. We finished great. Luka was everything to that. I mean, he integrated Kai. We got two new guys in, we have a rookie center. He made everybody better. We have guys, I mean, two guys, Dantje Exum and Derek Jones Jr. were minimum signees and he's made them just take their game to the very next level. We had a rookie center starting until we got Gaff and he took him to the next level. So the MVP is somebody who makes everybody around you better. I mean, what Luka has done with the guys around him has just been insane. And then, you know, up until we sat everybody's last two games, we were 16 and two in our last 18 games. I don't think there's any question that Luka has carried us, carried us all the way to this point. Yeah, I'm surprised Shay, though you haven't been fighting that good fight. Well, I'm looking at your, the Mark Followell, Followell, the MVP, it's insane, some of these stats. The most points created, 57, the most points rebounds assists and 71, 72. There are some crazy stats. I just think when you're talking about the Thunder and the Nuggets have been battling for the number one. See, that's the only thing that's really hurting in this case. If you guys were a top three seed at home court advantage team, I think he's got a real chance. Yeah, but look at the last 20 games, CP. I mean, there's no doubt. We need a, the Nuggets are the defending champs, right? So you knew they had a good squad, especially with Jamal, healthy. You knew the Thunder had a good squad last year and they got better this year. They're young, yes, but they have, they have a lot of great players around. Jalen Williams, probably one of the most underrated players in the NBA, they weren't taking just guys that we just added to the roster, that they just added to the roster and going to that second seed. And even then, we're what? Four games, five games behind them and that's after a mid-season run. And the first time we played them, or the second last time we played them, we destroyed them and then we almost beat them without Luca. I mean, they're a good team, but what Luca has done for us is just insane. I don't think there's any question. He deserves every MVP vote. And if you don't vote for him, I'm gonna kick your ass. I wish I got a vote. Luckily, we don't have a vote. Yeah, we're good. Oh, you're not okay. And he's talking to you. What that is like. What that is like. Is this the best team Luca's ever had around him? Yeah, for sure. Not even close. You know, like Luca was asked, what's the difference? And he just said Kyrie. Kyrie has learned that, you know, Kyrie knows how to be the second best player on the team, having played with LeBron. He knows how to fit in. He knows how to make the best player even better and to know time and situation to, you know, where the ball goes and what he needs to do. And I mean, that's just made Luca's job easier, but it's made the whole team better. And so, yeah, this is easily the best squad we've had around LD. I mean, obviously he's getting a statue at some point. The Dirk statue's cool, but all of us fresh in our memories right now have the Allen Iverson statue situation going. Yeah, the Heisman trophy that was. What goes into that? And also, is there going to be a sort of a rivalry between Dirk statue and whatever Luca gets? You know, I can't speak for Philly. I guess they had like a Hall of Fame row or something. So everybody's with the same size. But, you know, Dirk was iconic for us and Luca certainly is there as well. So, you know, I'll have to talk to both of them, get them in a room and we'll decide whose statue will end up being bigger. But yeah, I mean, there's no question. LD has earned it. Well, Dirk's got a statue and a street. That's true. The street. So God knows what's coming for Luca. It's been on record many times. Dirk has even said it that he already thinks that Luca is a better player than him. And you've agreed with that. So, is he the greatest mav of all time already? He's got to be right. Yeah, Dirk is going to disagree with me, but he is. And the difference is, you know, Luca can control all aspects of a game. With Dirk, you had to get him the ball in his spot. He's not going to bring the ball up and just attack. And I think that's the big difference. And, you know, there's no disrespect to either. They're both, you know, top 10, top 15 players of all time. And so I think the bigger question is, where will Luca rank all time? And I don't think there's any question. He has the ability to be top two, top three all time. Yeah, when did you know that? Like when did you know when he first came, was there a moment in practice and the gym is rookie season? When did you know he was going to be this elite of a player? Probably his rookie season when he hit that three, three point shot against Portland with like half a second to go, which was just one of the most insane shots ever. And then you start realizing when it's wind time, that's when Luca really turns on. And that's when he really has an impact on the game. And there's so few players that when it's come down to crunch time, you want the ball in their hands because you know they're going to be able to make a play. And we started seeing that his rookie year. And it was just insane how he was able to do it. We were talking about in the first block like just Clay Thompson going to leave. How weird would that look? Is there a scenario that you can even imagine that Luke is not a mav one day? I hope not. I mean, you never know, right? Yeah, I mean, I certainly hope not. I hope he's here 26 years, you know? He started younger than Dirk. And so hopefully he's, you know, and technology is better. Hopefully he's playing into his mid 40s and healthy and just crushing it for us. Mark, how much has Dirk Nowitzki meant to your franchise? What is something about Dirk that we don't know that the people don't know? Give us, give us something new here. Oh my God. I mean, Dirk's Mr. Tennis and paddle ball or pickleball now, but he's just a good guy. I mean, you know, like I dropped my son off the other day at one of his friend's houses. And he said, dad, and I'm like, I'm not even dressed, right? I just have a pair of shorts and a tank top on. And he texts me, he goes, Dirk's in here, you gotta come and come on and hang out. And I'm like, you know, there's like all these other people all dressed up and like, I can't, but that's just Dirk, man, he's just gonna be everywhere in the neighborhood. He's hanging out with family, friends, everybody all the time. He's just a great guy. There's no airs, it's not like, hey, I'm Dirk, you know, you gotta treat me differently. He's just one of the guys, he's just hanging out, he doesn't care, he's just a good dude. Dirk played all 21 of his seasons with the Mavericks. You guys, he never traded him, but did you ever come close? Did you, was there any wild offers for Dirk? No, I mean, even when we thought we had traded for Kobe, we didn't even consider including Dirk in that deal. And I told Dirk that, you know? And I thought we had that deal done until Mitch Kupchak changed Kobe's mind, but yeah, there was never a point where we were even close and that never even came up. What has been one of the hardest player personnel decisions you've had to make since owning the Mavericks? You know, it's funny because I remember vividly sitting in our locker room with Chandler on the leg press machine talking about his next contract and he was rehabbing from injury and having to go through the whole conversation with Chand that, look, you know, there's so much uncertainty about, you know, your injury, we can't give you what you want. If you want to go for a lower number and then come back and prove it, we'll do it. But that was brutal. That was one of the most brutal conversations ever. Yeah. So, some more. Checks out. A few months ago, you sold a majority ownership sale in the Dallas Mavericks. Why was it now the time to partner with Adelson's and has it been easy for you to have this dual role now where you're leading basketball operations and you're part of it? Yeah, I mean, it's been easy because, I mean, look, you see me at the games, nothing's really changed from that side of it. I'm still all in and having fun and I can still dog pile when Kyrie hits a game winner, you know, it's still a blast. But in terms of why, you know, I know what I'm good at and I know what I'm not good at. When it came to tech and media, I knew my stuff really well. I mean, Shoms, you and I talk about media and the industry all the time. I know that stuff cold, but I don't think that's what's going to drive growth, revenue growth in the NBA going forward. It's not to say that this next TV deal won't be good. I'm not involved in that, so I don't have any details, but I think it'll be great. But really, if you look to see where the revenue for a team is coming going forward, it's really real estate development. And if we can get resort gaming in the state of Texas, it'll be insane. I mean, all of a sudden, you know, Dallas becomes a, you know, a tourist destination and I just don't have the skill set to be able to do that. And I didn't want to be in a position where it's like, okay, I'm going to have to pay a boatload of money to try to learn on the go to do this. Patrick Dumont, you know, he runs the Sands. He loves basketball. You know, it's been a great partnership with both, from both ends. I mean, I love working with them, but you know, the Sands Corporation is the world's best at building arenas, building casinos. And so it's just been a great partnership. That's what I was thinking. I always wanted to work in the NBA, Mark, but now me being a casino floor host in Dallas when it was the casino opens out there. Right? I think that's more my calling. Definitely. Can you imagine a Venetian in downtown Dallas? Oh, I would kill it. It would be unbelievable. It would just be insane. And you know, I don't know when it's going to happen, but I think it will happen. So Mark, when the sale like that happens, like how does that even, how does that transaction work? Is it just straight wired to your account? Hold on, it's a rich people conversation. Everybody said that. Yeah, like I see all the Twitter stuff about the taxes. Did you really just have to wire $276 million in taxes? Like what's the process like? Does it literally just hit your account one day and you're like, holy shit, it's got $3 million. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. It's me, it's me with my phone going, come on baby, put it on. Wow, dinner's on you that night? So it literally just comes right through, that's it. What? Right, and then like yesterday, whatever it was, two days ago, it was like, okay, you know, look, it's a good problem to have. And it's not the first time I've had to write big checks like that or send a lot of money to the IRS. But I'm not saying, you know, I'm proud of it. I didn't say I loved it, but it is what it is. And I'm glad I can contribute. You and I, Mark, were both in the critically acclaimed Sharknado 3, I played the limo driver, driving eye and zering to the White House to meet with the president played by you. Like we now know a lot more about what it takes to be president of the United States in these last several years. Are you thinking maybe it's in your future? You know, you saw me in Sharknado 3. You know that if you give me a gun and it's my house to protect, I'll be there taking on every shark that comes out of the sky. That's gonna be my platform and that's how I'm run. When the sharks come, I'll be there. I'll tell you what. This is the worst, the worst, best movie. You're looking at your fucking vice president. Yo, no! No! Because I don't want to end. No. Let me just tell you, building that movie was the blast because as you know, when people got killed, it was all special effects after the fact, right? And so there was like Rick Fox. So when people had to die, there was like Rick Fox laying on the floor doing this. That's so bad. It's the best, worst. We need to do it. By the way, just promise, whatever you do politically and however that plans out, this man can be nowhere near anything important. Come on. Come on. No, C.P. He's definitely gonna be in my cabinet. Oh, God. Ambassador to some beautiful island. He's gonna be in charge of the liquor cabinet. The liquor cabinet. I'm keeping stock, baby. Chandler, take us out. This is like, this is it. I appreciate you, Mark. Good luck in the playoffs. I hope to see you at Shell Backs one of these nights and I might even come to a game with you. Let's go, Mavs, baby. Let's go, God. I'd love to see you. Thanks for having me on, guys. Thanks, Mark. I will be right back. Friend of the show, you know him from the league, Black Monday, of course he's got the podcast. How did this get made? Paul Scheer is here and it's the perfect day to do this, Paul, because we just have Mark Cuban on the show, obviously. I watched. Clips, Mavs. I know, I know. It feels a little weird like we're pitting you guys against each other, but did he convince you at all that perhaps maybe you don't have a shot in the first round? Well, here's what I'll say. Everything that Mark said about his team can go for the Clippers and we're a little bit higher in the seating than the Mavs, so. Fair. Yeah, I agree with him. All those things are true and we have them in spades because we don't just have great players, we also have a great coaching staff. We're talking about, you know, a staff that has won chips, right? Like we have a Tyloo who's steering the ship and look, I think the Mavs are a team to be respected. I think that Luke is somebody to be feared, but I'm excited for, I think, one of the best playoff games we're gonna get or matches we're gonna get this entire series. I was hyped for Luke against Kawhi and now I'm hyped for Mark Cuban versus Paul Shear. The game within the game. That's the juiciest headline of the series. I mean, they are hot. They got hot, the Mavs did. Is there a little piece of you that's just like, you know, the reputation the Clippers have, they, Clippers be clipping, all that kind of stuff. First of all, I wanna say to Shams like, thank you for not having a close source to Kawhi, like Chris Broussard to come out and say that Kawhi's knee is actually not even on his body anymore. I think there's so much rumors about whether or not Kawhi is playing. Like everyone's trying to read the tealies of whatever tie is saying, but here's the thing. I do believe that the Mavs for the first half of the season got really like dinged for having bad defense. I think that that's changed. But I also think that as much as the Mavs has changed, they got Kyrie. Look who we've got now. We've got Arden, we've got Russ. We have a whole different bench. I mean, you're talking about Norm Powell, who I, Lou, I wanna ask your opinion on this as a former six man. You look at Norm, do you feel like that guy is worthy of that distinction this year? Yeah, Norm can play on both ends. You know, he's changed the identity of his career over the years when he was in Toronto. They considered him a three and D guy. Now he's got to LA. He can be a little bit more creative with the basketball, can show his versatility on the offensive end. So I think he's gonna be key in this matchup, especially when you talk about so much star power, it's gonna come down to role players. I think Norm and Russ coming off that bench is gonna give them the balance they need. So I'm with you, Paul. I like the clippers in this one. Yeah, there it is. And I like the question mark of Ky Jones. I mean, like, is he gonna play? We don't know. That's a big question mark. But here's the thing, when you talk about... He's not gonna play. You know, who knows? Who knows? We've seen stranger things in the bubble. Weirder things happen. But here's what I'll say. There's so much talk about the Mavs and Kyrie and Luca, and the clippers have, I think, a lot more people to talk about. So that's all I'll say about it. Will you be at the game on Sunday? Or do you like to be? Sadly, I have to give up my tickets because I'm doing a dumb charity event in North Carolina. Oh, stupid charity. I'm a charity. It's for the kids. God, what were you thinking? You don't schedule around the playoffs? I believe me, I know. It's been one of my great... I'm like, I'm trying to get my tickets there, so I'll be there on Tuesday. Okay, that's fair. We'll take that. We'll take it. Paul, obviously the big concern is going to be stopping Kyrie Irving and Luca Doncett, you know, for you. Yeah. How do you feel about that? Do you really think the clippers can stop them and this hasn't gotten serious? Let me just look at this. Since Kyrie, like, you know, the last couple of years, how many playoffs has Kyrie, like, went past the first round? Zero, right? I think once, since leaving... Well, no. I think one. Bray may have gone to second round. One time since 2020. Okay, so either he goes off or we get a repeat. I like your logic. I like your logic. Oh, these are simple. I think I know your answer here, but would you rather have the big three of Kawhi, PG and James Harden, or the duo of Luca and Kyrie? Come on. You can imagine if he was like, Luca and Kyrie, duh. But really? Yeah, no, I gotta take Luca and Kyrie. No, I look, I truly believe, like, Luca is a transformative player. He's amazing. Kyrie is unbelievable as well. I just like the energy that's going on between two on three and Harden, but especially Russ, too. I mean, you look at Russ, he fractured his hand. He comes back in and I think really gives the team this little shot of juice that it needs. I think that that was what we've been missing for a long time after Pat Bev left. We missed a little bit more of a personality, like a stronger voice. And I think that Russ is doing that and kind of running the whole bench like that. Paul, you were at the last regular season game for the Clippers at Crypto and so was I. Any part of you will miss Crypto or are you excited about the new arena? I'm so excited to get out of that arena. First of all, it's old, it's stinky, it's a hockey arena. And second of all, I can finally take one thing away from the two things that Lakers fans say about the Clippers. We're out of your house now. We're not your bother. So let's go to our new stadium, make it nice. Lou, it was awesome to see you there. And what a fun kind of way to celebrate. I love that bomber bot everybody. What did you have? Did you run up a good tap? Oh yeah, come on. I got some sour patch kids. I brought my kids there. I got some water, some red vines and we did it up. Wait, did you guys know, like, did he make an announcement before the game where people taking advantage or was it, hey, you went and got something and then you were told? You know, the weird thing about it, I was kind of walking around and I was getting things and everybody was just like, but I thought it was because it was me. Oh, that's right, that was cool. I appreciate it, but I didn't realize. You didn't think about that actually. It looked like when you went out, thinking to the concourse, it looked like some disaster had happened because every shelf was empty. That's crazy. I was like, wait, what? It was, I've never seen it like that. I was like, what happened to your day? Is it just an afternoon game? And then you start to see the signs. Brilliant. That we've all been chuckmarked. That's what I'm saying. Which feels like a dirty thing, honestly. I don't want to be chuckmarked. It sounded like something Chandler would say. Yeah, I'll get chuckmarked. For a minute there, it was, yeah, we know. The other part of that game, which Bobon, a hero to all. Love Bobon. The free throw, he's like the most loved player in the league. Doesn't matter what uniform he's wearing. He knows how to play the game. He misses the free throw on purpose. Chick-fil-A for everybody. Did you also get that? What a food day. I thought your dog was furious. What eBay was? Did you get a sandwich? How's this work? I did, look, I have taken advantage of the two missed free throw Chick-fil-A's. I did not get a chance to do it on Monday, but I will say like Bobon is amazing. And if you ever have a little extra money and you want to get a great cameo, get Bobon on your cameo. It's, I've done it twice for my friends and wow. They deliver, they deliver cameos. A lot of great things. Bobon is the best. Paul, Blake Griffin announced his retirement yesterday. I know he was one of your favorite clippers of all time. Was he the best clipper ever? And what was your favorite memory of Blake? Here's what I'll say with Blake. He changed the course of the clippers. When you look at the clippers, where they are now and when he came in, he was the, he ignited that whole entire change. And so I believe that we should hang his rafter from the jerseys, sorry, we should hang his jersey from the rafters and into it. We should also hang his jerseys from the rafter. But I think we should hang his jersey up. I don't know if he'll show up for it. I think we treated him badly at the end. I don't know if that relationship with Bomber can be repaired. I think it sucks. I think they did him dirty. But I also feel like you can't just ignore what he did for us, which was really transform that entire team and bring A plus talent there to become a team where people want to play and become a team that has a playoff, not a playoff record, but like a winning season record, I think for the last 10 years. By the way, they did play him really dirty. He was completely blindsided by that whole thing. But I think he's a Hall of Famer too. I mean, the guy's six-time All-Star, five-time All-NBA, the things he did obviously with dunking and the dunk contest, that was so special. He was on top of the world for so long. So I personally, I'm with you. I think jersey-retired statue and Hall of Fame in my eyes. Get the jersey up. Get that Kia that he jumped over up in the rafters. Yeah, give him a statue. We need some definite statues out there. I feel like I'm excited for this new era of Clippers. I hope we go into it with some exciting news or something under our belt. And by the way, he's also one of the few athletes, famous, whatever, that's not actually supposed to be funny. Who's funny? Like he's naturally funny. People fake laugh at athletes all the time. His are real. You know what's funny is, we were talking and when he was gonna announce the retirement, I thought we were talking about, oh, all right, let's bring out a Kia and jump over it. Like you're making a comeback and just fucking drill it, right? And then be like, nah, just kidding, I'm retired. I thought he was gonna do something funny like that. I know, I was bummed because I think that he was waiting for like a playoff pickup, potentially, you know, like everybody at the end of the year, they might be putting some on the roster. It sucks to me that he had to retire, not rostered to a team, just because it really doesn't talk about his legacy. I think even when he was on the Celtics, he was doing interesting stuff. He's just been a player that I feel like maybe in a couple of years, we'll get the just deserve that he does. I mean, he went to Detroit and never complained. He also was all NBA one year in Detroit in 2019. He had a year. People forget about that. Yeah, that's a big deal. That's quite a change. And then he came right to the nets, right? And he started like dunking again. It was amazing. He's had a very interesting long career. Yeah, and I think also he's low key. He doesn't talk, right? So he's not out there doing a podcast. He's not out there doing color commentary. So I think you can kind of forget about him a little bit, but he'll return. Is that, I mean, I'm wondering, is that coming? We'll get the inside scoop, we'll find that out. You were on the European tour for the podcast recently, which is always tricky. And by the way, well-timed because you did make it back for the playoffs. Of course, I had to. But how hard is it to keep up with the Clippers when you're at a completely different time zone? Do you get to? I'm in France up at three in the morning watching a seven o'clock game. I watched every Clippers game like a maniac because of the NBA app. Thank God for that NBA app. I was able to stream it to whatever TV I was in all my entire family's sleeping around me. And I was so, I was so happy and so exhausted the next morning. And then, but you know, then you go to bed angry too. Like when you have a loss, like, I think we lost to the 76ers when I was over there and I was like, God damn it. Like, and then you try to fall asleep at four in the morning. It's, it's not gonna work. But then you're in France. And then everything's gone. But then you're in France, right? You get a crepe and it all goes away. By the way, you pissed a lot of people off last time you were here with your Space Jam blast for me. So we might as well figure out what you thought about the reboot with LeBron. Did you like that one? Loved Don Cheadle in it. It was amazing. He was great. Here's the thing. I think that all kids love Casablanca. So I thought that was a really great choice for that movie to highlight some of the, the great movies that kids are familiar with. You know, when I think of Space Jam, I think of Game of Thrones parodies. Yes, yes. But here's the thing about Space Jam too. It's about a corporation cancelling and hiding shows and destroying entertainment. Coming from, I guess, Max Now, which was HBO Max. It was on a streamer that didn't even release it in the theater. So this movie is not necessarily a movie. It's just a warning of what was happening. It was like, hey everybody, just so you know, we're not gonna release a bunch of movies and we're gonna pull all your favorite ones off. And here's LeBron, enjoy it. Wow, that could have been the commercial. I don't know why they didn't come to you. Like that was brilliantly done. But Paul Scherer, you wanna check out the podcast. How did this get made? And you could pre-order the book. Yes, joyful recollection to trauma, wherever you get books, audio books, whatever you wanna do, you can get it. Audio books are the way to go. I recorded it all special. Special things that you'll never get anywhere else from that audio book. I do like when the author does the reading. Then I'm back in. You have to. Who else do you want to read? Good luck to you and Lou with your corbors. Mark Cuban. And the evil enemy. I know, I know. I have a feeling that this is gonna be a rough seven games. I think it's gonna be a rough seven games. You look at the point spread in Vegas, which I don't understand fully, but it's gonna be rough. We're gonna, and I'm ready for it. I'm here for it. Round three. Give us seven. We'll talk soon. Right back. We'll be back. Run it up, they run it back, yuh, yuh. We got more must see hoops tonight. Of course, heat sixers this one. This should be good. So they split the season series, but the 76ers are coming in on an eight game winning streak. Who wins tonight? Lou. Sixers. Boom, that's it. What are they, five and a half point favorites? Is it five and a half? Give me the heat. I'm taking the heat. This is their time. This is what they do all regular season. But it's different, they're different. For some reason it does feel slightly different this year, but I think tonight, Joelle is my guy. I think whoever loses this game, I think is gonna beat Chicago and Atlanta regardless. Well yeah, I mean, we're not even. Why are you looking at me like that? No one's considering that game. I'm always looking at you like that. Yeah, we're waiting for you to say something. Joelle's my guy. He's my guy, I got the heat. That's it? I think his, is he fully healthy? He's not fully healthy, Shams, right? He's, he's, he's banged up. Practice fully, I mean, he missed two months with that meniscus injury. I think Joelle and Bede will be a go. I'll give him a 97%, does that feel? Maybe 90, does 90 do it? He's 97, it's gonna be hard for the heat. If he's anything less than 90, which I think he is, give me the heat. If you're the Knicks, what do you think? We'll make another fake big. You care? A fake, but why is the other one fake? Because nobody's ever paid out. If I'm the Knicks, I mean, I guess, I don't know. There's gonna be a tough series for the Knicks. By the way, some real definitive analysis here at the end of the show and I'm glad we could bring it to all of you. What a show, what a show. We don't know, but we will be back tomorrow. Enjoy the games. Run it up, then run it back, run it back, run it up, run it back.