Club 520 Podcast - Club 520 - Mark Cuban on buying Dallas Mavericks, trading for Luka Doncic, Kobe Bryant deal

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

We’re back with Season 4, Episode 44 of Club 520, where Jeff Teague, DJ Wells, and B Hen are joined by legendary NBA owner, and current minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban! Mark talks about why he bought the Mavericks and when he realized they had a championship team with Dirk Nowitzki. Plus, hear Cuban's incredible stories of almost acquiring both Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce in two different trades. Mark also discusses what went into the Luka Doncic & Trae Young trade on that NBA Draft night. And don't miss the championship owner talk about why he didn't sign Jeff, missing out on a chance with Uber, becoming a billionaire, and so much more!Timeline:0:00 - Welcome to the show, Mark Cuban!3:00 - Why Mark didn't sign Jeff6:00 - Going to Indiana University9:00 - Indiana Football's crazy season12:00 - College basketball's transfer portal16:00 - Becoming a billionaire20:00 - Why Mark bought Dallas Mavericks27:00 - First impression of Luka Doncic31:00 - Trading for Luka on draft night32:00 - Dallas Mavericks 2011 party34:00 - Losing 2006 NBA Finals to Heat36:00 - Giannis or Luka debate38:00 - Mark tried to trade for Kobe & Paul Pierce41:00 - Shark Tank45:00 - Indiana football next season48:00 - Deciding to blow up a team52:30 - Worst investments54:30 - Missing out on Uber56:00 - Final Four picksAll lines provided by ‪Hard Rock Bet#VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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visit boostmobile.com. All right, we back. Another episode of Club 520 podcast. I'm your host. My name is DJ Wells. Listen, you know we got a special guest when we got a full house of people. Oh, man. If I can see how many people behind these cameras right now, you know it's a special episode, man. But first thing, first shout out to our sponsors, man.

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I got to be hanging over here, Mark. He makes the parleyes to get you paid, man. Now, I know you're out of game a little bit, but have you seen how they treat the players about these prayer props and the parleyes, man, when they end up fulfilling the leg? What a mess. What a mess, man.

I mean, like, when I was going to board of governors, means that we're talking about gambling. Never in our wildest dreams do we think, like the prediction markets or even like the prop bets, you know, I mean, you're going to shoot the ball at seven seconds or eight seconds from the free throw line. I mean, and then the guys are just starting to get ripped. I mean, it's bad news. He was a victim of that dude.

I got a rebound I wasn't supposed to get. You ruined my part of it. I'm not walking them in Milwaukee's. No, and like even like walking down a tongue. now, like after a game. Yeah. You know, you used to be, you know, hey, autograph, autograph,

you motherfucker, you motherfucker. You know, kids around, nobody cares. Yeah, you sold me. But with that being said, shout out to Harrod Rock, Ben, Big, Fibb. Fett.

Yeah, that's Fett. Yeah. Yes, sir. Shout to Stock X, keeping us fresh as well. Last, certainly, shout to Black and Fest podcast festival, April 25th.

We will be there, Atlanta, Georgia, the live show. TIG, hometown, man. The real Atlanta, we know you from that. But you're Atlanta, Arkansas well, man.

We're pulled up, man. For sure. They still mad at us, man. We're good anyways, man. We got a special guest. We're going to introduce him last. As usual to my far left. We got my dog.

Bishop B. in out the prayerlies. How you what, nasty? Cool and nasty, man. I'm glad about this one today. Yes, man. I'm excited, man. Got a couple questions for my guy, man.

Oh, yeah. Anytime Bia and do his research, yeah, you know, it's going to get wicked. We don't have to fun for sure, man. To my right, we got my dog, young Nacho, young Teague. How you what? I'm good, man.

I'm excited, bro. We all fans of a short tank. I'm a fan of him as an owner. Y'all went to the game before, had the best food. We got to talk about it. Oh, yeah, we got a lot to talk about the barbecue. We got a great story about that as well. Yeah, for sure.

Come on, man. You take care of everybody, Mark. That's right. Yeah, we got to talk about some choices that our castmate in the friends and family. But we'll get to that. We got a lot to talk about today, man. We got a philanthropist, billionaire, man. One of the smartest minds on it off the court.

Mr. Mark Cuban, Big Dog. We appreciate you sliding on us, man. Thanks for letting me come in, bed. I had to chase you guys to get in. Oh, no, no. When we looked at the DM, I said, hold on, is that the real market? We all, we took blocking it. How long did they take to respond to the DM, you remember?

Years. No, no, no. It was just the day. Oh, good. Child and the production team, man, that hold it down for sure. We got a lot of things to talk about. That's the first of these first, man. Why didn't you go get young natural and free agency, man? Was he ever, y'all were you going to ask me that?

Why didn't I pick my hands on, man? I wish he was. Because he was rolling, when he was rolling with the Hawks, right? Making the All-Star team. First, we won, then there was a lockout. Right? And then that's when you started to really kick in with the Hawks. And then you make the All-Star team, and they weren't letting you go anywhere.

Yeah. And by the time you were free, you weren't quite that All-Star. Yes, sir. He said, yesterday's right. Martin was a real physical. Well, next to him one of the day. We're passing on physical stuff. And what did they do, old boy in Toronto?

They say, hold on. They're able to reneed. I love that way. They've got to be a real. We always talked about you, right? We had your brother in a couple of times. But, no, I mean, you can defend. I mean, you're one of the few two-way players, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So you can defend, decent passer, right? A great finisher, but could shoot some. Yeah, see. Yep. You know. I take.

Make an all-star team in this league. You're doing some. No, he's special for sure. I just never heard nobody call him a two-way point. Yeah. Both are like, didn't you get, like, votes for a defensive player to yours today? I wish.

All right. Go ahead. Keep following, right. Mark, that might have been great. It's not agree with me. You guys love my brother. Johnny Clinton. That might have been sad.

I'm taking, no. Yeah, whoever's guaranteed. DPOI votes, recent though. Yeah. Thank you. You know, why? I just said defensive team.

Okay, okay. Mitch and respect. Oh, very awesome. No, that's hard. Hey, this is crazy. The article right here, believe it or not, Jeff Teague is one of the best of the physical point guard in the battle.

Tarrio! February 19, 2015. I was solid. I was solid. Warg your rules. They're showing step. You said it's cut them down, right? I ain't going to say, all right?

I think you might have had 31, but. 35, you know what I mean. Guess so why we're here? We can look up the game prior to February 19, 2015, but that's okay. Okay, he probably cooked me. What are you at 40? I ain't going to look at all, no worry. But listen, man, one of IU's best alumni.

What made you choose Indiana University, man, right in week down? I was in Pittsburgh where I grew up and, you know, I didn't have much money, but I wanted to go to business school. So I saw a list of the top 10 business schools and picked out the cheapest one. Wow. It was one I could afford. So I went to Bloomington, sight unseen. Never saw the campus, never visited, just showed up. My dorm room and went to school.

Oh, so you came to IU and hadn't, you know what I'm saying, peep the scene out? Nope, not at all. Oh, you fell in a little immediately, I imagine. Yo, yeah, that was great. Yeah, shout out to Foster Quad, Shea B-109, you know. Foster Quad, boy. Leaving Pittsburgh to Bloomsen is crazy. Oh, I love Pittsburgh.

Are you ever been to Texas, Brazil out there? Yeah. Man, that's my shit. How do you know Pittsburgh? I got people out there, man. Yeah, that's a beautiful restaurant, man, that lobster biskin, that rib-eye. I'm going to tell you about the lobster bisque. There's smoke out there.

I love Pittsburgh, man. It's gotten better and better and better. Why do you notice? The imported lobster biscuit, Pittsburgh, a little wicked. But I respect to the rivers and Pittsburgh. I think there are a few places. Mark out of you from worse. Permanities, oh, yeah.

Some primities, yeah. Yeah, well, respect. Did you grow up many family of any of the Pittsburgh teams or local teams? Oh, yeah, of course. I mean, I, that's, you know, my dad, my uncles, everybody was steel. Pilots, Pirates, penguins, you name it. Nice. And even when, like, I was a hoop fan, but it was like the college.

So it was Duquesne when Duquesne was good and Pitt. But I was a kid when they were shooting the fish that saved Pittsburgh. You all ever hear that movie? No. No, you got to check it out with Julius Irving. I'm not going to say anything more. Oh, I have seen that movie. Yeah, it's like old old with Julius.

And, yeah, the fish just saved Pittsburgh. Yeah, I have seen that movie. Yeah, I still get criticized because I've never seen Hoosier. and I went to Mother I went to Bull. I'd never seen Hooters. I just saw it again the other night, actually. I was like, don't change that.

Yeah, my favorite hoop movies is a butter realm. It's a little different demographic. My favorite hoot movies above the realm, you know what I'm saying? That's not even a hoot movie. Yes, it is, bro. Not there, bud?

Y'all should have signed Tommy Sheperts to attend they had the best men of rage the same clip over and over. Yeah, I've seen this before. But, obviously, Indiana University, one of the best alumni. How does it feel now to be a part of one of the best alumni in the world and in the world that you have to be involved with the NIL? Oh, my God, it's crazy.

Actually, it's good for us, man, because it's not even about spending the money. It's just like Coach Sigg, who's a Pittsburgh, Western Pennsylvania guy, he understood really quickly that it wasn't like the old days of college, right? College sports is no longer college sports. It's pro sports. and he recognized that, like, just like in the NBA, there's potential and there's production. And when you're only going to have a guy for a year or two,

you need production, like right off the bat. And you want somebody, you know, with your basketball IQ or football IQ that understands the role. Because you guys know, man, if a guy comes in and he's here in his head, but his role is here and he doesn't get that, team falls apart. Yeah, true. Definitely basketball and football too.

And Coach Sig understood that. He recruits for that, pays for that. like zero, five stars. Like only seven, four stars, man. That tells you you're getting the right person for the right job, the right coach to coach them. And then obviously Mendoza, man, Hise Mendoza. That was the difference.

One of the best college football season of all time. I wonder they be having arguments about the best team. That's fine. But in my opinion, the best college football season of all time. They won in both games. Yes. Come on, man. Yes.

I mean, it's like the ultimate underdog, who's your story, right? Yes, Martin. 50 years of suck ass, right? When you win after 50 years of sucking, like. True. Like, from the time I went to school back in the day to now, like, they don't win anything. Like, we beat more top 10 teams this year than the entire history of the program. That's great.

Yeah, they never been known for football, though. No. How does it feel to be a football school now, though? Whatever, you know, whatever you win. I don't care. I know, I wrote, you know, like, thanks all. So I felt like really good. game, like all, who's your nation for like the biggest alumni, right?

Yeah. People just showing up, like, having more fans than Oregon, having more fans in Alabama. Yeah. And then in Miami's backyard, having an equal number of fans. They went to the game. We went to travel. Childs of a rock vet. They got outside of the game.

Yeah, sir. Same. To see all them people. Even in the airport, remember who he's in the airport? I was like, bro, this is, we might wipe them out for sure. We didn't see any, I mean, we saw a couple, but all we saw was red shirts. The entire place was red shirt. They took over the entire.

entire city. Everywhere, which I love, right. Because everybody knew that I had contributed, so everywhere I went, like, I did buy a drink. I didn't do nothing. Right, that was great. Yeah, my money's already out. Yeah, right? For sure, for sure.

Is that a little hate now you, a little not group chat, they're like, that ain't Mark. Flexing all of us, man. Put your brain up. You could be like me, too. Yeah, on God. Yeah, it was cool. It was cool. What we got to do to get that basketball back rolling?

Yeah. I think, you know, I've been talking to Scott Dawson and D.D., and just like what I was saying here, Like, it's different game. You can't recruit high school kids unless that's a one and done kid that you know is already made. You know, that one of those kids who go right to the NBA and start right off the bat. Because you need people that, I mean, if one team can get a kid, like Illinois, right? Illinois, I think, has figured out.

I think they've got a good shot to win. I know Michigan's got more talent, right? But they've got four dudes that are like 40 years old and crazy. Right? From Serbia, first of all, this Milwaukee Nations, you know, they know how to play. Yeah. Right. And they start playing professional like young, you know, 15, 16, 17, and then they're playing on their city team, then the country team.

And so they've been through all the big games. And then they try to make Euroleague. And if they can't make it or, you know, then they go to college because that's the next best paying job. And so, you know, I was looking, the Illinois bigs are like 22, 23. and they're sophomores, you know? Yes, crazy. You know, I mean, and they've been through the wars. They're men, they're grown-ass men.

They've played against grown-ass men. They know how to be physical because the game over there is more like college than it is NBA, right? So I think that gives an edge, and I've been trying to get Indiana to try to focus on that. Now, coach is going to do what coach wants to do, AD is going to do. We got a guy Ryan Carr from the Pacers just started working there who's really good. Yeah.

You know, and so Ryan knows his shit. And so, you know, he knows all this stuff, so we'll see where we go. It's interesting to say that because he coached the Army Monter, and he's got some really good kids, you know what I'm saying, with the potential to play in college as well. It's interesting, those kids, their job, well, the jobs they could get in college or getting slim and slim and slim. They're getting cut.

Yeah. It's like, what do you do now if you're a high school kid because I'm going to go get that grown man in the portal with three mouse to feed because he can play his hard out. Oh, yeah, he's got no choice. Yeah, because this is it. Yeah. He ain't playing in the NBA, and maybe he goes over.

But this is where he's making real money. And, you know, so you're right, they're going to play hard out. But high school kids got to go D2, you know, mid-major. And, you know, now you'll go to St. Louis or you'll go to Miami of Ohio, get paid a little bit. But then you prove out, you get paid a lot. Yeah, for sure. That's the industry you say like that because we're talking like, it's literally one-year deals now. It's like one-year deals in college.

It ain't four-year scholarships. It's one of your deals. If you're good, great. You can move on to portal. If you bad, great. But I think that's what I like about. it though. That is straight one year. Because it can go either way.

It can go. You have a good year. You move up. You have a bad year. Yeah, you're totally. You'd be off the 10. You're unemployed. You're literally unemployed. You got cut. I never thought about that. I wonder if I had A&A last year, I thought this year. If I'm a coach, I'm going literally like, if I gave you 100,000 a year before and you didn't play well, if you want to come back, I got 20,000 for you. For real. And you're going to leave. For real, yeah. Or you're getting a $40,000 scholarship.

That's your money. You know, um. See, I like that. It's, it's hard. There you can.

Well, split on it, though. That put, I think that gives the kids a reason to work harder though. Mm. For sure,

bro. I guess. Because if you get a million, I was just talking to Jamie and I'm about that. If you get a million and the next year, somebody offered you 200,000, you're pissed. Oh,

yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But Jeff knows, like, how many dudes came into the league that you were teammates with that didn't know how to use a credit card. Didn't know what a checking account was and all that.

So from an NBA perspective, Like we had one dude, I won't bust them, but never had a credit card, didn't know how a checking account worked, you know, none of that stuff. And just was lost and blew his money. Now, from the NBA perspective, NAL was great. Yeah, for sure. Right, because they're staying in school longer. They learn how to manage their money, all that stuff.

So that's a positive. But on the negative side, parents know, you know, and the whole AAU scene just gets even worse because that money's coming in sooner. There's kids getting NAL money in high school now. Yeah. You know, I mean, that's brutal. Brutal. No, for so.

Can you imagine being an agent now? Nah. I couldn't at all. For what? Chasing like 16 year old, 14 year old? You were A.U tournaments looking filthy. Yeah, but even the A.A tournaments like are stacked, right? Yeah.

And the parents get nasty because the money's right there. Yeah. Used to be MBA, you were like one of four, 50. Yeah, yeah. Now there's what, you, there's probably, you know, 50,000? Not, no, that's not right. So there's, what, 200 schools and say the top five on average? So 1,000 kids are getting paid in college

and maybe 20 are getting paid in high school. That's a lot to chase right there. Yeah. Chase. You know, my eyes, when we did the first of DIA activation and we saw the NIL kids and they were like, yeah, they're DIAs athletes. I'm like, damn it, 16?

Like, it took me five years to get to Ditas. I was in the NBA. No, but at least, you know, and the cool part is like, when Jeff played, the stories were great about guys getting paid, right? Yeah, for sure.

You know, under the table, yeah, and I'd sit there and just laugh. Yeah, I got $250 and, you know, all this 300. For real, but now it's just above the board. Yeah, I thought my little 10K was, I thought I killed them.

Chill out. Oh, I'm sorry. They just got me to hold on. I thought, one or a little number. Remember I'm sending me back. I just got in the Hall of Fame. Helm ceremony.

I admit you, I mean. All right, well, I want to ask you a wild question, because I've never got to ask another human being this. What was that feeling like when you made your first billion dollars? I was naked. Mark, what? Where did we go from here? Would you be?

I mean? Right, yeah. Wood out. You said, why? That boy with Bruce in the money. Oh my. Oh, wow. So, like, when our stock, so I had a company, we started the streaming industry.

It was called Broadcast.com. Yes, sir. First streaming company. And so we went public, biggest IPO in the history of the stock market at the time, first day jump. And our stock kept on going up. And I knew what the price had to be. And I'd get up every morning to go to work. And I'd check the stock, you know, before I'd, you know,

before I run into the bathroom, good rest. And I was closed, right? So I had to go back and check again because I was showering after the market open, hit my little F5 on my PC, and I just did my little, uh-huh, uh-huh, jumped in the shower, went to work. Hey, I wouldn't even go.

I had to keep you stock up. I would have been cooked. Yeah, that'd have been my last day. Yeah, I'll be working. You got to keep working. Man, that is fire. That is fine. What was your first?

line of hustle. Like, what was the first thing that you... Oh, my God. I was like when I was 8, 9 years old in Pittsburgh, when I was 8, nine years of Pittsburgh, I used to go buy baseball cards. And then there was a park down the street and with a table. And I used to just set up and I'd repackage him. So I'd say, okay, cost me 10 cents, 25 cents, whatever. And then I'd repackage him for a dollar for a package. And I'd say there'd be a Pittsburgh pirate card in there, right? Because all kids wanted the local team. And so that was my first hustle, my

Second hustle was, I asked my dad, my dad and his buddies used to play poker at different houses, right? So they come over and they were yucking it up. And I went in there to get donuts or whatever. And I was like, Dad, I need a new pair of shoes, new pair of basketball shoes. Looks at me and he's like, those shoes work. When you have a job, you can buy whatever you want. One of his buddies that he was playing with was like, hey, I got all these boxes of garbage bags that you can go around the neighborhood and sell. I'm like, dad, can I?

And he's like, sure. So literally, I had the world's first garbage bag route. And it was great, right? I'd walk up the doors. Imagine a 12-year-old Mark. Hi. My name is Mark. Do you use garbage bags?

And I bought it for three, sold them for six, and just bam, bam, bam, until I sold out, made some money there. I sold magazines door-to-door. Because once I learned I could sell, everything got easy. Yeah, and I was just whatever hustle. You thought I was going door-to-door. Oh, man. If you could sell door-to-door, you always.

always have a job. Yeah, shout out to the people who did cutco. Yeah, cut call, boy, that door to door. Everybody, you want some... Oh, no, I got that, too. They had a 12-year-old. No, I was selling the magazine's door-to-door when I was 16. Oh, yeah.

And there were just, you know, three things. Yes, I made a deal. No, I got shut out. Three, some hot mom answered the door. And I was like, hello. What would you let the trash bags go for? How much was you selling them? I sold them for six bucks a bag.

I mean, six bucks a box of a box of a box. Oh, I was about $1. sell, man, you know what to buy the Dallas Maverick. It always been a basketball junkie. That's the best trash thing. All right, man. What made you want to buy Dallas Mavericks? So I'd always been a basketball junkie.

I mean, I still play pickup. And get out there and shooting and all that. And so I had season tickets to the Mavs. And it was the 99-2000 season, and I was there with my then-girlfriend, now wife. and my brothers and everything. And, you know, it's the start of the season, the first game, we're undefeated. And we got Finley, we got Nash, we got Sean Bradley, we got Dirk.

And I'm like, okay, you know, I don't know if we're going to be good, but at least it's the first game of the season. I can do better than this. And so I talked to my sales rep, and the guy who owned him was a guy named Rossboro Jr. who didn't know anything about basketball, didn't care. It was a real estate deal for him. And so I was like, I just sold my business. I'm going to get paid.

And so I worked out a deal and bought them for $2.85. Damn. And it was about three, four weeks. And I didn't even negotiate. Didn't even negotiate. It was just like, yes. Let's go. 285.

And you sold it for how much? Four in a little bit. And then never even say, I screwed up. I could have gotten more. We won't go into that. Okay. Expect. Today's show is brought to you by our presenter,

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Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind, and now got my own show.

So if you're tired of lazy takes, If you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F-1, including the astrology of the current grid. Lewis Hamilton, Crapicorn Sun, Cancer Moon.

Wouldn't you know it, Michael Schumacher is also a Capricorn Sun, Cancer Moon. the story of the sports most consequential driver strike. We have one man who, upon hearing that he was going to be fired, freaked out, and apparently climbed out the window of the bathroom. And was Daniel Ricardo's illustrious F1 career, a success story, a cautionary tale, or some combination of both? He started getting all this attention, and he maybe started to think, I'm bigger than this, I'm better, and plenty of other mishaps, scandals, and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful,

decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lori Siegel, and I'm mostly human. I go beyond the headlines with the people building our future. This week, an interview with one of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley, OpenAI CEO, Sam Alman. I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to products we put out in the world. From power to parenthood.

Kids, teenagers, I think they won't need a lot of guardrails around AI. This is such a powerful and such a new thing. From addiction to acceleration. The world we live in is a competitive world, and I don't think that's going to stop, even if you did a lot of redistribution. We have a deep desire to excel and be competitive and gain status and be useful to others. And it's a multiplayer game.

What does the man who has extraordinary influence over our lives have to say about the weight of that responsibility? Find out on Mostly Human. My highest order bit is to not destroy the world with AI. Listen to Mostly Human on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of IHard Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing. Math and magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. I'm talking to leaders from the entertainment industry to finance and everywhere in between.

This seasonal math and magic, I'm talking to CEO of Liquid Death Mike Cessario, financier and public health advocate Mike Milken, take-2 interactive CEO, Strauss-Zalny. If you're unable to take meaningful creative risk and therefore run the risk of making horrible creative mistakes, then you can't play in this business. Sesame Street CEO Sherry Weston and her own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Making consumers see the value of the human voice and to have that, guaranteed human promise behind it really makes it rise to the top. Listen to math and magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing on the IHart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Damn, what? That trash back shit pays home. What was it like when you finally, like, got the team? Oh, my God, it was a blast, right? I was a kid in the candy store, right? Yeah. I was playing one-on-one with Dirk.

I beat him 2-1. I got up 2-0, missed a shot. He dunked on me, I quit. You know, I'd get out there and shoot. Ask Richard Jefferson, if you ever see him about shooting before games, just shooting for money and stuff. I mean, just going out before games and just being able to get shots up, you know, getting in little runs with the staff and everything.

I mean, it was a dream. And then obviously the games, and, you know, we had sucked for so long. And then Dirk and Nash and Finn came around. And then all of a sudden we were for real, and that was fun. Did the other owners receive you with good or bad energy? I can tell them. The way you're going to see it a little bit different the way that. Yeah, I was like the internet dude that they didn't understand.

And David Stern, to his credit, was like, you know, he's young. Don't pay attention to what he says. He can help us because he understands technology. But I remember there was one guy, there were a couple, like, older guys that were, like, in their late 70s, 80s. And one of them was like, I was, I was. talking about something. And he goes, shut your ass up.

Until you've done something in this league, shut the F up. And David Stern was like, like, stop, stop. I'm like, what's your name again? Called him by the wrong name

and everything. It didn't get any better. Wrong thing to say on the show. But yeah, they didn't take real kindly to me. And then obviously the league kept on fine to me for everything. Like, I remember, like, one of my first games in Minnesota.

And remember that guy used to sit there with the – Oh, to bang the paper. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways, I decided I wanted to get to know all the different jobs on the team. And so, you know, there's the trainers and everything and the equipment managers. Sometimes they'll just sit on the floor, right, right by the bench. So I sat down there on the floor, just talked to them during the game just to get to know their job and everything. And they find me for $150,000 for conduct not becoming an owner.

Wow. Because you're not supposed to do that. And, you know, and then I'd get into the refs and all that. And it was, yeah, it just went downhill from there, but I didn't care. What was the hardest part about your job, being the owner? Losing. Yeah, that was. That was it.

That was the hardest part always. Because winning's good, but it's not as hard as losing as bad. You know, it's just because you think you've done all the right things, and then it doesn't turn out, somebody gets hurt, and other team's just better. and, you know, that just killed me. Yeah. Safe to say you wouldn't have been a person who was pro-tanking, I imagine. You know, but how else you rebuild teams?

Yeah, you go. Yeah, like we had 10 years in a row where we won 50-plus games. Like, I didn't have a losing season until 15, 16 years in. So we didn't really have to tank until we had to tank. You know, once Dirk was done, it was like, okay, how do you rebuild? And so all this talk about tanking isn't really about, you know, trying to get the best traffic because, like, one, even if you have the worst record,

you still have an 86% chance of not getting the best pick, right? Two, you don't know if it's going to be a good draft or not. There's lots of number one pick over last... No disrespect. Tell me about it, though. My hawks got the number one pick. Chill, let me do this story.

Yeah, nobody's right, right? I mean, they can play, right? But it's not... There's a difference between being able to play and being a generational player. Right? And if you don't get a generational player, like, so you've got to say there's a generational player once every four drafts, right? So that's 25%. So you've got one-fourth, you know, an 86% chance of not

getting it. So tanking isn't really the best option. But when you, when you're, when you're ass, right? And you're typically under the cap, right? And so when you're under the cap, you have a chance to use your cap room to take players in to get draft picks. And getting draft picks is how you rebuild. Yes. And so, you know, if you're going to try to stop tanking, it's more about the other things that you do. Like, you know, when you see the teams that have been patient and built teams like OKC, like San Antonio, two things has got to happen. One, you want to try to collect picks, right, so that when that draft, that's good happens, maybe you're there. Because you look how they get Tatum and Jay Brown, you know.

And so how did they get Wembe, right? They had the fifth worst record and they ended up with Wembe. You know, you've got to be a little bit lucky. And then you've got to maybe make a lucky trade like, you know, people. for SGA. You've got to be lucky. Yeah. And so it's not so much about how do you get the worst record.

It's what are the tools you have to rebuild. And as long as you let teams collect 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 number ones, teams are going to do all they can to stay underneath the cap. Yeah. If you say you can only be under the cap for two years, you'll see everybody change behavior completely and all that will change. That's free. Now I ask you this question because they're been implemented this year or they're starting to.

Is this new what they're doing, like going to interview the teams or the training staff to see if players are actually healthy? No, that's been around. Okay, it's been around for a long time. It's just more flagrant now just because of how, well, not figureable. Because I just think the league's under a lot of pressure. And shout out to Adam Silver, man. He's had to put up with a lot of shit before. Oh, my God.

I mean, you know, and he's done a good job, right? You might not agree with everything he's done. But to be able to lead all that is not easy. And so he deserves a lot of credit. And I just think, you know, all, all. All that stuff adds up. The gambling stuff and the players and all that. And then, you know, people talking about tanking and it just adds up, adds up, adds up.

And then you've got to respond at some point because it just gets to you. And so I think it's not that this year is different, even though it's a good draft class. It's just that I just think he just reached his limit, you know. But I don't think changing the odds for draft picks is going to change anything. because like I saw one, okay, the bottom 10 teams all get a 6% chance. People are going to tank more because that's good a chance than anybody else, right?

And so, you know, he's got a tough job and I get him credit for just trying to grind it out. When we get the next year and it's not a good as draft, but the other part of it is dudes are just better coming into the league now. I mean, the skill set is that on, would you agree? Except for your year, of course. Yeah, I mean, I think guys left year.

I think it was really good guys. But, like, I think this draft has some special players, but previews, not as much. Yeah. Yeah. But I just think guys are getting better because, like, when you were growing up, you watch games on TV. Yeah, for sure. Right? You don't really have the internet to do all that stuff.

Yeah. Now, anybody put something out on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube, every 12-year-old, 13-year-old, is trying to copy it. So you see handles, like, in 12-year-old games, right? Well, guys are doing it, like, you know, doing the sham god and everything. like it's nothing. And guys, you know, back in the day, didn't have that type of handle.

No, that's a fact. That's a good point. You got to, like OTE. We go to OTE, how little kids feel about them hot. And all it is. Yeah, they're paying attention on the OTE. And OTEs is just,

they announced today that they're making their change. They're going on some more of two prep schools, I believe, instead of the league. Oh, they're not done doing the league anymore? Yeah, they're not doing the league anymore. Got wicked. Yeah. It costs a little bit to run that thing.

I bet it did. I'm just saying that's exactly what I told. when they came and asked me for investment like years ago. I said, that's going to be expensive. It's hard to make money doing the league, right? And it's just, when you're dealing with little kids like that,

it's their parents, man. Yeah. So OCE came to you to be the shark tank, man. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I mean, they reached out to a lot of people, but I just didn't see it. But they're killing. I mean, apparently they're making a lot of money, so.

No, they're doing their thing for sure. We got to talk about generational talent. You got a chance to drive Luca, right? And did you know he was generational when y'all? We hope, but we didn't know. You never know. Yeah, you never know. But when you watched the film, did you like, yeah, this guy.

All we had, like, we knew we had a chance to be a starter and to be good because he was bossy, man. He was fearless. And that's half the battle. And, but you still don't know. Like, I remember watching him play at 16 against OKC and him going right by Russ. But it's, you know, NBA versus Real Madrid, you don't know how hard the guys are trying. pride. There's no preparation. The rules are different and all that. But I mean, we gave up a pick and traded up to get them and, you know, we hoped. But then I remember going, we went to

China for our first preseason games. And I was sitting with Sean Marion and Stephen Jackson. And the whole game, I'm like, what do you think? Because I'm terrified, right? Because you don't know. And they're like, oh, my God, oh, my God. And then guys in practice would say, and you'd watch in practice, every game he'd win as a rookie. And so you knew he was. was special. Yeah. You just didn't know how special. We played them early in the season that year.

And they had me guard him because he was the point guard. I'm like, what the hell am I going to do with this dude, bro? He was just posting me up, punt-fake, lay-up. Just slow and you think you could just stay in front. Yeah, I went straight to West Matthews. I got you, buddy. I got you. We're going to stay on this perimeter.

So I want to ask, what's that conversation like with the horse when y'all prepared to make that trade? Like, were they looking into them? So obviously, it's one of the, I know people are trying to give it. judgment, but the trade and Luca Tray, two all-stars, hella accomplished on both sides, but what's that conversation like? They, um, it went down to the last minute. Like, literally, you've got 15 minutes between picks in the first round.

And we were down to like four, five, six minutes left. And we were at five and the Hawks were at three. And I called, um, the Hawks owner. And I'm like, our general managers aren't getting this done. You know, whatever it is you want to do, can you get your general manager to call ours and make a decision? and they decided they wanted Trey and so we threw in a first

and the rest of history. Damn. Man. But it was down to the wires, down to the wire. Wow. That wasn't bad, though. No, I like Trey.

Tijuana did. Overachieved, actually, in ATO. Trey's nice. One of my favorite players all time. But Lucas? We're talking about bad as 50-night boy. Imagine that with Lucas. Boy, that would have a fair generation.

P.stree, Luca? Oh, I didn't feel this bat. The Newark instead of next-me-should already, bro. It's all good. Hey. Get welcome to the home. What's your favorite Mavs team, man? My favorite Mavs team?

Yeah, 2011, obviously, when we won. Yeah, that was. That's your favorite squad? Yeah, of course. Yeah. I heard the party was unreal. Yeah, that's why I kind of, you know, let it. Yeah, we had a good time.

We had a good time. Look at him, he's excited I was, I wish I was on that team He didn't trade for me You know What was that night like though man? We were at live right? Oh yeah

Because Jason Terry took over It was like, okay, we're getting these buses We're all going to live I'm like, cool, let's go And everybody had family and everything We just went there and tore it up And then one of the owners maybe Or whoever came up to me

and they're like, hey, we got this $140,000 bottle of champagne. And Dirk is right there. He goes, yes. And so I'm like, okay, whatever. I mean, I'm feeling no pain. I get out my black and I give him the card. And then Dirk, 10 minutes later, like, where is it? Right?

Then I get a tap on the shoulder. They're like, Mr. Cuban. Hey, come here. And so I got to go to the back of the office. My card got declined. And you know how when you get a new card? You got a signed and call in. I hadn't done that.

Yeah. And so I had to get on the phone and, like, they weren't going to approve it. So I get on the phone, call Amex. And they're like, I'm sorry, sir. I'm like, did you watch TV today? Did you watch basketball the finals today? You know, do you not know? And then can I talk to your manager and they finally approved it?

And, yeah, the pictures are great of us, just huge bottle. Them, your face growing up and calling with Amex is crazy. Because I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, at least they send this. Look, yeah. And Walmart. Yeah. I think credit cards cut up the floor in the past. I've been there.

At least they did their job. They appreciate it. They were nice. They were a nice spot. Amplood. I'm looking at Dirk to Whiskey, man. I'll prove this. We'll get it back.

Derek, come on. Put up your car. We're talking about you getting the shit now. In 06, what was that feeling like? That was not good. Yeah. That was not good. Yeah.

Oh, we fucked up. Yeah. They got a little help, though. I'm not going to like. But I'll tell you where when I remember, like, it's third quarter. We're up like 14. And I'm standing up thinking, oh, shit, we might sweep these guys.

And I jinxed us immediately when I thought that, right? Not two seconds later, U.D. steals the ball, goes in and cuts the lead a little bit. Two minutes later, Shaq pushes Eric Damp here, or center, pushes the shit out. They call the foul on damp. I'm thinking, Shaq's not going to make these. Swish, swish, right? And then the whole series just went south from there. We don't win another game.

Yeah, D. Wade looked unreal. Yeah. Hey, Bennett Salvador was crazy. I've never seen any of my drive like Bennett, yeah. Oh, man. And I just, you know, whatever. It's gone.

It's like forever ago. 20 years ago, that's crazy. But it's still fun to fuck with them. Is there any free agents or any situations you almost had, but fell through the last minute that you was working on? Yeah. I mean, obviously, DeAndre, Jordan, that was kind of a cluster fuck. Kidnap.

Yeah. And then the other one was we had to make a decision. I thought we were going to get Dwight Howard. Oh. And that was the same year that Janus came out. And so we, because we had been talking to his agent and made us think that, okay, we've got a really, really good shot. But if we drafted right where we could have gotten Janus,

we wouldn't have had enough cap room. So we had to trade down to try to free up some cap room. And we were hoping that Janus would fall. And he didn't. And we didn't get Dwight Howard, didn't happen, didn't get Janus. You know, but if we had gotten him, we never would have gotten Luca. You know, because we would have been, we never would have been in that draft position. True, true.

So I worked out how I was supposed to. You got the better player. That's debatable. Hmm. We're here. Yonis is a champion. Huh? Yonis is a champion.

It wasn't Yonis's team. It was my team. Yes. I carry Yonis. Carrying the guy. You're crazy. You got both of them in a draft. You take a Janus.

Both of them are all paused. That's crazy. Excuse my language. Excuse me. It's a film. I probably would take Yannis. In Luke early. This is before the-

You're saying, like, I'm saying drag, the player. Oh, you're saying, in the draft? I took Luca. Yeah. We didn't know Yon. Yeah, because all we had, Janus, we had, like, literally,

I remember sitting in the war room, and we had two VHS tapes. Yeah. Of this kid that looks like he's 12 years old, 6-11, playing against guys who look like they were 12 years old in a Greek league. So you don't really know,

but our scouts were like, yeah, he's the real deal. He's the real deal. VHS at that time period, because it was still like mid-two, Yeah, that's crazy. He was playing a super low-level in Greece. Yeah, like the second or third level.

It was like in the basement in Atlanta. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I remember you talking about it. The fact that they had him all tuck like that and still didn't get him, it's crazy. Because they were posted trade with the maps.

Y'all got Luke. Shane Larkin. Yeah, it was wherever the pick was. Yeah, we were 12, I think. Yeah, they wanted to trade two picks. We ended up getting Schroeder in a dude named Luca. I forgot this tall. Yeah.

Long carry is like six nine. 10. But we were supposed to trade both of those picks to whoever. Maybe Milwaukee, it might have been Milwaukee, but we didn't trade him. Yeah, they won him. And it was like, ah, he's going to drop. That's what we thought he was going to drop. Yeah, Danny Ferry was hot. Wow. He was steamy. Oh, Danny Ferry was your guy yet?

Yeah, he was steaming. Let me tell you my Danny Ferry story. Oh, yeah, please. And so. That was not his guy, by the way. He was a GM. Not my guy either. We're on the same page, bro. Apparently, no white guy.

I forget what year it was, maybe 2009, maybe. We had a trade for Paul Pierce. Okay. Done. Absolutely done. Wow. And our GM had worked out with Atlanta where we were going to give them a pick for some, you know, we were going to do a trade so that we can gross up the numbers, right?

And it was a trade that Danny Ferry agreed to, right? And then he gets on the trade call and realizes we're trading for Paul Pierce. It says no. You got to throw in a first round pick In order for us to okay this And we didn't have We couldn't do it Yeah

So Yeah Shout out to Danny But that We had the history of Paul fucking on people's day Yeah Yeah, yeah

Definitely, ma Paul Pierce Ooh Yeah I heard you almost trade for Kobe too Yeah That was 2007 Um

Kobe was ready to get out Yeah And I was on dancing With the stars Google me I didn't win. But in any event, there was a dude named Elvis, who was a production assistant, right? And he was just Kobe, love everything.

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. And in between breaks, I'd be like, Elvis, I need a quiet spot. And I would talk to Rob, Polinka, his agent at the time. And he's like, okay, if you can get Dr. Bus to approve, and I talked to Dr. Bus, and he was ready to do it. And it was like two first Josh Howard and Jason Terry. And for Kobe. And I thought, okay, this is done. And I told Elvis, this is done.

And I would practice in my jive or whatever. And then we got a call from Rob that, oh, what the fuck? Who's the Mitch Cupcheck, right, had talked Kobe out of it. Wow. Damn. That close. Damn. And I was telling Dirk the whole time, keeping him.

He goes, you can trade me. I would trade me for Kobe, too. And I'm like, no, the whole point, dirt, you know. Dirk and Kobe, you know. Did you think what he did with Powell? Yeah. So, him and dirt, ooh, we. It would have been unstoppable.

So that makes the emacy that tweet that much funnier because he was trying to be a man. Oh, no. I like, told him out of talk. And I would give him shit all the time. That was back in the day when you could literally just give people shit on Twitter or whatever or say something. And it would be cool. But, yeah, the emacy that thing was like that was a classic. Yeah.

A thousand percent. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind, and now, I've got my own show. So if you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than no grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of Motor Racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the astrology of the current Louis Hamilton, Capricorn Sun, Cancer Moon. Wouldn't you know it? Michael Schumacher is also a Capricorn Sun, Cancer Moon.

The story of the sport's most consequential driver strike. We have one man who, upon hearing that he was going to be fired, freaked out, and apparently climbed out the window of the bathroom. And was Daniel Ricardo's illustrious F1 career, a success story, a cautionary tale, or some combination of both? He started getting all this attention, and he maybe started to think, I'm bigger than this. better, and plenty of other mishaped scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent, gumster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lori Siegel, and I'm mostly human, I go beyond the headlines with the people building

our future. This week, an interview with one of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products, bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to products we put out in the world. From power to parenthood. Kids, teenagers, I think they will need a lot of guardrails around AI. This is such a powerful and such a new thing. From addiction to acceleration. The world we live in is a competitive world, and I don't think that's going to stop,

even if you did a lot of redistribution. You know, we have a deep desire to excel and be competitive and gain status and be useful to others. And it's a multiplayer game. What's is the man who has extraordinary influence over our lives? lives have to say about the weight of that responsibility. Find out on Mostly Human. My highest order bit is to not destroy the world with AI. Listen to Mostly Human on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of IHeartMedia, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from

the frontiers of marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. I'm talking to leaders from the entertainment industry to finance and everywhere in between. This seasonal math and magic, I'm talking to CEO of Liquid Death Mike Cessario, financier and public health advocate, Mike Milken, take-to-interactive CEO, Strauss Elning.

If you're unable to take meaningful creative risk and therefore run the risk of making horrible creative mistakes, then you can't play in this business. Sesame Street CEO, Sherry Weston, and her own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Making consumers see the value of the human voice and to have that guaranteed human promise behind it really makes it rise to the top.

Listen to math and magic. Stories from the Frontiers and Marketing on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Now listen, man, you give me some cool points. I told you, being on this show today, man, shout to my mom, do with my family's Dark Tank, one of the best TV shows of all time.

For sure. Say that again? One of the best TV shows of all time. We appreciate people. get a lot of money on there. We're seeing a lot of people turn away some bad chicken. Shout to the people

who turned down the 30 million dollars. They did not turn that thing out. They did not there and they're right. That's not what we're talking about. No, it was the people,

it was a dating app. I forget the name of it. And they were on there and they wanted a $30 million valuation. I thought they were just there for the commercial. Yeah.

I thought they were just you know, they're just to get people to sign up. Yeah. And so I was like, so if I gave you 30 million,

and would you say yes? And they took just that part and sliced it and diced it and put it on YouTube and sent it around to make it seem like I gave them a $30 million offer. If they would have said yes,

I would like run out the back. No chance. What a name was it? Shout to them. I don't know. I'm familiar, but I never get on the day. Christian Miguel. I don't know.

We got you. Richard Mingle. That's a wicked sight. He got to everybody do that thing, but he got two. Be here you do an average from Christian Mingle. Yeah. Sure. Nah, so how was that, though, being on a short?

I loved it, man. I loved it because, you know, the best part about it is everybody watched. Families watch together. Kids watched. And so, you know, I did it because I wanted people to believe that the American Dream was alive and well. That when someone came on that carpet, that could be from Idaho, Iowa, wherever. And if they had a decent idea and had a start to a business, we could help them out and grow some real businesses.

And we did. I mean, like, have you guys heard of dude wipes? Yeah, yeah. Shark Tank. God. I always can say. Come on. Come on.

I do you just dood wipes. Shark tank. Like, I gave them 250 grand, I think, for 20%. Yeah. And now they're worth at least a half a billion dollars. Damn. Have you ever heard of beatbox beverages? No.

They're like a, you've already, you're in school, right? And so they're like an alcoholic seltzer, and they just sold to Budweiser for $670 million, I think. Wow. Was the final number, and I bought a third of them for a million dollars. Now, I got diluted down, but it still was nice. Yeah, they're familiar, yeah. Yeah, you're seen the 7-Eleven.

Yeah, they're everywhere. Those guys killed it. That's crazy, well. Yeah. Yeah, they're right next to the Wildhours rolls at the 7-11. With a $6007 evaluation. Right next to the NPD 2020? No, for sure.

Mark, don't tell me invest in that now. I was like, you're a real hot, people. I gave them their start. As a customer and the doctorate, all right, all right, more. What flavor? What flavor? It didn't matter. They almost did it be saying.

Let me just tell you, when I was at IU, right? That was the plan, right? It was like three or four dollars for a box. And you just chug it. And then you wait about 15 minutes. And you just saved about $80. We used to mix all of them together. Oh, man.

Also ice. While we hear of being in Final Four weekend, you might also talk about the legendary road trip to Houston, Texas for the Butler Final Four. Oh, yeah. What was the pre-game drink? What was the fuel in house? Why, that was Rose?

I don't have some orange Mad Dog, too. So, yeah. He didn't make it to the game. Yeah, that was in 2012, too. You know you're a Somalié when you do Mad Dog 2020. Orange and all the different flavors. What was the other? Not Southern Compton.

Oh, so cold? No, no, no. It's the wine. Carlos Rossi? No, it was same. Anyway, same type of stuff, right? Okay. But yeah, I mean, when you broke, it was just like.

Yeah, man. I never had some. His first real drink was like gray goose. Yeah. I didn't drink until I was 22. Good for you. I was an NBA. Good for you.

I don't know about all that, but yeah. That's the story. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. We weren't going to a league, so we got to go to Carolina. We started part in a time. Oh, my God. Man, what a time period, man.

Bloomington, Indiana, totally different. I'll imagine, like, football season this year is going to be insane. Like, you can't even get tickets. How about six going to be sold up? Yeah, it's all sold out already. It's going to be wild. I mean, it's, but the difference is now the pressure is going to be on. Yeah.

Yeah. Because now, repeating, getting. there was amazing. Repeating is a job. That's the hardest job in all of sports. Once you've won, you guys know, right? You know, or you didn't get to find out, did you? Oh, yeah. Look at you. Hey, I got a curse on them right now. They can't until they bring me back, but Milwaukee won't win. Right? I told the shout out. It's working. Hey, you're a little beating,

you can't even get Yonnet to come back now. Yonnas said, I don't want to play no more, man. That's insane. But yeah, it's going to be hard. getting guys to come back, but you know now you're going to get players. Yeah. That's a good thing. I'm sure you, I got a bunch of five stars now. No, you know what?

I would be surprised, I don't know the answer, but I would be surprised if we don't have a lot. Because, you know, I still think if you chase the most expensive free agent, that kind of distorts everything in the locker room. Because you've been in a locker room where some guy got a lot more money than anybody expected. Yeah. You know, and that just like changes the balance. I love Ken Baysmore, but I remember that day. Oh, yeah, when you got paid, yeah. I said, man, you got 70.

million. He got chicken. I was like, he just came off the bitch. Yeah, he came to a 16 year when the cat loved up. Everything got nice. Down to Mike Conley Jr.

Right. Nap Town legend. He became a high-face player. That was one of the guys we were going out. Y'all was going after Mike. Yeah. Like, I brought him on my jazz. His dad played us like a fiddle.

Shout out of him. Yeah, oh, my God. I remember that. He's from Nashville, baby. Yeah. By the answer. But he didn't have. We go get that chicken at all time.

The Jet Wark fed him good, everything. Yeah. Hit you with that open you go. Yeah, we're going to go back to Memphis. So did you see the Walsh mom? I'm like, damn. No, because I knew it was coming, right? Yeah, I wasn't thinking, damn.

It was a lot worse. Because now all of a sudden, when you don't got the guy that you wanted, now you still got to fill the hole or do whatever you got to do. And that year, that was the same year, KD, went to, the Warriors. The money was insane. That's when, you know, centers were getting, who was that L.A. Center? Mosga. Yeah.

Mosca. Yeah. Got paid. All those guys were getting crazy. And we went and we signed like, you know, we got West Matthews and Harrison Barnes and a couple other guys. And we tried to spread it out. Traded for Bogot. And that was my biggest mistake year

because that was the year I thought, okay, we're going to be good. And we started with a full squad, we started off 3 and 15. And so at that point, you know, you just had to break it up and trade all these guys and it wasn't happy, but it was what it was. So at one point, I I see this question, do you wait like far enough in the season?

Like maybe All-Star Breaker, the one point you'd be like, this shit ain't working, we gotta, we gotta save this chicken. Is there like a time period you give it? Like 10 games? It's just like... 3 and 15 kind of tells you. Yeah, yeah. It depends, right? But it's like when guys get released before March 1st,

And, you know, is the last day before you can add to a playoff team. Yes, sir. Like, if you're – guys are only going to add a guy to a playoff caliber team if they're good. Mm-hmm. Right? So you're effectively – the trade deadline is the date where you've got to make your final decision. Who you're keeping, who you're getting off of. And now with the second apron, it's 10 times harder because it just – it just changes all the economics.

And to make matters worse, you've got contracts that were signed during the last CBA that kind of distort your – cap for this CBA. And so that's why you see a lot of crazy things. And I think it's even going to get crazier next year. And then all those old contracts will be off. Well, said. I want to ask you this, obviously, what the expansion seems getting approved.

If you had a chance to run, either the new team in Vegas or Seattle, which one would you choose? Vegas. I mean, I like Seattle, but Vegas. Yeah. Mark Cuban in Vegas.

So I'm up. It'll be interesting to see how much they get, you know, There's a number where it's too much, not so much from the league's perspective. They want the most they can possibly get. And I understand that with the ownership, owners and everything, but you've got to be able to make money at some point, you know, and it's hard. What do you think would be too much?

I think 10 will be too much. Nine or 10 would be too much. Damn. Six, seven, eight. Because the teams that have gotten in that range have been Boston and L.A. And Boston and L.A. still have local TV deals. Like the Mavs, we had an $80 million a year. TV deal, local, gone.

Disappeared. Oh, yeah, see, that's funny. We ain't know that. Dang, like, I didn't even have a saying the situation was because it was a new... They went out of business. All the local R.S.N. Regional Sports Networks, toast, like the last one

just went out of business this week. Dang. It ain't on. Now, the NBA will come up with some ways to connect all the teams together for local broadcast, but you're not going to get the same amount of money as it was back in the day. No, no, though.

Depending on what star go over there. Might shake up the league, man. Big names might go to both of them cities. Yeah, but you still, like, for local TV, just the TV business. That's why, look at you guys, right? You guys get more people watching and listening than, you know, most TV shows, which you never would have thought of 10 years ago. That's true.

Yeah, they're going to be bad for a couple years, though. I don't know. You don't know. Because that back in apron stuff, like, think of all the old Max contract that guys will put, teams will put. out there and those teams will still have to get to the minimum salary level, the floor. And so, you know, you take a couple of those big contracts, put them together, knowing that they're going to burn off after a year or two.

And you're going to have a good pick, at least the first year or two. For sure. But it's going to be some old guys, like, not to, like, disrespect him, but, like, Paul George would be, like, a name, like with his contract. Paul George, Zachany, right, those guys. But they can still, they can still, yeah, they can still hoop. You're just not, those aren't going to be the first. guys you would go after, right, like you might

when they were younger. Yeah, for sure. I know this is absolutely impossible, but how funny would it be if they put them in the same drive? And since their supplemental teams, they get the number one or number two pick and piss everybody off the tag. Oh, no, they can't do that. That would be hilarious. Yeah, because remember, the owner's got to vote on it. Yeah. Nobody's voting for that. Take up the world.

Yeah, right? You ain't have Vegas starting off trash, bro. You've got to give a good. You got to think about. The hockey team, they won. Like, didn't they, I don't know if they won the championship? Yeah, yeah. But you got to think about when Toronto came. They were cheeks, bro.

No, but Toronto. It was mighty mouth, Vegas, bro. They were horrible. They were horrible. The grizzlies were horrible. Like, respect. But I'm saying,

Vegas, we need John Moran, bro. At least. You'll probably be out there in an expansion wrap. I love John. John's a Clayton.

I do. I don't want John Vegas. Yeah, John Vegas. I don't know him very well. I couldn't say. I want to bounce back strong, man. We don't need John Lobby live, man.

We don't need that right down. You're crazy, man. I wanted to ask, what was your worst investment that you regret, any regrets? Oh my God, I've had a bunch of them. I've had investments where I trusted people and took them at their word and lost $5, $8, $10 million.

But, you know, but that was my style and it's worked other places where I've had, you know, hundreds or billions and whatever. And so, you know, it balances out. As long as the mistakes are smaller than your way or idea. Yeah, as long as the math works, I'm happening. Carried one? Yeah, that's a lot.

Yeah, like, I've had companies that have just emailed me, and I still haven't met them, where I've met them once, and they've made me hundreds of millions of dollars. Wow. Yeah. As long as the company. Yeah. I ain't got no emails. Watch this spell. Like, there's a bunch of gift cards.

There's this company Synthesia that does like AI avatars that I invested in when AI, even before AI was a thing. And I gave them, I don't know, a million dollars for 20, no, probably 30% of the company. I've been diluted since. But they just did a deal that valued them at $4 billion. And, you know, my stuff is worth $400, you know. And so all that covers. And I've got a couple of deals like that. Yeah, say left.

You get it right? Yeah, I'll get it. That man is crazy, brus. Basically, you're saying, fuck the bad adventures. We up. It's never a bad investment. Never a bad investment. Either I win or I write it off.

Would you ever break a deal through an email? Who me? I don't know. I got to see you. I got to shake your head. I don't know what you're doing. To ask them, though, because I've been, it's like Shark Tank, right?

Yeah. If they don't give me the right answers, It's not like, hey, you tell me something, I just believe you. Oh, for sure. I was like, bam, bam, bam, bam. And, like, because I'm technical, I can get into the details and most of these are tech deals. And so if you can't give me the right answer,

there's no chance. If you give me the right answer, then there's a chance. Now, if you talk about some of the successes, some of the falls, is there a tech company or one of those startups that you didn't, wasn't sold on or a little nervous about to end up going crazy? You're like, man, I missed that on them? Uber. Oh, wow.

Yeah, so the guy who started Uber, Uber, had a business before, and I invested in that. Okay. And I was one of the first people he came to with Uber, Uber cabs, and I kind of overnegotiate. I wanted to invest, and somebody else, I went shark tank on him and kind of, you know, try to negotiate the valuation.

And he got somebody else who didn't care what the valuation was and just gave him all the money. And he walked me, ghosted me, and boom. Damn, Mark. Yeah. God, I could be rich. Damn. I love how we all

I love how we all I love it Damn That's crazy That is funny Be here We lose a five, six me don't know

I got to know where somebody live I don't see me no boy What? Shiksteen Miss Shiksy Tom FDO, FDO FDO All right man

Before we get out here Miss Q With final four Who you got taking the chip, man I'm going And as much as I don't like Illinois, I'm going with Illinois. Okay.

Right, just because they got the 40-year-old. I think, you know, when you have six kids, you've been through it all, you got an advantage. Yeah, they got a team full of can't go back for sure, man. I can't go back. I got Michigan. You all right with Michigan? I got Michigan, man. They're playing the best all year.

Yeah, they got a solid squad. I want to see Brayland do it, man. I'm just taking the home team. You got one, man. Shot on you can. I won't dare early to head but another riff. So at all caught. Is that not crazy?

How do you get away with that? He was turned up. Yeah, but still. He was cheating. He was cheating? He was cheating? He was cheating? He was cheating?

He was the same one that let the travel go right in front of them, right? He didn't get traveled. Oh, he traveled, like a mug, yeah. If you could have got a head with a bunch of travel tour. If that would have been me on the losing end, like, there was a Mavs game, oh, I would, like, they'd be fine to me. Ever got into a real bad with a row? Oh, yeah. You see the April Fool's that clip?

Yeah, man. We just slated on a joke. They just played that one. Oh, my God. That was so much fun. And we told all the coaches, we got approval from the referees before we did it. But Del Harris, who was one of our assistant coaches back then, didn't get the memo. Man.

They was freaking out. But I could hear the crowd going with it. Oh, it was so much fun. You almost gave Dale the hardest thing. Oh, my God. We had to search how old Del Harris was after that clip. Yeah. For sure.

He didn't have gray hair before the clip. Oh, listen, man. Mr. Q, we appreciate you, blessing us, man. This has been a great episode, man. I'm glad we can make this happen. Before we get out here, be here, tell the people they can grab some merch, man. Shop club 520.com, baby.

We got to get you some merch, too. Yeah, we got to take care of you, man. Listen, man, great episode. Shout to Boost Mobile. Shout out to Stock X. Shout to Hard Rock, bet. The lays to get you paid, man. Shout to be here.

We appreciate y'all. We'll catch y'all next time. Club 520. The volume. Ready for a different take on Formula 1? Look no further than no grip. A new podcast tackling the culture. of motor racing's most coveted series.

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