Halford & Brough in the Morning - How Will The Tariffs Affect Canadian Sports?

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the booing of the US anthem at last night's Canucks game in relation to the tariffs, and how that will affect Canadian sports franchises (3:00), plus they go over the weekend's monumental NBA deals with Basketball Central's Marcus Fitzgerald (27:31).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

We like him a lot. I thought he played good tonight. You know, he had some of his shots from the point. He's got a heavy shot. He's a thick guy. Go for the thickness, Bruv. Thickness. Number one. 7-0-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Bruv, Sportsnet 650. Halford Bruv of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are now in hour two of the program.

Hour two is brought to you by Jason Homonuk from Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, why would you want to give them more of your money? Don't let Jason to give them more of your money? Don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you, it's opposite day, do both of those. Visit them online at Jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec, footwear and orthotics working together

with you in step. Sick tune, laddie. Bring it up a little bit. Did you gather who Tauke was referring to in the intro? He's thick. Thick boy. Deep eating. Yeah.

Heavy shot. I noticed that too. Man, he got away a couple point shots that were like, God, I wouldn't want to block that one. He's good at it. Yeah. Yeah. Very good at it.

And he gets it away pretty quick. Yeah. So, um, kind of flew under the radar yesterday that Carson Sousi was a healthy scratch. And Rick Taka had to confirm afterwards that that was a coach's decision. And I was texting you guys, I was like, is Sousi hurt or like, did I miss an injury and

all this? And then afterwards Taka goes, nope, he was a healthy scratch. He needs a reset. He's been having a tough time here. To which we replied, yes, he has. When did I say it? Been having a tough time.

Again, not to pat myself on the back, but I said it at some point after a game last week. Well, I can't remember which one. Everyone was saying it. No, I just, I kind of said like, okay, it's, it's now it's time. Yeah. Yeah. Like everyone said like, Whoa, now he did.

I was like, no, no, no, now is the time. So he started the season really badly. Yep. Um, and there were a couple of games where it looked like he might have it back a little bit, but then he completely lost it again. And, uh, it's unfortunate because Susie was pretty reliable last season.

Um, and this season he just looks like he's totally chasing the game. He does not look comfortable with the puck on his stick and he's been low key, one of the not look comfortable with the puck on his stick. And he's been low key, one of the most disappointing players on the Canucks this season. Like I think he would make, he'd make my top three. The Mount Rushmore of disappointment.

Yeah, seriously. Like I think he's, I think he's such an important player. Like, you know what I say about the defense, right? If you have two pairs that you can trust, you're fine. For the most part. Like you want to have three pairs that you can trust, but it's the NHL, it's hard to find defense, but the problem, one of the major problems with the Canucks this season is that

they've only had one pair that they can trust. And that is whichever pair Quinn Hughes is on. All the other ones have been wild cards, which is why I think this edition of Marcus Pedersen is so key because you can now go, let's say you go Quinn Hughes with Tyler Myers and Marcus Pedersen with Horonac. Yep.

Or even go, you know, if you want to keep Hughes and Horonac together, that's fine. But then you've got Marcus Pedersen with a guy like Tyler Myers and Marcus Pedersen is the superior defender to Tyler Myers on that pair. And you're feeling good about it. Like Pedersen played like what, 23 or 24 minutes last night.

Yeah. Because Quinn Hughes was a healthy, not a healthy scratch. He was a scratch. Um, he's injured. He got injured during the last game. Doesn't sound like it's too serious, but I am kind of wondering if Quinn Hughes needs a break and not a fourth nations tournament.

But back to the defense and how it's going to shake out over the next little while. Again, I'd be shocked if they don't resign Marcus Pedersen. He's the player they've been looking for. It feels like if you're going to go and acquire a guy like that, you've got to have some understanding that he's going to stick around. I would not be surprised if there's an extension announced this week. I don't know anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're already on the phones. All right, let's get this done.

Sure. We like you. Hopefully you like it here. Let's get a deal done. Boom. I don't know what it's going to cost. I don't think it'll be crazy, but it won't be cheap either. And then all of a sudden you've got Quinn Hughes,

Philip Peronik, Marcus Pedersen. So that is three legit top four guys. Yes. Right? Yes. From the youth perspective, DPD, I think he's going to be part of the group. Been very impressed with him so far.

Very impressed with him last night. He played very well last night. There are going to be some speed bumps along the way, but I anticipate, I mean, it could happen for the rest of the season, but next season, I expect him to be part of the mix all the time. Then you add this Victor Mancini, who I think we're going to, he's going to get a look. He's going to get, they called him up. He's on the NHL roster.

I think he is going to get a look and that's going to get, the Canucks called him up. He's on the NHL roster. Um, I think he is going to get a look and that could be bad news for Noah Juleson. And then there's another right shot defenseman. Maybe the, their top prospect in Tom Willander, who's still in college this season, but he's not going back to college next year. Um, he could be with the Canucks as soon as the playoffs. And next season I expect him like, you know, DPD to be part of the mix.

So all of a sudden you've got three veteran defensemen in Hughes, Hronik and Marcus Pedersen that you like. You've got three young guys that are going to be part of the mix in DPD, Tom Willander and Victor Mancini, plus some other guys down in the farm like Kudryatsev. And then you've got kind of the leftover veterans, Tyler Myers and Carson Sousi. You know, Day RNA isn't on the books anymore and I think that was important to get that deal, to get that contract off the books because there was an additional year. So all of a sudden I'm feeling a lot better

about the defense, but because, you know, since you've robbed Peter to pay Paul trading with JT Miller, now the focus, in my opinion, turns to the mix of the forward group, adding another impact forward if they can, and maybe adding a little more heft upfront. Yeah, they're definitely not a finished product. And I think that was part of the reason

that Sats reporting over the weekend was pretty vital. You understand that it's more difficult to build a defense than it is to build a forward group in the NHL. I think everyone can agree on this. And it is funny that in the span of 48 hours, it went from being like this Canucks group has one of the worst collective blue lines, both in terms of active NHLers and prospects in the league to, oh, all of a sudden you can start

getting a little bit more optimistic in the span of two trades, right? Picking up Mancini and picking up Pedersen, all of a sudden it really shifts the outlook. The outlook becomes a lot rosier. Well, the great thing about a defense is that it's only six players. That's true. There's lots of guys to get. No, seriously. You can find them. It's true. There's a lot of guys to get. No, seriously. If you can find them. Like it's great.

The problem is finding the six. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it is kind of a maddening problem sometimes because you're like, we can find three guys, can't we find three guys? Cause if you, honestly, if you get a guy, the caliber of Quinn, he can carry his own pair and then find two other top four defense and you've

got two pairs that you can trust. It has been tough for the Canucks to find that third guy. Um, I'll be curious to see who Hronek ends up with most of the time. Yeah, I know. You know, Hughes and Myers, I think that's looked pretty good to me.

You know, it's not a long-term solution, but maybe Hughes and Willander is a long-term solution. I would like to see Pedersen and Hronik thrive as a pair. I don't know if they'll do that, but what was it last night? What were the pairs last night? I think they were with, so Marcus Pedersen was with Myers.

Yep. Forebort was with Hronik. I'm sure I wrote Forebort. Yeah, me too. DPD was with Juleson. Yeah. Okay, do you want DPD was with Jewelson. Yeah. Okay. Do you want to talk about this anthem stuff? Yeah.

So last night, prior to the start of the Vancouver Canucks Detroit Red Wings game, obviously with Detroit being an American based franchise, it was a dual anthem night at Roger's Arena. And we had kind of gotten, we had had an understanding that this was going on at various ranks and arenas in Canada this weekend. Yeah, it happened in Ottawa.

That was the, that was the first one. And I think it also happened at the Raptors game on the weekend as well. Yeah. That fans were rather vociferous in booing the American national anthem. Now last night it looked awful quite frankly just in terms of I understand the politics behind it I understand that nerves are raw and jangled there's a lot of people that

are rightly upset but last night it played out in horrible fashion because the visual of it and the optics of it were an anthem singer who had done absolutely nothing wrong aside from trying to go up there and do something that's already overwhelming singing in front of that many people. The Connexion have let that happen. They made a big mistake there. They made a big mistake letting her do that.

It was unfair to her and I should have known it was going to happen. I, and I, again, just so we can try and stem the tide of vitriol that's going to come into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. This is a singular conversation in a vacuum about how unfair that was to the woman that tried to sing both anthems last night.

Wasn't fair and it wasn't right. And it, that, that it wasn't, wasn it wasn't right. And it's that that it wasn't. Wasn't good. OK. That part of the conversation is over. Moving along, I don't think that this sentiment is going away anytime soon. I think there's a lot of Canadians that are mad, upset, irate. Canadians that are mad, upset, irate, and when you put all of those things and people respond in the moment, you get situations like last night. Like what, you know, if you hear the American anthem and there's a visceral reaction to not like

it and to boo. I understand that. I understand how the human condition works. Can I say if you don't, so I don't, so, um, I don't want to be a downer here, although I always am, um, but this is going to be very tough for our country if these tariffs remain. I hear, and do a little editorializing here. I'm probably going to get heat in the inbox, but this is what I honestly think.

I hear a lot of people wondering what Trump wants. Does he want us to spend more on the military? Does he want us to crack down on our border? He wants tariffs. This is what he wants. He wants to change the way the game is played. He does not see trade, international trade, the same way most economists see it, the classical economists. I see Adog reading Adam Smith every day and I'm like, he doesn't see it like that. Big Adam Smith guy.

Loves Adam Smith. I honestly don't think he believes in things like comparative advantage, which if you Google that, if you don't know he believes in things like comparative advantage, which if you Google that, if you don't know what it is, like it's basis behind trade, Hey, you can do that cheaper than us. All right, we'll buy from you as opposed to doing it ourselves. He doesn't believe in win-win scenarios. There is only a winner and a loser when it comes to trade or frankly,

anything, the whole point of the tariffs is to make importing stuff less desirable for Americans because he wants the things Americans buy to be built by Americans. In the process, he does not care if he hurts countries like Canada, even if we are so-called best friends. That's our problem to him, not his. And guess what? A lot of his base is gonna support it because a lot of them have been hurt by free trade agreements that have shipped jobs to other countries. Now we will see if corporate America is able to pressure him out of these tariffs because corporate America generally supports free trade. They want to

get the cheapest workers, the cheapest products to make their products. But from what I've seen corporate America is generally pretty scared of crossing Donald Trump at this point. The stock markets are down today, but they're not down horribly. Right? And he said, expect the markets to be down. But like everyone's like, what does he want? We're not even sending much fentanyl to, he doesn't care. That's just an excuse. Like, here's the thing.

I don't trust our leaders to be able to handle him. like, here's the thing, I don't trust our leaders to be able to handle him. I don't think they know that this is how he thinks about trade. This is what he wants. To win, it's a win. Adog, I mean, your thoughts on this, you read a lot of Adam Smith.

It's a win. Well, okay, let's pull it back to the sporting realm here for a moment before the in basket explodes. You brought up a pretty interesting point is that this comes a handful of weeks away from a four nations tournament that I'm not gonna lie really was starting to lack juice and excitement from my perspective anyway but I felt it across the sporting landscape in our industry. It just seemed like the tournament was kind of becoming a dud. What was people opting out?

Not a lot of buzz. And I've heard ticket sales have been soft. Does add a very interesting wrinkle about Canada v U.S. that you wouldn't have otherwise dreamed up. No one, I mean, I don't think, with the calendar returning from 24 to 25, I did not anticipate that there would be an entire political realm to that matchup. Now, I don't know if we're just trying to shoehorn it into a sports conversation. We might, it might be a total non-factor in a tournament.

But again, this is a weekend in which we saw three different Canadian buildings openly boo the US anthem. It's going to mean a lot more. Right. These games, our hockey players are like our pride and joy. Yes. These games are going to mean a lot more.

Also from a sporting perspective, I'd be worried right now if I owned a Canadian team in the NHL. We more any professional sports team. Canadian team period across the board. We may well be headed for a recession in this country and that's going to push our dollar down even lower if more aggressive rate cuts are required to support the economy.

You've also just got general kind of economic worries, like people are worried about this. We've had people texting in saying like, I'm going to lose my job if these tariffs last. You're an economy guy, but let me just ask you because before we get too far ahead. You're an economy guy. You're the law talking guy. You're an economist dude. The tariffs hurt American consumers too though, so what's the purpose of them? Other than to make those into place rich. Okay. That's good question. Good question Adog.

The purpose is to change the way the game is being played and to convince American companies that have offshore jobs to bring them back. But there's some stuff that can't be made in their country, which is why they trade with the other countries. There's still going to be trade, Adog. You know, like.

No, I know, but it'll be more expensive because of the tariffs. Yep. And that's going to. So doesn't that hurt American consumers then? Yes. That is the gamble that he's taking. Well, that seems like a bad gamble.

If it's, it's not going to help the American strategy, Codden. It's not going to help the American consumers. So what's the purpose of it other than making yourself rich and trying to. Jobs. Yes. Jobs, pride, American pride. Buying your. Buying it other than making yourself rich? Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Pride. American pride.

It's prideful to pay more for eggs? Too much pride. Listen, that's the gamble that he's making, but he's going to get support from a lot of his base who haven't enjoyed the treasures of free trade. This is a country that has gotten a lot richer because of trade, but there's been a large segment of the country that's been screwed over by free trade. And you can't deny that. Nobody on either side can deny it.

Go to some of the states and, you know, places in the states like that used to be manufacturing areas, right? Like this is, that's his base. That's a lot of his base and they're going to support him. Even if their grocery prices go up. Well, maybe they won't actually think about it. We'll see how we'll see how he does. Like that's going to be the test for him.

Is he able- Historically, tariffs have always hurt their- Yes. You know, like historically speaking, tariffs have not worked. But this is the way he thinks. He also wants to weaken other countries around him. And he's, and he has the power to really weaken us. Hey, that's the scary thing.

Hey dog, think about it. Like how people think about disruptors in certain industries, people that want to go in and change the game and make things fundamentally different than the way that they found them. Think of it like that. It's not necessarily disrupting in a negative rep, the disruption is the, the impetus, the ethos behind it. And then that'll probably answer a lot of your questions. So get it back to the, the disruption is the impetus, the ethos behind it. And then that'll probably answer a lot of your

questions. So. Get it back to the sporting part of it. Well, yeah. I mean, imagine you're the Canucks right now and I know nobody's going to feel sorry for the owners. I'm just talking about from a business perspective, think about all the Canadian companies

that sell to the United States. Are they going to cut spending on things like seasons tickets, right? For their employees or for their clients. Is the unemployment rate going to rise? Are they going to be people like, I don't have a job, I'm certainly not buying tickets to go see the Canucks.

Are Canadian consumers just generally going to be more cautious? Like, all right, let's batten down the hatches a little bit here. Um, you know, we might want a bit of a rainy day fund here to build up. Um, I'd wager the answer is yes to all three of those questions.

Uh, I certainly, you know, let's talk about the white caps for a second here. I didn't like the chances of Vancouver keeping the white caps before these tariffs were enacted. I liked them even less now, just because you're going to ask someone to buy this team and operate it in an environment where the dollar's low and the, you don't have a great lease.

You don't have a lease at BC Place right now and it's only gonna last for a year longer. Do you think they'll have any success if these new owners come in and ask the government to build them a stadium or ask for help in building a stadium? There's no chance. Prove me wrong. The whitecaps, I expect them to relocate.

Doesn't make the white cap situation any more rosy. No. Also, you wanna, what was the dollar trading at as of like last night or this morning? High 60s. It's the lowest since 2003. Okay, so when the Grizzlies eventually left the market and the Canadian dollar, I mean, you talk to anyone

that followed that team at that time, and I don't think it was the primary reason, but it was certainly a factor. The exchange rate was 67 cents on the dollar, which is where we're at now. And it played him a definitely played a factor in that team leaving. Right? So if you want to talk about, I'm worried about Winnipeg. Yeah. So it's a fair and valid concern. I think it's a fair and valid conversation to have. And hey, you know what? Couple things. I understand that most listeners don't tune in to this program to hear elaborate conversations

and breakdowns of tariffs. I get that. And I appreciate that everyone's got different ideas. And I also appreciate that people aren't like, you're not gonna hear, you're not gonna hear what we're saying. I think that's probably the biggest issue with discourse around this right now

is that people are so ingrained and so dug in to their particular viewpoints that anything that sounds, sounds contrary to what they think is an argument. People texting in- Don't do it, don't do it. No, no, no, but I wanna explain. Jason, did you drink the MAGA Kool-Aid on the weekend?

It's like you're justifying tariffs. I'm trying to explain what his thinking is. I think that goes exactly to the point I just made though. Is that you in no way, were kinda justifying anything. I can't stand him. I think he represents- Why do you spoil the tariffs? I think he represents everything that is bad about Americans.

Celebrity obsessed, ignorant, and all about the sales. He's a hell of a promoter. I'll give him that. He's a hell of a promoter. I'll give him that. He's a hell of a promoter, but you know, morally he's terrible. Right. But like, I'm trying to like, what I don't think our leaders understand is how he thinks. They're like running around with their heads cut off. Let's fix the border.

It's not about the border. It's about the tariffs. Like people, they're like, well, is there anything we can do to, no. It might, and that's why he was. Doug Ford announced earlier today, they're closing the Starlink contract, which is something I guess. Okay.

I'm not Doug Ford guy either. I'm just saying. All right. That's, that's their response thus far. He, this is how he thinks. I'm just trying to explain. He's been talking about tariffs for the last 30 years.

He wants to wield his power as the president of the United States to weaken other countries, even if they're friends that helps. Like, okay, if you want to look up mercantilism, okay, Google that. What? Mercantilism. All right.

It was an old economic theory back in the day. I'm not going to talk about it anymore. You want to Google it, Google it. That's what I'm trying to look. It's like mercantilism. It's not mercantilism. Looked this up last night. Okay.

So I'm sorry if I went off there. No, no. It's like. No, it's good to explain it because it does relate to every Canadian and it also affects Canadian sports. So again, like the old Republican, when you think about Ronald Reagan, like those guys,

Ronald Reagan, Brian Mulroney, Margaret Thatcher, they're all very much free market people, right? They loved free trade. They loved trade. They hated unions. They were that type of conservative. This conservative is completely the opposite.

The mega conservative is a protectionist type. America first, there used to be America first down in the United States. It was led by Lindbergh and Lindbergh didn't want the United States to be part of the war and then Japan attacked to kind of force them into the war. Like they had America first protectionist policies, isolationism. Okay. Someone just said Joe and the Fort texts in, Bref could use a wolf blitz or 200 inch touchscreen to help get his point across.

We do need more. I find all this fascinating. No, I know. But if he's going to every day is what we learn, buddy. He should be able to point to a screen and like, yeah, should just be all there for him. I mean, I get I get why people would be averse to this kind of conversation on a sports show. But in this instance, it relates to sports, especially up in Canada, and it relates to every Canadian. We are all going to be affected by this, whether we are our left or right.

We like Trudeau, we hate Trudeau, and judging by the inbox, a lot of the latter, it doesn't matter what your political affiliation is with this because it's gonna affect your wallet and there's nothing you can do about it. So it's very relevant, especially in sports. Okay, we're gonna take a quick timeout here. We're gonna recollect, we're going to sift through

the virtual waste basket that is the Dunbar lumber tech message in basket, uh, coming up on the other side of the break, we're going to talk. No, no, we're going to talk. We're going to go even further a field. We're going to talk about the national basketball association.

One of the biggest trades in the history of the NBA was consummated on Saturday night when Luca Donchich was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis. There was other players involved as well. There's actually a third team involved as well. Marcus Fitzgerald, host of basketball central right here on Sportsnet 650. We'll break it all down for us and answer the big question. Why on earth would the Dallas Mavericks do this?

That's coming up next. Before we go to break, I need to yet again, yet again tell you about the Clayton Public House. Reserve your spot for the big football party at the Clayton Public House hosted by Sportsnet 650. Visit theclaytonpub.com for more Clayton Public House, good food, good people, good times. Marcus Fitzgerald joins us next on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. Let me tell you something. The only people know Luke LaDunzik is the Dallas Mavericks. Guys who have been with him for years, who are around him every day. He's a great player, he's a great player. But all us talking heads, they must know something we don't know.

Because listen, he's been hurt, everybody complains about his conditioning. But once you give a guy five years, $350 million, y'all are stuck together for life. 732 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination

for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for sales, financing, service or parts. We are now in our two of the program. What an hour or two it's been. It's only going to get better cause Marcus Fitzgerald from basketball central is going to join us in just a second here to talk some NBA. Our two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominock from Jason.mortgage. Here's an economics lesson for you.

If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him on the internet at jason.mortgage. So on Saturday night, one of the most stunning trades in NBA history, one of the most stunning trades in the history of sports went down.

Last year, Luka Doncic led the Mavericks to the NBA finals. They lost, but he and Kyrie Irving carried the team there. Was he important? Very. A few years ago, back in 2020, Anthony Davis won a championship, helped the Lakers win one back in 2020. And now they are switching teams in a move that stunned pretty much everyone in the league, including Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis. It is the first time in NBA history that two current all NBA players were traded for one another in season. It's never happened before. I'm trying to make you understand the scope of what happened over the weekend. It was a big, big deal to try and figure out why it happened. We bring in our next guest, Marcus Fitzgerald from basketball central,

right here on sports net six 50 joins the Halford and brush show on sports net six 50. What up, Fitzie? I'm really good guys. I'm great. It's, it's super bowl week, go birds and I have no idea why we would talk about the NBA I'm just kidding. No, it's it's stunning stunning. It's been it hasn't even been 48 hours yet I still haven't figured out why the Mavs would would would do this. It just it doesn't make any sense I didn't I didn't feel better about it when Nico Harrison Stoke to the media yesterday ahead of a game where the Mavs gave up 50 points in the first

quarter to Cleveland. It's just, it's still baffling on a Monday morning to me, it's nuts. Is there a bunch of stuff that we don't know that happened behind the scenes in Dallas? Because I mean, they're citing like this was done for culture reasons, which suggests to me that maybe Doncich wasn't on board with how they

wanted to go about their business in Dallas. I mean, I suppose, and you guys just played that sound from Charles Barkley. Funny, I was thinking about that this morning. I think Chuck has a bit of a point there and that clearly the Mavs must know something. There had to have been something that had happened. Obviously we're going through that here in

Vancouver, trying to put together the pieces after the JT Miller trade as well. But even guys with the guy like Doncic, who you mentioned, he helped lead them to the finals last year. He averaged 38 and 8 in the postseason a year ago. Listen, if I have a guy on my team who's going to average 30 points, eight rebounds and eight assists while also being a little bit chubby and a bit of a grump, uh, I will tolerate him being a bit chubby and being a bit of a grump.

I can't imagine. You know, what type of incident or something that may have gone down that would have convinced the mads. You know what? Hey, maybe we should move on from this guy who has made not only an incredible impact on the court in Dallas, but also off the court in Dallas, just kind of going through the Mavericks social media, their bloggers and writers and fans and what Luca meant to that area for the last seven years. I mean, think about this guy guys, the Mavericks are probably

third in the pecking order in Dallas behind the Cowboys and the Texas Rangers. And the reason the Mavs had even gotten that high is because of a global superstar like Luca. Not only does this change things on the court for the Mavs, but it also hurts their brand in a way. So I sure hope that at some point we see a story that would make us go, oh, okay, that's why they did it. We haven't seen it yet and it's been a day and a half. And again, I'm just, I'm at a loss. We're trying to figure that out.

We can assume that something happened behind the scenes, but you also almost hope that it did because it's pretty indefensible otherwise. Is it also the return that they got that is baffling? I mean, AD is, he's a great player, but he's 31. Uh, and you know, you could argue that his best years are behind him. Yes, you could, you could say that. Uh, guys, this would be like if the Canucks woke

up tomorrow and traded Quinn Hughes to Tampa Bay for Victor Hedman. Like Victor Hedman's a really good defenseman. He's very accomplished, but he's 34 years old. Why would the Canucks do that? It wouldn't make sense. That's, that's like, I was really trying to put like an NHL spin on it just for fun. And that's what I came up with. I've been trying to do it too, Fitzy. It's hard. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the other one I came up with, what if the Oilers decided to trade Leon Drysidle to Vegas for Mark Stone? Like, sure, you could do that and Mark Stone is accomplished, but why would you do that?

So that's those are the two that I came up with. No, like, look, A.D. is still a very good player. When he is healthy, he is extremely effective. In fact, up until he got hurt just last week, he had played in 42 of 42 games and the last full game that he played, he had 42 points and 22 boards against the Charlotte Hornets. I know it's a Charlotte Hornets, but still 42 and 22 is nothing to sneeze at. AD can still play the game. There's no doubt,

but he is not on the level of a Luca. If anything, this AD trade lowers their ceiling significantly. The floor is very set there obviously with AD and Kyrie Irving and some other nice pieces. But the other thing too guys with this Mavericks team is that every move they've made over the last half decade is to highlight Luka and bring the best out of Luka, that whole ecosystem. Luca as an offensive talent is his own offense. It's very heliocentric, but the Mavs have made a point to go out and get all these guys because they would fit with Luca. And now Luca, you take him out

of that solar system, I don't even know where they go. Like they had to play the league's best team in Cleveland yesterday, totally shell shocked. Nico Harrison, the GM talked about how defense wins championships, and what do they do? They went out there and they all have 50 points in the first quarter to Cleveland. So this is a PR mess for the Mavericks, and it'll probably only get uglier in the coming days.

Given everything you just said about Luka Doncic and how he plays the game and how much he requires the basketball and how the entire offense and a lot of the personnel was built around him. How on earth does he exist in Los Angeles with LeBron James? Well, I think in the immediate short term, it's going to be a lot of fun. These are two of the best on-ball creators we've ever seen. LeBron, without tampering, has suggested in the past that he would love to play with Luca. In fact when he was talking with Nike about you know

breaking things off and you know getting away from Nike and kind of turning things into his own brand a la you know Michael Jordan one of the first athletes that LeBron coveted to sign to his new line didn't happen. But it was Luca Doncic. He's always kind of admired the guy. Now the other side of this of course, Mike, is that everything we have read about and found out about would suggest that Luka did not ask for this. And typically in the NBA, when a star wants out,

there's literally a PR campaign of what happens. Like we didn't see any of this. This really came out of left field at 9.30 on a Saturday night, a little less. But look, if you've got Luka Doncic and LeBron James We didn't see any of this. This really came out of left field at 930 on a Saturday night, a little less. But look, if you've got Luka Doncic and LeBron James on the floor, you've got two basketball savants.

LeBron has wanted to play more off ball for years, even with Anthony Davis. He still has had to carry a lot of the playmaking load. So for LeBron James in the immediate short term, it's gonna be a lot of fun because now he can be that offball guy because you can just give it to Luca and figure it out short term. It hurts the Lakers defensively, but also short term. Hey,

LeBron and Luca are on the same team. Let's see how this works. I can't wait. What's your favorite conspiracy theory that you've heard so far? Mine was two. One is that the NBA wouldn't allow the Lakers to not have a global superstar because they're assuming that LeBron is going to leave at the end of the year and he'll go elsewhere. So that's a good one. And the other one was that ratings are so bad and the NBA product is so terrible right now that the league orchestrated the biggest trade in league history to try and boost ratings. I usually hate conspiracy theories, but I'm on here. Yeah, I got two of them. I got two of them, one in each pocket.

Well, you know, I'm not really a conspiracy theory guy, but I will say that of the brand of conspiracy theories I choose, it's always the NBA. I've been that way for about 25 years. I've been that way since the Grizzlies left. I love a good NBA conspiracy theory. I think the wildest one that I heard was that the Mavs were trying to tank the franchise value somehow so they could move to Vegas when in fact Vegas has been pushing for an expansion team for years. I think that's the wildest one I've

heard because that's insane. There's no way that would occur. The other hilarious thing to all these guys is people realizing that mark Cuban does not make the day-to-day decisions with the Dallas Mavericks anymore I think people realize that for the first time because the mark Cuban was still in charge. There's no way there was actually a quote That Cuban had and I'm paraphrasing a little bit. It was basically asked. Hey, you know Keeping Luca Donchich with the Mavs or your wife. And Mark Cuban said something along the lines of, well, if it came down to that, you can catch me and my lawyer's office getting ready for a divorce. There's no way that Luke is leaving Dallas.

So there's a lot of moving parts and a lot of conspiracies. And it's fun. Although I will say this too, I feel bad for the people in Dallas because there were even bloggers, Mavericks bloggers who said yesterday, hey, we've got this Mavericks blog and this podcast network that we make money off of and we're able to feed our families because Luca Donsich is on this team and he brings in that interest. And now Luca's walked out the door and I talked about ecosystem and universe of Luca on the court. You go off the court in Dallas, that trickle down effect, this affects everybody in that organization. So it's just, again, not-down effect, this affects everybody in that organization. So it's just, again, not to repeat myself, but it's bananas that they would make this

deal. Well, also that they didn't shop him around to try and leverage one deal against another and negotiating it the best deal they possibly could. By all accounts, this was- They called all the other teams and none of them were interested. Right. They didn't. They called one team the Lakers and made a deal with one team the Lakers.

Of course they got the Jazz involved in the three team trade but to me that's part of the reason why there's gotta be something more to this because any halfway decent general manager is saying, I have one of the most prized assets, not in basketball but in sports, a global icon. I am trying to get the world in return for him, not just 31-year-old

Anthony Davis. Sure. And then Mikhail Bridges went from Brooklyn to the Knicks, and there were five draft picks and pick swaps that changed hands. There have been a number of trades of stars in the NBA where teams just give out draft picks like candy. This was an instance where not only did the Mavs not shot Luca around, it was basically Nico Harrison calling up his old buddy Rob to Lincoln going,

Hey, Rob, hey, Rob, what if we did this? And I was like, No, get out here. What are you talking about? Like, no, what if we actually did this? And then two weeks later, it materialized. And it happened. It's just, it's it's organizational malpractice. And it's it's funny because Nico Harrison last year did such a terrific job with moves around the edges, bringing in, you know, a guy like P.J. Washington, a guy like Daniel Gafford to help the Mavs get to the finals. And then after coming up just short last spring, they go out and sign Clay Thompson. Now, Clay is not the two-way beast he once was, but he was literally brought into Dallas to stand in the

corner and shoot open threes based off of the attention that Luka Donsich would draw. So, Harrison has gone from this really smart guy, he's an ex-Nike exec, and you know, really, really intelligent, he made all these moves. okay, he's built this possibly perennial finals contender, and he just blew it up because reasons, I guess, I don't know, he's a little chubby sometimes, he gets a bit grumpy, and again, like Barclay said, maybe they know something about his calf muscle, maybe they know something we don't, but again, I hope that they know something we don't because this still does not make any sense almost 48 hours later. Well, it was one of the more stunning things I've ever heard at 9 30 on a Saturday night. I can say that and I'm glad you were able to do this this morning, Fitz. We really appreciate your insight. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Enjoy the rest of the week and whatever

the NBA has in store moving forward. Appreciate you guys. Go birds. Thanks buddy. Marcus Fitzgerald hosts a basketball central right here and whatever the NBA has in store moving forward. Appreciate you guys, go birds. Thanks buddy. Marcus Fitzgerald, host of Basketball Central right here on Sportsnet 650. It is funny, it's like Super Bowl week and we're like, oh, whatever, we'll get to that game eventually.

Thursday and Friday, okay? Well, you can only contextualize so many things. My God, this has been a very eventful weekend. Okay, so Dallas Mavericks fans are sitting there going, why? Yep. Why did this happen? And they're probably saying, did something happen? Correct.

Are we still curious about what happened with the Canucks and JT Miller? Like does that, are people still, I know, listen, I know how the listeners are, there's going to be a segment of people that are, we got to move on, like quickly. Well, you know, like why are we even talking about JT Miller anymore? He's not on the team.

But there's also probably a segment of people who are like, I'm still curious. I want to know. And I know Elliot talked a little bit about the trade on the 32 Thoughts podcast and he alluded to something that happened after the Nashville game in November. And that was when JT Miller was benched.

The Canucks ended up losing the game five to three and Miller played under 12 minutes that night. Shortly thereafter, it was a 10 day leave of absence, or at the time. 10 game. It was a 10 game, sorry. At that time though, it was an indefinite leave of absence. Correct. And Tauke had said, don't speculate guys.

It's got nothing to do with the benching. He's a family member here. We're going to support him. He's a family member here. We're going to support him. Now people in the media had all heard certain things like something did happen after the Nashville game, but even Elliot has said, I've heard a few different versions.

Nobody will confirm anything. Nope. Can confirm that nobody will confirm. I wonder how important it was for JT Miller to have a really good reference on the Rangers. Vincent Trotschek, maybe his best friend in the NHL and I had heard that JT eventually got to the point where he wanted out.

He didn't request, I mean, it's kind of like, you know, did he actively walk up and say, I want to be traded? No, I think both sides came to an understanding. Like this is not tenable. You're not happy here. You don't seem happy. Go get a fresh start somewhere else. And he's like, you know, I'd be happy with New York. You're not happy here. You don't seem happy.

Go get a fresh start somewhere else. And he's like, you know, I'd be happy with New York. And he got to. I've been there before. I got a really good buddy on the team. And I think that might make it easier for me. And that's what happened. But for him to say like, I did not request a trade, it's kind of semantics, right?

Eventually it was understood between both parties that a trade was the best thing to happen. Do we still care why? Yeah, and everyone always will. It'll go down when we write the Halford and Bruff book, it'll go down as one of the more bizarre chapters in a franchise that's got a lot of bizarre chapters already written in its own novel. It is going to be one of those things where people look back and

say in the span of six or seven months the Canucks went from being again and remember Johnny Goodtimes last year 50 plus team, third best regular season in franchise history and they've been playing hockey for over 50 years. One win away from going from the conference final. We're back baby, we're so back. Playoff hockey's back in the city, the juice is back, the vibes are back, everyone's excited and in the span of six or seven months

it all, it went sour and pear shaped and toxic. People are always gonna be fascinated and curious, that morbid curiosity, but what happened? How did it go wrong? Well, there had to be more. There's gotta be more to the story. What's being forwarded to my phone right now? Why is this in my group chat?

All this stuff, right? This is very salacious. All of this stuff, and part of it is the seedy underbelly of being the biggest and only show in town. Having as passionate and as frenzied a fan base as the Canucks do, right? You talked about it when we talk about the economy

of the National Hockey League and franchise valuations, the reason that the Canucks are worth the amount that they are is because it is the most powerful brand in the province, probably. When it comes to passion of its clientele and customers. Some of the rumors I've seen are like, it reminds me of the Corey Perry suspension in Chicago.

Sure. Times a million. How Connor Bidart driven it. And you see these rumors and you're like, it's pretty outrageous, but it's believable, right? And that's what makes a perfect rumor, right? You're like, I could kind of see that happening,

but all I'll say is like, I don't know what happened, but all I'll say is like, be careful with what you pass around and be careful with that, like, again, the perfect rumor, and it doesn't have to be true. In fact, most of the time it's not, is something that's like outrageous, but still somewhat believable. Yep.

You know? So. Something that you- Just be cautious with that. Yeah. I, and I agree fully. And we have an odd position in all of this because we talk about it, liberally, I might add, for hours every morning. And you want to acknowledge what's out there without breathing any oxygen into it. That's a very difficult thing to do.

But I, one thing I'm like very, very certain of is that you have not heard the last of the Pedersen and Miller rift. Well, here's a question that came in from LJ into the Dunbar Lumber text line. And just a reminder to send your, what we learns in for the 8.30 segment. Okay.

LJ says, do you think Petey's trade value will crater if they wait till June to trade him? So let's say that, I don't know, he made the trade, the trade deadline passes, the Canucks. Let's say they make the playoffs, they lose in the first round and Petey still looks the way he looks right now, which is to say quite ineffective for a guy that's reached the levels that Pederson has in his career.

How many other teams are going to be willing to take on that risk? And could the Canucks sell the story of, which they've already kind of tried to start doing? It's like, you know, he just needs to really get in the gym in the off season. And maybe he needs, they could sell, maybe, you know, he needs a system that's more amenable

to his offensive talents. Maybe he needs a change of scenery. How many teams out there, and remember like things will have happened. Try to, try to put yourself in the shoes of yourself after Petey has continually not gotten better as the regular season has progressed. And then they go into the playoffs and

he has not done much. Like, I think that's a good question for LJ to ask. Because, you know, then it will be, and again, we're not saying this is going to happen, but we're saying this is the, this is the, the risk that the Canucks are taking. You know, so you've gone a year and a half

essentially without Pedersen, um, performing at the level they expect him to. Miller's long gone at that point. So that excuse is gone. I'm sure the coaching staff will have tried everything to try and get them going, played them with everything, everyone they can. At that point, what position are the Canucks in?

It's time now for Case of the Mondays, brought to you by Coors Light. Uh oh, sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays. This goes out to all of the Dallas Mavericks fans out there. You know, it's a tough thing watching a fan base mourn in the aftermath of a trade, but it's extra sad when that fan base was caught totally off guard like Dallas Mavericks fans were on Saturday night. Sunday, they got to wake up knowing that their beloved superstar, global icon, Luka Doncic is gone. No longer. They also had to go to Cleveland

to take on one of the best teams in the National Basketball Association in a game with this sort of funeral effect to the point where some Dallas Mavericks fans showed up in front of the arena with a coffin. Did everyone see this? Three of them had their own little funeral procession. Don't know if it was for Luca or for the franchise at large, but the Dallas Mavericks had to go out on Sunday and in a nail biter lost 144 to 101 to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Cleveland Cavaliers were up 50 plus points in that game. It felt like the Mavs and their fans and their players were all dead men walking at that point. Like the after effects of that trade just rocked the entire organization. Hey, you know how we talk about the, the, the pressure on Pedersen here.

What's the pressure on AD going to Dallas? A lot. Well, will they? Yes, because Nico Harris said- It wouldn't be fair to blame him. You blame the GM, you blame the ownership. But one of the talking points from the general manager was that he thought that the AD

acquisition gave them a better chance to win right now. Well obviously, yeah. Let me repeat that. He's 31. Let me repeat that though. Instead of having Luka Doncic, who helped you get to the NBA finals last year, the general manager said, the new guy gives us a better

chance to win right now. And I think a lot of people would say, but the previous guy got us to the finals. That's really close to winning. So there's a lot of pressure on AD right now. But for Dallas Mavericks fans, we show you out for this case of the Mondays. Case of the Monday stories are brought to you by Coors Light.

Go to CoorsLight.ca forward slash Case of the Mondays to see the Coors Light Case of the Mondays. Limited edition Monday light packaging. Scan the QR code on your case to enter for a chance to win a trip to two to the 2026 big game event in California. You must be 21 years of age or older. No purchase necessary. For full contest details, visit CoorsLiteMondays.com forward slash win a trip for cold mountain refreshment. CoorsLite, the chill choice. You're listening to the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.