The Dumb Zone FREE - Dan's they/them story, RIP NBA Centel, and Operation Big Gulp | DZ 2-27-25

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Hear the entire show by subscribing to The Dumb Zone at DumbZone.com or Patreon.com/TheDumbZoneWe finally get to Dan's kick ass they/them story teased to us yesterday, more letters from Dan's time in Ohio radio, the debut of The Handoff, and some Bad Beats and a birth in our Big Thursday Viewer Mail Bag ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hey now! What you are about to hear is a free preview of one of this week's premium episodes of The Dumb Zone. If you would like to hear this program in full, along with the full archive... Ah, shit. If you would like to hear this program in full, with the archive of all of our past episodes, you can subscribe at DumbZone.com. I want him here. Of course. I would rather have them ride it out

and then it somehow flames out and it's Lucas fault than to have it like this. And I don't care if he flames out and balloons up and fattens up and he's out of the league in three years in LA. This is still a bad trade. Of course. Nothing more.

And what does this do? You know how Cuban used to try and do everything, and it didn't necessarily work, but to show the world that this is a top-notch, first-class franchise, and if you're a possible free agent or somebody that wants to, you know, Dallas would be a great place for you to go. You're going to be treated awesome. So there's a couple things.

One, as far as Nico considered that, he's only considering it for the next two and a half to four years. So he's not concerned about like, well, guys come here past Kyrie and Anthony Davis. He thinks his ship here is dying with LeBron or excuse me, AD and Kyrie and Anthony Davis. He thinks his ship here is dying with LeBron and, or excuse me, AD and Kyrie. So he's assuming guys are just gonna wanna come play with them for the next two years because they're still Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. Like that's the first part. And the other part is, if you,

this is my message to the get over it crowd for the day. I know that a lot of people around here did witness the 90s and were adults or teenagers for the 90s and know how bad it can get. But I also think in general, we forget in this town that we're basically like the Packers over the last 20, 25 years.

You don't get to have a franchise cornerstone who's a Hall of Fame player who can lead you to a title and then get the next one with an overlap. That does not happen. So maybe the Packers have only won a couple Super Bowls during that time, but they were always in the mix. And I would actually say if you compared their relative spots in the sport, Favre and Rodgers and Dirk are all about the same.

Luca may be on a level above that, but you had that continuity, and I think a lot of people around here are in for a rude awakening two, three years from now. There's a fucking wilderness out there in the NBA, man. It's half the league. Now, you may be in a bigger market out there in the NBA, man. It's half the league. Now you may be in a bigger market than most of those teams, but you just pulled some real small market stuff.

Go ask Philly how this worked. They lost 400 games over four, five seasons. Go ask Charlotte. They nailed the Lomelo ball pick. You think they're looking forward to Hornets basketball out there? New Orleans got Zion, how's that working out? Portland got Dane, they were good for a while.

You know where they are now? They've won 12 games. I don't think people understand. And on top of that, it's not like the Mavericks are sitting with a ton of draft capital to make this work. Typically, you don't just catch lightning in a bottle like you did with Luka. Typically, you got to stack a ton of top five picks. Most of them suck relative to what you think they're going to be.

So for everyone who's in get over it mode now, let's talk in 2028 because you're going to be a lottery team. You're going to have a different GM who can't be worse, but still it's going to be a new group. Who's going to, I mean, how do you build a franchise from where they are right now? They're going to suck unless they get incredibly lucky again. People don't understand. People will stop caring about basketball in this city. It's a Cowboys town. The Mavericks have to have something they can sell to keep this market engaged. And that isn't just like kind of being a six or seven seed. They have to have a face and they're about to not have one.

I saw a report that the Saturday game against the Bucks was supposed to be on ESPN and they pulled that. Well copy and paste. It's gonna happen all year both ways. I guess the Lakers were probably already pretty primetime but they're more now. The ticket prices for every game other than the Lakers games are through the floor. You can get in, hey, take your family, folks. The... You know, Cuban selling and that Dumont taking over, it's kind of a, oh, this is what it's like?

You know, he- Yes. They'd never experienced the, even the years between the championship and drafting Luka, never getting out of the first round in the playoffs. Still, you had Dirk and you were in the playoffs. And his take on last season was that they weren't really a playoff team

until the brilliant Nico Harrison pulled some strings and made some sweet trade deadline day deals. And that's what made them into a finals team. Not the one guy who led the entire NBA in steals, points. I guess if they believe that, then we're watching a different game. But also we know it's not just that. Not the one guy who led the entire NBA in steals, points. I guess if they believe that, then, you know, we're watching a different game. But also we know it's not just that.

It's a bunch of, it's all this other BS that came with it. And I'm tired of talking about that part of it, but they're not. That's the weird thing. That's the weird part about it. And so yeah, in our story of the day, it's on the athletic yesterday. The opening line of the story,

or one of the first paragraphs was, give Harrison credit for this much. The 52 year old former Nike executive is, as you surely have heard by now, a man of great conviction. You know, every one of these stories has to give him some kind of credit. No, I'm with you. It's annoying, but it's an interesting thing to say about somebody, right?

He's a man of great conviction. I would say the same thing about like Jeffrey Dahmer. Like it's really tough to be a mass murderer without a pretty narrow vision and insane commitment to your job. It's just that everyone around you is like, I think you're doing that probably wrong, but you're very convicted about it. Hell, I mean.

The whole world was kind of against Hitler, but I mean, give the guys. Pretty convicted, 9-11 hijackers. There had to have been a few people being like, that seems, you guys are crazy. And they're like, we're convicted about it though. So give him his credit. And you know what? They kept that under wraps.

You never knew about it until it happened. It's very true. A lot of times there's leaks on those things. Yeah, yeah. It gets snuffed out, but not this time or that time. Oh, this sucks. They both play tonight. Pretty fired up. Get to watch Luca and Aunt battle it out tonight like we were supposed to get to watch for 10 years. Is that on... that's probably on TNT right? I don't know if tonight's a national night in general or what but but I mean, it'll be

available. NBA TV will have it for sure. And hey, I can watch Luka on NBA TV now. I saw someone else put this out there. I'll try to paraphrase, but I felt the same way. Everything went as I wanted it to go the other night. Luka had a good game. The they ended up, Mavs ended up losing. Nico chants. And at the end, I still really just felt empty. It wasn't like I felt, oh, this is cool. What happened? What I wanted to happen, happened tonight. Yeah. It was, that is what I wanted to have happen. But even if Luca had put up 70, I think it would have been just like.

It's gonna be that way for a while. But he'll win a championship at some point and they won't. That'll feel good. Look, basically it's just, it's like a prison sentence. I know that in five years, Nico Harrison will not be the GM of the Mavs. And at that point, there's a chance I'm back in. Also, the get over it thing.

I need the owner to go to though. It's very hard to get over something that is just going to be in our face all the time. Yes. Yeah, he's a Laker. Had you sent him, send him to the East even. Whatever, even the Knicks. Send him to a good team in the East. send him to the East even. Whatever, even the Knicks. Send him to a good team in the East. Send him to the Celtics, it wouldn't be like this. Like it's the glitziest, most in your face organization

and everything all the time. Dan, it's the place that we were always worried he'd flee for. That's the problem, is that we were all worried, what if he just wants to go to LA? And he didn't. That's the part. You got a euro from you know 16 years old on who's living in a big city, he came here and didn't immediately say like I really want to try to get out of here. You sent them there.

So what's next on the show today? Yeah, so we'll start into our Luca free Friday on Thursday today. Right now. Right now and then tomorrow we're not doing a program. Yeah. Because it's business Friday. Although we did a little bit of business yesterday afternoon.

That was a killer call that I think you really performed well with Lone Star Beer. I appreciate it and agree. Yeah. Couldn't have done it without you, pal. Lift each other up. So on our program today, I'm looking at the run sheet. We have closing remarks with Daniel and Ryan. Did you know? My name is Daniel Ryan McDowell.

Wow, that bro. It's all connected. Wow. The other day we had Dan and Craig in here. Everything revolves around me. It's been a good week. Another year of Dan. We of course will have your news and today in history. We're gonna do viewer mail today.

Says here, Blake Bitt. Let's hit the Blake Bitt right now. We're going to do viewer mail today. Says here, Blake Bitt. Let's hit the Blake Bitt right now. We'll hit some beats later. Ladies and gentlemen, we now, you are listening to subscriber only content with Blake. Blake Basketball Jones. Rawr! Thank you, Beth. Yeah Basketball Jones. Rawr!

Thank you, Beth. Yeah, very good. Thank you. So I had a gummy thought a couple months ago that I felt like I was turning into a guy that wants to establish the run. Whether it be complaining about neighbors and their walking habits around my neighborhood

or just how kids should act these days. Who can play what sport? Eh, sure. But it just felt like a guy that maybe said, you know, if we need a yard, why not give it to the fullback? Yeah. And so I thought I was hitting my establish the run phase. And over the last few months, I realized I am. Yeah.

So I thought we needed a segment. And I'm calling it the handoff. The handoff. Did your own voice? Yeah, fantastic. Why would he not? I will begin. I've got a few things written down here where things have been bugging me lately. So is this kind of things I'm done with? No, this is the handoff. No, this is the handoff. OK.

And if subbies want to participate, email us at thedumbzone at gmail.com. But these are things that bother you? These are things that bother me as Establish the Run guy. Yeah. Like, they might not have bothered you. And they might not bother anyone else. 10 years ago, 15 years ago.

I think the people in my camp right now will understand. Okay. And so these are not just wide observations. These are things that have happened to me in the last couple months that I would like to complain about. And the first is I bought an HP printer. And no longer can you just buy HP ink. You need a subscription. What? You need a subscription to HP Inc. You need a subscription. What?

You need a subscription to HP Inc. Oh my god. So I got suckered in. I thought, well, I bought this $100 printer. I got to play by their rules. And it says, you know, price is as low as $150 a month. But $150? That's like two cartridges.

No, no, no, $1.50. Oh. So I thought, I don't know, what, 20, 25 bucks, sure, whatever. So basically they charge you by how much you print. And so for my range, I needed about 100 pages a month because it's like 10 to 50 to 100. Actually, now this seems genius actually.

But that's $7 a month for 100 pages. That's probably about right. I mean, a cartridge is like $70. Not the ones that I was using. And so it hit a couple of months where I hit my over and I was paying like $11 or $12 per month for ink. And I thought, I don't wanna do this anymore. Can I ask a really dumb question?

Sure. How do they, I mean, the ink is physically there. You go buy the actual cartridge, right? That's a great question, Jake. So what are they gonna throttle it on you? I'm glad you asked that question. Okay. Because I don't know, I saw my charges for my credit card,

I saw HP ink, 1212, I'm like, okay, at this rate, this is not worth it. Let me just go back to just buying physical ink once or twice a year, and I won't have to be shackled by paying per page, which was insane to me. So I canceled. F you HP, I'm gonna go off the grid.

They locked up my printer ink. Oh, what? What does that mean? Apparently, they know which ink cartridge they've sent you. And so I could not print with that ink anymore. So I thought, you know what, I can outsmart them because I recycle my ink cartridges and I tore off their little QR code

and was going to slip it on the new ink. And they still knew. Somehow. It's like a gun. So with all of this, you've probably lost quite a bit of money. Yeah. In time.

Because you went and bought a new cartridge to use. Again, are you not still a little bit confused, Dan? Are you saying that the printer now comes with a stock of print in it, and it just goes on forever as you pay for it? Like, don't you still have to physically replace that cartridge at some point? Or they probably mail it to you.

They can monitor your levels. Okay, so then they'll just send you? And so when you get low, they'll ship you a new one. Which is a part of the package, but ultimately it ended up being more expensive had I just gotten the cartridges on its own. God. So I ripped that damn thing out of the wall,

pitched it on my porch, and I'm done with HP. The whole thing. Now you've thrown away the computer or the printer even though it works. It's a working printer. It's about principles, Dan. Yeah. I've told you guys the story.

I'm not going to be held down by HP anymore. Once upon a time, but my very countryside of the family, my grandfather lives out on a farm. My mom and a lot of her siblings, not all, but most of my mom's siblings got together and bought him a huge TV. This is like probably 1997, so that he could watch NASCAR. But he, even though NASCAR's not on cable,

because of where they lived, he had to watch it on satellite to get the real effect of the big TV, right? So they had a satellite dish set up. He canceled that service about two months later, and for at least the next 10 years, there was like a 65-inch TV there that never turned on. They literally had it for like two months, and he's like, I got crossways with the company.

Respect. Probably like a $7,000 TV and I time any seven yeah yeah that's principal all right so that's my first one HP screw you oh I like a hit it and quit it like bit the handoff. Yeah All right next. Oh, there's more. Okay, that's not typically how that would go. But sure I got a couple here saying that's his first one today today. Yeah, I got a couple these build up Okay, but the open again. Anyways, who am I? I'm not this is the handoff. I'm here to eat We all know where I heard this but I had issue with what was being said right here. I would like to play it for you. You're going to discover why this upset me pretty early.

Are trampolines safe? No. In fact, more than a decade ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement strongly recommending that kids and teens do not use recreational trampolines Some of these injuries are serious head and neck injuries or even damage to internal organs Now if you are gonna let your kids hop up on a trampoline They're gonna be safest if they are jumping by themselves

And if they forego any boring tricks as well like flips or somersaults oh hey I also want to inspect the trampoline to make sure there's not any holes that the pads aren't worn out that there's no hooks or springs sticking out and that there's netting all around hey cut it with the tricks okay hey hey little fancy over there and make sure the next do it you fancy it play break the egg. Just sit on it. So we're not allowing our kids to jump on trampolines anymore?

Let me tell you something. This is why she lost. Wind it back eight years. This is why Hillary Clinton lost an election. People like Sanjay Gupta. Seriously. Yeah. I mean, first of all, not all,

but most people on a trampoline now have the border around it. Yeah. I mean, first of all, not all, but most people on a trampoline now have the border around it. Yeah. So it's fine. Yeah, I mean, it seems it doesn't cut down on fun much and it increases safety, but beyond that, like, I'm missing the heck out of our trampoline right now. It's a great time, it's good exercise. It's good for coordination. First, don't jump on the trampoline, but if you're going to, jump by yourself with a net

and have it inspected before you get on. Are you kidding me? And just jump straight up and down. That's the saddest thing I've ever heard. Stay away from the edge. You know what I think would really help society if kids just exclusively went and did solo jumps on a trampoline and only jumped up and down.

Dude, we were putting our trampoline by the pool. That's the most copy-dest thing I've ever heard. Of course. Jumping into the pool. We were shoving our friends off trampolines. We were playing tackle man with a football on a trampoline. Listen, if you could get a trampoline in between a house and a pool, and you could

get on top of that house, and you could jump from house, from roof to pool, or the trampoline to pool, you're living. But this nerd's over here. Yeah, I could not believe that. He's a dork. Yeah, shut up, Sanjay. He's always been like the Indian Obama to me.

Like, yes, he's super brilliant, he's probably right, he's healthy, but also it's just like, come on, quit being a dweeb. And my final one for today. Like Sanjay Gupta definitely has rubber weights in his house. Like you know the little rubber purple eight pounders that you just do? Yeah.

And there's nothing wrong with those, but come on. So I had to take my dad to the outlet mall. He is the one that has to return stuff for the wife. He had a couple packages, wasn't going to be there long, but it was on the way back home from softball. So I dropped him off and I was going to circle around. Wait, your dad comes with you to softball? We're on the same team.

OK. That's why I play out there. OK. How's his ops play out there. OK. How's he, how's his ops? Uh, it's better. Where are they playing him? First. OK.

You think he's holding up his end of the deal over there? I think he's doing great. OK. I think he's doing great. All right, we're one and three, so I feel like looking at everything is. Did the nut fall far? I mean, does he got some pop?

He's lost a little bit, but in his day, yeah. He can go deep? No, not anymore. But he could? Yeah. Okay. Anyway, so drop him off and I start circling and I've got an issue with

how people walk out of stores of an outlet mall. I'm in a multi-ton vehicle. Why don't you look both ways before you cross? Why don't just assume that people are just gonna stop for you? The world doesn't revolve around you. I could run you over. Man.

Respect my car. There's something to this. And I give you a pass if you have kids, although it's annoying, but man, the number of people that will walk just down the middle of a parking lane in a department store or the grocery store, it's astounding to me. You're like, how close can I get to them

before they realize there's a, you know, as Blake said, a very lethal vehicle right behind you. Just move, park it up, walk over. I feel like this is a case where Blake would then, if somebody was doing that, walking in the middle of the lane, and you might be talking about people just leaving the store walking right out. It's both. But I bet you would drive a little extra close to them. Yeah.

And then what's going to happen some days, they will not be paying attention. You'll run over their foot or something and break their foot. And then you're going to run out and go, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't. It was my fault. You know what they're going to do? They're going to be like, that's cool. Why don't you talk to the Frankles?

That's right. And they'll just hold you a phone. They're like, oh, you have tricks? They know. That's right. Yeah. I do have an issue with the people walking in the middle. Your angle needs to be a little bit better.

But just in driving around, someone would just walk out of the exit and just, you gotta yield to me. I'm a big peace sign guy. Like when I'm leaving, he knows, when I'm leaving the store, if there's a car coming and I'm about to go, I just kind of give him the, so thanks.

Oh, okay, I never do the peace sign, but I do the head nod. Yeah, thanks, sorry. Yeah, just give him a little bit. I never just dart out. You're doing the peace sign, you gotta go tongue in the middle. Right, I'm leaving this grocery store and I never just dart out. You're doing the peace sign, you gotta go tongue in the middle. Right.

I'm leaving this grocery store and I will eat you out. Right. That's the message you want to send. Make sure that everyone is on the same page. Well, there is the first edition of the handle. Wow, dude. Call the sponsors. Wow.

That is SOC right there. P.I. production. No, no, no, I'm done. That's pretty good. The Dungs are done.