The Dumb Zone FREE - DZ 8-7-25 PREVIEW | Luka Donkicks in New York City and Jared Sandler

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

To hear the full episode, subscribe to the show at DumbZone.com or Patreon.com/TheDumbZoneBlake Bostwick shares his experience going through New York City with Luka Doncic on his recent trip. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hey now, what you were 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. He says he's back. Do we want to... What's our move here? Okay. All right. Let's pop them on. It's Blake Bostwick. We have a spotty internet. Oh, my, he has gone from his office.

He's a teacher, I believe. And so I think he's on lunch break now. Although kids aren't even in school yet, are they? No, not until next week. Okay. So it's all just prepping. It's writing that email that says, we need you to bring a box of Kleenex.

And what grade do you teach? So I actually, I was a P.E. teacher and coach football, basketball, everything. And now I just do P.E. once we start having kids, as you know, the coaching life takes up a lot of time. And so now I just do P.E. It does make sense, though, that the P.E. teacher would be a coach more than the history teacher being a coach. But I digress. But that now we can talk about the president.

We can keep talking presidential physical fitness award because I guess you have to be the one administer that? What do you know about that? Yeah, so I think we do the thing here in Texas called the fitness gram, which TCJ, I'm sure you guys are familiar with, but kind of along those lines, there's a running test, there's a strength test via push-ups and sit-ups, flexibility test. We don't have the rope anymore. We don't do that. Did that growing up, but we don't even have a rope in our gym. So I think it's, it's more so along those lines, but I think some states didn't even do that. What if we just, like, spitballing, we added, like, the power clean. Hey, I'm here for it. Okay. Well, since I started intro in this audio and you're with us

and you're a gym teacher, P-E-T, I don't know, is it demeaning to call you a gym teacher? Is that like calling a cop a cop and not a plea? Okay. Anyway, so Trump's talking about it. We have It's hard to say some sports names. Why don't you enjoy this with us? And then we'll get back to the Lucas story. But I was intro in this here. He's talking the other day. And there's a bunch of athletes there.

He's talking about there are some guys that aren't there. I think he was just recognizing Anika Sorenstam, who is there in the White House at this press conference as well. And he continues to talk. He's a fantastic person to NFL icons. Tony Romo also. So just so you know, that's an NFL icon. if you're wondering. He's a fantastic person, too.

NFL icons. Tony Romo, also a great football player, quarterback, also a great golfer. Nick Bosa, you know him. He's a modern-day version of Lawrence. What do you think? He's pretty good, right, Lawrence? Pretty good. He is.

Sequin Barclay was on the council. That's a little controversial because Sequin Barclay put out a statement saying, I'm not on the console. They kind of asked me, but I don't want to do it. All right, you ready? This is why we're here. Yeah. And Tua Tag Ovalia, the quarterback.

So if you just, you looked at it, it would be. It would be Tago, well, it would be Tagoviloa phonetically, right? Look. I'm not bashing Trump here. Can you imagine I'm not sure I often will just go with Tua Yeah

That's fine But I just do think But it's fun to hear people say his name He's got to practice it first That aren't football announcers That's all you got to do Practice he doesn't do TWAia

Person writing the speech Needs to write down Tongaviloa Like you can just Right phonetically Yeah Right Anyway

Now we get back to Blake, who is Luca Dongkicks. I think you were in the middle of telling the story about just how you got even noticed by Luca's people, right? Or Luca himself? Yeah, so I heard you talking, Jake. So, yeah, before he signed with the Jordan brand, I had made him a pair of shoes.

I didn't really know if my plan was going to work, but I had made him a pair of shoes. It kind of combined elements from, you know, Slovenia and Dallas in him. And I emailed Mark Cuban. I said, hey, you know, I made these pair of shoes for Luca. Is there any way maybe I could get him to him? And then we'll just see what happens. And so he got right back to me. He said, here's who you need to talk to. So I talked to a few people. Well, I end up meeting one of the Mavericks employees before a Sunday afternoon game. I met him like three hours before the game. And I gave him the shoes. And he said,

okay, I'll put him in Lucas Locker. We'll see what happened. So my wife and I go out to lunch. He texts me. He's like, hey, he just got here and he's wearing him for the shoot around. I was like, oh, whoa. Wow. That's incredible. I was like, there's no

going to wear him for the game. And then sure enough, we get to the game and he runs out of the tunnel and he's wearing him. So that was just kind of insane. And ballet sports at the time when they were around, and they kind of did a little deal on that.

And then it's just kind of gone from there. Okay, so that's, so Luca actually wore your shoes. Now he knows you exist. And are you in contact with his people then? Are you now a guy that's like in the, I don't know how, the universe of Luca? Yeah, I guess I don't know what it's like how many people Luca has, but I remember the guy painting a mural.

Remember the controversial mural? he said he was contacted by their people and they wanted him to do this so he did it and he has a yes he has a manager yeah so at that point I really wasn't in contact with his people but a couple seasons later you know during Lucas time with the Mavs I've been kind of collecting some memorabilia here and there and I actually did a like a sneaker drive So I sold online raffle tickets for some of the stuff that Luca had signed. And with that money, we got shoes, Luca's shoes for kids in the area. So whenever I did that, we had some money left over.

And I found his manager, I think, on LinkedIn. And I sent her a message, you know, hey, here's what I did. We have some money left over. Maybe we could donate it to Lucas Foundation. So I did that. And then I met her at a Maverick game. And so I met her there and gave her a check. And so I've kind of known her since then.

I'm talking, you know, here and there. But I never met Luca in person. His time with the Mavs, I think I asked two times. You know, I was just like, hey, if there's any chance. But it was always, no, we can't do it. But funny enough, whenever the Mavs came back, or when the Lakers came into town, Luca's return game. I didn't go at the game. I was priced out. So Jake, I was jealous of him, man, that she got to go.

But the next day, he had an event at Dick's sporting goods. I actually didn't know about it. But one of my buddies, his friend was a manager at that Dix. And he texts me while I was of work. He's like, hey, you going to this Luca event? I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, yeah, Luca's going to be at this Dix. Right by North Park Mall, you should go. but it told me the first 75 people are going to be let in. So I went there right after work. When I got there, there's three tickets left. So I was able to get one.

And then I'd gotten to know one of his Jordan brand guy who's like always with him. I'd talk to him on Instagram for years, but never met. I had his number, but I never texted him. We always talk on Instagram. I just took a picture of the event and texted to him. I'm just like, hey, man, I'm excited for this event. Well, a few minutes later, he comes and taps me on the shoulder. in town for the game. He was like, you know, hey Blake, let's go meet Luca. So from right

there, I go meet Luca. I'm talking with his dad. We're walking with a security escort through Dix. I'm like, I don't know if I belong here. So it just happened so fast. And I heard you guys talking about the character thing. This was a little thing, but I think it kind of, it meant a lot to me. But anyway, we were going through the store. I talked to Luca a little. bit. He's about to leave. And mind you, he's just coming off, you know, that game, how emotional that probably was, probably just beaten. So, you know, he's probably 20 feet ahead of us or so. He's heading to the sprinter van to take off and I'm with his manager. And she's like, hey, do you want to get a picture with him? I was like, yeah, but, you know, I don't want to bother him.

Like, he's in the van. So she goes in the van. She's like, Lou Geard, would you mind coming out? And so he's like, oh, no problem. Came out. Took a picture. Dapped up. Like, a small thing, but like the fact that he even did that was really cool to me. That is awesome. When he first wore the shoes, how did he perform in the shoes that you designed for him? So typical Luca fashion, he switched him at halftime, so we wore him for the first half, but didn't have a bad game or a bad time in those shoes. I think he had 15 points in the first half, but, you know, he switched him at halftime,

so only wore him for a half. so this trip to new york they how does that come together it just seems like it was quick get on a plane get up here very quick yep um so mark stein he had tweeted something out you know initially you know lucas coming back to the u.s for jordan brand promotional tour um so i i message his manager i was like hey um i don't know what cities he's going to be in i didn't think dallas was going to be one of them but i said you know i've one more week off before I have to go back to work. So if there's any chance, you know, I could come out to cover one of them. I would love to. So, you know, a day or two passed. And then she texts

me back. She was like, okay, he's going to be in New York City, Chicago or L.A. And then I just put back, okay, like I could go to any of those. Well, anyway, Monday morning rolls around last Monday. She's like, hey, we love to have you in New York City with us. Most of the stuff starts tomorrow if you can get here we'd love to have you look go pay for your hotel so i move quick i was able to book a flight that afternoon and i got there last monday night so you paid for the flight on points on points okay but but they they put you up at a hotel was it red roof in or something a little nicer what do you got oh so i had a little bit of a moral dilemma there so she said you know you can stay wherever you want and i i don't know

uh we're losing him again i think he's probably about to say he could have booked the ritz yeah that's a very tough and he went media you went marriott but like the best marriott yeah yeah yeah it's new york city and it's like even you're paying 700 a night for even right want them to say anything you want the four seasons would you go four seasons and you know what it's going to be it's going to be they legitimately do not care it's a rounding error on their balance sheet right They'll never, ever think twice about it. He's making $50 million a year. It's not going to be like the next time you're in Dallas.

He's like, fuck, Blake Bosswick, don't bring him here. He went to the four seasons. Hell's kitchen restaurants. There's no way that they're ever going to remember that. But this guy probably stayed. We're guessing. Like flat bush. Because he said I had a moral dilemma, so, you know, we're guessing that he did the, he did the cool thing.

But I might lead off. Also, I know him, but he's a good dude. Yeah, I had a moral dilemma. But then in the end. end, I decided, you know what? Right. It's not like I'm going to be hanging out with Luke every day. Why not?

Your contract's public. Well, that sucks. We lost him because he really is a great dude. And I love the story. It's not the same as like the guys we know who just got into photography and ended up working for NFL films. But it just shows you just have a passion. Just go do the thing you like and do what you like, try it.

Do it a lot. Yeah. And be good about it. Now, I was going to ask him, we got to check in on Dodge Bowl. bro. He's a frontline reporter. Oh, that's right. Well, if he jumps back in, we'll interrupt. You know about him? He thinks Dodgeball's going to be back. Interesting.

It's one of my predictions on things that are coming back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. And don't you feel like that's a good prediction? The presidential fitness test feels like... If Trump learns that Dodgeball is gone, he will get pissed about it. Somebody, I don't remember what they called it, like the something rule. But all they have to do is ask him, are you consistent? considering it and he'll go on about it and be like so yeah yeah i am even if he has no

idea so you could just be like are you considering bringing back softball because not having it is ruining our dodge ball okay lucca donkicks our our jean teacher p teacher is back uh have you heard anything of what we just said uh we'll get back to your story but do you feel like dodgeball is going to come back man ah that's a tough one that's a tough one We're just thinking this political climate. Things are coming back, man. Let's bring it back. All right, think about that.

And where were we in that story? Pick it up the hotel. Yes, they offered you any hotel you want in the world, in the biggest city in the world. And you picked. So, yes, so I was in a moral dilemma because the Jordan brand guy reached out to him. I was like, hey, you know, where are you guys staying at? and he told me the Ritz. I was like, whoa.

That's opening the door. It's opening the door. You're saying we're here. It'd be a lot easier to meet you for coffee in the morning. What'd you do? You didn't go there. I didn't want to come in that hot. Yeah, so I.

You got to act like you belong somewhere, man. Now that you've broken the seal, now you're in the wilderness. Because now you're like, well, how far down do I got to go? what are they trying to nickel and dime me? Right. It's like, no, it's just you. Oh, yeah. So any, I text his manager and I told her, is there any preferred place you'd like me to stay,

knowing that they're at the Rids, but I just, again, I didn't want to take advantage of the situation. But she's like, no, just stay wherever you want. She's like, we're staying at the Ritz. If you wanted to do that, that's perfectly cool. So luckily, just they didn't have a room available. So I stayed a little bit down there. So you tried. okay.

Yeah, a little bit down the street, but I would have slept on someone's couch. I didn't care. And then what did you do when you were in New York with him? So the night I got there was the night that they're all at the Yankee game. So I just kind of walked around the city a little bit. And then the next morning, he had his first event. We were going to a foot locker. And so the Jordan Brand guy just told me, hey, we'll be there at 11.

So I mapped it out on my phone. And again, me not knowing much about New York, I'm like, okay, it's not too far away. This isn't rush hour time. I shouldn't really have a problem getting there. Well, of course, when I get in the cab, like, I'm mapping it out online. And it says I'm going to get there at 11.06. I'm like, man, I'm going to be late. And then I'm going to be trying to explain the security, like who I am.

It can be a mess. So anyway, it just happens. So right when we were pulling up to the store, their Sprinter van was right in front of us. So the first video I posted from the trip, him getting out of the sprinter van is me 10 seconds out of the cab. I just turned my phone on and start recording. And I have a Luca Jordan brand shirt on and I just follow with their entourage right into the store. And so I guess security thought I was just in the cruise. Nice.

Heck, yeah. You are. I get in there. And then I say what's up to everybody and I talk to his manager. She's like, hey, let me introduce you to Bill Duffy. I'm like this is just insane and so his agent and so um you know she introduces me to him he does this thing at the store it's like uh it's with a non-profit group you know but he is mixing and mingling of the kids um there for probably 30 minutes or so and then he he headed back

um so i took my cat back to the hotel and the big event was going to be uh this event at this Dykman Park later on the Jordan Brand was doing this one-on-one tournament. It's been going on all summer, but Luca was going to show up to it. It's kind of got like a streetball vibe. Jake, I know you're around in the hand one

mixtape days. It was like that, but like way more than that type of vibe. Dang. So again, moral dilemma. I don't know anything about New York. I'm like, I don't want to be too forward, but

Should I ask him, like, if I can just ride on the sprinter van of them? So I text his Jordan brand guy. I was like, hey, you know, if there's any chance I could just ride a few out tonight, that'd be great. But I was like, no worries. If not, totally understand if you just want to be your crew. So he's like, no, absolutely come with us. So proud of you for that one. I'm proud of you for that one.

Yeah, that was, I was debating on that. It's not an odd position you're in because you kind of feel like an outside. You are an outsider, but they invited you. Yeah. But he's also, you know, not a jerk. Kool-Aid man, this thing. So, yeah. But you got it.

I identify with this, and I'm proud of him for that. You somehow slid into the cruise. Yeah. Yeah. So I walked down to the Ritz, and I'm just waiting out there. Meanwhile, there's probably 15 or 20 autograph seekers just waiting by the Sprinter van. So I'm just kind of standing with them. But I have my Luca logo shirt on.

So the driver of the sprinter van comes and daps me up. He asked me, hey, do you know when they're going to be down? So he just assumed I was with the crew. So then I just kind of went with it. And then luckily his Jordan brand guy came down and met me. And so we went in the sprinter van first. And, you know, Bill Duffy came in. His dad, Sasha came in.

And then Luca came in. That's when we kind of saw each other for the first time. He's like, you know, hey, how you doing, man? Thanks so much for coming. and then we wrote to the event and I think Jake you mentioned you know Dirk's kind of like this just very laid back you know

and that's how Luca was on the way to this he's on the iPad you know switching the songs there may have been some Britney Spears playing he was jamming he's just super laid back you know just having a good time and then yeah we got to that event

and the atmosphere was insane I've never seen anything like it. When you're in that van, though, what are you thinking? Like, what the hell? How did I get here? I can't believe I'm here because, like you said, I just kind of felt like an outsider. I mean, it's Luca, his dad, his agent, his business manager, and then just two people with the NBA and me.

And so. Lucas super fan. Yeah. Yeah, it was surreal. but, you know, I just kind of looked at it. Well, they invited me for a reason, so don't, you know, just act yourself. And, I mean, they're all very cool and very genuine. As you said, though, they invited me for real.

What was that reason? I'm still fuzzy on it. What was your goal eventually? Or what was their goal to do with you? Yeah, yeah. I think it was just to help cover the event from kind of a different perspective from, you know, like Jordan Brand or they. and just they thank me a lot for everything that I've done for Luca and the promotion of him. So, you know, I think that's kind of why I went.

I think this is just what smart brands do. You know, you find, you know, friendly accounts online. You don't have to go cultivate him and astroturf him, but you reach out. They do good stuff. And especially he's got the charity thing working. Like he's using his passion for good. Because, you know, they could look at it and be like, hey, you're just, you're using the name or something like that. Yeah, yeah, no. And I suppose all the stuff. That would be how some companies might.

Stuff you had done over the years. Yeah. What led you to that moment? Yeah. Once you're in the universe of people they know, then they say, oh, this is a nice guy. Yeah. We get a chance. Yeah, sure, he can come along. What's Papa like in the van? Papa was awesome. He's at, he's probably the guy who I spent the most time with on the whole trip. So we went to the event at the Eichmann Park. Afterwards, we're heading back to the hotel. We're going to go out for some pizza. Luca was tired. I don't blame him. He's getting pulled a million different directions. And he didn't want to go. He's sticking to his diet. So he didn't want to go with us. So he dropped him off at the hotel. Then we went to Little Italy to go eat. Me, his dad, his businessman,

Bill Duffy. And then the girl who actually runs the NBA Instagram accounts. That was kind of cool, too, to see her put out a post, send it to the 90 million people, and you're just watching that in real time. That's great. We went out to get some pizza, and then we're coming back. It's maybe midnight or a little bit after, and Papa Donchich says, hey, you want to go get some gelato? He said, absolutely. A hotel and me and Sasha and his Gordon brand manager.

His name is actually Jordan. We go get some gelato and that's the end of that day. And then the next day was the morning show, which I know you guys talked about a little bit yesterday. The NBC, right? Today show? Yeah. Yeah. He's thinking of the morning show.

Right, right. But TV show on Apple TV starring Jennifer. In full color. Are you, so you, So you went with him to the Today Show. Yep. So we met early that day. Again, surreal experience that's somewhere I would never go, you know, unless I was in this situation.

Yeah, we ride over there. What time? We met at 7.30. Okay. Not too egregious. But, yeah, he brought everyone on the staff, Luca Fours. So I have a picture of Luca Fours with an owl roker. tag on it.

And, you know, I saw Carson Daily, which, I mean, growing up. Heck, yeah. Yeah. That's basically Edward R. Murrow for our generation. James Vanderbeek, Varsity Blues, great. He was on the show that day as well. Oh, wow. All the good stuff.

All the good stuff. Do you think Luca has seen Varsity Blues? Did that come up? It did not come up, but I would have to say no. Did he, but did he know who James Vanderbeek was?

No. Honestly, they didn't really have any interaction. When he was doing his segment, Luca was kind of getting prepped for his,

and I don't even know if they cross-waist. Yeah, Dan, you should not discard that so quickly. James Vanderbeak was in a bunch of teen shows, which is,

from what I gather, how a lot of Europeans learned to speak English. Okay, I don't know. Friends and stuff like that. But so, was the Today Show thing

is weird like what were we why were we doing this I mean of course they were talking about the men's health article you know that was kind of the

the big news of the week so they're talking about that with him just talking about you know the transition L.A and then he did a little segment

with some kids at the end teaching them the step back teaching them the step back so he was a bad bit that There's a light hanging right in front of the rim. It's really weird. It's interesting because you're right there up the front row of the marketing rollout.

But pulling up to Dykeman feels like Luca incarnate. Like this is what he's made for. The bad Luca ad that they put out is perfect. But when he's up there in like a sweater at the Today Show, it looks like he'd rather be anywhere else. It's an interesting contrast. Yeah. So once that got done, we headed over to the NBA office.

Adam Silver was not there that day. He was actually in Europe. That would have been cool if he was there. But once we got there, you know, we kind of did a little tour. He hopped on a couple of Zoom calls. And then the coolest thing was he did an interview with Iron Eagle in front of all the employees that worked there. I didn't post anything from it I think they kind of just wanted to keep it internal there

but it was a really interesting interview and one of the funniest parts was they pulled up a clip from the year the Mazz went to the finals from the Clippers series and they were talking about I and Eagle Luca made a three heading into a timeout and he said he is that God

and they said Ion Eagle said I had never said that and I'll probably never say that again and he just got caught up in the moment. That was kind of a funny part of the interview. So going forward, you guys, something like this comes up, you just stay on your toes and you can jump on? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, I don't know what the future holds.

To be honest, whenever the trade happened, I didn't know if I was going to continue with the account. You know, part of the thing was he was playing in our backyard. So I was more, you know, in the know, I went to a lot of games. It's just way easier than it is now. Now, you know, you're having to stay up to 9.30 every night to watch the games, which has been an adjustment. You know, I don't know as much media out there. So sometimes information is harder to come by.

But, you know, it's been fun, too. It's just a new challenge. and we'll just see what the future holds. Well, certainly you're happy that we now have a two-way player, though, right? Of course. Yes, I mean, a guy that can play defense as well. Okay. Well, thanks, Blake.

Yeah, it was good stuff. A lot of fun, man. We'll keep in touch. Maybe one day you can teach me how to shoot a basketball after I learned to pitch. Yes, pitching first and then basketball next. Okay, I'll be in touch. Take it easy, man. See you, Blake.

Badamza, damsor.