The Dumb Zone FREE - Tim MacMahon's new book takes you behind the scenes of the Luka trade and Julie Dobbs in for some Friday fun | DZ 3-21-25 PREVIEW

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

Hear the entire episode of The Dumb Zone by subscribing at DumbZone.com or Patreon.com/TheDumbZoneESPN's, Tim MacMahon, discusses his new Luka book and takes you behind the scenes of what lead to the trade of the NBA superstar and Julie Dobbs is in for some Friday fun where we discover couples are swinging to save their marriage! ★ 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. A little false advertising on the book. It says, as read, read by Tim McMahon. DumbZone.com. A little false advertising on the book. Says, as read, read by Tim McMahon.

The first chapter is. Oh, okay. That's right. Then they switched to some other guy. Well, here's the deal. I would have loved to have done the entire thing, although certainly I had concerns about pronounced in some of those European cities and names and whatnot. But they're like, yeah, we just need like six days of your time in the middle of the NBA season.

No, I can't, you know. Difficult to come by. My bosses at ESPN were extremely gracious in allowing me to do this. And basically, from mid July until training camp, really over the last three years, not putting a lot on my plate during those times. Because that's when all the work in the book was basically done.

Like, you're doing reporting and interviews throughout the season anyways. But that's when the writing and the trip to Slovenia and Germany with the Slovenian national team were done. I can't take six days off in the middle of a freaking NBA season to go into a studio and mutter my way through some difficult pronunciation. So we turned it over to a professional after the first chapter. See, I thought that I didn't know, you know, it was only chapter two, but chapter two

is now kind of going into when he's in Europe. And I thought, oh, they got a European guy for the same reason that you're saying, pronouncing European names. And I thought this would be like Castaway, the movie, when you go to the island, there's no music. Until he gets back off the island. I don't know if you knew that.

Or like The Matrix, there's this green hue if you're not in the real world. So- What's a Mirian guy do this? So I thought it would go back to, you know, Tim McMahon. But then I thought, oh, okay, it's cause this guy can pronounce all these names. So I just wanted to illustrate to you some things he can't pronounce.

If... Oh, here we go. During a second quarter timeout, standing in front of the full-figured male dance squad, known as the Mavs Mani AACs. Okay. So that's one. That's how he pronounced the Mavs Maniacs. Maybe a rebrand. He did pronounce all these. The mini AACs. Those are like the little bottles.

What is this, an AAC for ants? This one stood out because this is a European player. Uh-oh. As the Mavs were playing the Nuggets in Dallas, news broke that Utah Jazz Center Rudy Gobert had tested positive for COVID-19. So I thought, oh, OK, well, maybe this guy isn't a sports fan. And then I found out he's definitely not a sports fan with this. Carlisle attempted to ease the pressure for Porzingis, not an easy task for a 7-foot,

3-man named Unicorn who had a freshly inked max contract by noting that Celtics forward Gordon Hayward needed a full season. So there you go. Just a couple of little verbal typos from the not Tim McMahon reading Tim McMahon's book. Hard copy is the way to go. Hard copy. The hard copy. I'm a hard copy guy,

but that's not available now. That's just pre-sale, yeah. And we were having you on Friday. So. I would have loved to have done the audio book myself, but. It's nice to hear. It's nice actually. No, but I love hearing, I love you on the show,

or the Hoop Collective, and you're a familiar voice, and I really liked the first chapter. I thought you did a great job, and I do wanna know, even just that, how long does that take? And do you read like a little bit one day and a little bit the next day, or do you read the whole thing?

Actually, so they gave me, they're like, I forgot what it was like, I think it was like a four hour block. And it took me about two and a half to, you know, cause you're like reading and then you may, if you stumble or whatever, you go back. And so it took me like two and a half. I don't know, maybe I could have powered through the thing

in less than six days. But again, I just, I couldn't ask my bosses like, dude, can you give me several days off in the middle of the season? Oh no, I get it. Yeah. Yeah. So I wish you wouldn't, I wish you wouldn't have, uh, thanks for clipping those for me. Oh, now you didn't even know it. Hey, listen, you knew where you were, where you were on today. You knew it was going to happen. Yeah, no, I, I, I, you knew where you were, where you were on today. You do. I also, this thing on skate. That's for sure. He had a little spicy twist on a Rihon Rondo.

Ooh. You know, the funny thing is he, that is the most mispronounced name in NBA history. Probably. I could see that. Cause everybody says, uh, Ray Jaan Ray Jaan or Rajan to the point where when they traded, when the Mavericks acquired him in that trade, that certainly went well here after his like introductory press conference, I pulled him off the side. I said, hey, man, I hear your name pronounced two very different ways. What is the correct like?

Sorry to ask, but like, what's the correct way to pronounce your first name? It was like is Rajan and I actually really appreciate you asking me that. So Rajan Rondo. Now there were other questions that I asked him that he did not appreciate nearly as much during the course of his time in Dallas and after. That was an interesting time. Again, a Bill Duffy client. A fun decade or so we've had here. The book is great though, man. Yeah, it's wonderful. I think everybody will have it. I really appreciate you guys saying that.

And it's funny because it's probably gonna get hammered in the online reviews, but it'll get hammered by people who don't read it. And I hope the people who read it generally have the same reaction as you guys do. All right. Thanks, pal. Well, thanks for your time, man.

We'll see you down the road. Wish we could do this more often, fellows, but you know, I'm at the mercy of my wonderful bosses at ESPN, but I really truly do appreciate you guys having me. Adios amigos. Adios amigo. The great Tim McMahon.

That's good stuff, man. The book is really good. Yeah, you know what I did? I woke up early this morning and I went down to the beach and I jogged slash walked for two hours and listened to like half the book. Just on an hour on each side of the sun coming up. It was very nice. I also feel like, so I only got through, I'm actually midway through chapter 10,

and then I read the final chapter this morning. But I've been listening to a lot of it, and I do not feel like I've read a book, Josh. I feel like I've been listening to a podcast. Who goes there? Oh, yeah, we're on. I feel like I retain more when I read the words. You definitely do.

And I use, I know you don't, you read physical copies, but the great thing about the iBook or the Kindle, I use the highlight note function heavily. You know, highlight a certain passage and you could go to your highlights, you could color code them. It's fun times. Is Julie there? Actually, joining us right here here we have some people in studio. Julie rolled in a while ago but there was no real time to I mean we were in the middle of are you upset Julie? No I'm not upset at all. This is Julie Dobbs. Hi. We all know Julie. I was just reacting to that whole conversation over here silently like sighing and oh the trade and Nico and Luca and oh it was painful

parts of it it was a wonderful interview but just hearing his side of all of that it was really hard to not speak and just kind of sit here and listen but yeah I've been here a while I thought Dan had some great questions I thought Jake though nailed it though next Jake was a Jake carried the whole thing also there's a couple of dudes sitting in here. Who are they? One is Blake and one is Clayton. Blake and Clayton.

Oh, okay. We're not gonna identify those guys? I think that's their real names. No way. That's what they told me. It's gonna get really confusing. Really? Yeah.

Oh, I thought you were like saying they wanna remain anonymous. Your names are really Blake and Clayton? I think that's Clayton on the couch and I think that's Blake over there. Really? What? Yeah and listening to the show now. Yeah we have a couple of guys sitting in, hanging out, watching the show. I don't think they're from Dallas. Okay. Where are you from? I live here in Dallas. Oh okay I thought one of you was in from out of town. San Diego. San Diego okay. But originally from Corpus Christi, so we're always local.

So we have guys in studio that are named Blake and Clayton that are not Blake and Clayton from the show. This is weird. Surrounded by Blakes and Claytons on either side. So only Julie and Dan can be safe here. We're the only originals, Dan. Yeah. Sorry, guys. So, we brought you in to do a little Dear Julie today and viewer mail and things like that.

Cool. You guys want to slide into a little viewer mail? Yeah, for today? I'll slide it in. Okay. That wasn't offered. Hey everybody, it's time to answer some of today's viewer mail. And we can go back and forth because I guess Blake actually put out some Dear Julie stuff

as well. Yeah. Do we have any Dear Julie questions? Yeah, we have two. Okay, let's not get to those just yet. Because don't you have some emails as well, Jake? Jake Kemp? Yeah, I do. I have one that's going to be completely anonymous,

but this is relationship-related, Jules. This is love-making-related. Okay. Great. Oh, is this the big one? Let's dig right in. Yeah. You were telling me you had a big one.

Oh, no, actually, yeah, I had another one. There's two types of viewer mails. Do you want to do, I'll get to that one second. The first one is just a guy said, hey, ask Dan, are we over jalapeno? Over jalapeno. Peno, Peno. We're probably-

Cause I would definitely, I would not say so. Cause I, but I am a massive Peno consumer. I'll consume that pain on you. I mean, if they have like a, if there's a, I'll paint up and paint out. If they have a sauce. You love the paint over there? Yeah.

Yeah. I'm going for it. Like anything. Any sort of, we got bacon wrapped cream cheese jalapenos downstairs. That's a go to for me. I think jalapeno did rise, certainly, in usage and popularity.

But I think it kind of stopped where it's supposed to. Whereas bacon, bacon went way too far. Seafood is great. You absolutely don't need to wrap a shrimp with bacon. You know what else is great? That double cheeseburger. You don't need more. You just don't need it.

What about my ice cream? Well, again, let me, uh. You don't need more, you just don't need it. What about my ice cream? Well again, let me- You don't need bacon bits in ice cream. Let me fill you in again on the afternoon. What if I took a jalapeno and wrapped it in bacon? That's what I was thinking about. That's pretty good. Stuff some cream cheese in there or some sausage.

Okay, let me give you my quick ones, cause then I know you have a big email, right? Yeah, I just wanted to highlight, some people just call or just email and say, what's up with jalapenos? And then others tell us insane stories about their sex life. Well, I also got a just what's up with.

No jalapenos in the sex life, I hope. That would be painful. I don't know, to be honest. It's spicy. I got a what's up with. What's spicy up, honey? Clayton, with Clayton. Not Clayton who's sitting in.

Clayton who's running the video. Says here, is Clayton any relation to local legend Tom Kimbrough? Oh, do you know who Tom Kimbrough is? Blake never heard of him. Oh, do you? The name is super familiar. It says here, legendary football coach and athletic director in Plano ISD.

OK, Kimbrough Stadium. That's how I know it. OK. He must have been the one that was there for the game, like the John Tyler Plano East game, Blake? The famous high school football game? Let's see, head coach from 76 to 91. So that's around game, Blake? The famous high school football game? Let's see, head coach from 76 to 91. So that's around 91, right? The Tyler John Tyler thing?

Yeah, I think so. 94. Alright. What year did you say he was coach? Oh, till 91. Oh, okay. Maybe he was AD after that. And then they're like, yeah, let's open the stadium. And then I got one about Jake hypocrisy. Oh, good. Dear Destroyer-

I hope this one make it through the editing process. Brush to the front of the line. Dear Destroyer of the Dental Dam. The other day Jake claimed George Harrison beat Patty Boyd, which is why she left him for Eric Clapton. This is not true. She left him because he was doing loads of cocaine and banging everything that moved, including former bandmate Ringo Starr's wife.

I know he hates the Beatles, but they are not three identical guys plus one who played with Jorts. On a related note, Jake once did a segment looking at Classic Rock's obsession with girls aged 16 and 17 and the many songs about teenage girls. At the time, Jake proclaimed that his generation ushered in the age of the MILF, and his favorite bands were not these dirtbags. Since then, Kanye West has turned literal Nazi, and Jake recently had the story of the guy from Brand New sending dick pics to some underage girl.

Just wanted to get the scoreboard updated on Dirtbag Artist from DF Matt. He's just actually just keeping the receipts, keeping the Jake notes. I do think that culturally, I mean obviously you still have people who are like looking for barely legal, but I do think it's waned quite a bit over the years. Like, I mean, all we have to do is like, you've done those segments before about rock songs in the 50s or I guess 60s, and they're pretty explicit about liking them as young as they can get. That's not really much of a thing anymore, right? Not as much. At least not publicly, yeah. Not in the lyrics. Right, right.

And I've thought about Barely Legal versus Finely Legal. Barely Legal is, you'd rather be a guy that says, I like Barely Legal than Finely Legal. Because if you are into Finely Legal, then you've been looking at them, yeah, for years. Yeah. Just the only thing holding you back was the law, was the fact that you could be arrested. But barely legal, you might have just happened upon her, oh, you're 19, okay.

Oh, good. So that's, if you're a barely legal guy, you're not really that much of a dirt bag. It's levels of their baggery Yeah, I think it's it's definitely An interesting point for someone who's into barely legal to make Like if you're I just want to make it clear. That's this bear You're not into finely legal. Or barely legal. Or barely.

Absolutely not. Good. I need you to be so legal. That's so gross. I need you to be able to take me to the movies for half off. This is sort of legal I'm looking for. All right, that's my mailbag. That was a nice lead-in one, so I'm going to do this real anonymously, but I had talked to a guy before

who had emailed me like, hey, would you like to know, since we talked last, what's up with my relationship? He was married. And I've known this guy a very long time, and I was like, yeah, sure, tell me about it. And he's like, well, last time I talked to you, I told you I'd be divorced within six months. It kind of went in the reverse direction, and crazy shit has happened, and I thought it might be interesting. You guys are talking about swinging, and that's what reminded me to send this to you.

Now, he said, I feel weird sending this to Dan, which I don't know what people's deal is, like the bad beats all come to me. He was like, I don't want to send this to Dan. I'm like, well, he's going to hear it, dude. He's going to know it's you. But he sent it to me. He said, all right.

Told wife I wanted a divorce or some kind of arrangement where we could see other people. I told her I've been seeing someone for the last two years, but that's not why I was wanting to leave. What? I didn't tell her about anything that had happened before then. I expected her to say F off, but she said she forgave me and she wanted to try to reconnect. Where are you at so far, Julie? I mean, how does...

It was not a one-time thing. He had had a couple years. So he was, like, cheating on her for two years. Yeah, not a one-time thing. He had had a couple years. So he was like cheating on her for two years. Yeah, not a one-time thing. He's got a whole other relationship going on,

and she's just still listening to hear him talk. She hasn't kicked him in the balls yet. She forgave me and wants to try to reconnect. Now, how are they going to reconnect? How are they going to reconnect? He says, so basically that reconnection was six months of sex every day except when she was out of town. Jesus.

Just in the gym. What happened then? Because he's all addicted, I bet. In the gym, putting up shots. What if he just likes having sex? It doesn't have to be an addiction. Well, no, but if you do it every day with your wife and then she goes out of town, what do you do?

Oh, yeah, that's a good point. Probably not chill. Yeah, just leave him with some blue balls and tell him to behave. After discussions about things that we've always been curious about that we might be interested in, blah, blah, blah, we ended up determining that she's always been interested in women but never had a chance to explore.

Yeah, so that's why she was cool with his cheating thing for two years. She had something too. And at this point, she never thought she would be able to. I told her I supported her in that. What a guy. Aw. What a great guy.

That's Rob Polenko like, you know what? I'll keep this quiet for you, Nico. You know, we don't love her. Because of our friendship, I will keep this Luca Trey quiet. Because I love me. I'll uh, because of our friendship, I will keep this Luca Trey quiet. Yeah, for sure. Because I love you, honey, I support you in your quest to have sex with women in front of me, go ahead.

I told her I supported her in that. She also mentioned that public sex might be something she would be interested in. What? And that's when I brought up swinger clubs. Fast forward to now, which they've done several times. You go to a swinger's club and it's just, I don't know, 15 to 30 people all intermingling with who they'd like. Where do they advertise?

Like how do you find a swinger's club? It looks like underground, isn't it? It's not hard. You kind of just know Yeah Well, I mean not giving you promo codes or anything No Julie get out there Beat the streets only going if there's coop coops. Yeah, I need to save some money if I'm going

Text swing for 10% off admission He's wrapping up here, I hope. We're not talking about kid swings. Fast forward to now, we've been seeing the same quote, couple for about the last six months. OK. I love these guys. I'd be friends with them without this, I'm sure.

Anyways, it's wild. I said, he said, he had it a little bit here. He said there's other stuff like mainly with that couple it's mainly just the women playing around and then they invite us in and it's pretty much couple same couple having sex in the same bed kind of thing. Like I'm not touching that woman with anything other than incidental contact and vice versa. Wait, back up. Couple, same couple in the same bed? So the ladies will mess around. Yeah, like they'll mess, they're messing around.

And then when they jump in. The guys are kind of like, errrr, drinking it. Off to the side. Because that's so hot. Two ladies making out? No, no, no, for the ladies. To have a guy all hored up just making noises. Well, they're not worried about the guy.

They're worried about the lady. They got their own thing going on. Yeah, it could hold those feelings real quick if you hear that in the corner. Well, then you, I don't know, put a mask on. I don't know, whatever. Are they farting too? Yes.

Disgusting. That is disgusting. Sorry. I'm trying to have a conversation about adults and the dynamics of relationships in the dynamics of relationship listen to this I don't know I'm telling I feel like we're just exploring human relationships here it's an interesting thing because the guy says, like, the ladies are hooking up in their own way, and then the guys hook up with their individual partner, and they're in the same bed, but it's not like, you know.

No, don't try to convince me this is like normal and okay. You're saying this like- I think you need to be a little more open. This is what kept their relationships together. So the guys aren't interested in each other, it sounds like. But they're- No, it's not that.

You're just interested in the, like, what's taboo desire of a bunch of people having sex. And a bunch of, like- I get that. I hope I don't have to break any news to you, but it's pretty popular on the internet. I know, I know. I don't watch any of it.

I get weirded out by the two heterosexual men. I'm assuming naked together. You live by something that Tom Gribble used to describe as. Going on, but sitting there making noises. You live in the world where there is a rule. Four walls, two balls. And some people all live by that rule. Have you subscribed to that over your life?

What? Four walls, two balls? Yeah. So, I mean, I have to break it all down. Like, what... How do you have to break it down? It just means there's not another dude in there fucking. If you live with somebody, like... No, if you're in the bedroom, there can only be one man. So I guess Jake's saying, have you been double teamed? You've never been, have you been double teamed you've never been have you been with two guys just college but it doesn't happen but it doesn't happen

but it doesn't happen it doesn't have to be double team you get it together no my wild side is a spicy mark on trips have had sex in the same room as another couple. Nobody calls that swine. Have you done that? No, of course not. Oh, OK. Yeah, have you done that? I will say, Dan Sicko.

I'm just asking. I'm trying to clarify things here. I'm a reporter. I will say. I'm a journalist. I would like to know. Put me on the couch and ask me weird sexual questions. Oh.

These are not weird questions. So you're calling one of our good listeners weird. No, I'm going your question's weird. I would like to know the age range of most people that get into this kind of stuff, because I bet I'm not there yet. Yeah, I think it's yet. Not saying I will. Yeah, I think it's older.

But you're close. Yeah, you're close. Getting there. It's once you've been married. Is it kids move out? No, I don't think so. I mean, that may happen, but I think for most people the kids are still,

it's probably like a late. Just I've always heard about swingers like are gross. Early 40s thing. Oh my gosh. Can you imagine a kid walking into that situation that you just explained? For example, once many years ago, TC and I interviewed a lady.

She was gorgeous. She was extremely, extremely intelligent. She had a couple degrees. And I don't remember what she called her job. Clayton might remember. It was like romance consultant or something but She would just fly around the country and spend weekends with couples and they would all have sex and she would hang out with them

All weekend and they would just kick it and like they would see her once a year twice a year and it was Like very weird, but she was not a strung out person. She was like a sex consultant. Yeah, and she was like, I work with men, I work with women, I work with couples, and I get to know them, and I have a vetting process. I don't just do this for anyone. So I guess to you, Julie, that's just some weird lady.

Yeah. Sounds like a small business owner. Yeah. She's probably rich. I wonder if she wants to advertise on the mom game with the time zone for company honestly this is gonna become a thing eventually right the sex consultants maybe she wants to advertise the place that doesn't think she's weird hmm maybe I don't know that is weird if she's having sex with the people, that's weird. But yeah, I mean, a lot of people probably need help in that department.

Tight. Yeah. Well, anyways, shout out to our listener. Did we finish the story? I thought we got stopped with the four balls. No, he's just explaining to us. Well, yeah, yeah. That's a general rule that I've lived by in my life.

Four walls, two balls. That's a good rule that I've lived by in my life. Four walls, two balls. That's a good rule for you, I guess. So the guys are now happy. There could be multiple Leiby in there, though, for all I care. Yeah, they're all happy. They're all happy once they realize that she was into women and he.

Well, just the idea that they're in a happy relationship where they are raising kids and they are in love with each other. Julie would rather have them get divorced. Right. She wanted them to get divorced and just add to that statistic. Yeah. That's not true.

Kids may be orphans, but for them to stay together, they realize it's better for us to not be totally monogamous. Your kids don't become orphans. I don't know. I mean, we both have divorced parents to make you some notice. I heard they cut their heads off and send them to Austin. The Dumbs of.