The Dumb Zone FREE - Welcome to Dallas, Cooper Flagg. Mavericks secure number one pick in the NBA Draft | DZ 5-13-25 PREVIEW

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Hear the entire episode by subscribing to the show at DumbZone.com or Patreon.com/TheDumbZoneSomehow the Mavs earn the #1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft (thanks Adam Silver, that kinda makes up for it) all but securing Cooper Flagg. Now let's fire Nico and be back in business ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hey now, what you're 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 with the archive of all of our past episodes, you can subscribe at DumbZone.com. The Commissioner of the NBA is not in service of you. The commissioner of the NBA, his job is not to make sure history is correctly honored and that blah, blah, blah. His job is to make his owners money. And when he got that new TV deal, that helped quite a bit, but also you got to get some ratings and you, again, if the Lakers

and Celtics are kind of good, that ride, all the boats rise up. So everybody's going to make more money in the long run. So that is, that is his job. So I, I'm not ruling it out that somehow they got Luca to LA. I am very much not ruling out that once Luca was in LA and they saw the reaction of the Dallas fans, and this is more than anybody could have imagined, who knew this fan base could be so great and so passionate and thought of as one of the great fan bases in the NBA because the Cowboys fan base gets a bad rap, not for being not a good fan base, their America's team and everything, but they, you know.

Kind of fair weather and style over substance. Yeah, you're there, you're almost there to watch the big screen and be in the stadium, not like the Green Bay fan or the Philly fan or the One Horse Town fan sometimes, the San Antonio Spurs fan or the Sacramento Kings fan in their heyday. In the NBA would be thought of as great fan bases.

You don't think of the Lakers having a great fan base. You don't think of the Heat having a great fan base. No, the Cowboys are in that bucket. Yeah, but I didn't know that the Mavs fan, and maybe they didn't also know that the Mavs fans could be like this. Anyway, it is one of the top markets and to keep the value of this, because they're looking at the value of this franchise just going in the toilet. Literally people are canceling season tickets.

It's not just one of those bluffs. They are the stars of the recipient of some of that. I'm going to spend some money over here. We've talked to business owners, guys who advertise on the show are like, yeah, we had season tickets for the Mavs. We are not going to renew them. Absolutely not. But I wonder if they're second guessing that now.

Because their reason for not doing it was clients are not interested in that. Like nobody is. Nobody cares about the Mavs. They're dead to a lot of people, including me. And I, so now that I truly believe that there was some shenanigans going on to the Mavs getting the first overall pick in some way, I don't know if I feel better or worse about all of this. I personally don't feel better, but I'm happy because I know a lot of people are going to be happy. You know, we've heard from countless business owners around the arena, around downtown that

are really, really having trouble right now because they're losing the gate from Luca. We know a lot of people that work over there. We know Tim McMahon's reporting that they're gonna lose like $100 million. The league can't afford that, as you pointed out. Dallas is not a market they can have be bad and not a cash cow. When have they not been? For a quarter century, this team has been

a very marketable property for the NBA. They can't, they can lose New Orleans, they can't lose Dallas. So it's a bridge too far I think for me, just because I just can't go full conspiracy to say that they orchestrated the Luka trade with this in mind. But yeah, like you said, once it happened,

I mean just look at what everybody across the league is saying. It all, what I wrote this morning was it doesn't matter if they actually rigged it, because that's what everyone thinks now. The players think that. Like LeBron tweeting all the just 10 cry laugh emojis last night, and then people finding the clip,

I'm gonna play this, Blake, if I'm up, of LeBron on McAfee a few months ago, talking about when he was drafted. The lottery drop, listen man, during the ball drop, you know, during the lottery drop, Cleveland got the number one pick. That's the, I just don't think that was. Whoa, what are you, what are you saying?

Don't you see this? Wemby with the Spurs. I like the Colts. Here goes Chicago. Wait, what's you saying? Don't you think? Wenby with the Spurs. I'm like, oh my God. Let's keep LeBron home. You know what, Patrick, you went into the Knicks. You know, Derrick rolls to the Bulls. I understand the assignment, guys.

So I had to make sure that I had to do my part. I didn't want to be a fuck up. So he's pretty openly implying there, like yeah, I mean. So yeah, that's, yeah, people are talking about. However, the Cavs did have like tied for the best odds to get the number one overall pick that year, so like with everything LeBron says, there's a little extra zest on there,

like they had really good odds. But also, he believes they wanted me in Cleveland, and I understood that, and I understood I had a job to do with that responsibility, But also, he believes they wanted me in Cleveland, and I understood that, and I understood I had a job to do with that responsibility, and that means everyone around LeBron also thinks that. So, going forward, people are just gonna think the league gave the Mavericks Cooper flag,

and they gave Nico Cooper flag. And see, that's the thing. That's where now, I don't know that I can now be like, okay, now I'll cheer for the Mavs again. Ha ha. Because I can't look at Niko Harrison's face and not want to punch it. Yeah, no.

I thought through it last night. And the idea of him standing up there with a Larry O'Brien trophy and his, I'm going to take this award for that. I can't listen to his stupid voice. He's got confetti coming down on him while Cooper flag stands there. You can keep it. I don't want anything to do with it.

But I also like watching good basketball and we talked a lot about the kids in this area and how much it sucked for little kids to lose a sports hero. I'm not getting that back, but there are a whole bunch of kids who had to learn a pretty shitty lesson through no fault of anyone's that life isn't fair. Well now they get another crack at it and you potentially save an entire generation

of sports fans in this city. He's that type of player. He's the type of player that can replace that type of player. So it isn't going to help me. I have no desire to root for any team that Nico Harrison is a part of at all. But it'll make a lot of my friends happy. It'll make a lot of people money. It'll make kids happy.

It's good for basketball. Like the Demons, I don't need them feeling good. No, I don't either. But it's going to make a lot of people happy who have been sad. And I'm, I guess, at a point in my life where I'm like, that's cool. But you can keep it because if he's involved I just personally and I hope like our listeners aren't mad at me

because I want to talk Mavs I'm gonna watch every game I'll have a folder on my hard drive of every single time Cooper flag goes left the same way I had one for Luca I'll write about it all I'm obsessed with it but fuck that guy and fuck the horse he rode in on. I want nothing to do with him ever. And if they had any sense about him, they'd fire him today. Why is he here?

What public or lobby are we serving? The people who stayed rocking with the Mavs the whole time, that's awesome for them. They don't care about Nico. They're Mavs fans because they're Mavs fans. I do, so fire the guy and let's get our basketball team back. Let's get our community back. I think they get a lot of, I don't know if they get me.

There's no reason for him to be here. They don't need Niko Harrison to pick Cooper Flag. Just, the risk is you piss off AD, you piss off Kyrie. I understand that. That locker room's been through a lot. That's not a nothing. But you could heal this whole thing by firing him today. Yeah, I don't think they, I don't know that they get me back because Dumont's still there with his

face. Yeah, but he would be openly saying I made a mistake. Right, that's the thing. I walked into a situation I was inexperienced in and you know whoever the next general manager of the Mavericks is, whether they're hired tomorrow or five years from now, that's gonna be an exhaustive search. It's the same reason Cooper Flagg will never get traded. Because, and that's why Nico has to go. It's not even that he's a bad GM, it's that he's a tainted business person. Every negotiation he enters into,

the other party's looking at him like, I am not letting you walk out of here a winner. What would they think of me? He just has to go. They have to just flush and start afresh. The well is poisoned. At least that's the way I think of it, you know? I mean I'm happy for people. I just can't do it. I think the I'm with you, Dan. As long as Dumont is still there, I'm still pretty much out on it. But I saw this floated around that this whole thing is sour dirt.

That was a big part for me, too. And if there was some sort of olive branch where Dirk is, I don't know, GM or something, I think that would lure me back. He's as qualified as Niko Harrison was when he got the job. No, it's a little ridiculous to hand him GM, but if he's back as insert fake title here, I think that's step one.

But you're right. It's hard to cheer for this team when it's the people that traded Luke Hurst. You're watching Nico do his dumb little dance when they win it last night. No, no. I'm like, man, I'm sorry. Can't.

Didn't need it. Just can't do it. Like I said, I don't think it would bring me back, but I think it would bring a lot of people back. Just having Cooper flag is gonna bring a lot of people back. I'm telling you, reading the T-shirts last night, we're all back in the fold. Like you said, that's, Dumon has to kind of fall on the sword.

Look, I was duped, we were all duped, but let's all move forward and heal and all we care about is you the fan. Do you wanna vote for this? Any talk of moving the team or anything, all that conspiracy would be dead immediately. If he just came out and was like, I misunderstood what this team meant to this city,

what Dirk meant to this city, et cetera, we're gonna move forward. And the cool thing about Cooper Flagg is. I won't believe him, but I think that's the move they should make. You say you come from a business world where there's not this much emotion, you didn't realize, yeah, you had bad leadership.

And I think Cooper Flagg is good enough and he's a unanimous one-one to a point where he won't be associated with Nico. If there were like four guys who they were kicking around names and nobody really knew who was one through four and Harrison had to make a pick, now that guy's tied to him. But when it's this guy, you're just like, oh, that's just the, it's obvious. There's no decision to make. So I think for a lot of people that helps them Forget that Nikos even there

Because Cooper flag is a player that the league is going to try to make The whole ship out of by the next seven years He's American. I don't even think it matters that he's white But it doesn't hurt that he's like a very exciting white. He's not a boring white. I came up with Kawhi Leonard this morning. I was so proud of myself. I like that.

He reminds me a lot of Kawhi, man. Our buddy Landry said Grant Hill, and that's another really good one. They just, there's a fluidity to the wing that when you see it, we've never really had it, frankly. Let's say it was orchestrated from the beginning, which I do not believe.

Would you? Would you make this trade? No. I wouldn't either. Don't patronize me. I mean, obviously, Luca was, it's something when you grow up, you can't, I was talking before the show with a fellow softball coach, but you know, would you have traded your 12 year old daughter

for the best pitcher over there on the other team? No. Like, Luca was my 12 year old. No, I wouldn't have, and also, I don't think it's crazy, this was in the group chat quite a bit, I don't think it's crazy to think he, I think he has a 50 chance of being as good as Luca overall.

Because that's how good Luca is, so good. Yeah, but the math makes sense. One of those guys comes around every seven or eight years. And that's what Flag is currently called. I don't know, Luca might be a 20 year guy. Luca might be a LeBron or a Jordan. I mean, those are the numbers he plays with at least. That's the stratosphere he's in.

It's somewhere in between there. It's just this guy's- Can Cooper Flag take Slovenia to the medal round? Like, do you understand what that means to take Slovenia? But I also think you're going to be, I'm not saying you don't know who Cooper Flagg is, but if you get into a situation where you're watching him a lot,

you're gonna be blown away by this guy. Like, the defensive plays are just ridiculous. He's just everywhere. He's long. Again, this new model of whites that God made, we did not used to have these. The dude is everywhere. And he shot at like 38% from three in college,

which is not great, but you look at the last, it's like 10 number one overall picks, nobody shot it well in college. Anthony Edwards was like 28%. That guy could go fill it up seven for 12 any night now. Cooper Flagg will be a top five player in the NBA at some point in his career. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah.

The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah.

The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah.

The Dung Zah. The Dung Zah.