Club 520 - Mark Cuban on buying Dallas Mavericks, trading for Luka Doncic, Kobe Bryant deal

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All right, we back another episode of Club five twenty podcasts.
I'm your host, Miamys DJ Willis.
Listen.
You know we got a special guest. We got a
full house of people out there. If I can see
how many people behind these cameras right now? Shoot, you
know it's a special episode.
Man.
The first things first, shout to our sponsors. Man, shout
out to boost Mobile. You know the vis man. We
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one saw the contracts man. Tap in with boost Mobile
twenty five dollars, unliving the nation wide. Tap in with
the family, tell them club five twenty cent. You also
shout out to hard rock. Bet, I gotta be het
over here.
Mark. He makes the parlays to get you paid. Man. Now,
I know you're out the game a little.
Bit, but have you seen how they treat the players
about these player of props and the parlays man, when
they're out for feeling the lakes mess?
What a mess? Man? I mean, like when I was
going to Board of Governor's means that we're talking about gambling.
Never in our wildest dreams do we think like the
prediction markets or even like the prop bets. You know.
I mean, you're gonna shoot the ball at seven seconds
or eight seconds from the free throw life. I mean,
and then the guys are just starting to get ripped.
I mean, it's it's bad.
Yeah.
Sure he was a victim of that. You gotta rebound.
I wasn't supposed to.
Get you ruined.
My part, I'm wooing the Milwaukee's no.
Like even like walking down the tunnel now like after
a game. Yeah, you know it used to be you know, hey,
autograph autograph you motherfucker little kids around the girls.
Yeah you sold me.
But with that being said, shout rock, shout the stock
keeping us fresh as well. Last Sun Least Shot the
Black and Fests Podcast Festival, April twenty fifth. We will
be there Atlanta, Georgia Live show Tig hometown Man, a
real Lanta Hall.
We know you from that, but you Atlanta man, for sure.
They're still mad at us.
Man. We're good anyways, man, we got a special guest.
We're gonna introduce them last as usual. To my far left,
we got my dog Bishop be hearing out the pear league.
How you were nasty, cool and nasty man, I'm glad
about this on my day, Yes, many man got a
couple of questions from God.
Okay, oh yeah, anytime being too his research. Yeah, you
know it's gonna get wicked. We have fun for sure. Man.
To my right, we got my dog young Natcho, Young Tig.
How you what, I'm good man, I'm excited.
Bro.
We all fans of Shore Tank. I'm fan from him
as an owner. Y'all went to the game before had Yes, fool.
We gotta talk about talk about We got a great
story about that as well. Yeah, for sure, Come on, man,
we take care of everybody.
Mark.
Yeah, we gotta talk Boston choices in our cast made
and a friends of family.
But we'll get to that. We got a lot to
talk about today. Man.
We got a philanthropist, billionaire man, one of the smartest
minds on and off the court, mister Mark Cuban, big dog.
We appreciate you sliding on this man.
Thanks for letting me come in. Man, I had to
chase you guys.
When we looked at them, I said, hello, is that
the real Mark?
How long did they take the respond to the dem
You remember? Years? He was today?
Man, hold it down for sure.
We got a lot of these talk about First man,
why are you gonna get young Nat free agency?
Man? Why?
Man?
Because he was rolling when he was rolling with the Hawks, right,
making y'all start team like, first there was we won,
then there was a lockout, right, and then that's when
you started to really kick in with the Hawks, and
then you make the All Star team and you weren't
they weren't letting you go anywhere. Yeah, and by the
time you were free, you weren't quite that All star. Yeah. Sorry, physical.
We were passing on physical when they really talked about you. Right,
we had you brother in a couple of times. But no,
I mean defend. I mean you're one of the few
two way players, right, yeah, so you could say, be
some passer, right, great finisher, but can shoot some Yeah.
You know, I'd make an all star team in this league.
You're doing appreciated. Never heard nobody call him a two
ways votes are like, didn't you get like votes for
defensive Player of the years? That might have been ch
I love my brother Johnny Clinton.
Would have been left.
I'll take you yea whoever DPOY votes U P sent though,
Yeah yeah, yo, what.
I just said defensive team?
Okay, make your respect? Yeah very aw, that's all.
This is crazy your uncle right.
Here, Believe it or not, Jess, he is one of
the best defensive point rid.
The Trouble February nineteen, twenty fifteen.
I was sold. I was solid war your rules and
they're showing stuff.
They shut him down, right.
I say that you might have had thirty one but
five Yeah, yeah, you know, I guess so while we're here,
we can look up the game probably of February nineteen
twenty fifteen. But that's okay, okay, he probably couldn't be
forty no word, But listen, man, when I used best alumni,
what made you choose Indiana University?
Man?
Right down.
I was in Pittsburgh where I grew up, and you know,
I didn't have much money, but I wanted to go
to business school. So I saw this of the top
ten business schools and picked out the cheapest one. It
was the one I could afford. So I went to
Bloomington sight unseen, never saw the campus, never visited, just
showed up on my dorm room and went to school.
So you came to you and hadn't you know what
I'm saying, and peeped the scene up.
No, not at all.
You fell immediately, I imagine.
Yo. Yeah, yeah, shout out to Foster quad Shady one
or nine, you know, Foster Quair boy leaving Pittsburgh the
blooms and it's crazy. Oh, I love Pittsburgh. I ever
been to Texas, Brazil? Out there? Yeah, man, that's my ship.
You know, Pittsburgh, Man, I got people out there. Man, Yeah,
that's a beautiful restaurant. Man, that lobster biscuit, and then
real by I couldn't tell you about the lobster biskut there.
I love Sittsburgh. Man, it's gotten better and better and better.
You noticed I got the import of lobster biscuit.
Pittsburgh a little wicked, but the Rivers walk from worse.
Oh yeah, did you grow up many Pittsburgh teams a
local things?
Oh yeah, yeah, of course. I mean that's you know,
my dad, my uncles, everybody was Steelers, Pirates, Penguins, you
name it. Nice and even when like I was a
hoop fan, but it was like the college, so it
was du Cane when Dukne was good. But I was
a kid when they were shooting the Fishes, Save Pittsburgh.
Don't ever hear that movie? No, no, you got to
check it out with Julius Serving. I'm not gonna say
anything more.
I have seen that movie.
Yeah, it's like old old and yeah, Pittsburgh got checked out.
I have seen him.
Yeah, I still get criticized. I've never seen Hooters and
I went together. I went to about I've never seen Hooters.
I just saw it again the other night. Actually, I
was like don't change that.
Yeah, my my favorite Hoole movie is about the realms
always above rip. You know what I'm saying.
Lo as it is.
Yoah should have saw Tommy Shepherd willtend they had a
bestment rage.
But no.
Obviously, in any university one of the best alumnis. How
does it feel now to be a part of one
of the best alumnis in the world and in the world.
Is you have to be involved with n I l.
Oh my god, it's crazy. Actually it's good for us man,
because it's not even about spending the money. It's just
like coach Sick, who's a Pittsburgh Western Pennsylvania guy, he
understood really quickly that it wasn't like the old days
of college right college sports is no longer college sports.
It's pro sports. And he recognized that like just like
in the NBA, there's potential on there's production, and when
you're only going to have a guy for a year
or two, you need production like right off the bat,
and you want somebody, you know, with your basketball IQ
or football IQ that understands the role because you guys know, man,
and if a guy comes in and he's here in
his head, but his roles here and he doesn't get
that team falls apart. Yes, definitely basketball in football too.
And and coach Sigg understood that he recruits for that,
pays for that like zero five stars like only seven
four stars. Man, that tells you you're getting the right
person for the right job, the right coach to coach them.
And then obviously Mendoza, man, heis Mendoza. That was the difference.
One of the best college football season of all time.
I they be having an arguments about the best team,
best fun but this, in my opinion, the best college
football season of all time.
They won the most games.
Yes, come on, man, yes, I mean it's like the
ultimate underdog Oosier's story, right, Yes, fifty years of suck
ass when you win after fifty years of sucking like true,
like from the time I went to school back in
the day to now, like they don't win anything, like
we need more Top ten teams this year than the
entire history of the program. Yes, yeah, they'd never been
known for football.
How does a football school now though?
Whatever, you know, whatever, wherever you're win, I don't care.
I know I wrote you know.
So I felt like really gay, like all who's your nation?
For like the biggest alumni, right yeah, people just showing up,
like having more fans than Oregon, having more fans in
Alabama and then in Miami's backyard having equal numbers.
They went to the.
Got the game.
Yeah, yeah, they're insane. All the people he went in
the airport. Remember it was in the airport. I was like, Bro,
this is we might wipe them out for sure.
Any I mean, we saw a couple, but all we
saw was red shirts the entire place. They took over
the entire city.
Everywhere every where. I love bro because everybody knew that
I had contributed, So everywhere I went, like I buy
a drink and not my money is already.
The little hating now you my group chair, they like,
ain't mark all of us? Which a braid up? You can?
You like me too?
Yeah?
Oh god, yeah it was.
It was cool. It was cool what we got to
do to get that basketball back Roland. Yeah. I think
you know, I've been talking to Scott Dawson and Dad
and just like what I was saying here, like it's
different game. You can't recruit high school kids unless that's
a one and done kid that you know has already
made you know, that one of those kids who go
right to the NBA and start right off the bat,
because you need people that. I mean, you if one
team can get a kid like Illinois, right, Illinois I
think has figured out. I think they've got a good
shot to win. I know, Michigan's got more talent, right,
but they got four dudes that are like forty years
old and right from Serbia. First of all, this Vocking Nations.
You know, they know how to play, right, and they
start playing professional like young, you know, fifteen, sixteen seventeen,
and then they're playing on their city team, then the
country team, and so they've been through all the big
games and then they try to make euro League and
if they can't make it or you know, then they
go to college because that's the next best paying job.
And so you know, I was looking. The Illinois Biggs
are like twenty two, twenty three, and they're sophomores, you know, yes, crazy,
you know, I mean, and they've been through the wars
their men, they're grown ass men. They've played against grown
ass men. They know how to be physical because the
game over there is more like college than it is NBA. Right,
So I think that gives an edge, and I've been
trying to get Indiana to try to focus on that. Now,
coach is going to do what coach wants to do,
a d is going to do. We got a guy,
Ryan Carr from the Pacers, just just started working there,
is really really good. Yeah, you know, and so Ryan
knows the shit, and so you know, he knows all
this stuff. So we'll see where we go.
It's interesting to say that because it's t he comes
all the man and he's got some really good kids,
you know what I'm saying, with potential to play in
college as well. It's interesting those kids their job, well
the jobs they could get in college are getting.
Slim and slim and slim. You're getting cut. Yeah, It's like,
what do you do now if you're high school kid?
Because I'm gonna get that grown man in the portal
with three mouths of feet because he gonna play his
hard out.
But no, cho, this is it. Yeah, he ain't playing
in the NBA and he maybe goes overseas, but this
is where he's making real money. And you know, so
you're right, they're gonna play hard out. But high school
kids got to go D two, you know, mid major
and you know, now you'll go to Saint Louis or
you'll go to Miami of Ohio, get paid a little bit,
but then you prove out give it a lot.
Yeah, for sure, that's the interest.
You say like that because we were talking like it's
literally one year deals now, like one of your deals
in college and ain't for your scholarships.
It's one of your deals. If you're good, great, you
can move on to the portal.
Great. But that's what I like about it though, that
is straight one year because it.
Can go either way and have a good year, you
move up.
You have a bad year, Yeah, you're you're unemployed. You
know it's a job, right, you're literally unemployed. You got cut.
I never thought about it that. I wonder if you
if I had a last year, I thought this year,
I'm a coach.
I'm going literally like, don't like if I gave you
undred thousand years before and you didn't play well, and
be like, well, if you want to come back, I
got twenty thousand forty for real and you're going to
leave for real?
Yeah, Or you're getting a forty thousand dollars scholarship that's
your money, you know. I like this it's it's hard.
It's hard on it though that put that may I
think that gives the kids a reason to work harder though,
for sure, because if you get a million. I was
just talking to Jamie them about that. If you get
a million and the next year somebody offer you two
hundred thousand, you're pissed.
Oh yeah, But Jeff knows, like how many dudes came
into the league that you were teammates with that didn't
know how to use a credit card, didn't know what
a checking account was, and all that. So from an
NBA perspective, like we had one dude, I won't I
won't bust them, but never to opened up a credit uh,
never had a credit card, didn't know how to checking
the account worked, you know, none of that stuff, and
just was lost and blew his money. Now, from the
NBA perspective, NAL was great for sure, right because you're
staying in school longer. They learned how to manage their
money all that stuff. So that's a positive. But on
the negative side, parents know, you know, and the whole
AAU scene just gets even worse is that money's coming
in sooner. There's kids getting n AL money in high
school now yeah, no, I mean that's brutal, brutal for
so we imagine being an agent now nah, I couldn't
at all for what chasing like sixteen year old kids.
Around you au trying is looking filthy.
Yeah, but a tournaments like are stacked right, they're like
and the parents getting nasty because the money's right there.
Used to be NBA, you were like one of four fifty.
Now there's what you there's probably you know, fifty thousand.
Not no, that's not right. So there's what two hundred
schools and say the top five on average, So a
thousand kids are getting paid in college and maybe twenty
are getting paid in high school. That's a lot to
chase right there.
Well ye chase.
You know, mys when we did the first of D's
Occupation and we saw the n I L kids and
the like, yeah they're athletes, I'm like, damn it, sixteen Like.
It took me. It took me five years to get
the NBA.
But at least you know, and the cool part is
like when Jeff played, the stories were great about guys
getting paid right you know under the table, ye not
sit there and just laugh. Yeah, I got two fifty
and you know, three hundred for real, but now it's
just above the book.
Yeah. I thought, my little te k I killed them
chill outs. They just got me in.
One.
Yeah, I just got the Hall of fame. All right.
I want to ask you one question I never got
to ask another human being this. What was that feeling
like when you made your first billion dollars?
I was naked? What where do we go for me?
I mean you so like when our stock so I
had a company was we started the streaming industry. It
was called Broadcast dot com, first streaming company, and so
we went public, biggest I p on the history of
the stock market at the time. First day jump, and
our stock kept on going up, and I knew what
what the price had to be. And I'd get up
every morning to go to work, and I checked the stock,
you know before I you know, before I run into
the bathroom address and I was closed, right, So I
had to go back and check again because I was
showering after the market open hit, you know, my little
F five on my PC, and I just did my
little in the shower, went to work. I had to
keep the stock in the bank. Cook.
Yeah, that'd been my last day.
Yeah, yeah, you gotta keep working, man. That is fire
is fine. What was your first line of hustle, Like,
what was the first thing that shooting? Oh my god,
I was like when I was eight nine years old
in Pittsburgh. When I was eight nine years of Pittsburgh,
I used to go buy baseball cards and then there
was a park down the street and with a table,
and I used to just set up and i'd repackage him.
So I'd say, okay, it cost me ten cents, twenty
five cents whatever, and then i'd repackaged him for a
dollar for a package, and I'd say there'd be a
Pittsburgh Pirate card in there, right, because all kids wanted
the local team. And so that was my first hustle.
My second hustle was I asked my dad. My dad
and his buddies used to play poker at different houses, right,
So they come over and they were, you know, yucking
it up. And I went in there to get donuts
or whatever, and I was like, Dad, I need a
new pair of shoes, new pair of basketball shoes. Looks
at me and he's like, those shoes work. When you
have a job, you can buy whatever you want. One
of his buddies that he was playing with, was like, hey,
I got all these boxes of garbage bags that you
can go around the neighborhood and sell. I'm like, Dad,
can I And He's like sure. So literally I had
the world's first garbage bag route and it was great.
Right.
I walk up the doors meagine the twelve year old Mark, Hi,
my name is Mark. Do you use garbage bags? And
I bought him for three sold him for six, and
just bam, bam bam until I sold out. Made some
money there. I sold magazines store to door because once
I learned I could sell everything got easy. Yeah, and
I was just whatever hustle.
Yeah, man, you saw I was going door to door.
Oh man, if you can sell door to door, you
always have a job.
Shouts to the people who did cutco door. You wasn't.
I got that too.
I was selling the magazine's door to door when I
was sixteen, and there were just you know, three things. Yes,
I made a deal, No, I got shut out. Three.
Some hot mom answered the door. I was like, hello,
what was you? The trash bays go for I sold
him for six bucks a bag, I mean at six
bucks a box of.
All right, man, what made you want to buy Dallas Mavericks.
So I'd always been a basketball junk gam you know,
I still play pickup and get out there and shoot
and all that. And so I have season tickets to
the Maps. And it was the ninety nine two thousand season,
and I was there with my then girlfriend now wife,
and my brothers and everything, and you know, it's the
start of the season, the first game. We're undefeated, and
we got Finley, we got Nash, we got Sean Bradley,
we got Dirk. And I'm like, Okay, you know, I
don't know if we're going to be good, but at
least it's the first game of the season. I can
do better than this. And so I talked to my
sales rep. And the guy who owned him was a
guy named Rossboro Junior, who didn't know anything about basketball,
didn't care. It was a real estate deal for him.
And so I was like, I just sold my business.
I'm going to get paid. And so I worked out
a deal in Bottom for two eighty five. Damn listen.
All was about three four weeks. And I didn't even negotiate.
Didn't even negotiate. It was just like, yes, let's go
to a five and you sold it for how much
for in a little bit and then never gonna say
I screwed up. I could have gotten more, but we
won't go.
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Jam what that trash?
Bashays? Hold now?
What was it?
Lake George?
What was it like when you find like got the team?
Oh my god, it was a blast. I was a
kid in the candy store, right yeah. I was playing
one on one with Dirk. I beat him two to one.
I got up two oh, missed a shot. He dunked
on me. I quit. You know, I'd get out there
and shoot ask Richard Jefferson if you ever see him
about shooting before games, just shooting for money and stuff.
I mean just going out before games and just being
able to get shots up, you know, getting in little
runs with the staff and everything. I mean, it was
it was a dream. And then and obviously the games
and you know we had sucked for so long, and
then Dirk and Nash and Finn came around. Yeah, and
then all of a sudden we were for real and
that was fun.
Did the other owners receive you with good or bad?
I guess I could tell a little bit different way. Yeah.
I was like the Internet dude that they didn't understand.
And David Stern, to his credit, was like, you know,
he's young. Don't pay attention to what he says. He
can help us because he understands technology. But I remember
there was one guy, like older guys that were like
in their late seventies eighties, and one of them it
was like I I was talking about something and he goes,
shut your ass up until you've done something in this league.
Shut the f And David Stern was like like stop stop.
So I was like, what's your name again? Called him
by the wrong names and everything and so they're thinking
any better. So but yeah, they didn't. They didn't take
real kindly to me. And then obviously the league kept
on finding me for everything.
Yeah.
Like I remember like one of my first games in Minnesota,
and remember.
That guy I used to sit there with up.
Anyways, I decided I wanted to get to know all
the different jobs on the team, and so you know,
there's the trainers and everything, and the equipment managers. Sometimes
they'll just sit on the floor right right by the bench.
So I sat down there on the floor just talk
to him during the game, just to get to know
their job and everything. And they find me for one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars for conduct not becoming an owner. Wow,
because you're not supposed to do that, and you know,
and then i'd get into the refs and all that,
and it was yeah, I just went downhill from there.
But I didn't care. What was the hardest part about
your job being losing? Yeah, that was that was it.
That was the hardest part always because winning is good,
but it's not as hard as losing as bad. You know,
it's just because you think you've done all the right
things and then it doesn't turn out, somebody gets hurt
and other team's just better, and you know that just
killed me.
Safely, say, you wouldn't have been a person who was
pro tanking, I imagine.
You know, But how else you rebuild teams?
Yeah?
Yeah, Like we had ten years in a row where
we won fifty plus games, Like I didn't have a
losing season until fifteen, sixteen years in so we didn't
really have to tank till we had to tank, you know,
once Dirk was done, it was like, okay, how do
you rebuild? And so all this talk about tanking isn't
really about, you know, trying to get the best draft,
because like, one, even if you have the worst record,
you still have an eighty six percent chance of not
getting the best pick.
Right.
Two, you don't know if it's going to be a
good draft or not. There's lots of number one pick over.
Lest no disrespect, tell me about it, though, my hawk's
got the number one pick.
Chill to the store.
I'm yeah, it's right, right, I mean, the kid can play, right,
it's not.
There's a difference between being able to play and being
a generational player, right, And if you don't get a
generational player, like, so you got to say there's a
generational player once every four drafts, right, So that's twenty
five percent, So you've got twenty one fourth, you know,
and eighty six percent chance of not getting it. So
tanking isn't really the best option. But when you when
you're when you're ass right, you're typically under the cap, right,
and so when you're under the cap, you have a
chance to use your cap room to take players in
to get draft picks. And getting draft picks is how
you rebuild, yes, And so you know, if you're going
to try to stop tanking, it's more about the other
things that you do, Like you know, when you see
the teams that have been patient and build teams like
Oka see like san Antonio. Two things has got to happen. One,
you want to try to collect picks, right, so that
when that draft that's good happens, maybe you're there. Because
you look how they get Tatum and Jay Brown, you know,
and so how did they get Wemby? Right, they had
the fifth worst record and they ended up with Wemby.
You know, you got to be a little bit lucky,
and then you got to maybe make a lucky trade,
like you know, PG for SGA, you got to be lucky,
and so it's not so much about how do you
get the worst record, it's what are the tools you
have to rebuild? And as long as you let teams
collect five, six, seven, eight, nine number ones, teams are
going to do all they can to stay underneath the cap.
If you say you can only be under the cap
for two years, you'll see everybody change behavior completely and
all that will change.
Now. I answer this question because they've been implemented this year.
They're starting to is this new what they're doing, like
going to interview the teams or the trainee staff to
see if players are action.
It's just more flavorant now, just because of.
How this year, because I just think the league's under
a lot of pressure. And shout out to Adam Silverman.
He's had to put up with a lot of shit.
This hit Oh my god. I mean sure, you know,
and and he's done a good job, right. You might
not agree with everything he's done, but to be able
to lead all that it is not easy, and so
he deserves a lot of credit. And I just think,
you know, all all that stuff adds up, the gambling
stuff and the players and all that and then you know,
people talking about tanking, and it just adds up, adds up,
adds up, and then you've got to respond at some
point because it just gets to you. And so I
think it's not that this year is different, even though
it's a good draft class. It's just that I just
think he just reached his limit, you know. But I
don't think changing the odds for draft picks is going
to change anything because like I saw one, Okay, the
bottom ten teams all get a six percent chance. People
are going to take more because anybody else. And so
you know, he's got a tough job, and I get
him credit for just trying to grind it out when
we get the next year and it's not as good
as draft. But the other part of it is, dudes
are just better coming into the league now. I mean
the skill set set, would you agree except for your
year of course, two thousand and nine.
Yeah, I mean I think guys, I think it was
really good guys. But like I think this draft has
some special players, but previous years drafts not.
As Yeah, but I just think guys are getting better
because like when you were growing up, you watch games
on TV, right, you don't really have the internet to
do all that stuff. Now, anybody puts something out on
Instagram or TikTok or YouTube, every twelve year old, thirteen
year old, fourteen year old is trying to see it.
So you see handles like twelve year old games, right,
guys are doing it like, you know, doing the sham
guy and everything like it's nothing. And guys you know
back in the day didn't have that type.
Of hand No, that's a fact.
That's a good one. You got. That's like, OT we
go to OC, how little little kids feel about them.
All it is, Yeah, paying attention on the T and
OC just THEYD now today that makes a change. They
they're wanted some more of two prep schools. I believe
it's the new league.
Oh they're not done doing the league anymore.
Yeah they're.
Yeah, cause a little bit, I bet. I'm just saying.
That's exactly what I told him when they came and
asked me for investment like years ago. I said, that's
going to be expensive. It's hard to make money doing
the league, right, and it's just when you're dealing with
little kids like that.
Yeah, it's their parents, man. Yeah, so OC came to
you to be the shark type man.
Yeah, yeah, a little bit. Yeah. I mean they reached
out to a lot of people. I just didn't see it.
But they're killing I mean, apparently they're making a lot
of money.
So sure were talking about generational talent. You got a
chance to drive Luca a right and did you know
he was generationally.
We hoped, but we didn't know.
You never know, Yeah, yeah, you never know. But when
you watched the film, did you like, yeah, this guy, oh.
We had like we knew we had a chance to
be a starter and to be good because he was
ballsy man. He was fearless and that's half the battle.
And but you still don't know, Like I remember watching
him play at sixteen against ok C and him going
right by Russ. But it's you know, NBA versus Real Madrid.
You don't know how hard the guys are trying. There's
no preparation, the rules are different and all that. But
I mean we gave up a pick and traded up
to get him, and you know, we hoped. But then
I remember going we went to China for our first
preseason games, and I was sitting with Sean mary And
and Steven Jackson and the whole game of like, what
do you think because I'm terrified because you don't know,
and they're like, oh my god, Oh my god. And
then guys in practice would say and you'd watch him
practice every game he'd win as a rookie, and so
you knew he was special. Yeah, you just didn't know
how special.
We played him early in the season that year and
they had me guard Hi because he was the point guard.
I'm like, what the hell am I going to do
with this dude? Bro two and forty five pins? It
was just posting me up, pump, fake layup, just.
Ohoh, And you think you could just stay in front
of Yeah.
I went straight to West Matthews. I got it, I
got you. We're gonna stay on this perimeter.
So I want to ask, what's that conversation, Like what
the Hawks y'all prepare to make that trade? Like were
they looking into him? So obviously it's one of I
know people try to give judgment, but Trey Luca trade
two All stars hell accompassed on both sides, But what's
that conversation?
Like they it went down to the last minute, like literally,
you got fifteen minutes between picks in the first round
and we were down to like five six minutes left
and we were at five and the Hawks were at three.
And I called the Hawk's owner and I'm like, our
general managers aren't getting this done. You know, whatever it
is you want to do, can you get your general
manager to call ours and make a decision. And they
said they decided they wanted tray and so we threw
in the first and the rest is history. Damn. It
was down to the wires. Down to the wire. That
wasn't bad though. Overachieved actually, and they see it.
My favorite players of all time and Luis, can you
do something we talked about?
Boy, Lucas, boy, that would have generation. They standing next
to each other already, Bro, it's.
All good thing.
Yeah.
It was your favorite Maps team, man, my favorite Maps
team at twenty eleven obviously when we won. Yeah, that
was that's your favorite squad. Yeah of course, Yeah.
I heard the party was unreal.
Yeah, that's why I kind of well, had a good time.
He's look at it, he's excited, you know. Well what
was that night like though?
Man? When live right? Oh? Yeah, because Jason Dry took over,
that was like, okay, we're getting these buses. We're all
going to live. I'm like, cool, let's go, and everybody
had family and everything. We just went there and tore
it up. And then one of the owners maybe or whoever,
came up to me and they're like, hey, we got
this one hundred and forty thousand dollars bottle of champagne.
And Dirk is right there he goes yes, and so
I'm like, okay, whatever, I mean, I'm feeling no pain.
I get out my black and I give him the
carb and then Dirk ten minutes lam like where is it? Right?
Then I get a tap on the shoulder like mister Cuban,
hey come here. And so I got to go to
the back of the office. My card got declined, and
you know how when you get a new car card,
you gotta sign it all in. I hadn't done that, yep,
And so had to get on the phone and like
they weren't going to approve it. So I get on
the phone call Amex and they're like, I'm sorry, sir.
I'm like, did you watch TV today? Did you watch
basketball the finals today?
You know? You know?
And then can I talk to your manager? And they
finally approved it, and yeah, the pictures are great of
us just huge bottle them.
Your face with Max is crazy because I'm mark you.
At least I think credit cards bet up before of
the past, I've been there.
At least job they were nice, were nice, whiskey man,
we'll get it back. Come on, put up, we're talking
about you getting the ship now in six what was
that feeling like?
That was not there? And that was smoke that Oh
we up? Yeah they got a little help though. I'm
not gonna lie, but I'll tell you. I'll tell you
where once I remember like where. It's third quarter, We're
up like fourteen, and I'm standing up thinking, oh shit,
we might sweep these guys, and I jinxed just immediately
when I thought that, right, Not two seconds later, Ud
steals the ball, goes in and cuts the lead a
little bit. Two minutes later, Shaq pushes Eric damp Here
pushes the shit out. They called the foul on damp
I'm thinking, Shaq's not going to make these swish swish, right,
And then the whole series just went south from there.
We don't win another game. The way looked unreal. Yeah, Hey, Bennett,
Salvador was crazy. I've never seen anybody drive like Bennette.
Oh man, I just you know, whatever it's done, it's
like forever ago, twenty years ago. That's crazy, but it's
still fun to fuck with them.
Is there any free agency or any situation you almost
had but felt the last minute that you was working on.
Yeah, I mean obviously DeAndre Jordan. Yeah, that was kind
of a clusterfuck. Yeah. And then the other one was
we had to make a decision. I thought we were
going to get Dwight Holler.
Oh.
And that was the same year that Giannis came out,
and so we because we had been talking to his
agent and made us think that, Okay, we've got a really,
really good shot. But if we drafted right where we
could have gotten Yannis, we wouldn't have had enough cap room.
So we had to trade down to try to free
up some caproom. And we were hoping that Yiannis would fall,
and he didn't, and we didn't get Dwight Howard didn't happen,
didn't get Yannis, you know, but if we had gotten
and we never would have gotten Luca, you know, because
it would have been we never would have been in
that draft position. True. True, So I worked at house
supposed to you got the better player.
M that's debatable.
We're here champion, huh champion who it wasn't Giannice's team.
That was, Yes, I carry.
Harry the well, if you got both of.
Them in the draft, you take an honest both of
them are all Paul that's crazy.
Excuse me, excuse my language.
Excuse me. It's a family show. I probably would take.
And Luke Early.
This is four.
You're saying, like I'm saying player. He's saying in the
draft it took Luca. We didn't know, yeah, because all
we had Joannest.
We had like literally I remember sitting in the war
room and we had two VHS tapes of this kid
that looks like he's twelve years old, six eleven playing
against guys who looked like they were twelve years old
in a Greek league. So you don't really know, but
our scouts like, yeah, he's the real deal.
He's the real deal VHS at that time period, because
it was still like mid too.
Yeah, that's crazy playing at super low level winger. Yeah,
like the second or third was like in the basement
in Atlanta.
Yeah yeah, yeah, remember, yeah, I remember the fact that
they had him all tuck like that. It still didn't
get him. It's crazy because they was. They were supposed
to trade with the Masks. Y'all got Luke uh Shane Larkin. Yeah,
they it was whatever the pick was.
We were twelve, I think.
Yeah, they wanted to trade two picks. We ended up
getting Stroder and a dude named Luca Uh. I forgot
this tall yeah, long carrys like six nine sixteen. But
we were supposed to trade both of those picks to.
Whoever, maybe Milwaukee. It might have been Milwaukee, but we
didn't trade him.
Yeah, they won. It was like, ah, that's when we
thought he was gonna drive.
Yeah, Danny Ferry was hot.
Wow, he was Danny Fair.
Was your guy?
Yet?
Let me tell you my Danny Ferry Strow? Yeah? Please?
And so I was not his guy, by the way.
He was a gym and not my guy either.
On the same place.
Apparently about I forget what year was, maybe two thousand
and nine, maybe we had a trade for Paul Pierce done,
absolutely done, and our GM had worked out with Atlanta
where we were going to give them a pick for something.
You know, we were going to do a trade so
that we can gross up the numbers, right, And it
was a trade that Danny Ferry agreed to, right, and
then he gets on the trade call and realizes we're
trading for Paul Pierce says, no, don't even wet. Throw
in the first round pick in order for us to
okay this. And we didn't have it. We couldn't do it.
So shout out to Danny.
People's day. Definitely, Paul Pierce. Yeah, I heard you almost
trade for Kobe too.
Yeah.
That was two thousand and seven. Kobe was ready to
get out. Yeah, and I was on Dancing with the
Stars Google me. I didn't win, but in any event,
there was a dude named Elvis who was a production assistant, right,
and he was just Kobe, love everything, Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, Kobe.
And in between breaks, I'd be like, Elvis, I need
a quiet spot. And I would talk to Rob Polinka,
his agent at the time, and He's like, okay, if
you can get doctor Buss to approve. And I talked
to Doctor Buss and he was ready to do it.
And it was like to first Josh Howard and Jason
Terry and for Kobe, and I thought, okay, this is done,
and I told Elvis this is done. Practicing my jib
or whatever. And then we got a call from Rob that,
Oh what the fuck, who's the Mitch kup check right
had talked Kobe out of it? Wow? That close, damn.
And I was telling Dirk the whole time, keeping him.
He goes, you can trade me. I would trade me
for Kobe too, and I'm like, no, the whole point, dirt.
You know what he did with Hyeah.
So that makes the AMC that tweet that much funnier
because he was trying to be a mad.
Oh no talk and I would give him ship all
the time. That was back in the day when you
can literally just give people ship on Twitter or whatever,
say something and it would be cool. But yeah, the
MBC that thing was like that. That was a classic.
Yeah. Now listen, man, you give me some cool points.
I told you being on the show today.
Man. Shouts to my mom, duce my family. Dark Tank
one of the best TV shows of all time, for sure.
Hit that again, one of the.
Best TV shows of all times. People get a lot
of money on there. We see a lot of people
turn away some bad chicken. Shouts to the people who
turned down the thirty million.
That thing down. It was the people the day it
was the dating app I forget the name of it,
and they were on there and they wanted the thirty
million dollar valuation. I thought they were just there for
the commercial. I thought they were just you know, they're
just to get people to sign up. And so I
was like, so if I gave you thirty million, would
you say yes? And they took just that part and
sliced it and diced it and put it on YouTube
and send it around to make it seem like I
gave them a thirty million dollar offer. If they would
have said yes, I would have like run out the back,
like no chance.
That was shout to them familiar, But I never heard
on the day Richard m has a week of site
shot out there.
Everybody do that thing, but you got to average Christian? Sure, now,
So how was that though? Being on Sharks? I loved it, man,
I loved it because you know the best part about
it is everybody watched, families watch together, kids watched, and
so you know, I did it because I wanted people
to believe that the American dream was alive. And well,
when someone came on that carpet, that could be from Idaho, Iowa, wherever,
and if they had a decent idea and had to
start to a business. We could help them out and
grow some real businesses, and we did. I mean, like
if you guys hurt of dude wipes, Yeah yeah, Shark Tank, God,
come on, come on, shark Tank. Like I gave them
two hundred and fifty grand I think for twenty percent,
and now they're worth at least a half a billion dollars. Damn.
Have you ever heard of beatbox beverages? They're like you've
you're school, right, Yeah, and so they're like an alcoholic
seltzer And they just sold to Budweiser for six and
seventy million I think was the final number. And I
bought a third of them for a million dollars. Now
I got diluted down, but it's still was nice. Yeah,
they're yeah, I'm familiar. Yeah you've seen the seven eleven. Yeah,
they're everywhere. Those guys killed it crazy.
Yeah, they're right next to the Wide hours rolls at
the seventh eleven, right with six hundred.
Evaluation twenty for sure, Mark, don't tell me invest of.
That now, you don't want people.
I gave them their start, alright, what flavor flavor?
It didn't matter. Let me just tell you when I
was at I am right there was that was the plan, right.
It was like three or four dollars for a box
and you just chug it and then you wait about
fifteen minutes and you just saved by Bucks. It used
to mix all of them together. Oh man, now, so nice.
While we're here and be here final full weekend, you
might as well talk about the Larry legendary road trip
to Houston, Texas.
But the Butler Final four was the pre game drink.
Well out of that which rolls and I have some
Orange mad Dog too, So yeah, he just make it
to the game.
Yeah, that was too small when you do mad Dog
twenty twenty orange and all the different plays. Boy, what
was the other not selling comfort? Oh no, no, no, no,
it's the wine, uh Carlos. No, it was same anyway,
same type of stuff, right, okay, the bottom But yeah,
I mean when you broke it was just like, eh, man,
I never heard his first real drink was like Gray Goose.
Yeah, Ray Ray was twenty two. I was an NBA.
Good for you. I don't know about all that, but.
That's the story. That's a good We weren't going to ladies.
So we got to we started probably real time.
Oh my god, man, what a time period man, Bloomington, Indiana,
totally different. I'll imagine like football season issues going to
be insane, Like you can't.
Even get ticked.
It's gonna be sold up.
Yeah, it's all sold out already. It's gonna be wild.
I mean it's But the difference is now the precious
want to be on.
Yeah.
Yeah, Now repeating getting there was amazing. Repeating is a job,
that's that's the hardest job in all of sports. Once
you've won, you guys know right you know or you
didn't didn't get to find out, did.
You look at Hey? I got some them right now.
They can't till they bring me back. Milwaukee won't win.
I told.
Get Yon have to come back.
I don't want to play no more.
But yeah, it's gonna be hard getting guys to come back.
But you know, now you're gonna get players.
Yeah that's a good thing. I got a bunch of
five stars.
Now. No, you know what, I would be surprised. I
don't know the answer, but I would be surprised if
we don't have a lot, because you know, I still
think if you Chase the most expensive free agent. That
kind of distorts everything in the locker room because you've
been in the locker room where some guy got a
lot more money than anybody expected, you know, and that
just like changes the balance.
I love kim Baisemore, but I remember the day, Oh.
Yeah we got paid. Yeah, man, you got seventy million,
he got chicken. I was like, you just came up
the bitch. We came hixteen year when yeah, right, everything got.
Down to Mike Conley Jr. Naptown legend. He forget.
Right, that was one of the guys. We were the mic. Yeah,
like I brought him on my jet. His dad played
us like a fiddle shout yeah, yeah, I remember that
from that.
Yeah, we gonna get that chicken at all time.
Jet war fitting good. He's like, yeah, you want to
help you. You gonna go back to Memphis.
So did you see the wolves? Mom Like, damn no,
because I knew it was.
Coming then, right, Yeah, I wasn't thinking. Damn. It was
a lot worse because now all of a suddenhen you
don't got the guy that you wanted. Now you still
got to fill the whole do whatever you gotta do.
And that year, that was the same year KD went
to the Warriors. The money was insane. That's when you
know centers were getting who was that La Center? Yeah, yeah,
I got paid. All those guys were getting crazy. And
we went and we signed, like you know, we got
Wes Matthews and Harrison Barnes and a couple other guys
and we tried to spread it out. Traded for Bogat
and that was that was my biggest mistake here because
that was the year I thought, Okay, we're going to
be good and we started with the full squad. We
started off three and fifteen, and so at that point,
you know, you just had to break it up and
trade all these guys. And it wasn't happy, but it
was what it was.
So at one point I ask you this question, do
you wait like far enough in the season, like maybe
all Star Breakers that when people be all right, this
shit ain't working. We gotta we gotta save the chicken.
Is there like a time here you give it like
ten games, just like fifteen.
Got to tell you, yeah, yeah, but just pans right.
But it's like when guys get released before March first,
when you know the last day before you can add
to a playoff team, like if you guys are only
going to add a guy to a playoff caliber team
if they're good, right, so you're you're effectively the trade
deadline is the date where you've got to make your
final decision who you're keeping, who you're getting off of.
And now with the second apron, it's ten times harder
because it just it just changes all the economics. And
to make matters worse, you got contracts that were signed
during the last CBA that kind of distort your cap
for this CBA. And so that's why you see a
lot of crazy things. And I think it's even going
to get crazier next year and then all those old
old contracts will be off as well.
Said I want to ask you this obviously, what the
expansion team is getting approved. If you had a chance
to run either the new team in Vegas or Seattle,
wish one, would you choose Vegas?
I mean, I like Seattle, but Vegas.
Mark Cuban, Vegas saw me up.
It'll be interesting to see how much they get, you know,
because there's a there's a number where it's too much,
not so much from the league's perspective, they want the
most they can possibly get. And I understand that, you know,
with the ownerships, owners and everything, but you got to
be able to make money at some point, you know,
and it's hard.
What do you think would be too much?
I think ten will be too much. Nine or ten
would be too much? Six seven, eight, because the teams
that have gotten in that range have been Boston in
LA and Boston in LA still have local TV deals
like the MAVs. We had an eighty million dollar a
year TV deal Local gone disappeared.
Oh yes, you know that, dang, Like I didn't even
have a say in this situation. That was because it
was a new.
They went out of business. All the local rs and
regional sports networks toast like the last one just went
out of business this week and on. Now the NBA
will come up with them ways to connect all the
teams together for local broadcasts. But you're not gonna get
the same amount of money as was back in the day.
No, no, no, depend on what story go over there
might shake up the league man, big names might go
to both of them cities.
Yeah, but you still like for local TV, just the
TV business. That's why. Look at you guys, right, you
guys get more people watching and listening than you know,
most TV shows, which you never would have thought of
ten years ago. That's true. Yeah, they're gonna be bad
for a couple of years, though, I don't know, you
don't think you guys back and apron stuff, like think
of all the old max contracts that guys will put
teams will put out there, and those teams will still
have to get to the minimum salary level of the floor.
And so you know, you take a couple of those
big contracts, put them together knowing that they're going to
burn off after a year or two, and you're gonna
have a good pick at least the first year or two.
But it's gonna be some old guys like not to like,
you know, disrespect him, but like Paul George would be
like a name like with his contract.
Paul George exactly like those guys. But they can still
because yeah, you're just not there's going to be the
first guys you would go after, right like you might
when they were younger.
Yeah, for sure, I know this is absolutely impossible, but
how fun it would it be if they put them
in the same drafting. So since there's some middle teams
they get the number one, the number two picks and
pissed everybody off the t.
They can't do that.
That would be hilarious.
Yea beause remember you owners gott to vote on it.
Bake of the world.
Yeah, I ain't have Vegas starting off trash bro you
hockey team they won, like, didn't they? I don't know
if they won the champions Yeah.
You think about when Toronto came the cheeks bro, No
but wrong, mighty mouth.
They were horrible, were horrible Grizzlies, horrible.
Respect what I'm saying, Vegas, we need John Moran Brol.
You'll probably be out there expansive draft John John Vegas.
I don't know that Vegas.
I don't know him very well.
The bounce back strong man we don't need. We don't
need Johnbby Live. You didn't knock down you crazy?
I was a ass.
What was your worst investment to any regrets? Oh my god,
I've had a bunch of them. I've had investments where
I trusted people and took them at their word and
lost five, eight, ten million dollars. But you know, but
that was my style and it's worked other places where
I you know, hundreds of billions or whatever, and so
you know, it balances out a long mistakes are smaller
than your Yeah, as long as the math works on
half carried like, I've had companies that have just emailed
me and I still haven't met him where I've met
him once and they've made me hundreds of millions of dollars. Wow,
as long as the company email.
Yeah, I got no emails.
Watch this fail like the course. There's a company, Synthesia,
that does like AI avatars that I invested in when AI,
even before AI was a thing, and I gave them
I don't know, a million dollars for twenty you no,
probably thirty percent of the company. I've been deluded since.
But they just did a deal that valued them at
four billion dollars. And you know my stuff is worth
four hundred, you know, and so all that covers. And
I've got a couple of deals like that. So yeah,
it's say lest yeah, that's out, get it right, Yeah,
I'll get it. You said, fuck, so bad of it.
It's never a.
Good either. I win. I write it off.
Would you would would you ever break a deal through
an email for me? You don't know.
I got to see you shake your head.
Ask because I've been doing it, like shark tank. Yeah,
if they don't give me the right answers, it's not like, hey,
you tell me something, I just believe you. Like I
was like bam bam, bam, bam bam, and like, because
I'm technical, I can get into the details of most
of these are tech deals, and so if you can't
give me the right answer, there's no chance. If you
give me the right answer, then there's a chance.
Now you talk about some of the successes some of
the falls, is there a tech company in one of
those startups that you didn't wasn't sold on, a little
nervous about they end up going crazy.
You're like, man, I missed I don't know Uber.
Oh wow. Yeah. So the guy who started uber uber
had a business before and I invested in that, and
I was one of the first people he came to
with Uber uber cavs, and I kind of over negotiate.
I wanted to invest and somebody else. I went shark
tank on them and kind of, you know, try to
negotiate the valuation. And he got somebody else who didn't
care what the valuation was and just gave him all
the money and he walked me, ghosted me and boom, Yeah, yeah, God,
I could be rich.
I love how all that's crazy that be here. We
lose a fox. I got to know where somebody live.
Don't see me no more shiny.
All right before we got here, miss que the final four,
when you got taking the chip man, I'm.
Going as much as I don't like Illinois with Illinois, okay, right,
just because they got the forty year old. I think
you know, when you have six kids, you've been through
it all, you got an advantage.
They got a team full. I can't go back, for sure.
I can't go back.
I got Michigan with Michigan, I got Michigan man playing
the best all year. Yeah, they got so squad.
I don't want to see Braylan doing man. I'm just
taking the home team. You got one man shot you.
I won't dare early to hear, but another riff so
at all calls and that's not crazy?
How do you get away with that?
Up?
Yeah? But still cheating. He was cheating. He was seating.
He was seating the Russell, seating the one to let
the travel go right in front of him, right we traveled.
Yeah, if you could have got.
If that would have been me on the losing end,
like it was a MAVs game. Oh, I would like
they'd be finding me. Got into a real bad Oh yeah,
you god, Oh my god, that was so much fun.
And we told all the coaches we got approval from
the referees before we did it. But Del Harris, who
was one of our assistant coaches back then, didn't get
the memo. They was freaking out. But I could hear
the crowd going with it. Oh, it was so much fun.
Oh my god.
We had to search how old Deal Harris was after
that clip.
For sure he didn't have gray hair before the clip.
Oh listen, man, mister, we appreciate you blessing this man.
This has been a great episode. Long time come man,
glad we can make this happen before we got here.
Be here. Tell the people they can grab some merch man.
Shout club five to twenty dot com. Baby, we gotta
get you some merch too.
Yeah, we got you. We gotta take care of you.
Man.
Listen man, great episode.
Shout to Boostmoebus, shout to stockhad shout the hard rock back,
lazy to get you paid man, shout out to be here.
We appreciate y'all won't catch out next time. Club five
twenty The Volume