Pablo Torre, David Samson, and (eventually) Amin Elhassan are today's substitute teachers, and they're off to a roaring start with one goal: have more fun than the group in New Orleans for the Super Bowl. Pablo kicks things off by taking us through the details of his dinner with David at Joe's Stone Crabs. Then, the NBA trade rumors are still circling around Jimmy Butler and, now, Kevin Durant as we inch closer to tomorrow's Trade Deadline, but none of it compares to the Luka Doncic trade made by the Dallas Mavericks earlier this week. As interested as Pablo and David are in the transaction, they have questions around how ownership impacted the decision. That leads us directly to a Facebook conspiracy theory surrounding the Mavericks, Luka, Las Vegas, and Texas legislature. Plus, we witness one of the most awkward almost-high-fives in the history of this program. Today's cast: Pablo, David, Amin, Chris, Jessica, and Jeremy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
You're listening to DraftKings Network.
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There's a lot going on today. There's too much going on, I would argue. David hates when I say this to start any show. There is, I would say, it's an unprecedented degree of substitute teacher vibes going on in the studio today. Chris Cody's dancing.
Feels good, man. Does it feel good? It feels good to have you guys here. It does feel like substitute teacher vibes, but a good substitute teacher. Not one of those ones that just puts on a film. Someone that makes me think. And I leave that day saying, that person deserves their own. That should be a full-time teacher. That should not be a substitute teacher.
I've never had that thought about a sub. I don't know why I'm doing this.
I woke up in a good mood today. I was excited to come into work. That probably doesn't speak well to how I wake up other mornings.
Jess and I saw each other in the parking lot, and we literally skipped in together.
It's one of those things where like everybody feels like they're on, they're like at Six Flags. Everybody's in New Orleans for the Super Bowl. They seem to be, I'm watching Stu Gott's post pictures with Mina at like a sandwich shop somewhere getting a po' boy together. And our task here, David, is to have more fun than them.
That is our challenge. That's gonna be an easy hurdle. That's sort of like the hurdle when you start a PTFO. Right on the ground. I just want to get right over the bar on the ground. That is what I said. I'm already over that. I'm not jealous. I'm happy to be here in Florida with you. and Jeremy and Jessica and Chris.
What do you guys think about, maybe tomorrow, we get like a New Orleans-style band to just be out there? Yes. So that we feel like we're, you know, what we're missing, we get.
All right. When Amin shows, by the way, Amin isn't here. Amin's supposed to be here. Amin is coming. He was on the list. He's coming in from the airport. Amin has the craziest life, I think, of anybody who does this show. He commutes across the country all of the time.
Thank you, Amin. We appreciate it. Thank you, Amin. Hard worker.
I don't think you can cut it that close.
Well, he has beyond cut it. He is not here. It's not cutting close. He's late. And so I want to get into the NBA stuff because last night I was at dinner with David. We were wearing bibs at Joe's Stone Crab, which if you've never seen David Sampson get bibbed, it is a sight to see. He walks in. I mean, Joe's. Can I just. Chris, you've been to Joe's Stone Crab.
Do we need to explain what Joe's Stone Crab is to people?
It's pretty self-explanatory title-wise, I think.
A stone crab place owned by Joe?
Yeah, right.
It's not exactly that, but it's a good place to start.
It kind of is. I think it's the most profitable restaurant in America, one of them.
It's the sort of place where you're walking with David Sampson, and they immediately come up and say, Mr. Sampson, it's so good to have you back. You were greeted by everybody we saw. I'm not exaggerating.
You must hate that. How many hands did you shake? Did you sanitize right after? There were a few hugs. There were. There were actual full body hugs.
Are these fist bumps and handshakes happening while eating the crab? No, you can't do anything. Once the stone crabs come, that's it.
Do you crack your own claws because you don't want them to touch your crab claws before you eat them?
No, they come pre-cracked. I know, but are you okay with that? Yeah, I wouldn't be able to. You'd get too many cuts on your hands.
I'm surprised you don't ask for the cracker yourself.
That's a good question by Jeff.
Joe's Stone Crab is the perfect place to avoid these kind of interactions because you can always just have the doctor hands of like, I got crab hands, man. Can't fist bump, can't do anything. We'll talk later.
There was a lot of that, a lot of the hands up, a lot of extra napkins, a lot of me clearing the table so there's room for all of the stuff. While Pablo just sort of sits there oblivious, eating dinner with Pablo is an interesting thing in that your level of oblivion, other than focusing on your social media, is quite interesting. Other than focusing on my social media. What does that mean?
It means you're setting up pictures and you're posting and you're doing things while we're supposed to be focused and getting work done and you're focused on what your next post is. I went to dinner and David went to work.
That's a you problem, buddy. Do we have a picture of David in this bib? Oh, yeah, yeah. You can pull it off of my, speaking of which, at P.S. Toria on Instagram. It's currently on my stardust. I blacked out. I put a bar over the waiter's eyes for privacy reasons, but you could see what the vibe is. Because you think he wouldn't want to be in a photo with me? I just can't be sure.
You didn't get permission? I did not get permission. But look at the glee. It's a happy place. You didn't blur out the people in the background. I think it's fine. They are not on social media.
They're right there. We ate at 5 p.m. And none of those people are scrolling through my Instagram feed.
I've never been happier that someone's wearing a bib. Good God, that shirt.
It's a great shirt. Don't you yuck on a Robert Graham yum. That would be inappropriate.
Can you guys Google Robert Graham for me and explain who this person is? Because I've never heard that name before in my life.
Thank you. I enjoyed going to dinner. I enjoyed being in Miami. I don't feel like we're the substitutes.
I know, you always try to say that. And I'm like, dude, we're rolling out the AV cart. This is what we do.
I'm not. Embrace it. I've got 20 things that I think that would be interesting to discuss and that Dan would be proud that we're discussing. And you want to focus on your social media. Well. And not being upset with Amin.
I do want to bring us in to what I was doing at dinner because what I was doing while on my cell phone was actually doing a bit of reporting. It's what I do. I find stuff out. There's supposed to be a Kevin Durant trade happening and it hasn't happened yet. And I'm not alone in saying this. Jeremy, the Internet has been ablaze.
Basically, everybody who's even tangentially involved with the NBA has been hinting without reporting Kevin Durant's about to be traded. And they're supposed to be, in my understanding, to be even more irresponsible, like a three team deal involving some major franchises. So what is the latest? What is the Internet telling everybody?
Yeah, some of the latest reporting is insinuating that there could be a three-team deal between the Heat, the Warriors, and the Suns that lands Jimmy Butler in Phoenix and Kevin Durant back with the Golden State Warriors. I'm intrigued to see... How and why the Suns would make that move given the circumstances?
To me, the only logical explanation for moving Durant and bringing in Butler is if Booker genuinely wants to stick around for the long term and you're trying to extend a window with another competitive veteran wing. But you're a bad team right now if you're Phoenix. So acquiring Jimmy to then extend him given the timelines it might not make sense.
They might even be welcoming him in with the idea of clearing out cap space in the offseason and tearing the whole thing down.
Jeremy, there's one thing that you're missing in this analysis, is that what Pablo was really saying is he was at the restaurant reading his phone, getting what he thought was inside information, that we may have to leave dinner at any time, mid-claw, that this trade was imminent, definitely happening, and that he had somehow this connection. My guy's never wrong. I have a guy. He has a guy.
I have a guy. He wakes up this morning, and it turns out the guy is not the guy. He's just a guy. Yeah, Jeremy has the same guy, it turns out. Apparently, that guy is waiting until 3 p.m. tomorrow, just like every other guy. And you were offended to be so normal and out of the loop. Can I clarify with Jeremy, though?
Who are the Heat supposed to get in this?
I believe the Heat would be landing a combination of Andrew Wiggins and Picks and other salary fillers. Yeah, that's what I had heard from my guy.
Ooh! Which is funny. Look, I want to talk about ownership, though, because we just referenced just now the Phoenix Suns and their owner, Matt Ishbia. Like, what is he doing? I was hoping Amin would be here for this, but we can pick it up when he's also around. I think that the media in general, the way we talk about the Luka Doncic thing is very backwards.
I think it's remarkable how much we've missed the forest and the trees. This is a story about ownership. Nico Harrison has gone from a guy, I've never seen, speaking of guys, I've never seen a guy go from zero to one million in terms of nobody knows who he is to everybody has a developed opinion.
100%.
I don't think people even know, largely, that Mark Cuban no longer owns the Dallas Mavericks. And it infuriates me because I did an episode about who does own the Dallas Mavericks, obviously, Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law, Patrick. Where can we find that episode? Palpatory finds out. It's available on YouTube. We have 99.2, 99,200 subscribers come be our 100th, thousandth?
What do you get for that?
You get a plaque. You literally get a plaque. Are you going to give someone a plaque? I mean, for being the 100th? No, no, no. I'm going to get a plaque. Oh, so you just want people to join your show?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll send them a photo of the plaque. Such a Pablo thing, isn't it? I digress. The point is, this is an ownership story, and it's less so a GM story. As much as the GM story is colorful and funny and amazing, but I just think you must follow the money here. And the money is a very clear...
yeah it's it's the plot not the subplot so the money with the trade i don't think i i don't agree i think you have to focus on the truth that nico was not alone there is a report this morning that jj reddick knew about the trade during the knicks game before the knicks game and that he was super excited and he was in a great mood and all happy which would track that the coaches would know while jason kidd sat there pretending i had no idea looking like someone stole his lunch money
That's my favorite part of this whole thing. Just how awkward he looked during that.
Wasn't that amazing? Do we have a photo like of Jason Kidd? Is there anything worse than being forced to go to a press conference and having to be the what's the word for when you're not in the know?
100%.
I got a call. And he's just like, no, I think we should be aligned on this. Come on up. And he's just like, oh, all right, I'll go up there.
We staff press conferences in advance. You say who's going to be up there. And if someone makes a big issue, if a player makes a big issue or the GM, you can get the AGM. But you need someone from the baseball front office to take the heat off you as having made the decision. And I don't know why Nico would bring him up there just to say that he's been neutered.
it makes it made no sense to me well i'm not buying it look at that it's the feeder of all of it right look and again do i buy that lebron didn't know about this do i buy that uh yeah clutch was not involved when they represent lebron and anthony davis in this and they wouldn't have shared information i don't buy any of that obviously but the owner's story
This is a multi-billion dollar franchise at the center of which is this kid, is this 25-year-old. And Nico Harrison does not have the power unilaterally to be like, I have an idea. This has to come from the people who own and bought the team. No, the idea can come from the GM, but it has to get approved by the owner. But my point is, the idea can't go anywhere without the owner.
unless the person who pays the bills is like, yes. And so to your point, I wanna acknowledge the best case scenario for this story in terms of, what were the Adelson sort of aware of? It's that they didn't care. Right. The question of how much should you be as a Mavs fan at the owners of your team?
The most generous interpretation of the order of events here is that they didn't care when Nico Harrison was like, I have an idea. They said, whatever, go do it. Like, we're not going to spend a ton of time thinking about this.
That's the most generous interpretation. That's awesome. That's no meddling. Isn't that what you guys want from your owners? Letting the basketball and baseball people make the decision? You always complain about that. The owners are too involved.
I mean, I think you just want whoever doesn't suck at it to do it. Make good decisions.
I don't really care who does it. So you can meddle if you're good, but don't meddle if you're bad?
David, I think we've drawn the line. The Mendoza line exists in baseball. This is the Luka Doncic line. If your GM comes to you and says, I'm going to trade Luka Doncic right now, I just want the owner to say, that's an insanely stupid idea. That's all I want them to do. They don't have to do more than that. Which is probably what Mark Cuban would have done.
So the Mark Cuban part of this is for me. That's my favorite part of this whole story is the Mark Cuban part. So refresh our memory, David, because you were out ahead on this. Truly. When it came to Mark Cuban. Getting crushed. Selling to Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont.
And all of you in there in that room crushing me when I told you that Mark Cuban, when he sold the team, was done. And Mark Cuban was coming out and saying, oh, I'm still the head of basketball. I'm still maintaining my power. And I said, of course not. He sold the team. He's not the governor. He's not the alternate governor. He's nobody. He's nothing. He sold.
But Mark Cuban made us all believe that he's involved until the Luca deal. And then he said, oy, I better let people know I got nothing to do with this. So he basically changed his story. You also said A.J. Brown would never play for the Eagles again. I can't. I didn't say I got everything right.
Didn't you say you trade Mike Evans, too?
I just want to be clear, Jessica, and I'm happy to go at this right now.
I don't remember crushing you for Mark Cuban takes.
Are you right in everything you say every time you say it?
I just want to establish that.
So that's a stupid threshold to even talk about. But the fact about Mark Cuban is simple. The Samson line. It's the Samson line is we're all going to be wrong if you're willing to take a position. Even you, Pablo. I disagree. Well, that's exactly. That's you being you. But you're not right all the time.
I'm trying to set David up for a victory lap, and he's somehow turning it into a parade of defeats.
I don't want to take a victory lap. I want to explain the way it works when you sell a team is you don't get power. And Mark Cuban trying to mislead all of you bothered me greatly. And now the fact that he needed to separate himself from the Luka deal is hilarious. No, it's legitimately funny.
Yes.
Like he's been waiting. It's not been a month since he sold.
This is this is a story about the theater of power who actually has it, who pretends like they have it, who performs it. Nico Harrison is the greatest gift to Miriam Adelson. Not because he got Luka Doncic out of there, because everybody is simply talking about his incompetence. It's the thing with Roger Goodell. Roger Goodell's great value to NFL ownership is that he is the meat shield.
You criticize him and his weird press conferences, and you do so less so now, obviously, by the way, a separate story, but the whole point is, look over there at the guy we put on camera at the presser next to Jason Kidd. Don't look at the people who actually had the power to make this deal happen. It's an incredible gift we've given to a person, by the way, Miriam Adelson.
Just for the record here, was Trump's biggest donor in 2020? These are just facts. I'm not gonna present them with any sort of editorializing. Just facts about who she is.
You can. You can say that that's bad.
I just wanna point out that she was Trump's biggest donor in 2020. She is a super donor to the Republican Party in its most mutated state. Mutated also feels objective at this point. And she is the architect, quietly, of Trump's whole policy in the Middle East. Which, by the way, happens to be relevant certainly right now and yesterday.
She has been all over the biggest story in sports and the biggest story in politics at the same time. And nobody is really talking about her. And that is an amazing bit of theater for us to miss.
I didn't want to miss it. I wanted to talk about it with all of you because it is true. And this happened. Her husband really started this with her. And when he passed away, she took the mantle.
Why is this more of an owner trade than any trade? Because by your lot, like, isn't every trade go through to the owner's desk? And it's like, I don't know what's the difference here between every trade.
It's a great question. To me, David, you would... So the reason I love that David is here, by the way... Great question, Chris. It's because...
Thank you, everyone. It's so rare.
That's so rare. When it comes to meat shields and when it comes to people, executives running a team who must be trotted out there to be deeply unpopular in front of the press. To cover for the owner of the team, I present to you David Sampson.
It was my job for 18 years. Why'd you sign Heath Bell? I mean, those were questions that were asked of me that you all blamed me for doing, and that was my job. It is Nico Harrison's job. Have you ever noticed you don't see owners at the firing press conferences? You see them at the hiring press conferences. That is a very common thing that owners think people don't notice.
They send out the president or the GM when you're making a move or an unpopular trade. But then when it's a huge free agent signing, then the owner comes out. And so I think that it's important to know that one of the privileges of ownership is that you get to decide when you have your meat shield out and when you don't. But Adelson, as you know, you keep calling her the owner of the Mavericks.
Clarify. You should clarify that it is her son-in-law who is the actual governor, the actual owner of the Mavericks, because she would not be approved by the NBA.
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Hey folks, it's Mike Ryan and I need to talk to you about something that I use religiously. Anytime I'm hosting a big dinner party, I want to impress people and I get food from some of the most iconic, famous places in the country. You know what helps me do that? GoldBelly. This amazing site where I order from all the time.
where you can get all these amazing foods from all across our great country. They will ship free to your door anywhere in the U.S. of A. Gold Belly will ship you Philly cheesesteaks from Jim's or Pat's in Philly. I'm treating my office right now to a cheesesteak party from Pat's, courtesy of Gold Belly. And on top of that, I threw in some original buffalo wings from Anchor Bar in Buffalo.
You can get Kansas City's most legendary barbecue from Gold Belly. And if the pizza near you sucks, they will ship you New York style pizza from John's on Bleecker or Chicago deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's. I do that all the time. Or even New Haven or Detroit style pizza. If you are truly gluttonous, though.
They will ship you Guy Fieri's famous trash can nachos, which I kid you not, are the ultimate game day centerpiece. So if you're looking to host an epic Super Bowl party, or any party for that matter, go to goldbelly.com and get free shipping and 20% off your first order with promo code DAN. That's goldbelly.com, code DAN, for free shipping and 20% off your first order.
Don Levitard. Go Pee-Pee. Stoogatz. Go Pee-Pee. This is the Don Levitard Show with the Stoogatz.
So this is something that we reported and Pablo Torre finds out that the NBA called me to push back on immediately. The concern had been that Miriam Adelson, if you Google her, is so toxic that the NBA said, we need a meat shield for her. And that ended up being, reportedly, according to our reporting, Patrick Dumont. Well, that's a fact. That's not a report. He is the principal owner.
He's the governor of the Mavericks. But an anonymous guy who is her son-in-law, who is, in fact, the governor who shows up at the meetings, and it's not Miriam. And all of this, again, is it a distinction without a difference? We can argue about that. Where the money comes from seems to be the most relevant thing, as always.
As I've been told many times, the answer to all of your questions is money. We should probably think about that. But to Chris's question specifically, what's different about this? Why is this an owner thing? it's because it's Luka bleeping Doncic. He's 25 years old.
All of the superlatives we've all been saying, five-time All-NBA, five years running, made the NBA Finals, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. David.
If Popovich traded Wemby, would Popovich get crushed like this? He would? Yes. So Popovich hasn't earned the right.
If he traded him for a 32-year-old, I think everyone would be like, what did they just do that for?
If Popovich traded Wemby at all, yes, I would say that the immediate reaction would be.
People would have felt that way about if he traded him for Luka Doncic. Like, that's the error that Wemby is in at the moment, considering his age and impact on the team.
I also, I think we're like, the reason why this is also not just an owner thing, it's a GM thing, is because of how bad the haul was for Luka Doncic. That's where it's like, even if this is an owner thing, the GM's job is to like make those transactions make sense. And it just still doesn't really make a lot of sense.
This leads perfectly into my favorite conspiracy theory that I have seen about all of this, which you guys will enjoy because it involves ownership and manipulating politicians. So the theory that I believe stemmed from a Facebook post. is that, that's where it starts. I'm couching it with that from the beginning. All good theories begin with a Facebook post.
Is that the ownership group for the Mavericks wants to have gambling legal in Texas. And in turn, they want to use the threat of moving the Mavericks to Vegas to influence the state legislature to pass legalized gambling in the state of Texas. And the only way that by 2026... they could logically threaten to move to Vegas is if they get the NBA to approve it.
If they're a thriving franchise with a young superstar in Dallas, the NBA would never approve the Dallas Mavericks moving to Vegas. But if by then, this core group has come and gone... and Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving hasn't worked out, they can sell off the team, hit rock bottom, and potentially threaten to move to Vegas. And this is a perfect time for Amin to arrive.
I was going to say, so I want to laugh at this and pick it apart. And luckily, Amin El-Hassan has just arrived, the guy who just interviewed, I believe, the originator of the Facebook post in question.
That's right. That's right. Do you buy it? Do you buy the theory? Well, first of all, the guy's very clear. He's a lawyer. He's just a Mavs fan who's a lawyer. And he makes it very clear, like, there's no sourcing on this. He's just connecting dots.
It is true that the Adelson family purchased the Mavericks with the intent of getting gambling legalized in Texas and having this vast territory, the largest population of non- gambling people because it's not available to them in the United States. But, you know, upwards of 20 million people in the state of Texas. That's true. They didn't want it to get legalized. That's true.
When they build a new building, a new arena, they want a casino.
They're casino magnates, the Adelsons, right? Macau, the Sands.
They're mostly in Asia now. In Asia.
I mean, there's so many things that Jeremy said are so ridiculous.
I don't know what Jeremy said. I'll just tell you. It's not his theory. Jeremy just summarized the Facebook post. At least I think I did.
Can we get a slow-motion replay of what just happened? I don't want to ever relive that.
Okay, here's another connection. Remember when Josh Harris, owner of the Commanders, also owner of the Sixers, went on Monday Night Football and was there with Troy Aikman and Joe Buck, and he thought that something happening was a high-five invitation? And then he grabbed the hand of, I believe, Joe Buck. That's just what happened. with me and Samson. That was terrible.
I was not trying to high-five you. I thought you were.
Proceed, Amin. Chris Cradaville is the guy's name, this lawyer's name. So as I said, that's correct. They do want to legalize gambling in Texas. They do want the new arena that they're going to build to have a casino attached. They already have the land. The land is in Irving, Texas, near the site of the old Cowboy Stadium. So that stuff is all true.
The part where it's like, and this deal was to put the, is the stick because the carrot didn't work in legislature. I don't know. He says it's his theory too. Like he's not saying, oh, I know I got the inside scoop. And I think that's very important to point out as people like to take things and run with it.
Yes. Yes. Legalizing gambling in Texas is not in any way correlated to Luca being on the Mavericks or not. It's just that is when they are deciding where to legalize gambling, when you're lobbying, whether you're DraftKings or anyone else lobbying for legal gambling, you are not focused on who is actually on the team in the state or city where you are going.
But even bigger picture, right, when it comes to what the NBA's financial interests here, it is interesting to consider that, right? If you're Adam Silver, the question has has has arrived. Should he veto this deal? Should he have vetoed this deal? And just purely cynically, purely following the money, this is a good deal for Adam Silver to have happen in his league, is it not?
From a pure, like, Luka, go to the Lakers. Lakers have a whole decade of runway of your next all-time player. Dallas... You'll figure it out. Like that feels like a cost benefit that Adam Silver in his heart of hearts would approve of.
Can I be unfun today? I hate this talk. Someone's got to do it.
We started the show by saying we have to be more fun than people in New Orleans. And Amin is immediately saying.
But like we're taking it down. This is what I. It gives me headaches. Right. It starts with the question.
I'm picturing Dan watching like finally someone's bringing it down.
What are you doing over there with your hands? That's what Dan's doing. I'm not. Rubbing his nipples. So this idea that, oh, Silver should veto it like Stern did, the Chris Paul deal. That's not how this works. Chris Paul deal was vetoed by David Stern, not as commissioner of the NBA because it's unfair.
It was vetoed because he was the de facto governor of the New Orleans franchise at the time because the guy who owned it ran out of money. And he was like, I can't run a team anymore. Who wants it? It's like the bank foreclosing on the team. And so Stern was like, I'm the governor. And they bring him this deal.
And the deal, by the way, was to get like Pagasol and a couple of other middling players. And Stern looked at it and said... We're better off being terrible and trying our luck in the lottery. And so he vetoes the deal as the de facto governor. The deal doesn't go through.
They do a different deal that brings them the type of players that will bring their value down, excuse me, their competitive value down on the floor. They're terrible. Guess what they got that following lottery? The number one overall pick. Who was Anthony Davis? Totally the right move for the Pelicans franchise. But everyone's like, he did it because they were going to help the Lakers.
Do people do that? They do that all the time. They do that. I never do that. With that voice. That's weird. You never say that. You never say that the league vetoed the deal because it would have been bad for business.
Well, the league used to run the Expos. And there were a bunch of deals done by Omer Minay as the GM of the Expos. Remind us why the league... Major League Baseball was running the Expos? Because we sold the Expos to Major League Baseball so they could run the Expos and move them to Washington and become the Washington Nationals.
And so we could get the Marlins, and so John Henry could sell the Marlins and move to Boston. Because the trust that owned the Red Sox wanted to cash out, and baseball wanted to make sure that John Henry got them. It's a three-way deal, basically.
You guys acquired the Marlins, he acquires the Red Sox, and then Washington acquires the Expos.
It was a three-way. And there were a lot of trades that were done. If you go back and look at Expos transactions after 02, and there was a lot of talk that they should be vetoed by Selig, and he would not veto them. And so the Expos made a bunch of bad trades.
What is the verdict that you have of how Major League Baseball was at running the Expos?
Great. They put in a guy named Tony Tavares. to be the president. They had a GM named Omar Minaya, who some of you may know. From his days with the Mets. And they ran it knowing that they were trying to cut expenses, didn't care about revenue, didn't care about attendance, didn't really... Well, now it's sounding worse. No, but that wasn't their job.
So this is why I bring it up, though. It's because Amin is... I love Amin's retrospective, his revisiting of how good a GM was David Stern, actually.
Not a GM. How could I have an owner? He was a governor.
But I'm saying this because ownership and decision-making, when it comes to when the league is taking over teams, kind of hard to disentangle because the incentives for the decisions you make are different now, right? It's different.
Sure, but the decision he made was the best decision for the franchise. Because the best decision for the league would have been, send Chris Paul to Kobe Bryant. Send him to L.A. Get him out of the 30th largest market in the league. Send him to the number two market. Send him to the market. All of the financial incentives were there for them to do that.
And he didn't because that wasn't what was best for the organization.
Listen, the only thing David Stern would do was sticky envelopes. I mean, that's really the extent of his involvement.
Frozen is what they accused him of. Nobody? Sticky envelopes? Pat Ewing?
Frozen. It's frozen. Why are you making it sticky?
David, as always, we are 100% right when we disagree with you specifically. I thought it was a sticky envelope.
It's a frozen envelope.
What is a frozen envelope?
It was cold. They put it in the freezer. It was cold.
So when he reaches in to pick the envelope, the cold one is the one he fills.
And is that now, did you find out that that's officially what happened?
That has been, for a long time, the dominant theory.
But never confirmed. But what sticky substance do you have on the envelope? I thought that it was stuck to the, and when it, my video surveillance showed that when they twisted the ball with the envelopes, that the Knicks one stayed at the bottom and didn't twist like the others.
No, it was a frozen envelope. That was the theory. By the way, the May 11th, 2022 episode of Basketball Illuminati, we tackled this. Episode 13, we had Patrick Ruby, who did a very exhaustive deep dive into all of the conspiracy theories surrounding that draft.
But to that point, right, as somebody who is also the voice on Basketball Illuminati at the beginning.
Yes, to that.
Quoting a story that I'd written about why the NBA is the league most riven with conspiracy, it's because of stuff like this. It's because there is just enough plausibility for these things to take root. But I want to disentangle, like, what is conspiracy and what is actually just business, David?
Having Ewing on the Knicks is just business.
they need and it's funny you have a league now where the knicks have not been able to perform in a couple decades the nfl is a league where the cowboys people laugh i did this on nothing personal today if the nfl were scripted the cowboys would be in the playoffs and in the super bowl way more than they are and the giants and jets would not be as bad as they've been for a long time you wouldn't script
it without the Cowboys. I just, it's all horse hockey.
But I'm not trying to relitigate the frozen envelope. What I'm trying to get back to, though, is this Luca thing, which Anthony Davis, by the way, via a mean story, has brought us back to.
Full circle, right? So we get to how could this deal happen? Why didn't Adam Silver do anything? Number one. If there were going to be a commissioner who would play God, it's not Adam Silver. David Stern, maybe. I agree. Adam Silver is like, well, it seems like they really like the deal. And then that's it. That's so mean.
I kind of wish. You're doing his voice that way.
I kind of wish he would play God more.
It's just a means thing.
But David, it's more about his energy. He doesn't sound like that at all. But the energy is very like, Meek, Meek, whatever you guys like. And David Stern would walk in the room and tell you, every one of you go F yourselves, I'm in charge. Meek Silva.
David Stern was an A-Rod. Adam Silver is way better liked. Just as powerful. No, he's not A-Rod. He's not A-Rod. I meant to say asshole, but I didn't want to say it. Oh, he could have said jackhole. You could have said jackhole. That's a good one. Could have said a million other things.
Could have just said asshole. Because then you just said asshole. He actually did.
And it's well liked, not better liked. Thank you. That's my EP. That's my EP.
Guys, we're crushing this today. We're having so much fun. It's been informative. Chris Cody having the show of his life so far. Let's watch a movie. Asking good questions.
Nipples have been rubbed, and it's like 930. Nipples. Yeah. What did I say?
Nipples.
Nipples?
All right, put that replay up of the awkward back and forth. I don't think we need to do that. There's no audio. It's just you guys. Like, what is here? David's going for a high five.
Oh, Lord. Let's not show that again. Oh, man. I didn't know what to do.
To the listening audience, Pablo was just making the point of like David said, and he holds his hand out. David's like, ooh, high five. David looked at it as like an opportunity to make connection. I thought there was a connection. I thought we were having a moment.
Can you pull the video from the last time David and I were here where he tried to dap up Dominique? That's in the archive somewhere.
Wow. That's actually my intro to Nothing Personal. It's every day we show it. And the audience loves that. When I jump into his arms, that's part of our 30 second intro.
Is there like a playlist of awkward interactions with David Sampson?
They're efforting it, I'm told. There should be now. It'll never be Dan with Josh Norman.
That's always the gold standard.
Have you ever seen that? I have not. You have not seen this? No, is it awesome?
It's security camera footage of the Clevelander bar. And Josh Norman walks in and there is Dan. And somehow... Dan is basically like grinding on the back of Josh Norman. It's an incredible.
What starts is like just kind of a normal embrace. Dan like pulls him and like they like take like three steps back. It was so awkward. And what pulls him from behind? Yes.
Wait, hold on a second. You're telling me Dan was awkward? I have to see this.
Pablo picked up on this the best. The best part of the video isn't what happens. It's not like shot. There it is. It's shot with grainy security camera. It's like TMZ video.
All right. They embrace. He pulls on me.
Wait, that didn't seem awkward.
What are you talking about? Play the game, David. By the way, and look at the guy in the black shirt over there. His awkward, he scratches his head like, oh, my God. Yeah, look at him.
He pulls him in. He looks at that and he's like, oh, crap.
It's the slow dance. Admittedly, in my mind, it was even worse. Over time, I have reimagined this. It's the step and a half back. he takes with him, like come on.
Arm around his neck and then pulling him.
It's the little, it's the slight pull. Wow. That was, Jessica, are you as disappointed as I am in that video?
It's pretty awkward. And if you know Dan, you just know why it's awkward.
No, but he's called it the most awkward thing ever.
Yeah, what you just did with Pablo was more awkward.
I agree. All right, here we go. Here's David and Dominique. Oh, yeah. Let's see if this is worse. Oh, the dance.
What is that dance? Forgot about the Eurostep.
Oh my, oh my, okay, you know what? This takes the cake. This is worse.
I would put this under cringe, not awkward, though.
Oh my God, what is this dance? I don't remember what we were doing or why we were doing it. We had to do dap class. We did dap class. And I don't think you passed. It's amazing when everything is on camera.
This little shuffle right here.
And recorded.
That might be the worst part. The shuffle up to it might be worse.
The actual dap, not terrible. Not bad. Everything before and after. It's everything. This is terrible. And then watch the dap. The dap itself, not terrible.
Yeah, it's kind of nice.
But then you go into his, like, I don't know why you put your legs up. Yeah.
He works in sports. That's why he knows how to dap. That's a short thing.
Is it a short thing? Yeah.
Need it up east. Interesting. We need to call Dominique.
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