You Can’t HYPE UP Cooper Flagg Enough & How Mavs Fandom Has Changed with Ownership & Culture

You Can’t HYPE UP Cooper Flagg Enough & How Mavs Fandom Has Changed with Ownership & Culture

on today’s show. Is there enough hype for Cooper Flag? Like, do Mavericks fans actually understand who Cooper Flag is and how much he’s going to bring to this franchise? And where does the cultural identity from the Mavericks come from right now? I answer that question more today. It’s like a map. Stop it. Stop. The number one pick will go to the Dallas Mavericks. Cooper flag will fly in Dallas. You are locked on M. Your daily Dallas Mavericks podcast of the Locked On Network. Still can’t leave. Your team every day. I’m going to get a city right back. And welcome. You are locked on to the Dallas Mavericks. Your team every day. My name is Nick Angels Mavericks for 10 years. Thanks for being every day or making Lock on Mavs your first listen each and every day. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Joining me on the show, friend of this show, all things Mavs on Twitter, all things NBA, all things Thunder, bunch of different all things, all things lots of things. Jimmy Crowther, what you got for me? What is up, Nick? I got a little summer league action. We got the the LA summer league, the Utah summer league, but the Vegas summer league. Practice starts this week. We’re going to get some clips of Cooper Flag scrimmaging in a Dallas Maverick something kind of jersey this week. And then practice as early as practice as early as Tuesday. I’m going to go to practice and so we’ll see what happens with it. You’re going to practice. We’ll see if we get a a Cooper Flag sighting there. That’ll be Tuesday morning. If you’re listening to this watching this, it may have already happened. And so, yeah, I’m I’m I’m fascinated to see and I’m ready to see Cooper Flag and we’re going to talk about that. We’re going to talk about Cooper Flag, what the uh the hype is around it. And I want to talk about Mavs fandom with Jimmy because I think he is somebody that knows Mavs fandom better than maybe anybody out there. Running a huge Mavs fan page. Having been a Mavs fan for a long time, interacting with a lot of Mavs fans. I want to talk about how much does ownership affect fandom and how much does it change? What is what is changing from going from one owner to another? And then where does the cultural identity come from from the Mavericks right now with Dirk not wanting anything to do with the Mavs with Mark Cuban gone with Luca gone? Like what who who is in charge of that now? So we’ll talk about lot of lot of good stuff like that today I want to get into. Let’s start with this. Are you finding that fans are coming back now because of Cooper Flag? Because I I’ve I’ve seen that a little bit here and there, but are you finding maybe even yourself? Are you more back in or are you hearing people that are more back in because now the maps have Cooper flag? Yeah, I always I always look at the Mavs and really the NBA. I’ve well, not always. I’ve started to shift and look at it through the lens of my father who is not on any social media and doesn’t know anything about the Mavs or doesn’t know anything about like the inner workings of all this drama that’s going on. But when I call him and he’s like, I heard we got this Cooper Flag guy that’s going to be better than LeBron James. I’m like, there you go. That’s that’s how people get back in because these people that have tuned out because of all the drama that happened in February are coming back because the Mavs are back in the headlines for good reasons. And so I think they’ve reeled a lot of the so so-called casual fans back in. And even the ones that were super super invested that might have taken a step back are at least dipping their toes back in the water to be like, “Wait, what what would it be like if I bought back in and bought into this new 18-year-old?” But maybe you still have some guard rails up of just how much you’re trusting this franchise to, you know, take care of this this next superstar. It is an interesting thing because Mavs are so passionate. They they love the team so much and to have that trade happen took so many fans out of it just completely. I mean, they literally had a protest that was was intense and that people were very mad about. And we I I saw I’ve told the story before. I’ll tell it again because I think it’s very funny. uh our friend the chicken man who dresses up like a chicken and shows up to Mavs games and Wings games and stuff. I saw him at a Wings game and I knew that he was at the front of the line for the Mavs protest. He’s in all the pictures and like all the you know stock photos and everything that are out there about the Mavs protest and I was like it was after the lottery and I go, “Hey man, you back in?” And he kind of like dips his head and then he goes, “Yeah, I’m back in like sizing.” And I don’t blame him. I don’t blame anybody for for being upset with the Mavericks and then coming back because of Cooper Flag because he is that good. He’s going to set this new era for the Mavericks. But is there is there enough hype for Cooper Flag right now? Because the level of prospect the Mavericks are about to get. I don’t know. It feels like it was exciting for a little bit and then maybe it’s just the culture that we’re in where we move on from stuff real fast, but I don’t think that Masters have really like it is kind of a LeBron James level player that the Mavericks are getting as far as a prospect. I mean, I think in terms of hype, you can you can somewhat measure it on look at the brand deals this guy has. I mean, coming out of the draft, he had a commercial or an ad with every single company you can imagine. And that kind of stuff, like, we just haven’t really seen that. Like, even Luca coming in as the third overall draft pick. Like, he was a little bit of an unknown compared to what Cooper Flag is, like this USborn, you know, American superstar. He’s been in the spotlight in the US because of how good Duke was. like it was hyped up around the country and I don’t think there’s enough hype in Dallas around it because I’m not sure there could be enough like I I don’t think there’s anything they could do because that’s how good I think he is and how good he’s going to be. Um I mean he’s just dominated at every level and there’s no reason to believe he’s not going to be a star at this next level. It’s kind of felt like a little bit um of like okay the Mavs have you know they’re going to have a full year of Anthony Davis next year. They’re going to get Kyrie Irving back come playoff time. Fingers crossed they they’ve added D’Angelo Russell and you know we’ll see what happens to this team and oh yeah they also got the dra the d the number one draft pick which was solid but it’s like it’s not just a throwin like even he is as ready as a prospect can be outside of Victor Wimmanyama I’ll always kind of make the asterk with women but um no I don’t think there is enough hype but I think the second he takes you know puts a foot on the floor in a real Mavericks jersey and makes that first play it’s gonna it’s going to hype itself up pretty Yeah. I mean, we saw the the draft watch party that people were at and all the I think they didn’t they sell like 3,000 flag jerseys or something like that? Like they were printing them in arena, which the Wings you’re wearing you’re wearing the Paige Becker shirt right now. The Wings already had those printed. So, I don’t know the difference between the NBA and what and the WNBA, but the Wings had all that merch printed already. They had they had these shirts like the Paige Beckers like five that I’m holding up. they had those already printed like the WNBA had all that stuff ready to go and and the maps were like printing so I don’t know what the difference is with that if there’s different rules or if there’s uh tampering I don’t know what it would be that I thought that was funny the difference between that I think you’re right though that there there can’t be enough hype for a guy like Cooper Flag because he’s just he’s just that good and so many think about all the teams that tanked for him this year and that were hoping just praying and go look at our live stream that we did and look at David Lock’s face and how upset he was that the Mavs got the number one pick and the Jazz didn’t. And that’ll tell you enough about how good of a prospect he They got Kevin Love. The Utah Jazz got Kevin Love who’s just looks like an older version of Cooper Flag. So maybe maybe there’s some parallels there. But, you know, I I think when you just when you compare it to if the Mavs have gotten the number one draft pick last year, let’s say, and gotten a Zachary Reese, if they would have taken him or an Alexander Sar, like that would have been like a okay, we’re going to add this guy and see what happens kind of thing. But this is a add this guy and success is going to follow some way somehow. Like I know we’ll talk about ownership like ownership gets bailed out because they’re going to sell a lot more tickets. They’re going to sell all kinds of merchandise. They’re going to have all kinds of brand deals rolling in because of Cooper Flag. The fans get to buy back in because this is a guy that is going to come in and make those high energy plays. But not just that, but affect winning in all kinds of ways. And um yeah, I think I think just the year that it’s happened and behind everything that’s happened adding him in, you just you just can’t talk about it enough. And and I’m just so ready to stop talking about it and actually watch it happen, watch something happen on Thursday. It’s going to be it’s going to be life-changing watching him take the court. There was an interesting phenomenon in our YouTube comment section. Maybe this says more about how different and diverse fandom is right now. In our YouTube comment section, there was people that were like a after like a after a week or two and we talked about Cooper Flag every day because that’s what you’re supposed to do and that’s what that’s what people want to hear. All our Cooper Flag episodes were way more listened to than any other thing that we did. And they were like, “Can we move on? Can we talk about something different? Do we have to talk about this guy every day?” And I was like, “Really?” like you get this thing dropped in your lap and you guys are already done with it, like already ready to move on. And yeah, I I just I think it’s interesting, but I think it will I think you’re right about the fact that let’s see it happen and let’s see him do some hype stuff and not just stuff at Duke, but in a Maverick’s jersey and have that be the thing that people are are are rallying around it and start and start to see it and start to really grasp, oh my god, this this guy is going to be a Dallas Maverick because it doesn’t feel real. Maybe that’s the thing is it’s it’s so absurd of a thing that it still just doesn’t even feel real. Even though like you’re wearing the Mavs draft hat and like he walked across the stage. I saw I watched him. I was there with my eyes. I saw him go pick up that hat from the little podium, walk over to Adam Silver, put the hat on and then like put his arm around him and take the all the pictures and then we talked to him after. Like even though that happened, it still just doesn’t even feel real yet. I think part of it too is like he’s he’s such a basketball sicko that off the court he’s just like not the most exciting interview in the world and he’s not giving you like all this juice of like gosh I’m so ready to be in Dallas. I’m sorry Dallas Maverick. He’s just he’s coming in and he’s just going to play basketball. He’s going to put on whatever jersey he needs to put on and hoop for the team that he’s playing for. And good for him. I think that’s what it is. But that that kind of holds back a little bit of like how much we can buy into him until he plays because like he’s all about basketball. That’s all he’s about. He doesn’t he doesn’t listen to music. He talked about his favorite music. He said he doesn’t he doesn’t take the ox because he doesn’t have a favorite song. It’s like bro like the dude is just sitting there watching tape and thinking about basketball all the time. And so the excitement is going to come when he’s on the floor because off the floor he’s just not given the the funny lively interviews that that like Derrick Lively when he came in he was like a chatterbox ready to talk just an enigma. Even Omax Prosper was the same way and that’s just not who Flag is and that’s fine. We we’ll just watch him hoop. He did have a favorite Harry Potter book that him and his mom were going back and forth about during that one interview. So there it’s not like he’s just a complete robot. He is he is cultured in some ways in some ways. Coming up, I want to talk about how ownership affects fandom now. How does it change going from Mark Cuban to now the Dumonts, the adds? How has fandom changed for everybody? We’ll talk about that and more coming up. [Music] Today’s episode of Lockdown Mabs brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel sports talkers, all kinds of props and odds, things that you can use to get in on the action. Summer sports are in full swing. whether you’re all in for baseball under the lights if the the roof is closed. That’s I follow that account for the Rangers if the roof is closed or not. And I don’t even go to that many games. I just think it’s funny to know if the roof is closed or not. You can do all kinds of stuff on FanDuel. Uh speaking of baseball, do the R I don’t even know where the Rangers are to be honest in anything. World Series odds, none. Do they have none odds? None odds. Okay. Well, there all kinds of stuff on FanDuel. You can go check it out. I guess they’d have win totals. Uh you can go see what they have. Texas Res totals over or under 79 and a half right now is the number. So, if you feel real strongly about one of those two, go put down $5. If you win, you get $150 in bonus bets to use on anything else. Go check out FanDuel. See what else you can do. Open the FanDuel app or visit fanuel.com to get started today. Shut it down. Let’s go. Thanks for hanging out with us on Unlocked on Maps, being part of the show, part of the raccoon squad, listening every day. We appreciate each and every one of you for checking out the show. We have our text line. I will be going to Vegas on Wednesday night, going for the first two games, and I’m going to be hanging out with a bunch of people, probably talking to a lot of people. And so, you’ll want to subscribe to that text line. I’ll send you pictures. I’ll send you uh of of M stuff. I’ll send you pictures of M stuff, not Vegas stuff. I’ll send you rumors, anything that I hear or read, anything like that. 2146438637 if you want to text me and Isaac and uh and get all those alerts right to your phone. Subscribe to that and it helps support the show. All right. I’m here with Jimmy Crowder. He runs the uh the great All Things Mavs Twitter account that is just one of the biggest Mavs fan accounts that there is out there. Um the best one in my book, but one of the one of the biggest. I got to say got to clarify that. Thank you, Nick. Where how much does ownership change fandom? We I think we’ve gotten so used especially guys our like people our age that Mavs fans gotten so used to Cuban and kind of maybe only know Cuban as the owner of the Mavericks. Obviously, you had Don Carter before that, you Ross Perau. You had all kinds of different uh like older Mavericks fans will say, “Well, we knew we knew the time before Cuban and all this, but how has an ownership change changed and affected fandom, do you think? Does has your trust with the team changed? Has anything and it’s all clouded by the Luca trade right now, but how has that changed for you?” Yeah, it’s always going to be clouded by February the the trade. I mean, it’s always it’s always going to be clouded by it, unfortunately. Uh, and I think a lot of Maz fans that have followed me or people that that know me, like I have always taken the eternal optimist view. Uh, and that was one of the hardest times to try to do that. I mean, it’s just it was impossible, honestly. And I tweeted something out like the day of the trade. Uh, I was like, I’m going to do one big emotional post and I’m just going to talk about it right now. And during that trade, I kind of I said something along the lines of like for the first time, I’m realizing that these millionaires, billionaires don’t really care about me, the fan, the person, like the a p as a person. And like that’s just something I had to be like, okay, that’s a big shift because Mark Cuban, you felt like you were connected to the guy because he was us or is us in terms of being a fan. Obviously, he is on another universe when it comes to just being a social person because of how much money he makes, but as a fan, he was a fan way before he was an owner. That’s why he became an owner. And so, you got to see that play out and see that with him where it was like, okay, he really is invested with us. Whereas the people in there now who I really like don’t care about honestly, like I don’t care who’s owning the team now because they don’t care about us as fans. They just don’t like they’re there to make money and they’re there to make the team moves for the team and do what’s going to put butts in the seats and and sell merch and sell tickets and you know what that’s their job and I’ve kind of taken the stance I think Slightly kind of has a similar stance where it’s like whatever like I can’t change it now it is it is what it is and like I do think there’s a lack of trust number one because I don’t know how much basketball these people know compared to Mark Cuban like I know Mark Cuban was sitting there watching a lot of basketball um I know you said one time. Uh Patrick Dumont is a is a listener of the show. So I guess I should be a little more careful here. But uh but in all seriousness, I just you just can’t trust him as much. You just can’t because the keys have been handed to Nico Harrison 100%. It’s not a handinand like Cuban and Nico are working together. It’s it’s Nico’s making the calls and the owners are going to have no choice but to just say, “Yeah, go with it because you know more than we do.” So it’s kind of where I’m at. I think I tend to think that with owners in professional sports, it’s better if you don’t know that much that much about them and don’t know and don’t remember that like, oh yeah, that’s the owner of of this. Who’s the owner of the Spurs? I don’t think I can even name him off the top of my head. Uh the owner of the Celtics, I don’t know that I could name off the top of my head. I get Wick Geck, I guess, was was the guy. Now they they’ve sold it obviously, but uh like you start going through the successful teams and I don’t know that you but then you think about James Dolan, you think about some of the like some of the owners that we know across the league. Mark Cuban obviously had made ton of he’s maybe the the highest celebrity level of owner. Genie bus. You start thinking thinking through some of these owners, you’re like we know them for for not great reasons sometimes. And so I think that that’s something with this ownership group if they can uh avoid those kind of things. We start to know their name because of some bad things and they’ve already not avoided it with with the Luca trade. And I think that you’re you’re right where now this ownership group is coming in and has no idea about this fandom this this this fandom or about the the culture of of the Mavericks or about any of that stuff. Like it was very obvious with the the comments the public comments that were made by by Dumont. Uh the lack of comments by Miriam Edson at all. I guess she’s not the governor so she wouldn’t make comments necessarily but there’s just I mean nothing like they don’t they’re not they’re here sometimes. They’re mostly not here. they’re, you know, like I’m right now I think that if they have taken the the keys away from from Nico Harrison where it’s not 100% anything he wants to do. I think that would probably be a positive thing now. And I think that I hope that they have learned that lesson after you keep you keep saying February. I think that’s a funny way to put it like after February. We’ll just keep referencing the month and not like the Luca trade or the 80. Uh how do you think it’s going to be different now that that that owners are not fan firsts? Like we had a fan first owner with the Mavericks for so long with Mark Cuban. He was he’s literally like sits the closest seat to the bench and he go and he traveled with the team sometimes and he’s just a fan first and now it’s different. Now it’s an in now it’s an investment for for them and that is that’s a very different thing. It is a different thing. And and I go back to what I said almost at the start of like if I talk to, you know, somebody who’s not on social media, they really don’t know the name Patrick Dumont or Miriam Add, right? I mean, unless they’re watching Fox News. Um, they don’t know that name very much. And so, they’re just like, I take that approach a little bit where I’m like, okay, if I wasn’t on constantly uh on social media as much as I am, maybe I wouldn’t know about these people and I wouldn’t really care about what’s going on. Uh, I would still probably think that Mark Cuban is the owner. I think a lot of people do think that Mark Cuban is is like still just the owner and they don’t really know about this these other people. But I think something that’s that’s I’ve been thinking about a lot and this also goes for Nico and and all that stuff too is like Cooper Flag is a Nico Harrison Patrick Dumont draft pick. Now did they luck into it? Did they fall butt backwards into this draft pick? Absolutely they did. But it’s still theirs and they can still claim Cooper Flag. So, I only have a little bit more trust with them with Cooper Flag because it’s their guy and they’re going to want to hold on to him and they’re going to want to build around him because they can say that, oh, this was this was our guy. And so, I think that’s a little bit where my view of how their team is going to be run has shifted. Um, and maybe I’ve I’ve tricked myself into trusting them a little bit more with this than the previous superstar that that we were so lucky to have. Um, but I think it’s I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Like you look at how much how strongly they want to hold on to guys like PJ Washington and Daniel Gaffford because those were guys that that they traded for. They being mainly Nico Harrison, but like that was their acquisition. Yeah. Yeah. That was that was their acquisition. Um and so I think I think you start to look at that. I mean everybody from the previous regime outside of Dwight Pal is cleaned out like nobody left. And so everybody else was an addition by this leadership group. So that’s kind of where I see this trending now is like they want it to be their moves, their team, their picks, all that stuff. Well, it is now and we’ve gotten to the point where the amount of turnover from even going back to like when just going back to the almost the like right before the season before the or the Western Conference Finals run in 2022, like everybody is is different. Go back even farther than that, like when Luca got drafted. Everybody is different. everybody on Dwight Powell was the last that remains but like coach GM ownership like every single player except for Dwight Pal basically they’re all different and so and even Durk has stepped away from the from the franchise in he didn’t necessarily have a spec like a a set role where he was coming in 9 to5 every day but now he doesn’t want anything to do with the Mavericks which just hurts I think every Mavericks fan’s heart who who now powers the public cultural identity of the Mavericks we’re going to answer that in more coming [Music] All right, Jimmy, we’re talking about Mavs fandom, a thing that you know very well, having been a Mavs fan your whole life. All things Mavs is what you are, what you what you what you do. And we’ve been talking about ownership a little bit. And the change in ownership like highlighted the change in the entire organization, which everybody everybody has changed going from coach Donnie Nelson was there forever. He was a fixture like the Nelson family going back to Don Nelson then to Donnie Nelson and Rick Carlile was there for the title and just for such a long time and now everything’s changed like like every single thing so many people like the CEO has changed multiple times now the like people in the in the business side uh you think about the frontfacing people like I guess Mark Fwell is is one of the like the LA Mark Fwell is one of the last people left but even Harper has been replaced by Deon Harris like there’s just so much change so much change has happened across the across this that now I start to look at okay the public cultural identity of the Mavericks came from Mark Cuban because he was the loudest and he was you know the most out there the most famous person I think part of the Mavericks then I think for a little while like Durk really shaped it where it’s about loyalty and being there and the perfect title run and all that like there was a lot that came from Durk and then I think Luca kind of took it and Mark Cuban also still had that like and now I look at this team and I go, “All right, who is shaping the public culture identity of the Mavericks right now?” It’s a It’s a great question. I mean, I really don’t have a perfect answer. I think a lot of it falls on Kyrie Irving, and that’s tough because he’s That was the answer I came to as well. It has to be, right? Like, he’s definitely the most vocal. He’s the most out there with his, you know, stream and and the way that he talks to the media. He gives it I mean, he’ll sit there and talk to the media for an hour if he wants to. Um, and I think that’s a positive thing because he has a because he has a great rep. Like people like him and he is just I mean done a complete 180 it feels like on on where people stand on him and where the media stands on him in all the best ways. It’s a little tough because he’s already 32 33 years old. So it’s not like he’s going to be able to build it for as long as a Luca Donuch could have um or as long as a Cooper flag will. But right now, it’s got to be Kyrie Irving. And I I think Anthony Davis could because I do think like I mean he has the the prank show. He’s like in the public eye. Like he enjoys that. He enjoys talking to the media. But unfortunately for Anthony Davis, like he’s always going to be the guy that was traded for Luca. As much as I love AD, like I even tweet I’ve tweeted this multiple times. I love that we have Anthony Davis. I don’t love how we got Anthony Davis. That’s just how it is. And so he doesn’t have the ability or the or the opportunity that a Kyrie Irving does to continue to build a rapport with fans. And and Kyrie’s already cemented himself in in Mav’s history in my opinion just helping get this team to the NBA finals for the first time in since 2011. Like he’s just a I mean I love him to death. Like he is just an awesome guy. Like just awesome to listen to and awesome to watch play. And as long as he can get back on the floor, which I I think everybody expects him to get back on the floor, like he’s going to be the guy that people are going to look to and say that’s the face of the Mavericks right now. That’s just who it is. Yeah. I think I think he has the voice for it, at least the the positive voice for the Mavericks. And he was was there for the the finals run, which those players are getting slowly are slowly like getting removed as well. But I do think also if if the answer is not Kyrie, it’s Nico Harrison right now because he’s the one that’s talked about the most. That decision is talked about the most. The comments, you know, people talk about the the vision. That comment was all over the place. I saw everybody talking about the now you see the vision. That that quote from Nico. Also, the fortune favors the bold comment was everywhere, too. Between those two comments, which one made you more angry? You’re getting red right now as I as I just quoted them back to you. Uh, I saw a guy wearing a fortune favors the bold t-shirt in the gym and I was about to ask him like, “Is that a Nico Harrison?” Like, “Is that for Nico Harrison?” I realized that’s just a common saying, but now it’s Nico’s saying, so I hate it. Uh, definitely that one. Definitely that one was worse for me. The fortune favors the bold man. That that just what a quote. Just what a quote. And so I think that like whether Mavs want what or not, I think he shapes it because now the Mavs have this oh he lucked in he lucked into Cooper flag and so now that luck is now on the Mavericks too where they lucked into it just as much because of of him and so I think he kind of shapes some of it now too. At least what people are going to talk about when it comes to the Mavericks. Um the fact that Durk doesn’t want anything to do with the Mavericks right now. Yeah. Is that just like Does that just eat at you or is it one of those like All right, he’ll he’ll come back. It’ll be all right. I’ve got my Dirk bobblehead still on my desk. So, he’s always he’s always here. I know. I see. You got all your Dirk stuff, man. Uh it it eats at me. It’s so great. It’s always going to eat at me. I The fact, and I know you you mentioned it, too, like the the fact that he made any kind of video for Cooper Flag was was so important to me. I I just have like faith and trust that he’s going to show up to at least a couple games and sit in the box and do his little wave up into the big the jumbotron. Uh and I hope he does. I don’t think it’s ever going to be like he’s a special adviser again or anything like that. And I don’t expect him to. I mean, he didn’t he he didn’t need to do that in the first place. Uh but now especially not because none of his I mean besides Jay Kidd like none of his friends are there. Um so I don’t expect him to. And I’ll say this too. I think it’s kind of a dual answer of like who they talk about with the Mavs because Mavs fans I think are going to cling like cling more to Kyrie and be like that’s our guy. But outside of like the Mavs fandom, it’s going to be Nico Harrison. I mean every tweet you see like every stupid mock trade that involves the Mavs are like well Nico traded Luca so like he’s going to consider this trade. And it’s like it’s just not it’s just not how it is. But like for for non-Mavs fans and maybe even casual fans, like Nico Harrison is is the guy they’re going to think of first with the Dallas Mavericks until Cooper Flag comes into his own and is like a top 10 15 player that we expect him to possibly be. Um, and even then, I’m hoping Kyrie can help him find his voice a little bit in the NBA and he can he can, you know, speak up a little bit more and that’ll be I think that’ll be really helpful for how he can build his brand as a Dallas Maverick. So, well, you see it there. You see the like that that was that scrimmage or the AAU game or whatever when he was playing against BJ Edgecom where he was like going at him like you’re not like that. You’re not like that. Like you see it on the court like he’ll trash talk and he’ll he’ll say stuff. It just he just won’t publicly which sounds stupid because there’s so many cameras on him when he’s when he’s playing basketball, but like he just he just isn’t like that. I think eventually he’ll come out of his shell. It’ll it’ll take a little while. And I think that that draft night is just such a big moment. So many people are there. There’s there’s I I swear there’s like a million dollars in cameras in that room because of how many local media there’s four TV sets in the room and there’s just so much there’s just lights everywhere. There’s just so much stuff happening at once that I think he could be a little overwhelming at that point. And so I think he he’s also he done so much media that day. It was wild watching him go through everything. I think his personality will come out eventually. The same thing we saw with Durk. Same thing we saw with Luca a little bit. We started to see that really come out. But the yeah, the fact that that that Durk is not part of the the franchise cuz he could be one the one shaping the Mavs culture identity still if he was still around the team if he had made public comments about the trade if he had uh been you know still an adviser to the front office and had been you know talking to them about it and hopefully he probably would have stopped the trade would have stopped the trade if that was the case but but he’s not and he’s not part of it and so now I think that yeah I think it’s Kyrie because he’s the biggest star and then it’s Nico Harrison because he’s the one most associated with what the Mavericks did. Yeah. Yeah. And will will have always done. Yeah. I’m trying to imagine. Can you imagine Nico going to Durk and saying, “Hey, I think we’re about to do this.” Like Durk’s not the mo like Durk doesn’t show all the emotion in the world all the time. He can be pretty reserved. I mean, he might reach across the table and smack him in the face if if that had happened. But I’m curious. Like, I wish I could know just how much he was advising on trades before that. like was he advised on the was he asked about the PJ trade? Was he asked about the Daniel Gaffford trade? We’ve talked about it. I’ve talked about it a million times before February. I mean, Nico Harrison was on a generational run of making good moves, making moves that Mavs fans approved of. And so, I wonder if he was and and since then, too, I think he’s made great moves. Uh, besides Quinton Grimes for Caleb Martin. Uh, but I wonder how I I wonder how involved Durk was in any of those moves bleeding up to that because of how out of left field that came. I’d be curious, but I don’t think we’ll never know the answer, unfortunately. I don’t think we will either. Um, if the Mavs win a title behind Cooper Flag, but Nico Harrison is still the GM, how do fans respond? I personally, I’ll buy every piece of merch. I will go to the parade. I will stand in line at Academy at midnight to go in there and get my merchandise. I do not care. Uh when Nico Harrison inevitably gets up on the podium after the Mavs win the championship and talks, I’ll I’ll turn on The Office or something for a couple minutes and then I’ll switch and then I’ll switch it back. Uh and I’ll go back. Not even move. You got to change the channel. I can’t I can’t I can’t watch I won’t be able to look at because he’ll have his his smug little smile on. You know, he will. Uh I won’t be able to do it. But I think I think fans will be all in back. I mean all in. And who knows? He talks about his timeline. He could be here for three more years and and the Mav’s window with Cooper Flag is who knows how long. So no, I think I think fans will be back in again with with Cooper Flag and they’ll just always have I would Would Nico Harrison be the first GM to be standing on stage with a championship trophy to get booed while holding that championship trophy by his own team? If it happened in if it happened in the next two or three years, I think absolutely. I think so, too. I think so, too. And and I I say, “Hey, go for it.” I mean, go for it. Why not? Wildfan is in an interesting place right now. There’s so many factions. There’s so many like they had the Kyrie stands and the Luca stands and now we have this this it’s just a different coalition, I guess. I guess that’s the only way I can put it is just of people that care about the Mavs or want to see the Mavs do bad. So, but they still follow him. It’s like the Mavsicus that still want, you know, they still follow the team, but they want him to to not succeed because of the trade. There’s so many different things. But go follow Jimmy if you’re not already. If you’re a Mavs fan, you probably are at allore things_mavs on Twitter and all kinds of great stuff over there. Jimmy, thanks for the insight. Thanks for the Mavs fandom takes. Thanks for having me on. Mavs fans, come find me. We will be back tomorrow slightly and I talking more Dallas Maverick stuff and then I’ll be previewing summer league before I head out to go see the Dallas Mavericks. And so come back, stay wherever you’re listening watching this. Peace out.

The Dallas Mavericks have landed the coveted #1 draft pick Cooper Flagg, sparking excitement and debate among fans. How will Flagg’s arrival impact the Mavs’ future alongside stars Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving in the NBA?

Nick Angstadt and guest Jimmy Crowther (All Things Mavs) discuss the hype surrounding Cooper Flagg, the Mavericks’ new ownership, and the team’s cultural identity. They explore fan reactions to recent moves involving players like Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington, and Naji Marshall, as well as the departure of Luka Doncic.

0:00 Cooper Flagg Hype & Mavs Fandom Changes
13:35 Ownership Change Impact on Mavs Fans
22:13 Shaping Mavs’ Cultural Identity Post-Cuban

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