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Sam Amy of the Athletic co-wrote the article broke the story that didn't make Mark Cuban the owner of the Mavericks very happy and he is now joining us live

All right the stories about Luca Dontic and his frustration at times with Rick Carlisle so let's let's go in tears here let's start let's start with Donnie Nelson gets let go very early your story had a multiple

two to two sources and my first takeaway when I saw Donnie Nelson leaving the organization was a mark confronted him and probably said

You may have been some of these leaks. I mean why did Donnie Nelson was at the Dennis Smith draft pick the Porzingus contract the story in the athletic wise Donnie Nelson in your opinion gone today.

I think Colin as you know because you know our industry really well obviously we're never going to get into sourcing but I will say I haven't really said this on platform like yours and the suspicions that have been widespread about Donnie being the root of it are completely off base and really honestly kind of naive in regards to how widespread some of this information and these insights and these opinions were internally within the maps and then around the NBA the general idea

that market empowered Bob Bulgaria's to the degree that he had and that from Donnie on down within their front office power structure there was this what you know again widespread frustration and question of who's running the team and we've now seen more and more come out just yesterday.

Yes, the end to McMahon had shared an anecdote about Luca looking at the bench and yelling at Rick Carlisle and saying you know who's running the team you were Bob and this was the idea that that ultimately put these wheels in motion to your question about Donnie.

Listen, he made it clear to Mark that he had great concerns about Bob's role. He was hoping that Mark would essentially talk to Bob and he put him in that lane that he was designed to be an initially as an advisor as opposed to

taking some of the liberties he had taken and Mark our information is that he defended Bob's positioning and and Donnie you know was was obviously disappointed by that and then Mark made the call he made I can't speak to if you know he thinks Donnie was a leak or if that

went apart but again that would be off base. All right, how about the relationship with Rick Carlisle. I was told Mark and Rick had a very emotional meeting. Do you think that meeting got

inspired? Do you think the Lucas situation? You know your guess on the was this in the making the last three or four weeks and it ramped up. I mean relationships end a lot of different ways Sam.

Sure. Sam, Amy, get the athletic. What is your gut feeling on why this was so abrupt and ended the way it did.

I mean, that's good information on you, Colin, you know, putting that reporter hat on. I didn't know about those meetings. The thing is, I was real surprised before all this drama that Mark came out as quickly as he did and publicly endorsed Rick and said that he would be back and had that quote about how you simply don't you know get rid of a coach unless you know you have somebody better and there just aren't many better than Rick Carlisle.

At that time, a lot of people are on the league and certainly people with the maps were not sure whether or not they believed it because of the Luca dynamic. You know, you have from a couple different angles here. You have these elephants in the room where if Luca has tension with Rick, that's not ideal. If Luca has tension with Bob Bulgaria's and by proxy Mark Cuban and questioning the way the decisions are getting made. That's not ideal. So are you just going to keep status quo and essentially send a message to Luca that you know, we're not really

all that receptive to the way you see the way things run. So I think it was uncomfortable to begin with and then listen, if you're Rick, who I have not talked to, then on the back end, if Donnie Nelson's out, that's one of your biggest supporters. And now you're questioning how things are going to run going forward. You already felt somewhat undercut, I think, Bible, Gareth's role. It was not surprised to see him head for the exits.

Is Luca difficult? He's emotional. Is he difficult? I think he's he's bordering. I mean, difficult. I don't have any reason to believe that, you know, he's not going to to Mark and saying get Rick out. He's not, but he is passionate. He's fiery. And we see it. This stuff, the fans and the media see in public every time he's on the floor. So just go ahead and, you know, watch how he functions when he gets upset with the ref when he gets upset with Carlisle and is demonstrative and has a lot to say.

And assume that behind the scenes, he shares those frustrations too. The guy has the kind of confidence that ultimately is probably going to propel him to this Hall of Fame career and, you know, what's ahead. But with that comes these complications. The fact that he knows how good he is. He knows what he wants around him. He knows that he's a championship level player. And it's, you know, right now, obviously, there's questions about whether or not they can put that around him.

Let's segue to Zion. You don't cover that story quite because I know to break a story like you did on Dallas. It is all consuming. It's very difficult. I get that. The Zion dynamic though feels different in that the organization is not a sturdy is the Mavericks. The Mavericks aren't going anywhere.

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