Some starry one-on-ones ...

Sharing the full YouTubed coverage of my sitdowns this week with Luka Dončić and Jason Kidd

LAS VEGAS — NBA basketball will be played Friday night.

There are two preseason games on the schedule. The fare is sure to be raggedy and star players are bound to be eased into minutes, but there will be actual game-conditions hoops to watch and dissect to tip off your weekend.

Friday lunchtime at noon ET: Boston vs. Denver from faraway Abu Dhabi.

Friday evening at 10:30 PM ET: Timberwolves at Lakers in Palm Desert, Calif.

Also this week: Conversation aplenty. The first week of NBA training camps is  fertile ground for interviews — starting, of course, with Media Day Monday. Everyone (or almost everyone) is a little bit more willing to talk at this early (and harmless) juncture on the league's calendar.

In my new role as a contributing insider to the ALLCITY Network and DLLS Sports, I've had the opportunity to do a couple on-camera sitdown interviews this week for the first time in a long time.

The first on Monday was with Mavericks superstar Luka Dončić. That convo can be watched in full here:

"It was a good season, but I would say for me, it wasn't good enough," Dončić told me, reflecting on Dallas' unexpected run to last season's NBA Finals.

Shoutout to @SloHoopsFan on Twitter for this collage of Luka expressions from the interview:

Then on Wednesday, I sat down with Mavericks coach Jason Kidd here in Sin City for a wide-ranging chat in which we discussed the "stacked" Western Conference (his word), coaching Dončić and Kyrie Irving and his surprise revelation that he visited 11-time NBA championship-winning coach Phil Jackson over the summer in addition to an earlier trip he took to Pittsburgh Steelers training camp with Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison to huddle with Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. The full Kidd convo can be watched here:

It's been such a hectic week after getting back from Europe on Sunday afternoon and then turning right around to fly all the way to the desert on Monday afternoon that I was unable to compile my customary assemblage of standout quotes from Media Day leaguewide that I always publish this time of year. Not sure if it's still relevant or if there remains a demand for such a compilation now that the preseason is actually starting, but I will ponder.

In the interim: I hope you enjoy these one-on-ones. I found both Dončić and Kidd, despite the sky-high expectations that Dallas lugs into the season, to be relaxed and revealing.

Please allow me to share, as a signoff, two pictures of a serene scene that this basketball romantic excitedly encountered when I arrived on the campus of UNLV for Tuesday's first official Mavericks practice of the season. I don't even know what conference the Runnin’ Rebels are even in these days, but this will forever be PCAA/Big West territory to this Cal State Fullerton alumnus.

And I suspect Coach Tark would agree with me!