Tales from an incurable radio head

Updates from life on the dial lead off the latest Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza that was delayed until Wednesday by circumstances beyond our control

LOS ANGELES — The first thing you are likely to notice about this Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza is that, for the second straight week, it's embarrassingly going out a Wednesday.

My apologies.

The explanation: I've been doing more playoff travel than I anticipated in Round 1. The running around has frequently had Rusty Me playing catch-up and I decided that it was most important on this Tuesday to publish my latest compendium of around-the-league Intel before getting on my Tuesday evening flight to Los Angeles that would put me in place for Game 5 of Mavericks/Clippers ... even if that meant that the weekly Tuesday staple had to be delayed (again).

Think I made the right call, though. (Please judge for yourself by clicking the story below.)

I initially figured Game 1 and Game 2 would be the extent of my travels in this round, but I must confess: I really, really enjoyed working as a game analyst beside longtime Mavericks radio play-by-play voice Chuck Cooperstein for the first two games of this series and couldn't resist signing up for the same gig again for Wednesday night's Game 5 when the opportunity arose.

Here's a look at Section 111, BTW, where we'll be calling the game from ... and how it looks (scan up and to the left where the monitors rest above a red Clippers banner) when the building formerly known as Staples Center is still mostly empty:

For the record: Tonight's Game 5 had to be moved on a one-game-only basis from its usual home on 97.1 FM in Dallas to Lone Star 92.5 FM. It will also unfortunately be the only time I''ll be heard on local radio this week, because 97.1 The Freak — which you've seen me promote relentlessly on this Substack — is no more.

A format change announced Monday that has restored the station to its old 97.1 The Eagle hard rock identity means my 10-month-old weekly basketball talk show, The Saturday Stein Line, is suddenly in need of a new home.

Don't have many details to share at the moment, but I certainly hope to resurrect it ASAP ... on the radio again if possible but in a different audio format if necessary.

Allow me, until then, to share my profuse thanks to anyone and everyone who listened to my babble ... to producers Grubes and Alan Ayo and Maddy Gomez for their tireless efforts to help me ... to my guys Ben and Skin for unexpectedly bringing a talk format to one of the city's most venerable stations and, by establishing it as the Mavericks' radio home, opening the door for me to join the party with a weekly hoops show ... and thanks thanks THANKS most of all to the peerless Scott Prusha and all my friends at Panini Trading Cards & Collectibles. Without Scott and Panini, there never would have been a show.

It was the first regular radio gig I've had since dear fellow Substacker

Steve Davis

and I co-hosted a weekly soccer show on 103.3 FM in Dallas (when it was still an ESPN affiliate) called Soccer Today alongside trusty producer Tyler Kern for five-plus years. That show was the brainchild of beloved former FC Dallas midfielder-turned-broadcaster Bobby Rhine, who pushed to launch the show with Luis Perez and me during the Mavericks' championship run in 2011 before Rhine's tragic passing at the age of 35 just a few months later. Bobby's wife Bevan asked me to carry the show on in Bobby's honor and Steve and I did so for five years until I was forced to step aside as part of my messy eventual exit from ESPN that began to be implemented during the 2017 NBA playoffs.

I've been wanting to get back in a radio studio ever since and absolutely loved doing The Saturday Stein Line .... which amazingly launched on the first day of free agency last June. I'm really going to miss Saturday lunch hours in that third-floor corner room adorned with the fancy mics and the high-tech equipment behind the glass and the beaming the On The Air sign right outside the door.

So ...

Also please allow me, as a farewell, to park the show's theme song and the Dirk Nowitzki rejoin that tipped off every third segment in easy-to-click fashion here … because, well, I'm already getting sad that I won't be hearing both this Saturday.

Theme:

Dirk:

Collector's item last episode:

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As a reminder: Tuesday editions, on this and every Newsletter Tuesday, go out free to anyone who signs up, just as my Tuesday pieces did in their New York Times incarnation.

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Playoff Fever

I talked about this photo on the final edition of the radio show last Saturday, openly debated whether or not to post it and finally decided — as the Clippers' Russell Westbrook might say — why not?

Game 3 of Mavericks/Clippers at American Airlines Center had former Cowboys quarterback (and current CBS TV NFL analyst) Tony Romo so excited that, sitting courtside late Friday, Romo could be spotted shouting defensive instructions to Luka Dončić, saluting the Mavericks with a one-man standing ovation and, during crunch time, busting out his phone to film some video of his favorite team.

Since Romo was sitting right in front of the media section where I'm always parked at home games, I couldn't resist snapping a picture to capture how enthralled with the action he was.

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Numbers Game

🏀 6

In his six seasons as a Laker, LeBron James has undeniably enabled the franchise to regain a good bit of prominence, leading L.A. to a championship in the Walt Disney World bubble in Orlando in October 2020 and hauling the Lakers out of the deepest funk (2013-14 through 2017-18) in club history. However ...

🏀 4

It's also true that the Lakers, in four of LeBron's six seasons, have failed to make it out of the first round. In two of those seasons (2018-19 and 2021-22), LeBron and the Lakers didn't even reach the playoffs.

🏀 2005

LeBron's second season in the NBA — 2004-05 — was the last time that neither he nor Kevin Durant nor Stephen Curry reached the second round of the playoffs. Durant and Curry, of course, were still in high school that season.

🏀 75

Durant, who turns 36 in September, played in 75 games this season in Phoenix. That's his highest total since playing 78 for Golden State in 2018-19 before tearing his Achilles during the playoffs.

🏀 6-13

Durant, though, is just 6-13 in the playoffs with the Nets and the Suns — including two sweeps — since the infamous Game 7 against Milwaukee in the second round of the 2020-21 playoffs in which Durant would have a delivered a series-clinching victory over eventual champions Milwaukee had he kept his feet behind the line as he sank a shot that forced overtime in an eventual Brooklyn defeat.

🏀 40

Sunday marked the first time in league playoff history that four players scored at least 40 points in a game. Phoenix's Devin Booker led the foursome with 49, followed by New York's Jalen Brunson (47). Minnesota's Anthony Edwards and Dallas' Kyrie Irving each scored 40.

🏀 11

The Nuggets' 11 consecutive victories over the Lakers until finally losing Game 4 in Los Angeles was the fifth-longest winning streak (regular season and playoffs) in league history against the 17-time champions according to Basketball Reference.

🏀 22

The Celtics once recorded 22 consecutive regular-season and playoff victories over the Lakers from November 1957 through April 1959. Portland (16 from April 2014 through October 2018), Dallas (14 from November 2013 through March 2017) and New York (12 from November 1957 through December 1958) are next in line ahead of Denver.

🏀 7

A wild one via my fellow Substacker

Justin Kubatko

: Myles Turner's seven 3-pointers in Indiana's Game 4 win over Milwaukee matched the franchise single-game record held by noted sharpshooters Reggie Miller (twice), Chuck Person, Paul George and Bojan Bogdanović.

🏀 2

When Indiana's Pascal Siakam opened the Milwaukee series by registering at least 35 points and 10 rebounds in both games, he became just the third player in the Basketball Reference data base with two such performances back-to-back ... joining Wilt Chamberlain (1967) and Elgin Baylor (1961).

🏀 2

Until its first-round sweep of the Suns, per Kubatko, Minnesota had never won more than two straight games in the playoffs (once in 1998 and 2003; three times in 2004.)

🏀 4

Utah's Ryan Smith now owns four major league sports franchises after his recent purchase of the NHL's Arizona Coyotes, who will relocate to Salt Lake City next season. Smith bought the Jazz in October 2020 and has since added two soccer clubs alongside co-owner David Blitzer (Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake and the National Women's Soccer League's Utah Royals) and now the Coyotes to his portfolio.

🏀 2024

The Basketball Hall of Fame has announced that its 2024 class of honorees will be inducted during the weekend of Oct. 12-13 rather than in August as originaly planned in what the Hall is calling a "one-time move" to avoid conflict with the Summer Olympics in Paris.