Steph Curry Was SHOOK During Luka Trade

Yo, is this real? That's not real, right? Is this fake? No, it's not real. Are you sure? Yo, slow. There's no way that's real. Slow. All right, we're ready to gamble. We're actually going to the basketball stadium itself to play some poker. I mean, maybe a dozen or more friends that'll be there will be at, like, sort of the main table for the tournament. So there's a charity event, kids benefit. We all have a good time. How ridiculous for flying to go San Francisco for the day. We're headed into Warrior Stadium, and when I walk in, I see that they have the table set. I mean, below us is the hardwood, and above us is a scoreboard. It's a surreal way to play poker. I'm surrounded by basically business tycoons and the entire warriors team. Scanning the event, I notice my Buddy Phil Hellmuth, 17 time world champion, business advisor to everyone and famed author of positivity. Okay, let me set the scene for you guys, okay? Paris, August 10, 2024. He sticks it.

So say, calm down, everybody.

It's clowning with a chance of curries. But this is it right here, the finish. Curry. And then you did Steph. You got the night night. You got it. I'm waiting for me to win a big pot before I got the night night. Over here. I need a round of applause for Steph Curry. I met Steph maybe seven, eight years ago at a friend's birthday party. And we got around with played cards, and I just kept stacking them. I mean, left and right. I'd get it in with the best hand, I'd get it in with the worst hand. It didn't matter. I'd win the all in. I wonder if he remembers. Might be a little awkward here. Steph is all in with a pair of eights, and I've got Queen 9 suited. And it dawns on me, if I knock Steph out again and send him packing, everyone came to see him, not me. In two cards, I'm gonna be the most hated guy in the room. It's customary for the player that knocks out a Warrior to get a signed jersey and a photograph. But I just knocked him out again. I definitely don't want to ask for anything from him. And we're having fun. I don't want to attend. Oh, wow, that's a tough one. Can I see the back of him? Absolutely. I have to go with this one, the white one, but Steph insisted and, you know, I appreciate it. Imagine you get knocked out from the tournament and you got a smile with the guy that knocked you out. It just shows his character that he made that a priority. And then suddenly, everything stopped. Massive breaking news in a CBS Sports HQ out of the association where the Los Angeles Lakers are trading for superstar Luka Doncic. Yo, you see that happen? That's not true. Whoa. What the. No, that's not real, right?

What?

Luka Doncic got traded to the Lakers. What?

No way.

That's not real. Is this fake? No, it's not real. Are you sure? I know. But you didn't get hacked. That's not right. Oh, my God. You know this is April Fool's two months early, right? Yeah. Slow. There's no way that's real. Slow. There's no way. I don't think I've ever been more shocked. My immediate reaction is, what in the holy hell are the Dallas Mavericks doing? This news of Sean's original post was so stunning that he had to put out another tweet saying, quote, yes, this is real. To be in the stadium when this happened was unforgettable. I mean, everyone's looking around at each other. Is this real? The dealers stopped dealing. Everyone's checking their phones. We couldn't believe it. First thing I wanted to do was reach out to my friend and get his take.

My podcast host, Mike Procopio, texts me, and we have a running joke that he gets catfished a lot by NBA News sometimes, you know, all these spoof accounts that post news. So he texts me, and I'm like, yeah, okay, man. Like, wherever you. Wherever you read this shit, like, there's no way it's right. So I jumped on my phone straight away.

I don't know if there's a precedent for it, a player that good being traded in that situation, but you have a unique angle to take here because you've been in. You were in the league for so many years, and from a viewer on the outside, like, what's happening behind the scenes? How do these conversations happen between general managers to even surprise us with a trade like this?

You know, I just think this trade doesn't happen without the blessings of ownership. And I just think that Nico's probably, you know, to give him the benefit of the doubt a little bit, I think he was the fall guy that you're going to do this. This is what we need done, and we're going to move on from Luca, because if I'm a Dallas Mavs, and look, if Luka has diet issues, if he has weight issues, I hire 10 people to help him with that, he's that good. I'll hire people around the corner. I'll hire him a chef that sleeps next to him on the pillow and make sure he's not snacking at night. I'll do whatever I need to do for a talent like that, you know, and there's always that conversation in the NBA of like, talent is sometimes difficult to deal with or has issues. The more the talent, the more sandwich you have to take as a club and organization. Right. The lesser the talent. You can move them on and replace them. But when you've got a top five talent, you got to kind of without selling your soul completely, you got to bend a little bit more for him. And I would have invested more in that than just just getting him out of the. Out of the organization. Look, I got a different take. I don't think it was. I don't think it was the GM decision. I think this is clear, really. Ownership.

Well, what would ownership's incentive be to trade away, you know, one of the best players in the league.

So there's thresholds of max contracts in the NBA. So if you stay with your team, the team that drafts you and you hit certain metrics, certain awards, all NBA, all star, your team has an opportunity to pay you more than other teams. They put that rule in to stop players being able to be overpaid from bigger markets.

I guess the other side of it is Lakers, can they win at all this year?

I don't think this year I don't think they're deep enough. I think the Lakers still have to make a couple moves to get around, put around Luka. Lebron's obviously aging, but I think that can make a little bit of a push. I think the west is wide open for the most part, but I just don't think they have enough to win a championship yet. I think they'll get a few more pieces that work well with Luka in the future and they have some flexibility to do some different things. So this season, no, I think it's bit too soon, but you don't want to doubt the guy neither. You know, Luka's one of those guys that can turn a series on its head, as we've seen numerous times. So you never want to doubt him, but as a betting man, I wouldn't bet on him to win a championship this season.

Well, I appreciate you coming to talk about this. I know we've been talking about me coming to visit you in Australia for years. Now that everything's opened up, I gotta come on down Yeah.

I got you to come when there's a World Poker Tour event and get you to get some of these nits here in the local casino, take some of their chips.

I'll try my best.

Appreciate it, brother.

Thank you for coming.

All right. Thanks, man.

So I knock out Steph and this crazy trade happens. What's the last thing left to do? Win the tournament. Might as well. They bring out a bracelet to present for the winner. And it occurs to me I'm a. I'm a cash game player. This might be my only chance to win a bracelet. So let's do this. Okay, that's not so good. An 8. You have 11 outs. Yes, I know what they are. Yes. Yeah, just. Just imagine you're all in for your tournament life on the hardwood. And Phil stops the game to tell you detail to you exactly how bad your odds are. I mean, painful. I have 45. We're all in. And he's got me beat. I've got just jack high and I need to hit. And we're down to the final two. Everyone who's still there is gathered around the table to see who wins this bracelet. Where is 3.8 million? This is it. We're all in. I've got the bigger stack and I've got a pocket pair. He needs to hit a jack or seven or I win it all. Seven. Seven, jack. Keep in mind, in life, not everyone wants to see you win. Now we're even stacked and I'm going all in. The blinds are high and I don't even need to see my cards. All in again. All in, he says. I haven't seen my hand. I know, because in a random hand, it's good.

I'm fine. I'm called.

All right, guys, share with the group. Here we go.6 versus. What do we have, Alan? That's average. Flip it over, let's see if I'm above that. Okay, that's not good. That's not good. That's good. Oh, my God.

Another 50.

50. It's almost 50.

50.

Let him have some fun, you know? Okay. Did not flop a full house this time. Three cards up and I'm still ahead. But two more to go, one card to come, all the money. Four fives, nine outs. You have 35 outs. Last card. All right, he has 35 out. I won the tournament. Wow. Didn't see that coming. But feels great. Alan Keating, bracelet winner. Wait, so how does this go? Put this on my wrists. Oh, my God. Look at all this. The only bracelet I'll ever win. But I'm so glad this is the one I won. What do we do? I feel like a gangster, to be honest with you. Welcome to my life. Well, I mean, You're the fucking picture taker. It's a great picture. Congratulations. Funny, I didn't even make my varsity basketball team. You know, I got Steph's name on my back. I got the warrior thing here. That was crazy. Let's go home.

You see this bracelet?

Yeah. That's. That's the experience. You know, I never thought I would win the tournament, but we did, and we knocked out Curry. He was a really great sport about it. We got the jersey name on the back, signature. It's good to see everyone. Good to see Draymond. Tons of friends there. And at the final table, I had probably 12 friends all rooting for me. I'm gonna be on a high for, like, a few days. Oh, my God. Oh, Thank God. What you did there was an extreme level of strategy. I think pros could do what you just did.

So. Legend.

Keating. Alan Keating. Alan. Alan Keating here.