A Grab Bag Extra! Shocking, Blockbuster Trade in the NBA, Dubs pull off their own big trade, plus Grammy Notes!

I haven't used the above graphic in a while, and usually reserve it for my local SF Bay Area teams, but what happened last Saturday night shooketh the NBA and the sports world, with the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks completing a jaw-dropping trade, one that instantly shot up the Lakers chances for a NBA Championship, and questions for the Mavericks as to why this trade was made. Guess it's time to bring out a hot kettle of tea! First, the money, it's always the money! Because Luka has achieved superstar status with the same team, he was eligible for a SuperMax deal, like the one Steph Curry got after his initial contract ran out. The SuperMax can only be given to players on teams that originally drafted them. If a player moves/gets traded, a player is not eligible for a SuperMax. So Luka's initial deal was supposed to run out next season, but the Mavs in the summer could have given Luka a SuperMax deal. The team gets a year before free agency to offer a SuperMax to a player before he hits free agency. Luka was drafted by the Mavs, so he was due/eligible for a hefty pay increase, somewhere in the neighborhood of 350M over x amount of years.

The hot tea is that Luka was becoming a bit of a diva, from ownerships point of view. He was not doing his workouts, and was 30 pounds over his listed weight. Combine that with the SuperMax contract he was due, and the Mavericks felt Luka's behavior and attitude would only get worse, so they shocked the sports world and traded him to the Lakers for Anthony Edwards and other players that were also part of the trade. Mavericks fans were so distraught that they held a mock funeral, complete with casket, outside the Mavericks arena!

Switch the uni's on Luka and AD, and that's the team they are with now!

Well, the Golden State Warriors answered the question I posed in the the last Grab Bag if the Dubs could resist the temptation of trading for the Miami Heat's star player, Jimmy Butler...they traded for him! Andrew Wiggins was the big name of the four players traded away in a multi-team trade, and the team and fans will miss "Wiggs", no Dubs fan can forget how in the playoffs, Wiggs postered Luka on a high flying dunk on the much bigger Luka- highlight reel history! The good news for Dubs fans is that Golden State was able to keep their core of young up and coming players such as Jonathan Kuminga (currently on the injury list with a bad ankle), Moses Moody, Podz, and TJD-Trayce Jackson-Davis. So who is Jimmy Butler and why would the Miami Heat trade him? Well he has been suspended twice this season by the team, and when Butler was told he would be coming off the bench, Butler left the team, and the Heat suspended him indefinitely. Butler also has a history of forcing his two previous teams to trade him, so there's that. As a player, Butler IS very good, and will give Steph Curry some much needed help on the offense. The deal was finally able to go forward once Kevin Durant made it very clear he had no desire to be reunited with the Warriors, so in Phoenix , KD stays; and that Butler finally agreed to a new contract with Golden State to the tune of two years/ 120 million! Based on Butler's previous history I outlined above, I'm keeping a wary eye on Mr. Butler, and hope he and the Warriors find harmonious success!

Welcome to the Bay Area, Jimmy Butler! Don't muck it up!

Rory wins Pebble Beach Golf tourney! I rarely cover golf, unless it's something interesting, and for me golfing legend Rory Mcllroy finally winning at the most beautiful golf course in the world, Pebble Beach, near Monterey, California this past Sunday was entertaining. The Northern Ireland golfer won the tourney by three strokes. It is also only the second time Rory has won in California in his over 20 years of professional golf! Congrats Rory!

In what the sentencing judge called a "calculated betrayal", Ippei Mizuhara, the ex- interpreter of LA Dodger mega-star Shohei Ohtani, was sentenced to 57 months in a federal prison for stealing nearly 17 million dollars from Ohtani from the gambling scandal that came to light in 2024. I'm still amazed that someone (Ohtani) would not be aware that such large amounts of money was missing! Onto the 67th Grammy's, which will be notes from music's biggest night: The Grammy's and CBS came up with a awesome idea of having some local businesses destroyed in the Los Angles fires to get free airtime to promote thier business, with a celebrity twist! I see you, Avril Lavine and Doja Cat! Bravo! The whole night's show was also part fundraiser, as a QR code was onscreen the entire show for viewers to donate to the LA fire relief funds. Folks at the Crypto Arena, including the artists and the sponsors in the suites were also encouraged to donate by host Trevor Noah (who did a great job hosting, btw), and by the end of the almost 4 hour broadcast, viewers had donated over seven million dollars! I expect that number to go over 10 million, with a possibility of hitting 20 million, once ALL donations are counted! Bravo, Grammy's! Hey, Oscars, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery....just sayin'!

The show itself: All the performances were solid, no showstoppers, per se, which was fine, but I will note that Cynthia Erivo could sing a legal document and we would be mesmerized! Charlie XCX brought the "in da club" energy with her hit song, "Brat", which was last years summer anthem. Social issues made into several artists winning speeches, as Shakira dedicated her award to all the immigrants here in the USA, Alicia Keys noted that DEI policies is a good thing, Lady Gaga made sure that trans and queer folk DO EXIST, and Best New Artist Winner Chappell Roan spoke of how the music industry needs to do more for up and coming artists, such as providing health care benefits. The big winners of the night were Kendrick Lamar, who won in all five categories he was nominated in, (somewhere, Drake has destroyed a television...those two artists have a beef!), and not only did Beyonce shock everyone (including herself!) by winning the best Country music album (presented to her by Taylor Swift, who won her first country album 15 years ago, completing a full-circle awards moment), but FINALLY won the coveted Album of the Year award, presented by the Los Angles Fire Dept. A side-note about the big ads that showed during this telecast: Are the Grammy's coming for the Super Bowl in regard to the wow factor of what we were shown (or be repeated during the Super Bowl?) . The first commercial was for Nike's Air Jordan shoes, then we had basically a full music video from MasterCard with a top notch visual performance by Lady Gaga, and also the first teaser for M3GAN 2.0, the sequel to M3GAN, the big surprise summer sci-fi/horror flick that "da gays" basically made it a hit due to its campiness (the M3GAN dance does "slay"!

Oh, there's a big football game this weekend- enjoy! I will be watching it on tape delay to catch the commercials, so, umm...GO TEAM! Stay warm out there!