Just Wondering...with Norm Hitzges

From Empty Seats to Eight-Figure Ads — and a Mavericks Reset | Just Wondering with Norm Hitzges

February 6, 2026 19:41

In this episode of Just Wondering with Norm Hitzges, Norm and Mary Hitzges look backward and forward at the same time — tracing the remarkable evolution of the Super Bowl while unpacking a franchise-shifting decision by the Dallas Mavericks.
Norm begins with Super Bowl 60, revisiting how the game went from an awkward, half-empty afternoon in 1967 to the most powerful annual spectacle in American sports. From $12 tickets and $42,000 commercials to today’s $8–10 million ad slots, Norm explains how the Super Bowl’s growth mirrors the transformation of sports, television, and money itself. Along the way, he shares unforgettable history — including Max McGee’s hungover heroics in Super Bowl I and the astonishing reality that neither network bothered to save the full game tape.
The episode then shifts to the present, where Norm breaks down the Dallas Mavericks’ decision to move on from Anthony Davis, effectively closing the book on the Luka Dončić era. Norm explains why the trade wasn’t about talent — Davis was still productive when healthy — but about flexibility, criticism fatigue, and long-term cap strategy. With Dallas now projected to have $44 million in cap space, Norm outlines how the Mavericks may follow a patient, Oklahoma City–style rebuild built around flexibility, draft assets, and opportunistic trades.
It’s a thoughtful episode about growth, money, patience, and perspective — from the Super Bowl’s unlikely beginnings to a franchise trying to find its next identity.
Just Wondering_1.mp3
⏱️ Chapters (YouTube-Friendly)
00:00 – Super Bowl Sunday questions and today’s themes
01:26 – The origin of the Super Bowl name
02:10 – From $12 tickets to $10M commercials
02:58 – 32,000 empty seats at Super Bowl I
04:57 – Why the full game footage was never saved
05:53 – Max McGee’s hungover Super Bowl legend
06:49 – Super Bowl 60 matchup and betting context
08:02 – Why defense still wins Super Bowls
08:56 – Transition to the Mavericks’ big move
11:09 – Anthony Davis traded and what it really means
11:54 – Criticism fatigue and why Dallas wanted out
13:20 – What the Mavericks actually received
14:15 – The real prize: $44M in cap flexibility
15:40 – Following the Oklahoma City rebuild model
16:21 – Pieces Dallas still likes going forward
17:18 – What Dallas ultimately got for Luka
18:27 – Sponsors and closing thoughts
19:19 – Final sign-off
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Read Transcript

Today is Friday, February 6th, and I'm wondering about the winner of Sunday Superbowl, and the
Mavericks' make was it a big trade or just a big dump.
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This is Superbowl 60.
You know, there are some things about the Superbowl from those 60 years ago.
I guess I'm one of the not many people alive who actually saw that for a Superbowl.
But it's origin, the name Superbowl.
We came from actually the daughter of former Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt.
In fact, the chiefs are still in the Hunt family.
And they were trying to figure out what to call the game.
And Hunt's daughter was playing with what they called back then a Superbowl.
Very squishy, very bouncy.
And the light went on.
Let's call it Superbowl.
Now, now it's a huge spectacle, viewed by hundreds and hundreds and millions of people
around the globe, a 30-second spot this year, depending on where you're positioning the
game, will cost you any worth where from 8 to 10 million dollars for 30-second spot.
And the cost of a ticket, well in the resale market, tickets upstairs, the, quote, upper
bowl, a ticket will cost between $4,000 and $6,000.
In the lower bowl, the cost range from about $6,000 to $27,000.
As in Star Contrast, the Superbowl won.
It was January 1967.
There were 61,946 people in attendance.
But that left more than 32,000 empty seats at the Cavernous LA Coliseum.
Yeah, 32,000 empty seats in a Superbowl.
An ad cost for 30 seconds, $42,000.
Do the math on this year?
It costs $275,000 for one second of that 30-second spot.
In all the tickets for that Superbowl, they were $12, $12.
And the TV will now have such a huge event, billions get paid for the rights.
Well, that year, because there were two different leagues AFL and NFL, well, that means two different
televising networks, CBS and NBC.
So they shared the Superbowl.
The CBS announcers did the first half and the NBC announces the second half, not that
that was clumsy at all.
Neither network kept the videotape of the entire game.
That's right, rather than take up space, storing that what now is incredibly historical event,
they just didn't keep their videotapes.
And what we have now is pieces of incomplete footage from that first Superbowl.
And here of that game, well, that was Max McGee, the wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers.
But on the night before the game, McGee on the edge of retirement and thinking he wasn't
going to play in the game for Vince Lombardi's Packers, reportedly spent the night partying
with two flight attendants.
He'd met in the team bar, the team hotel's bar.
McGee spent so much night drinking that he returned to the room in the morning and at
game time, Max McGee was hungover, maybe still a little bit drunk.
Not then, wide receiver Boyd Dauer got hurt for Green Bay almost immediately.
And McGee had to play and he caught seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns.
There have been other incredible moments at the Superbowl, the Janet Jackson wardrobe,
malfunction, the year that it had rained at the site and they had, of course, a halftime
show and then they had an 18 wheeler who's going to pull the stage off the field and on
the sideline, it got stuck in the mud.
But let's get this this year, Superbowl.
Seattle is 16 and three, they won nine in a row.
They're favored by five points over New England, which is 17 and three and they won 16 of
17.
New England though has played perhaps the softest schedule of any team to ever reach the
Superbowl against the bottom eight teams in this league, the bottom quarter of the NFL.
New England has had nine games against those eight teams.
But hey, they're young, they're emerging, they're getting better.
Seattle made all the right moves in the off season, including signing free agent Dallas
cowboy tight end, Marcus Lawrence.
But the big move was from Sam Darrell, their quarterback, a boss after being a very high
first-round pick with the Jets and then he started a resurrectist career, Carolina and Minnesota.
But Darrell has been very, very good for Seattle.
In fact, going into the game, he's the favorite to be the MVP.
Both teams were at least 60 to one to be in the Superbowl when the season started.
There are so many stats from this game, I'm not going to drown you in numbers.
One leaps out to me.
And that's, listen up cowboy fans.
The team with the higher ranking regular season defense has won 48 of the 59 Superbowls so far,
40 to 59.
And Seattle had the number one scoring defense in the regular season in the NFL.
And I like Seattle.
In fact, I like Seattle pretty big.
Next, the Mavericks make a big move.
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Two locations of Bob's steak and chop-ups, the original Bob's on Lemon Avenue,
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And then to cover it up, we begin wearing long sleeves even when it's hot.
It took two years working with a New Jersey lab to refine the all natural ingredients of Full Moon Healing.
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Senile propora usually takes weeks to disappear.
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Well, the Mavericks have slammed the door shut on the Lucodonchets years in Dallas.
They sent 32-year-old Anthony Davis, 10-time NBA All-Star,
but often hurt in his one year and three days here in Dallas.
They sent him packing to Washington.
Davis' history here, when he was well enough to play, Dallas was a solid 16 and 13.
When he wasn't in the lineup, Dallas was 16 and 38.
And while available here, Anthony Davis was still a really good player.
That'll over 20 points a game, 11 rebounds a game.
But the Dallas organization still reeling from the heavy criticism they got
over the Donchets trade decided they just wanted away from that trade.
They virtually gave Anthony Davis away for a bag of beans.
But they just wanted the criticism to stop from the Donchets trade.
In the deal, they sent three other guys, none of whom the Mavericks needed,
the Angelo Russell, Jaden, Hardy, Dante X, and they packed those along with Davis
and got four guys back. But three of them are going to be free agents at the end of the season.
In fact, maybe one of them is going to be a free agent the next few days.
Now, of the free agents, though, Malachi Brabham is only 22 years old, and he might still stand
a chance of being a decent rotation player in this league. But again, he's free after this year.
The one player who isn't free is AJ Johnson. He has two fully guaranteed years left in his contract,
but he is so cheap, $3 million a year. He's a deep bench player here in Dallas, at least
to begin, but if you're Maverick these days, everybody eventually gets a chance to play.
Mavericks did get two number one draft choices in the deal. But the Oklahoma City number one
this year will probably be the number 30 pick in the draft, the last pick of the first ground.
And the Warriors number one in 2030 is protected. If the pick is anywhere in picks one through 20,
Dallas doesn't get it. So at best, this is a pick somewhere in the 20s, but again, that's okay.
They also get three number twos, which help you facilitate trades at times. Forget the draft picks,
forget the guys they got in the trade. The number one plus in moving Anthony Davis to the
Wizards for bag of beans, money, money. It gives Dallas significantly more flexible,
cap space in the off season. Dallas drops after this year to having $44 million
under the cap next year. Ah, you say we can sign a free agent. Well, whoa, whoa, maybe not.
Maybe not. Maybe Dallas is thinking of using the Oklahoma City plan of building, which has been so
successful. That is next year, there may be teams who want to make a deal, but can't do it because
of money because of the salary cap. And one of the teams has to move up a big salary to player.
Ah, Dallas can take him. And of course, be paid some picks to take him. And the rebuild continues.
I like the fact that Dallas didn't tear down totally. I think the center combination
win well of Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively next year is good. I like the forwards Cooper flag,
PJ Washington, Nazi, commercial Caleb Martin. If Kyrie Irving is well and there's every
reason to believe he will be with Max Christie at guards with Brandon Williams and Ryan
Nemhard backing up. And the number one pick, Dallas is going to get this year.
Is a good pick. Add that player to the mix. Plus
the rebuild is over. It's over.
One last hope for Anthony Davis.
That he gets to Washington and he gets well. He's such a good guy in the locker room.
He's such a good player. But Dallas fans never saw it. Hopefully, he gets to Washington,
gets well and displays again the fact that he's a terrific NBA player.
In the end, what do the Mavericks get for Luca Doncic?
Well, first and often overlooked, young Max Christie, who's only 22, is developing into a solid
player and a really good three point shooter. The Mavericks get three number ones the best of them
is the one they got from the Lakers in the trade for Luca. And that's the Lakers unprotected
2029 number one. They also get these two marginal picks in this deal and three second rounders
in this deal and all that money flexibility. That's actually not awful. But you get the feeling
that the fans of Luca, the fans who loved him here and there were reasons for that
that they're never going to let the Mavericks forget this deal until the next Maverick team
hangs a flag from the rafters.
And now a word from our title sponsor. Today's episode has been brought to you by
Fluent Financial. Retire earlier, live better. And by Bob's staking shophouse on lemon and Dallas
and in Craig Ranch in McKinney. Bob's a Dallas tradition for more than 30 years.
If you've enjoyed just wondering, please hit follow and a fresh new episode will land in your
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Thanks for listening to today's episode of Just One Ring. I'm Norm Hitzkiss
and know that every day, I'll be just wondering about something.
And I'm Mary Hitzkiss and I'll just be wondering too.
This is a stolen water media production.

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