Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Prima Donnas in Business & Sports with David Pivnick, Partner at McGuireWoods LLP 2-7-25
Fri, 07 Feb 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker is joined by David Pivnick, to discuss the challenges of integrating star talent in sports and business.
Chapter 1: What are prima donnas in business and sports?
This is Scott Becker from the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. We're joined today by David Pivnik, and we're going to discuss today prima donnas in business and sports and a lot more. David, I want to take you through really three topics at least. One is the Luka Doncic trade.
We're going to talk sports today, mostly, so people that just want to listen to business and private equity, we're going to let you know right away. We're going to talk about Luka Doncic. I'd like to talk about the Eagles Chiefs. And then I'd also like to talk to you about Zach Levine and Jimmy Butler. People talk about the parts being greater than the sum. I want to talk about why some leaders...
Some players, some business executives are so hard to build into teams. Let's start with your take on the Luka Doncic trade, your take on the Eagles Chiefs, and then let's talk about why some players are so hard to make teams better. David, what are your thoughts on the Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis trade, Lakers, Mavericks, big surprise to the league. What are your thoughts on this?
Chapter 2: What was the impact of the Luka Doncic trade?
Yeah, I mean, the first thing is the last thing you said, big surprise. It's mostly the most shocking trade I can remember offhand, I don't think there's been very many trades that I can recall where a legitimate superstar was traded without any warning, without a demand for a trade, without a contract dispute that had been percolating. I mean, it came completely out of left field.
And Luca is, you know, I think pretty clearly one of the five most marketable players in the league. So seeing a guy like that get traded, out of a market like Dallas is somewhat shocking, because that's usually a guy, a team like Dallas or Milwaukee with Yadis, you know, the guy you would build around and use to sell tickets.
I think the weirdest part of the trade is how Anthony Davis is getting treated. And I think your lead in here is sort of emblematic of that, where it took until the third or fourth time you mentioned the trade before you even said his name. And I kind of feel like Anthony Davis is being treated like he's Bill Cartwright.
And I don't mean to have Bill Cartwright catching shots out here, but ultimately, you know, Anthony Davis is a legit star as well. One of the five or 10 best big men in the NBA might be one of the 10 best players, far better defensively. And he's frankly, I think a pretty damn good fit on Dallas.
So I think it's an interesting deal more than anything else, because he came completely out of left field. I think it's great for the Lakers to Not that they need help attracting superstars, but this will allow them to transition seamlessly from LeBron to their next generation and keep Luka around and build around him for the next decade.
Talk about this, because there are people like Charles Barkley saying that this is actually going to work out better for Dallas than people are projecting because of the combination of Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis and that between the Supermax contract and some other reasons there are people in Dallas that wanted Luka gone. What's the reality of this? Because this seems such a strange thing.
Luka is a top-five player, and some of the speculation is that Dallas management didn't love him. But what is the speculation on this?
There's a lot of speculation about how fit he was, whether they wanted to pay him, et cetera. I have no idea what's true or not. I will say seeing video and pictures of him
over the last week after the trade, he looks to be the exact same size he's been at all points in time while in Dallas, which is to say he's been one of the best players in the NBA his entire career at seemingly the exact same size as Ed Dow. So I don't put a lot of stock in that.
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Chapter 3: How does team chemistry affect star players?
Jimmy Butler had the grace on his teammates, coaches, management alike, and I don't think he has that same level of grace. And then the second part of it is, ultimately, I think Jordan recognized that he was the elephant, he was the guy, but that his teammates were really, really important. And I think there is an element where Jimmy Butler views Jimmy Butler as being most important.
And the notion that he's offended at comments Pat Riley made last summer about his contractor, that he's now effectively rejecting trades and trying to force himself only to Phoenix. I just find stuff like that is somewhat off-putting when he's getting paid, you know, the better part of $60 million a year to play basketball.
The heat of putting together what could be a contending team, if Jimmy was playing like he frankly has the ability to play, then he demands a trade and they try and ship him out, and now he's going to try and control where he's going and be difficult on that front as well.
Your point is so well taken, and there are translations, of course, to the business world. Zach Levine would be a great talent, but never as effective as one expected him to be. Michael Jordan as a leader evolved to at some point, and there's all this discussion about Phil Jackson and Tex Winter and trying to get Michael to realize that his teammates were important too.
And he would say, yes, but you finally got me some talent to go with me and Scotty Pippen and Horace Grant and other guys over the years. But Michael was an evolving, evolving player and person. who didn't win until he evolved some and started to value his teammates, his fellow executives, if you will. And then Jimmy Butler was also talented.
And you would say is not nearly as if Zach Levine had a knock on him, it would be that he's a little soft as a player, even though he's a crazily talented scorer. Jimmy Butler is not that, but you would say Jimmy never softened the way that Michael did towards being able to play with other teammates or executives.
A hundred percent. I mean, that's, Jimmy Butler has always viewed it as my way or the highway. That's been how he's been from day one in the league. He is definitely a very talented player. And I think he's a guy you could build and win around, but he is difficult in the way that he expects everything to be done his way.
And sometimes that can be good where you're picking up your teammates and getting them all to play at the same level of excellence that you bring to the table. And I think that could sometimes be an asset. But I think in his case, there's also some negative where he does wear his welcome more quickly than the average NBA player.
And it seems like he's certainly a little bit difficult to work with as well.
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