👋 Good morning! It’s one of my favorite days of the NBA year: schedule release day! It’s a fun time because we get to look ahead to the season (which is suddenly just right around the corner) but it’s also important for NBA fans everywhere to know when their team has a weekend off so we can all slip away for a quick vacation. Get your calendars ready, folks. It’s almost time to play some basketball. — Bobby Karalla

Yesterday was another emotional day in Cowboys world — but for a good reason. Jerry Jones, in an interview with The Dallas Morning News, revealed he was diagnosed with and then went on to beat stage 4 melanoma back in 2010. Later that same day, head coach Brian Schottenheimer discussed his own journey of being diagnosed with thyroid cancer when he was just 28 years old.

Both of these revelations come on the heels of Colorado head coach and former Cowboy Deion Sanders revealing his own battle against (and victory over) bladder cancer.

“I’m glad that Jerry shared it, just because I think it gives people hope,” Schottenheimer said. “It gives people the strength to say ‘Hey, you can beat this, you can do that.’ When you have that type of diagnosis, to have that hope and that ability to think, ‘Hey, I can fight through this and maybe I can catch a break and get lucky,’ I think that’s great.”

Schottenheimer credited Dan Snyder with getting him into the Mayo Clinic and onto the operating table within just a few hours of Schotty revealing his diagnosis to his father, Marty, under whom he worked at the time in 2002.

I was terrified of the fact that I might lose my ability to speak because of my love for coaching. And I was one of the lucky ones. I look at the scar… and I’m reminded how lucky I am…”

As for Jones, he and his medical team tried a unique approach that ultimately proved to be extremely successful, though it resulted in other medical issues he had to address.

“Well, you don’t like to think about your mortality,” Jones told the DMN. “But I was so fortunate to have some great people that sent me in the right direction. I got to be a part of a trial that that was propitious. It really worked. It’s called PD-1. It really, really, really worked. It ate my hips up. I had to have both hips replaced because it was rough on your bones. But other than that, I’m so proud to get to be sitting here with you guys and be getting to do what we do. But (mortality) was in the back of your mind.”

I think the one last thing in the world we can all agree on is that cancer f***ing sucks. I’m happy to see treatment getting better and better as the years go by. For someone at Jones’s age to be able to beat stage 4 is super impressive, and Schotty’s right that it should give hope to people. These guys obviously have much more financial and medical resources at their disposal, but one more reason to hope is that, as time continues to go by, those options become more accessible to folks everywhere so that, one day, maybe we can place cancer six feet under where it belongs.

Speaking of Brian Schottenheimer, he joined the show yesterday live from Oxnard! Check out the full interview here.

The NBA schedule comes out today! The DLLS Mavs crew will go live to break down the 82-game marathon as soon as it drops at or around 2:15 p.m. Central, but that’s about as specific as it gets. So standby and be prepared!

Adolis Garcia has been placed on the Injured List as he nurses an ankle sprain. Jeff Wilson has more, including the possibility that a little break might do Garcia some good as his struggles at the plate continue.

Sam Nestler put together a compelling case for Roope Hintz to move down the lineup instead of playing on the top line with Mikko Rantanen and Jason Robertson, in part because of Hintz’s tendency to play shorter shifts, but also based on the prediction that Glen Gulutzan might come in with some bold ideas and changes.

The great question asker himself!!

Be sure to subscribe to our shows wherever you listen to your podcasts. Traffic can be the worst, and one of the best ways I get through it is by listening to the audio versions of our DLLS shows. You should, too!

Bobby Karalla
DLLS Sports Head of Content​
[email protected]