The music behind the Mavericks’ Luka Doncic Rookie of the Year tribute

On Monday night, what fans had for months considered fait accompli became official and the NBA named Luka Doncic the 2018-2019 Rookie of the Year. Predictably, The Dallas Mavericks Twitter account had a highlight video at the ready and dispatched it as soon as word came down.

The video is a gorgeous repertoire of Luka being cruel to a series of NBA defenders. The falsetto refrain of the backing song is perfectly apt: “nothing has been this easy before.” It’s a declarative worthy of a rookie playing with a plucky temerity beyond his years. What people may not have known is that the Mavericks made the commendable decision to tap the local music scene for this moment, choosing a song – “Cinch” – by Smoke Paint, the members of whom have been writing and performing in DFW for over a decade across various acts.

I got in touch with the artists responsible – Daniel Markham, Tony Ferraro and Steve Phillips – to talk about what it was like to be the soundtrack to Luka’s ROTY victory.

MMB: How did this come about? Did you know someone over at the Mavs? Did you know they’d be using the song like that?

Tony: Yeah. A buddy of ours, [Mike Marshall], is on their production team, asked if he could use it for something special.

MMB: Did he ever say what the something special was or did Monday catch you off guard?

Tony: He told me what it was: “rookie of the year video for Luka.” Still caught me off guard. I didn’t realize how many people would see it.

Daniel: I had no idea. A friend texted me a link to the video. At first, I thought he had just discovered the song and thought it was cool. But then I was like “oh, dang!”

Steve: Same. It was a nice surprise.

MMB: As far as the song itself, I’m sure when you all wrote it, you didn’t have a Slovenian basketball player in mind. What do you think of the song being used like this?

Steve: I think the video compliments the song very well.

Tony: Yeah it sits on the images nicely. It’s technically Steve’s track we borrowed and put more noise on top of. Daniel and I wrote the lyrics.

Daniel: I think Steve is the real MVP here. That track he sent us was already too good.

Tony: ROTY Steve.

MMB: Is this pretty big exposure for you guys?

Daniel: I’d have to say yeah. I mean, we were on ESPN. I’ve never been on ESPN before.

Steve: What? Didn’t see that.

Tony: Me neither, yet.

Daniel: Maybe they just retweeted Dirk’s tweet.

MMB: Did you have a different character in mind when you were writing what is a kind of monologue? And are you amused that it’s Luka Doncic “singing” it now?

Daniel: I can’t remember any specifics other than we just wanted to write something kinda super sexy.

Tony: Originally it was Steve’s instrumental. Daniel and I listened to it over and over. I had been sitting on the title. Eventually we came up with lyrics about a character just walking and talking big and tough. No one in particular in mind at the time. Proud to lend to Mavs and Doncic.

Steve: I remember Tony told me they wrote something very “Prince-ish” and that got me real excited.

MMB: Any chance Smoke Paint becomes to the Dallas Mavericks what Pantera was to the Stars?

Tony: Hahaha, let’s hope so.

Steve: Holy shit that would be so rad.

Daniel: That would rule. I love Pantera.

MMB: Well from what I know of you guys, you each have about a dozen intense projects going on at once. Anything coming up that you want the people to know about?

Daniel: I have a solo album coming out eventually. I have a black metal album coming out. I’m going on tour.

Steve: I’ve been living in Houston for about a year and a half now, so I’m not part of any projects as of right now.

Tony: I am working on music. More at tonyferraro.bandcamp.com. That’s pretty much it.

MMB: Well, Steve, I think Tony and Daniel would love it if you sent them more bangers they can use to get on ESPN.

Steve: Ha! I’ll get right on it.