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I'm living my best life. Yeah, yeah. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host, Brian Weber.
Yeah, big shoes to fill. Eisen's a legend. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Rich Eisen Show. Do you know who I am? I'm a guy on television.
I have my own show. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Powering our way into the final hour of the program. Still plenty of time for you to get involved.
It's 844-204-7424, the iconic phone number. Your best avenue to express an opinion and have it processed at least, if not read on the air, is hit me up on X. B. W. Weber, Weber with two Bs, just one more guest in our time together. In 20 minutes, more NBA analysis when we check in with Eric Pincus. A bleacher report coming up in 45 minutes, because I know you need appointment audio on the horizon.
Going to get back to the top of the draft in addition to what we're going to tackle here. I do find the giant situation to be fascinating in addition to being a train wreck. Now, there's a reason we all slow down when we're on a freeway as I come to you from Southern California, or a highway. I grew up with throughways, and that's your out and about update.
Anytime there's something grizzly on the side of the road we slow down, that's human nature. And I just cannot get enough of the dysfunction of the team of my youth, the New York football Giants with their GM, Joe Shane, flying to Colorado more frequently than he's crossed the bridge to go to Manhattan. I don't know if this is all some sort of grand, elaborate ruse to build interest in getting a team to trade up, who might think the Giants actually want you, Doris Sanders.
We will go through all the implications coming up. In terms of actual NFL news today, and I've been doing this long enough to be completely overwhelmed by how we have evolved as a sports media culture. And I say this as somebody who used to come to you on mornings, weekdays on NFL Network, and give you breathless updates about organized team activities.
Why? Because I got paid to do so. But normally OTAs are a colossal waste of time. And remember, wink wink, nudge nudge, they are voluntary. However, they have become a media device allowing the beast that is the NFL that needs to be fed 24-7, because you cannot get enough football. You're addicted to it. And thankfully, that's the case.
So I can pay the rent for my lavish studio apartment here in Southern California. Now, when we get to OTAs, it is a bunch of reporters hanging around, looking for somebody to stop to get a soundbite so they can come up with more content. Or there might actually be newsworthy developments at a couple teams, at least across the league.
So I realize the audience is always changing, especially when you have a fellow in hack like yours truly doing my best to defend Rich's great brand. I talked about Brock Purdy showing up for the Niners OTAs in Santa Clara, California today as a non-surprising development because Brock Purdy's personality seems like he would view it as disloyal not to show up, even though he's in the midst of contract negotiations. And if you've been tracking what he's been doing in the offseason, like any good leader at a quarterback position, he's been having individual workouts with his teammates, trying to bifurcate on a big word Tuesday, separate the football part of the NFL from what happens on the field and the business side that drives his generational wealth possibilities. Brock's going to get paid one way or another.
The question becomes, what's the number? And I think for him to feel good about it, just from a standpoint of self-esteem, because we all have it or want it or want to have our ego stroked, especially after having to go through the exercise with the draft coming up on Thursday, of going all the way to the final pick of the draft. And if you're not a great believer in Brock, you'll think there are reasons for that happening.
But Purdy, to feel good about this deal, wants it to start with a 5. And Mike Silver, formerly of NFL Network, Sports Illustrated, he's had a lot of jobs. He's now working for the athletic. We've all had a lot of jobs now.
It's the only way to survive in this business. He pushed out on X yesterday that, quote unquote, some progress was being made between the Niners and Purdy. He viewed it as a positive development. If Purdy showed up, Brock did. So now we're on Purdy.
Watch, watch, watch, watch. And that number, I think, we'll start with a 5. Now, what I thought was a tremendous development was Rams receiver Puka Nakua going on Julian Edelman's podcast and becoming a capologist. Somehow that became a topic about how Purdy was going to get paid. And Puka flat out said, if it's over 4-9, if it's something in the 5-plus range, Niners championship window will be closing because they'll be hamstrung and lack cap flexibility to pay the other guys on the roster. Now, I don't know if that's accurate anyway. I just love the strength of that perspective. Once the last time you had an active player get that granular, get that down into the weeds of accounting, especially talking about a player on a divisional rival. So I'm not saying that in any way Puka is a soothsayer, that he knows precisely how things are going to play out. But I like the stance.
I like anybody that is going to help those of us in the content business find something to pounce on. The other quarterback news today connected to OTAs is a first ballot Hall of Famer in the Financial Hall of Fame. Kirk Cousins has showed up for voluntary workouts in Atlanta. Now, he could stay away.
It doesn't matter. He's got another $27.5 million fully guaranteed. Kirk Cousins is a magician when it comes to a checkbook. He's just been a guy on the field going all the way back to Michigan State where my departed father went to school. So I've been a Kirk Cousins tracker since day one.
We know the story when he wound up in our nation's capital. I'm not slighting him or bashing him at all. Had a solid career. But my goodness, if you have the chance to make career decisions for your offspring, get them to play quarterback and get them to the NFL using Kirk Cousins as the model, I feel like, and I do my best to be comprehensive without being too self-promotional. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich.
If you want to have the conversation on the X platform after the program, should be pretty clear. I have no life. Hit me up. I'll still say Twitter.
I don't work for Elon's. PW Weber, Weber with two Bs. We have hit on a ton of quarterbacks, including Joe Flacco. Somehow we did not get to Kirk Cousins.
So I have now fulfilled my quota. I think we've gone entirely around the NFL and Cousins is going to wind up someplace. I cannot see the Falcons eating that entire contract for this season after they made the commitment to him and then had reservations about it as quickly as draft night a year ago. Remember that bombshell as we go. Mean Jean Oakland.
Oh, what a bombshell. Falcons took Michael Pennick's junior with the eighth overall pick, then did everything in their power to spin it that none of this is just insurance. Remember the GM Terry Fontenot saying that it would be a good problem to have not to have Pennick's play for three or four years. And what did Cousins last?
Fourteen games. Now, some of that was coming back from the Achilles injury. A lot of that comes down to he's just Kirk Cousins. And now the dance between Cousins representation and the Falcons is this.
How can they get somebody to be willing to eat some of that guaranteed money? So they're going to hang on to him as long as they can, probably all the way into training camp. We see it, unfortunately, just about every year. A starter goes down with a significant injury. A team needs a quarterback, and then Cousins becomes that option. But for all of the what's going to happen Aaron Rodgers, Brock Purdy getting paid, what's going on with the New York football Giants with not only Jameis Winston, but also Russell Wilson. Do they think it's 2012 or the Jets picking up Justin Fields? For all of the quarterbacks we've hit on, I now feel like mission accomplished. We even got into the future of Kirk Cousins. Quick thought on Travis Hunter, and I got an NBA update I want to get to in advance of our conversation with Eric Pink is a bleacher report coming up in less than 12 minutes. I mentioned it towards the conclusion of the last hour, but clock management is not my skill.
Rich Kotyte was my mentor years ago for the Jets. The way things are aligned now, we don't have a ton of time heading into the top of the hour, and I was talking about how realistic a possibility would be that Travis Hunter could actually play both ways, the NFL. The answer is, it's not.
We all know that to be true. I think it comes down to making sure that Hunter feels appreciated and is given the opportunity to at least try to make his presence felt on both sides of the football. I understand that Cleveland GM Andrew Berry is saying that we view Hunter primarily as a wide receiver at this stage of the NFL calendar.
Talk is completely irrelevant. I think as we try to identify Hunter's football future wherever he goes, if it's Cleveland, which I think it will be with a second overall pick, the best way to frame the argument I think comes down to this. What is a harder position to fill if you want to be a contending team in the NFL? Playmaking wide receiver or shut down corner? The answer is self-evident. In fact, it's the golden age of wide receivers.
I don't know if it's the Spiderman gloves. I think it's because dudes train year-round and have the mindset of, I'm 14. If I'm not a quarterback, I want to get paid.
How else can I do that? Well, we know in the NFL, here's the arithmetic. Be a number one wideout or come off the edge as a monster pass rusher. Well, if your body doesn't have the makeup to do that, you can certainly be a guy who was a stud quarterback, but maybe he's maxed out. You flip over to wide receiver, you're going to get paid. So I don't think it's an accident that we have just an avalanche of talent now at the wide receiver position. And if you're Cleveland, as much as you want to keep Hunter happy, the conversation has to steer him in that direction that you're now going to bolster our secondary. You'll be able to sit in and have meetings with the wide receivers and we'll put you in for certain packages, but I don't think you can be a part-time cornerback.
You certainly can be a part-time wide receiver, as we've seen in the past. I keep going back to Deion and maybe that's just intellectual laziness because of the Colorado connection. With the NBA getting closer to what should be another very interesting night, and we've gone through just about everything of significance that happened last night, so I'm trying my best to keep it moving forward. I do have one nugget I need to attach to what should be the juicy game tonight here in Southern California after the Lakers got embarrassed on their home floor in game one by the T-Wolves. Remember, T-Wolves' second best record in all of hoops from March 1st as that team coalesced after making the trade with the Knicks, picking up Julius Randle and departing Karl-Anthony Towns, which is looking like a better and better decision.
The NBA is finding Minnesota superstar Anthony Edwards $50,000. Now I have to pause here. You can Google this on your phone. I could read the tweet verbatim. I don't want to because we have FCC guidelines, so let me try to parse this in a way that is appropriate for family radio. Edwards being fined $50,000 for making these comments to the Lakers crowd on Saturday night, quote my blank is bigger than yours.
Wait a minute, we can make this match game. Dumb Donna was so dumb. How dumb was he? Anthony Edwards, my blank is bigger than yours. That might be the greatest quote in NBA history and he's not wrong. Hey, you can say what you want about the Ant-Man.
I'm obsessed with just making sure I'm going to handle my material and I thought this was the case, but I confirmed it a couple of minutes ago. Who was the leading three-point shooter in the NBA this year? Anthony Edwards. So if you're a quote unquote casual and you just think the guy attacks the rim far from being one-dimensional, he wants to be the face of the league and I like that swagger. I'm never comparing anybody to Jordan because I'm bold and that's my generation, but there's a Jordan-esque swagger to what the Ant-Man can do and if he's smart, he will start making t-shirts that he should be sold outside Crypto.com Arena in downtown LA prior to Game 2 coming up. Ratings and TV should not be important to you unless you are an advertising executive and that's becoming a tougher and tougher job to hold down or you work for the networks, but we use it as a way to gauge interest and compare the sports, understanding that every time I deviate from the NFL, I'm hurting my chance at ratings because the NFL now crushes everything in its path, but it should be clear based on how I'm trying to divide our time together. I love the NBA as much as I love the NFL and just from a standpoint of aesthetics, I think basketball is a better sport than football.
I said it. Now let me just give you the nugget that will bolster some of my perspective, understanding it's all football all the time. We'll get back to the NFL draft analysis coming up in less than 30 minutes. The NBA, and I think some of this comes down to, and I'm not talking about politics, not because I'm scared, because I'm a filling host. There have been several versions of the Brian Weber show understandably canceled.
My name is not on the marquee. Job one as a guest host do no damage, but I do find it interesting when NBA ratings were down at the start of the year, some people with some agendas use that as a launching point for attacks on various NBA stars or their political affiliation. I don't think those pundits will provide this piece of data. Take that for data.
Now I'm going to tell you the context, but the raw number has significance. The NBA posted their best first round ratings in 25 years to open the postseason. Now I'm not going to use that for some fake argument to say, the NBA is back and it's 1998 all over again. The reason is because they have changed the schedule to get things wrapped up earlier in the month of June to provide a longer summer break. For the first time in a long time, Easter Sunday coincided with the start of the NBA playoffs. So people are at home.
We know this to be true. What's your primary goal on a holiday? Avoiding talking to your family, right? If you're held hostage in your own home, what are you looking to do? Just get out of there alive.
Just after eight hours and maybe too much booze, make sure that nobody is getting strangled or we wind up in a kerfuffle that Aunt Lucy's not talking to Uncle Jimmy until Thanksgiving when we can do it all over again. So I understand the catalyst for that spike in the ratings, but it does speak to me as somebody who loves basketball that the league has never had more parity in terms of superstars being spread out across the NFL. Now that got shifted with the worst trade in NBA history and poor Nico Harrison should just stop talking. And I know he's pushed out there because he's got to take a bullet for incompetent ownership. But to have more comments yesterday, the GM of the Mavericks, who was a bright guy who made a lot of money at Nike, but to go out there and say, I know that a lot of people are angry out there and let me explain one more time that this trade to say goodbye to Luca was primarily motivated by our team commitment to defense is just nonsensical. And also to say, I knew Luca was popular.
I didn't know he was this popular. Is there any moment of thought before you walk out in front of the microphone or just a lot of these guys feel like they can riff? But this is going to be a little bit of a contradiction. Just bear with me quickly. Even though you have the concentration of stars with Luca joining the Lakers, making you feel like what happens every 10 years, the Lakers somehow, some way get a superstar going all the way back to when they moved from the Twin Cities. And yet Elgin Baylor and Jerry West coming together beyond that. And I'm also going to balance this thought by saying I'm the guy who told you I only think three teams have a chance to win it all. And I don't really believe in Cleveland that much, but I can't completely discount having the best record in the East. I think Boston is better than they were last year, despite the overall record. And I'm all in with OKC. But if you love basketball, especially now with the playoffs underway, just think how superstars have been moved around the league or organically developed, like Anthony Edwards being drafted and developed by the Timberwolves. I can't think of another time in which the league has had more parity in terms of where superstars play and are based.
And I do think while everyone's numbers are down, other than two things, NFL games and the Rich Eisen show, and there's a correlation between the two, the NBA will continue to at least lose the audience in a slower pace than say baseball and other sports, because while we can quibble about the encore product and I'm not going to yell about the abundance of three point shots anymore, I can't remember a time in which there's been more star power balanced in terms of how it spread out around the league than it's been for decades when we've always had the spike in Boston, the spike in Los Angeles, and then you pick whatever the Spurs were able to do for their dynastic run. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich, last call for phone calls, 844-204-7424 or hit me up on the X platform, B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's, more NFL draft thoughts coming up in 25 minutes straight ahead, I mention Boston, a team somehow overlooked if that could be the case as the reigning champs, just put the record aside, if you're watching Boston play or know they're the greatest three point shooting team in the history of the NBA based on their output this year, how much better are the Celtics this year than they were a year ago when they won it all, we'll pose that question to Eric Pinkus of Bleacher Report, a lot more to get to, I appreciate the company on this busy Tuesday, I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich, here on the Rich Eisen Show.
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I'm doing great, thanks for having me. My distinct pleasure and you are more balanced than I am when it comes to analysis, I think some of that's a byproduct of our jobs, I'm paid to be a bloviator, have strong opinions about everything and you have a degree of objectivity, so that's a long setup to say as we're handing out accountability for how things played out last night at Madison Square Garden, how much credit do you want to give the Pistons for coming up with their first playoff win since 2008 and how much you want to bury the Knicks? I saw the Pistons play, I saw them one time in person, maybe twice with the Clippers and the Lakers in LA and I came away really impressed with who they were and I think it was early in the season and people, Laker fans were like, doing what you just said, like, oh the Lakers are terrible, the Pistons are terrible, they just beat the Lakers, I'm like, well actually I'm looking at this team and this team is really, really talented, really good and to be honest, they almost won game one, dominated that whole game until they completely fell apart, which can be expected given how young they are, so yes you can blame the Knicks all you want, they made mistakes, I mean they're human beings and teams are going to make mistakes, in the playoffs they're magnified and when you have a tough opponent like the Pistons, young, yes, inexperienced, yes, but talented and dangerous, I don't really hate on the Knicks here, they lost home court, but that's fine, you got to go get one in Detroit, that's very doable, I think this series will be tied 2-2 when all is said and done, after that we could talk, 4-4, or 2-2 after 4. Thank you for being even, Keel, I appreciate the objectivity, now let me get the verbal hammer out again and maybe this is because I grew up as a Knicks fan decades ago, Eric how legitimate is this team in terms of really having a postseason impact, knowing they went winless against the Celtics, the Cavaliers and the Pacers this year?
I like the Knicks, I don't know that they're top tier, certainly the Pacers are a beatable team for the Knicks, they would have to execute, it would be a tough series, it would be a fun series, the Pacers can score a ton of points, they do struggle to play defense, but they manage to get it done, but the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers to me feel like a tier above everyone else in the East, I just don't think anyone else is at that level, in my mind I can't wait to see the two of them play in the Eastern Conference Finals and you can argue that whoever wins that is the favorite to go all the way, I think the Knicks are right there, but not there, I just think they're a tier below, considering how bad the Knicks were for so long, there's a lot to like, there's a lot of growth, and if you're just going championship or bust, then it might be bust this year, but I'm not going to say they can't do it, I'm just saying I think they're just a notch below those top two teams. And certainly fair to point out the Knicks have posted back to back 50 win seasons, it's been a minute since that's happened in the Big Apple, I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich Eisen, talking hoops with Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, Eric you're based in Southern California and you have covered the Clippers more closely than anybody I know, so my quick knee-jerk reaction like most pundits is going to be, if Kawhi can stay healthy, and that's a huge if, man the Clippers actually have a chance, and we saw it again last night, just the brilliance with the 39 points, let's just assume, this is a major assumption, Kawhi can keep it going because he's done all the right things this year with load management and was finally healthy coming into the postseason, what else do you like about the Clipper roster and how it's constructed? Well the Clippers are a really good team, what you want is you want your team to be playing the best basketball at the right time and that's what exactly happened, the last stretch they were dominant, they finished the regular season with 8 straight wins, they're just well built, I don't know that this is a sustainable thing with Kawhi and the injuries, but let's just forget about that for a minute and just say he's healthy. You have 2 brains that can finish a game and can just run an offense, now Kawhi is not a creator for others, he's a creator for himself, he's a mid-range scorer and obviously can hit the 3 ball, and when he gets going like that, he's just so hard to stop, and then James Harden who gets maligned for a lot of his shortcomings in the postseason, this is the best situation he may ever have been in other than that one year that they went against the Warriors with Chris Paul, he is playing incredible basketball for a guy his age, forget about it, he's arguably all-MBA this year, what most impressed me about James Harden was how unselfish he was this year, his reputation, people might say oh he's a selfish player, but Kawhi was out for a large portion of the year and he kept that team afloat, he helped as I said he was the brain on the floor, he drove that offense, they also have size in Zubats, they have defense across the board, extra scorers who aren't necessarily consistent yet, Norm Powell, Boyan Bogdanovich, but if they can get going a little bit more consistently on offense, shoot a little bit better percentage, then this team becomes exceptionally dangerous. We are taking you across the NBA with Eric Piggis, check out his outstanding work for Bleach Report and other outlets, let's shift to LA's other team in advance of the most highly anticipated game tonight in downtown LA, go back to game one, Minnesota dictated the terms against the Lakers, ripping home court advantage away from LA, as you know Eric postgame JJ Reddick said he thought his team wasn't ready for Minnesota's physicality, how much of that is a reflection on JJ as a coach and what's your outlook for game two tonight? Well, I mean this is JJ's first playoff game as a coach, so just like any rookie in a situation, it's going to come with its own set of challenges, are you ready and I do think that JJ's coaching will be tested in the series, I like the Lakers matchup in a lot of ways, but that's predicated on Rudy Gobert on the floor a lot of the time and the counter is just don't play Rudy a lot, if Nas Reed is shooting like that, he's the toughest matchup for the Lakers, I think they can approach Anthony Edwards in different ways, one is go him into hero ball to try to score all the points and try to stay home on everyone else, the other is basically go after Anthony Edwards and make him absolutely uncomfortable, which seemed to be a little bit of the approach, but then that only works if Nas Reed and Jayden McDaniels and all those other guys, or Jayden McDaniels, which one of the McDaniels brothers, isn't shooting – It's not Xavier, I wish it was the X-Men, I miss him. If they're shooting absolutely bonkers, then yeah, that's a problem and the thing is that the Wolves are a good shooting team, but I think they also have some flaws as well, so I thought the week off for someone like LeBron James, he's kind of, I don't know if you've ever driven a diesel vehicle, but when you put the pedal down, it doesn't start moving and it's really slow, but once you get up to 40, 50, 60, you put a little pressure on and now you're going 100, so LeBron takes a little bit longer to get going, and then once he's going, he is what he is, one of the greatest, if not the greatest of all time, and so I do think the week off impacted him out of everybody on the court probably the most, and that's not an excuse, and if that's why they lose, then they lose, that's not okay, LeBron needs to absolutely take over that game, dominate that game, I think Lucas got a huge advantage and will do incredible things, but if he doesn't get the kind of support from LeBron, who is, you know, LeBron, and Allison Reeves, I think they're gonna have a short series, but I do think the Lakers split the series tonight, I do have the Lakers winning the series, but it's a tougher matchup than I think a lot of people, including myself, might have thought.
I grew up in part in the 70s, so I get the diesel reference. I'm Brian Weber trying to act young on the radio, taking you across the NBA and the postseason with Eric Pink as a Bleacher Report. Eric, I posed the question prior to the start of the conversation, let's just put record aside because Boston is the reigning champ, that's the most meaningful metric connected to that organization, how much better do you think the Celtics are this year than last year at the start of the postseason, remembering that Porzingis was banged up last year, and they can't miss from three-point range, plus they're taking a ton of them. I mean, that's how they're built, they defend, they shoot the three, if they're hitting the three, they're really, really tough to stop, but you know that Porzingis is, the matchup against Cleveland, you know, that's really interesting to me because you do have the size over there with Jared Allen, Evan Mobley, there are guards that can really attack in Cleveland, so when you look at that matchup, you know, I don't want to get too far ahead because Boston still has to get to that conference finals, Cleveland still has to get to that conference finals, but I think Boston is where they want to be, they're relatively healthy, I know Jaylen Brown's dealing with a little bit of stuff, but who isn't at this time of year? So, other than being in LA and not liking anything green, what is not to like about the Celtics as far as actually looking at their basketball, I mean they're just a very, very tough team, they are to me one of the two or three favorites to win the title, Cleveland being the other, and then I guess obviously whoever comes out of the West has a shot, but I look at Boston and Peyton Pritchard, Derek White, obviously Drew Holliday and what he does on defense, and we're not even talking about Peyton Brown, who are elite wing scorers, it's just a very, very good basketball team, and they're trying to go back to back, and you know, let's see what happens, I'm curious to see if they can get that done. Your time is valuable, I want to be respectful of it, a final thought on the Bucs and Pacers, dynamic of that series could change with Damon Lillard, finally available, coming back from the blood clot issue for Game 2 tonight, for the sake of this conversation, Eric, let's say the Bucs lose to Indy for the second straight year, early exit again, if that were to be the case, would it be too early to start having a conversation about Giannis' future in Milwaukee?
I mean, I wrote an article before the season on Giannis' future in Milwaukee, so that was probably too early, I don't think it's too early, because there's a point where a player's not going into their last year, it's the year before the last year, where you start to talk extension again, the player has to decide, is this for me, and it may or may not be, Giannis is going to get the max wherever he wants to play, it's just really a question of what does he want as a person, does he want to stay and be the Tim Duncan to Milwaukee and just be there his whole career, get however many championships, one may be it, and if one is it, then he may have to go into that open-minded and say, that's fine, I'll take my chances, or does he try to relocate, does he try to push himself to a team like the Houston Rockets, or I can make a decent list of teams that have the pieces, hell, I mean, Wemenyama, assuming that he's healthy, pushes way to the Spurs, or hell, I mean, even the Lakers, I mean, you could come up with some crazy combinations, right, like we could come up with a ton of ideas, it's really going to be up to Giannis, and it's to an extent up to the Bucks, but only a small extent, because stars really dictate where they want to play, and they do so more and more as it gets closer and closer to the end of the contract, as they get closer and closer to free agency, so keep an eye on it, it's really up to Giannis and what he wants to do, and the Bucks, at this point, have seemed like they're going to do whatever they can, obviously, to keep their star happy, and Dame is, they got Dame, they got Kuzma, he obviously had a terrible first game, let's see what comes of that, and they have a little bit more flexibility, but not a ton, they have to make a decision on Brook Lopez, who's 37, I think, somewhere around there, almost 40, what is the future of this team, and if Giannis doesn't see that vision, if he gets bounced in the first round, like you suggested he might, yeah, I mean, we're all going to be speculating on that, like I said, I was speculating on this in September, or something like that. You called your shot, that's why we have you on the program, it's Big Word Tuesday, you're pressured. Eric, as always, I value the information, thanks so much for taking the time to join us again today on the Rich Eisen Show.
Alright, any time, thank you. My pal, Eric Pincus, check out his great work, Bleacher Report, and he is a kind man, he talked about Kyle Kuzma having a terrible game. That was kind, because if you don't know what Kuzma was responsible for in Game 1 against Indy, the flu, the flu game, it was his flu game, the full Blutarski, zero, zero, zero, no points, no rebounds, no assists, and he played 22 minutes, no blocks, over, that's tough to do. You and I had the same impact on that game, that was our flu game as we go Jordan once more.
We're going to wrap it up with Gusto, getting back to the NFL draft, will it really start when the Giants are on the clock with the third overall pick, unless they're going to trade down, we'll find that out coming up in 48 hours. The Sean Ryan Show peak points get timeless inspiration from the very best of the Sean Ryan Show. What do you think of working with the Seals? We went out every night going after bad guys. I was humbled. There was no going back home. I would be in another room crying because I was afraid to go to sleep because of what was coming for me in the middle of the night.
How long did it take you to be able to talk about a long time? But I realized my experiences may help other people too. The men by yourself are considered legends in the community.
You're right. The Sean Ryan Show peak points. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Ryan Weber back with you, always a blast to keep the chair warm for Rich and the team. We are winding down. That means the crew is warming up back with you tomorrow and a reminder, Rich will be locking things down in primetime on NFL Network starting on Thursday night. Of course, he calls every pick all the way through Mr.
Irrelevant, as he's done for years as the face of NFL Network. Want to thank our guest, just two today. The goal was to be fascinating. I didn't want to bludgeon you with outside voices.
Plus I only parachute in every month or so, so want to maximize the opportunities. Tremendous NBA analysis from Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report and in the previous hour of the program, really enjoyed our conversation talking NFL draft with Nick Baumgartner of the athletic. Three more NBA games coming up tonight. We hit on the salient points of Bucks and Pacers with the return of Damian Lillard from the blood clot issue. Super-sized, not only because I'm going to hit a drive-through on the way out the door here in 12 minutes, but because of all the implications of the Team Wolves and Lakers game two tonight here in Southern California. And you might have heard there's a team in Oklahoma City that won by 51 points in game one to look for more demolition and annihilation of Memphis tonight. In our remaining moments back to the NFL, as much as I want to give you, hard-hitting, unique analysis you can't get anyplace else.
I could make it up, but I respect Rich too much and want to have some brand equity of my own. And if you want to continue the dialogue after the program's done, you can hit me up on the X platform, BW Weber, Weber with two B's. I will steal from Nick Boggartner because he was so good and go with the consensus of everything I've read, everything I've heard. I don't pick up the phone, I don't make calls around the league, but I do check out what's available in terms of people I know and the resources and relationships I've developed over the years.
I'm older than my enthusiastic delivery would suggest. It'd be shocking if Cam Ward doesn't go to Tennessee at number one. Done deal, and Nick gave us a real good sense in the last hour of the program, his remarkable journey to being the number one overall pick in the draft, and Rich will give you even more specifics when you tune in on Thursday night on NFL Network. A reminder, only have one scholarship offer coming out of high school because he played the wing T offense to incarnate word in Texas, and he parlayed that to Washington State, Miami, and now the top spot in the draft. At number two, I do think it's the Browns going with the quote unquote best player available, the best talent in the draft.
He's at the top of all the big boards in Travis Hunter, who gives them a lockdown corner and more depth at the receiver position. And then we get to Big Blue, and I don't want to make it more autobiographical than it should be. I'm just the guest host. But growing up in the suburbs of New York City in the late 70s, early 80s, I'm old enough to remember when giant fans were burning tickets in the parking lot at the old giant stadium in the Meadowlands. That's how irrelevant the franchise was. These are people that used to drive to the Yale Bowl after the Giants moved from Yankee Stadium to the swamps of New Jersey. They were that passionate, and the franchise was that bad. I can't think of a time that feels like rock bottom for the Giants more than what we've just gone through. And I say we as a collective.
I don't root for anybody or any team, but enduring the Giants because they're on TV a lot because of the New York marketplace is painful for all of us as sports fans and football fans. So can they figure it out? They got options at number three. To me, either you trade down, load up on draft capital, or you just follow the board and go with Abdul Carter.
It doesn't have to be that hard, especially for two guys. And I say this with empathy, working in a profession in which you get hired, which is even more challenging now, to be fired. We know that GM Joe Shane and head coach Brian Dabel, not too long ago Brian Dabel was coach of the year honoree in the NFL. Remember when he was the quarterback whisperer after his success with Josh Allen in Buffalo coaching up Daniel Dimes. Remember that whole dream?
Well it was a dream because it didn't last in New York. Shane and Dabel both know they got to win substantially more this year. Now, the good news for them is they have such a low baseline, such a low threshold to make a substantial improvement from just a handful of wins last year. Don't overthink it. Go with what's in front of you. You got a generational talent coming off the edge.
Let's have so many needs. Address the problem that is amongst the most paramount and don't make it too tricky, although that's why we love the draft. It is amazing to me. You go back if you know sports media history when ESPN was desperate for programming in their nascent years. They go to the league in the early 80s, late commissioner Pete Rozell says, why would you want to put this on TV?
I'm reading names. Here's the drama. And because the NFL monetizes everything, they've turned it into something that dominates the conversation for the better part of three months. As always, many people to thank, starting with the face of NFL Network, Rich Eisen. Appreciate his confidence in me, Bruce Gilbert, all the good folks at Westwood One, David Muranac and our friends at the Affinity Sports Network, my pal and our technical producer Art Martinez. My name is Brian Weber. I'll talk to you on Memorial Day here on the Rich Eisen Show. Bravo TV star Lala Kent holds nothing back.
There's been so many times where I'm like, I apologize that I said that, but that wasn't meant for you to hear. I feel you there. How fun would it be to bring in some Bravo celebrities and make our own bracket icon? All right, I'll take Dorinda. You take Sonia. Sonia is who I wish I could be. You and me both.
I cannot be someone in the program. She's PTO, paid time off, see, she never had a real job. Give them Lala. It is nothing but honesty. You guys know. Just follow and listen on your favorite platform.
