Dave McMenamin: Lebron Is Gonna Come Back for the Lakers

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Prices vary based on how you buy. This is the Rich Eisen Show. I love this. Rich Eisen is here. The mojo's back.

Yeah baby. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show, host of Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio. Coming up, ESPN NBA reporter, Dave McMenamin.

Author and comedian, Carol Liefer. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air.

844204rich is the number to dial here on the program. Our number two, lots to talk about in the NFL world. We've got an overreaction Monday on a Monday coming up here. Our podcast was done last week.

It's still, I think, quite germane. Not much has really changed in the NFL in the last week. So everybody should check out that podcast that Chris Brockman and I do, wherever you get your podcasts. But kicking off our number two to talk about the NBA playoffs and also to help me teach Kendrick Perkins how to say his last name is Dave McMenamin, NBA reporter from ESPN.

Dave McMenamin. You got it right. I did get some mileage out of that though.

Sometimes it works that way. Kendrick Perkins. How many bites at that apple did he take the other day? It was like three or four. It was Moses Moody-an by the end of it.

Moody-an. You changed it into an adjective, huh? Very good. Basically the complete opposite. I remember during the Super Bowl it was so boring and LeBron was like, hey Dave, can you like post some news or something?

Basically the opposite of that. Fantastic. The Rams, Patriots, Super Bowl, right? It's all fantastic. Good to see you.

Great to see you. Just like everything else, the NBA playoffs is terrific and it's certainly better, the first round I think better than last year for sure, more competitive. The second round matchups are beyond compelling.

But the Lakers are the Lakers, so let's start with them. And now that the season's over and Luca has a broken bread, although I hope fish, at Craig's that we saw. It's a great fish dish at Craig's. I've had it.

The whitefish is outstanding. That's hopefully for Luca that he had with J.J. Redick and the general manager Rob Palenka. The Lakers are not in the second round because? They played a better team.

They were the three seed of course, playing the six seed, so it sounds like they were upset. They were a 50 win team playing a 49 win team. That 49 win team happened to go 17-4 down the stretch of the regular season, so they were coming in as maybe the hottest team in the league. And they had the experience of being in the Western Conference Finals a year ago. The Lakers starting lineup in game one of that series, and I'm not a big stat heavy guy, but sometimes I find it very illustrative of what we're talking about.

100 minutes together at that starting lineup. The Wolves starting lineup through the first, that they played game one in, 714. So they just had extreme experience compared to what the Lakers had. We're talking about a Lakers team that tried to change on the fly after acquiring Luca Doncic. They had moments where they looked like one of the best teams in the league. They had moments where they went to Brooklyn and lost, where they lost twice to the Chicago Bulls in a six day span when they were trying to fight for seeding. It's a team that didn't know one another yet, and clearly it's a team that was lacking sufficient big men in order to compete with a team with the size of Minnesota. Is it fair to say, and this is definitely checking on my work because this is what I said after the Lakers got eliminated, that everything that everybody said about the trade for Anthony Davis in Dallas, which is like, why are you giving up your superstar for a guy that gets hurt?

And in Los Angeles, even like, hey, no brainer to get Luca, but he's got to hit the gym. Is it fair to say that those reactions or who's going to rim protect on top of it? At the end of the day, those were right to say.

Those are fair. I think when the trade was made, it was all about making the trade for the future. But then because the Lakers had signs of looking really great, looking like a world beater immediately, it was, oh, maybe it was for the present and the future.

I think the reality is it was more so for the future. By trading that deal mid-season, you trade away two rotation pieces in Anthony Davis and Max Christie, you got back one. So all of a sudden you hurt your depth. And obviously we've talked ad nauseam about Mark Williams, that deal falling through. They tried to address the size.

They couldn't. So they went into the postseason with a roster that really had no business talking about winning a championship because of the major hole that they had at center. Well, they tried to address it with Mark Williams, who tweeted out and posted quite a bit of shade from his position in the aftermath of the Lakers losing. And then you asked a fantastic question and you got the soundbite of the press conference from LeBron James when you asked him about playing centerless basketball. And I'd love for you to interpret his response. Right when AD got injured, you guys started playing a lot of centerless basketball and that required a lot from you and Doe and Rui and then VanDoe once he got back.

From a physical taxing standpoint, how tough was that for the last three and a half months to play that style and do you feel like that caught up at all in this series? No comment. I never say that because my guy AD said what he needed and then he was gone the following week. So I got no comment.

I put that uniform on every night. I gave everything I had and that's all that matters. All right. You're more fluent in LeBron than perhaps I am or anyone else. You want to interpret that response?

Well, there's layers to it for sure. I mean, my guy AD, does that mean Luca's not your guy or is he implying that if he speaks the truth, he will be gone from the Lakers or is he saying we should never have nuked the Mark Williams trade? Bring me the doctor who said that or what?

What is he saying? I'll start with the AD piece because there have been folks that are reluctant to believe the version of events that have been presented by both teams and reporters like myself who have, you know, our job is to figure out what happened here on February 2nd with that trade. LeBron James didn't know about the deal. He didn't. He found out about it on that Friday night after the Knicks game. JJ Redick found about it before the game, I'm told, but still he didn't know about it until the finish line, basically. So I think that's him kind of addressing that that's out in the ethos that like, no, he's my guy. There was no like conspiracy led by me to try to orchestrate this deal to get Luca done.

See, that's why you're fluent in LeBron. I didn't even see that he's still grinding on that potential storyline. It just keeps popping up. And so and he sees the stuff that pops up. All right.

We'll start there. All right. The secondary piece being, listen, I have asked for help with this roster over the years, and it's been the same person in control, Rob Palenka, who's the president of basketball operations and general manager. And we saw what happened the last time one of someone in my position spoke up about it.

It was genuinely clever and funny because the timing happened to go that way. But when he was at All-Star a couple of years ago in Cleveland and spoke about his admiration for the job that Sam Presti does and spoke about how he hopes more teams act like less need and trade away all the picks when you have a contender. That's the message, you know, whether it's the most tactical way about going about it by kind of shaming in some sense the front office into making more moves. It's something he feels the urgency every day because he recognizes that there's a very limited resource of him still playing in the NBA.

Yes. He wants to have every single chance possible to try to win another one and win another championship. And that has to be an urgency shared by every single person in the organization. Well, I mean, getting Luke is not a bad I mean, you can't say no to that. I mean, it's the correct move. Niko Harrison's calling you up and saying, we're going to move Luca. We're thinking about it only to you. Like there's no like this is the greatest pocket listing in the history of the NBA. And you're going to have to say, who do you want?

And the answer comes back. Basically, Anthony Davis. The answer is yes. And then you go and get Mark Williams as a rim protector. I don't know what happened in that in that physical. Yes.

That seems like a winning combination right there, doesn't it? Well, of course. I'll start on the Williams part. I reported that a source familiar with what the Lakers saw said that they just couldn't live with what they saw. So whatever it was. And this is a tough area as a reporter, because, again, you're talking about someone's body, which is their livelihood for the duration of their time in the league.

And so, you know, I don't have access to any of the records and stuff like that. Even the conjecture sharing that makes me a little uncomfortable because obviously, this young man, he averaged almost 15 points per game after the trade that was rescinded. He was double doubling almost every night. 60 percent from the field.

Yeah. He's 7 foot 2, 7'4 reach. I mean, he's a guy who clearly can play NBA basketball.

So I wish him well. But for whatever reason, the Lakers decided they couldn't do it. But the bigger point here is that LeBron is a Luka fan. Trust me, I've talked to him on the record.

I talked to him off the record. He made sure that as soon as he arrived that he wanted him to feel empowered, put the ball in his hands. He let Luka be introduced last in his first game here in L.A. I totally get it.

Yeah, that's no small... Sure. But his bigger point is let's just not be happy about getting Luka. And now the timeline becomes, well, let's build something up for Luka in the next three, four years.

It's, hey, me and Luka, we can win together, first of all. And also, like, the Lakers should feel some urgency with Luka because they have until August 2nd to convince him to want to sign a long-term extension with them. He wouldn't want to? If I'm Luka Doncic and I love playing basketball where you feel the fire of the moment, you know, and you are the team wherever you go, that there's extra juice in the building, of course I want to sign with the Lakers. But if I'm someone who understands leverage, I wouldn't mind floating that I might not re-sign with the Lakers between now and August 2nd to give some further motivation to the Lakers to get this team better for next year. But he can't sign a supermax, and that's not the Lakers' fault, you know what I mean?

No, I understand that. But as of August 2nd, they can offer him a four-year extension worth $229 million. Or he could sign a three-year extension worth about $165 million, which would then get him into free agency in 2028 with 10 years experience. And at that point, he could sign a supermax.

Okay. Either way, he's either got to be made to feel at home or not. So just to put a button on it here, what happens? Like, read some tea leaves for me, like LeBron wants to stay and Luka stays, and what options do they have to try and get that rim protector that they absolutely need? And maybe some confidence instilled in J.J. Redick in the rest of the roster, because the guy who they drafted this year, because LeBron watched a lot of SEC basketball, and looked pretty darn good, wound up being sent to Charlotte, wound up coming back, and Dalton Connect didn't play a lick in these playoffs when they could have had Mark Williams. That's right.

So, and that's just one of the many DNP CDs that's left a bunch of heads being scratched here in Los Angeles. So what happens next, J.J.? Right. Connect had already fallen out of the rotation late in the regular season, we should note that. I mean, he had that great game in Denver when they sat everybody, and him and Austin Reeves almost beat them single-handedly. But the coach is saying, we're not playing rim protectors because we need scoring, and scoring is what Connect could possibly do, you know what I mean? Right, but we need scoring, but we also need the high-level intelligence to be able to play our switching defense, and one mistake has a domino effect. So the guy who hasn't played since January is the guy that you choose in crunch time. Again, I'm not saying you speak for J.J. Redick or anything like that, and I'm a fan of his, actually. I was talking about him, you know, at some point for Coach of the Year and got laughed at in this room.

I brought him third. You know, I mean, and he did, I think, a very, you know, very good job this year in his first foray as a head coach in the league, but the playoffs hit and we all saw what just happened. So I'll be quiet and let you have the floor on what happens next. Yeah, so I mean, they need to address the center position. They will be able to trade two first-round picks because they got the one back from the deal that was rescinded. They have expiring contracts. Someone like, you know, Gabe Vincent making around $11 million. That's a good number that can get you something that's out there. And they, you know, will have the mid-level exception available to them, and that's, you know, in the $13 million range that they could sign a free agent.

So they're going to be able to get someone. The market's pretty thin, you know, maybe you could tuck yourself into someone like Clint Capella, who obviously had great years with those Houston teams that challenged the Warriors every postseason. He's kind of been in Atlanta not playing as significant basketball because those Hawks teams haven't been very good, but he's someone who can be, you need a lob threat and a vertical spacer, and obviously someone who knows what it takes to win, to be in a winning program where every game matters.

He checks a lot of boxes. He's getting up there in age, though. Robert Williams II from Portland's the guy that kicked the tires on. Time Lord, huh? Yeah, Time Lord leading up to the trade deadline. That's someone you could look at. You know, Brook Lopez in Milwaukee is going to be a free agent.

What's his number? What does he have left? But certainly he helped win a championship with that Bucks team in 2021. So there's going to be some stuff out there.

They could go the route of let's upgrade it to this. You know, we go from basically a zero to a five just by getting someone in, and then we're going to spend every waking moment from the offseason until the trade deadline, canvassing the league and find the next guy that's unhappy or wants to be moved. But LeBron stays?

Oh yeah, I certainly expect LeBron to stay. He basically, in his end of season presser, made it seem like, okay, I might not stay and I have something to think about. I spoke to him afterwards. It wasn't about whether he would stay or go. It was more like whether he'd come back.

And I just think, give the guy the grace of the moment. Like 22 years in, obviously he was very disappointed by the way things, how they went. We found out afterwards he had a sprain MCL in his left knee that he played through.

Like he was just kind of spent. So it was more referring to, will I come back or not? He's going to come back, of course. And he's going to come back for the Lakers. And Lucas is going to sign here? I fully anticipate him signing with the Lakers.

I'm not sure what it will look like though. What the number, how many years, et cetera, et cetera. Dave McManaman here on the Rich Eisen Show. All right, now let's talk about the playoffs. The Pacers took a chunk out of the Cavs last night. And the Knicks start their series with the Celtics, the defending world champs. The storyline in the East in your estimation is what?

I still think it's the Celtics. And when they play at their best, I think that there's no one that can really touch them. They just haven't shown it all that often this year. And certainly Drew Holliday being off the injury report for the second round, that's huge for them because that's someone you can throw at Jalen Brunson. He has the physicality and he has the angles and he knows what it's like to bring every possession. That's monumental because Jalen Brunson, without Drew Holliday there to stop him, you could be talking about a monster series for him. And still could have a monster series because he's that good. But the Celtics are the team to watch because if they play up to their potential, they will be back-to-back NBA champions.

But it doesn't mean that the other series isn't super compelling. I want to see what happens with Darius Garland. He's day-to-day going into the second round, but then his team falls flat on its face in Game 1. All of a sudden does that give him the impetus, I need to be in there for Game 2. And even if he's dealing with a sprained, I believe, big toe, even if he's not 100%, he's the gravitational type of player.

He can catch and shoot from 30 feet. And so that should, just his mere presence, open driving lanes up for someone like Donovan Mitchell. All things being equal, everybody being healthy, Knicks didn't have a healthy team last year going to make it through the playoffs. Do you think, as they're currently constituted, and the same thing with the Timberwolves, that that trade, nobody's talking about that trade much anymore because we were just so focused on what the hell happened between the Mavs and the Lakers, right? That trade, would you say both teams are better equipped to make their runs right now?

Which team is better equipped to make their run over the other? What's your two cents on that subject matter? Yeah, I do think Karl-Anthony Towns is the most talented player of the three that was involved in that deal. We're talking about DiVincenzo and Julius Randle going to Minnesota and Towns going to New York. Just Towns is, until he gets it done at the NBA level, basically breaks through with the championship being a former number one pick, all the expectations of the world coming out of Kentucky, he's going to be criticized. You know, that's just what it is when you're that big and that talented.

And, you know, you are not your archetypal, all I care about is basketball and I'm a fierce warrior type of personality. And so that said, though, I mean, he has all the skills and all the size to deal with, whether it be Kristaps Porzingis, whether it be Al Horford, whatever they're going to go with, Sam Houser even in minutes with that team, he has it. And when he is aggressive, he can open up so many things for that next team. It's just whether he can stay in that aggressive mode. I covered the Wolves last year during the playoffs after the Lakers bowed out to Denver in the first round and he was very up and down and he had his moments and he had, you know, big time going to Denver game seven on the road and going toe to toe with Nikolai Jokic to unseat the defending champions. And then he kind of was a no-show at times in the Western Conference Finals against Dallas.

And in terms of this matchup, six versus seven, how about that, right? The Timberwolves are home court advantage against the Warriors. That deadline trade, right, to get Jimmy Butler turned out to be quite something.

I mean, the Heat get waxed. They would have been better off not making the playoffs, pretty much. And when you look at what they lost, on top of it, too, I mean, the Warriors appear to be in a much better shape.

How do you see this one shaping out? Yeah, I mean, it was such an example of a bird in the hands better than two in the bush because the Golden State front office was trying to position themselves in case Giannis Antetokounmpo wants out of Milwaukee that they would have the proper assets to make a legitimate offer. And he could then have his second home and final home in the NBA be with the Warriors and then they have their succession plan for Steph Curry. But they had no assurances it was going to go that way. And then the Jimmy Butler situation pops up and they're like, yeah, I mean, Jimmy's not as good as Giannis in many ways, but what he is is a fierce competitor who's even better in the playoffs, who has something to prove.

And we think that that personality will work with the group that we have. And clearly, it was a tremendous move by Mike Dunleavy Jr. And they've, you know, Ohm Young was hooked for ESPN wrote a wonderful story. Basically, they have dubbed this the last ride. Damon and Steph Curry, after the trade was realized, had a conversation. And Steph, Ohm reports, literally had tears in his eyes being like, wow, I didn't know if it was ever going to happen.

I didn't know if we were just going to play a string out of games or the end of my career of meaningless basketball. Now that we got Jimmy, we're competing for a championship until the end of my days here. And they're obviously embracing the moment here. And the culture there is special and it's built on winning.

It's easy to believe in what you're trying to sell as a coach or a front office if there's already winning results behind it. But they had a team meeting after game six when they got rocked by Houston for the second straight game. And already it seems like Jimmy, Draymond and Steph are all comfortable together sharing the vocal part of the leadership here. Draymond said, I need to lift up my teammates more. Draymond said, I need to stop with all the shenanigans and lock in more. And you know, Steph just has to be Steph.

And it was beautiful. I mean, and how about Jimmy Butler telling the team, I'm going to give confidence to my teammates. And the guy who's kind of been his kind of whipping boy since he got there is Buddy Heald. And in a way that's him saying like, I believe in you, Buddy. I'm going to keep riding you and giving you crap because I think you'd be a lot better.

Buddy Heald has a game of his life, 22 points in the first half, sets a league record for three pointers in the game seven tying with nine. Unbelievable, man. Can you give me 10 more minutes? Oh, yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's take a break. And Dave McMenamin, because you mentioned Giannis and I want to ask you about him. There's one more series we haven't hit yet, Oklahoma City versus the Denver Nuggets.

And then, of course, I need information on Chris Brockman back in the day from Dave McMenamin, fellow Syracuse orange right here on The Rich Eyes and show from ESPN. Don't go anywhere. Back with that in a second. OK, this is not a drill. Get ready because Mission Impossible, the final reckoning hits theaters May 23rd.

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Navy Federal is insured by NCUA. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show, what are we just identifying in TJ's corner? Dave goes, is that a real mellow jersey? Yeah, when I was producing punk years and years ago, we punked him and I actually got a, someone gave me his authentic nugget shoes. Oh, okay. So that shimmer material, I miss that with the NBA jerseys.

Yeah, that's a little off camera. The six are bringing back the ones they wore in the 2001 run with Iverson to the finals, the black ones, and I don't know whether Nike's going to bring that shimmer material back, but we need that. Speaking of jerseys, you know how I knew the Rockets were going to get smoked last night when they came out in those awful alt jerseys? You knew the game was over. What are we doing?

I don't know. Cooper, my 14-year-old, constantly is showing me, you know, the City Connect jerseys in baseball. They're terrible.

I'm in the alternate jerseys and he makes fun of me because I hate them all. They're all awful. I can't stand the Philly ones. They're so bad.

Oh, interesting. I don't love the blue and the gray ones. The Braves ones look like they're old ones. I think the Pirates have one that looks like they're old ones. They're actual throwbacks where the Red Sox ones look like UCLA jerseys. I hate them.

They actually, they look like Carmelo's jersey. Yeah. I mean, I get it's for the marathon, but it's terrible. I mean. That's awesome. Okay, yeah, that is.

That is a giant jersey. That's pretty sweet. I guess we're not going to show that. No, that's all right.

844-204, Rich is the number to dial. Is it also true that you are here because your lovely wife and better half was on Women's Sports Now last week? That is right, yeah. Malika was the guest in studio and she's like, it's so great there and you're like, I've got to go back. Is that a true story? It's not too far off, yeah.

It was kind of, the wheels were in motion. Spent some time with Sarah as well. Okay, that's right. Okay. Very good. Did she force you to do it, Dave?

No. Oh, I'm happy to do it. He is happy to. As a matter of fact, I thought you'd be zooming in. I thought you'd already be somewhere and then I got a text last night that you're coming in studio.

I'm like, that's a great podcast. I'm going to be covering the Wolves Warriors series for ESPN. And you're out tonight? Yeah, I'm flying out this late afternoon.

Okay, there you go. There's the trials and tribulations of Dave McMenamin. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk, furnished by Grainger.

With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger has the right product for you. Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Dave McMenamin's still here before he hops a flight to Minnesota for that first round game that's coming up Tuesday. Is that a Tuesday night? Tomorrow, yeah. Tuesday. Here we go, man. Off we go. And we've got two games tonight.

Very good. Oklahoma City and Denver. And Oklahoma City's just been chilling, like the proverbial villain, right? And the Nuggets and the Clippers go seven games. I mean, what is Michael Malone thinking right now? Fired in part, allegedly, reportedly, that he played Russell Westbrook too much and the guy who helped the Nuggets the next round is, in fact, Russell Westbrook. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm sure he's going through a lot right now, as is Calvin Booth, recognizing that, you know, what more could we have done, put this team in position to win, had earned a playoff spot.

Yeah. I think there should be a rule in place, quite honestly, if you've clinched a playoff spot. You can't fire your coach.

I have clinched the job to actually coach them in the playoffs. It seems like a simple rule to have in place. It makes sense to me. I don't know if the governors will go for something like that.

I don't believe it. I mean, let's say barring something off court or something untoward that you get involved in. Right. But if it's just purely from a basketball standpoint, I think the proof is in the pudding that did enough good of a job to have a team qualify for the playoffs. That means you are qualified to be the coach for that playoff run. I'm going to ask you a first take type question right here. Okay.

That's my heads up. Is that if Oklahoma City doesn't make the finals, it's a disappointment? Well, I mean, I think when you look at it and you're like, okay, now LeBron and the Lakers are out of it and they were considered to be a threat, especially by the way they played in OKC late this season. The two and three seeds are gone, sir. Yeah, and so is the two seed.

Yeah, I think that's fair to say. As young as they are, especially the way last year went when they lost to Dallas, yeah, I think it should be finals or bust for them. 72 wins right now, including the playoffs. There you go. Right now.

And that's, as you know, a magic number when you hear the number of wins. But here come the nuggets. So what? It's Chet Holmgren on Jokic and who's marking SGA? What do we got?

What do you think? I mean, Lees, I think you're going to have, probably go with some Michael Porter Jr. action on SGA because he has the length and the athleticism to go lateral with him. But, you know, that's an incredibly tough matchup for anyone in this league. Jokic, I don't know how that's going to work for, I mean, OKC has obviously Hartenstein in there too.

Oh, that's right. He's so good, man. I miss him as a Knicks fan. He's a hell of a player.

He has everything. And he has a little bit more size than Holmgren and, you know, maybe a little bit more of a motor and try to get Jokic running. Jokic is like low key one of the best conditioned athletes in the league. I think people still think of him as the fat boy, as he referred to himself when he first came into the league. But now he's just relentless.

And listen, they are a team that feels like they have a new life. And Jokic, I think very politically, addressed the idea of them getting to the second round with the coaching change. And he said, well, I think it caused the spark or the change that management wanted. So he didn't necessarily give David Adelman the credit. He wasn't trying to say he didn't do his job.

But basically he said, like, this was a decision outside of my hands. We advanced in the playoffs. That's what our bosses wanted. So here we are. I mean, Jokic was drafted during a fast food commercial, right?

Taco Bell, yeah. I mean, it started at the that moniker kind of started through the very beginning. How much, based on everything we've talked about in this half hour, and I appreciate you giving us this time, Dave McMenamin, the NBA reporter from ESPN, before he goes off to Minnesota to cover that second round series between the Timberwolves and the Warriors, how much and everything we've talked about so far with the Lakers and their offseason decisions and then the current playoffs, how much does Giannis loom over all of these proceedings in the way that his season ended? Dave McMenamin.

Oh, absolutely. He is at the top of every GM's mind because he is the type of player that you put him on any team, quite frankly, and they're immediately in the contender conversation, like immediately. And, you know, listen, John Horse just got an extension right before or during their first round series. He was able to get Giannis to sign an extension himself about a year ago, and that's the only organization that Giannis has known. So we haven't heard any rumblings that he's going to be requesting a trade. That's all he's going to do, though, is just twitch in that direction.

It would be all that would have to occur. But you think about it, this is the only franchise he's known. They've employed his brother as a teammate.

They've certainly, as they've had changes in the coaches and rosters decisions, he's certainly been someone that's been consulted on all those things. And there is something to be said about being like a single franchise guy, and you're going to have some lows. And you don't think Steph Curry had some lows coming off the first dynastic run, you know, where they missed the playoffs, they're losing in the playing round, et cetera, et cetera.

And then they win in 22, and now they have a chance to win in 25. Just don't assume, none of us should assume that because other stars have decided, I want out, that he's going to follow that path. He could just be a 20-season guy with the Bucks, and this is one of the dry spells, and they rebuilt. Well, Lillard blowing out his Achilles doesn't help the situation when you're looking at, well, if I just stay the course, this is what the next season will look like.

That doesn't help matters. Certainly not. But, you know, as much as I would love to see somebody stay with a franchise, and I love Doc Rivers personally, okay, big time. I want him to get everything that he wants. He's just good people, and I'm rooting for him.

So I've now inoculated myself from what I'm about to say. Let's just say Giannis does say he wants out. What does that sweepstakes look like to you? Well, you start with the teams that have the cupboard full of assets. And that is? The best team in the league, first of all, with OKC, just a spoil of riches. And I think it's something like 31 first and second round draft picks over the next maybe 11 years or something like that. And that's not an exaggeration.

No, it's literally like, it's a massive number. So they can make a type of offer that would be, you know, plus they could attach young talent, like guys who've proven they can play. You know, I'm not going to start playing fantasy GM because I'm not saying any of these guys would be at the top of Sam Presley's list to be moved, but just look at their roster.

There's obviously SGA would be off limits. But beyond that, there's a lot of young talent that could help a team where they're not mired in just the theoretical of draft picks. They could get real players as well. Brooklyn certainly has the type of assets to make a deal. Houston has the type of assets to make a deal.

I mean, those are kind of the three that come to mind immediately. But there could be a situation like the Hawks just turned over their front office, right? Are they looking to make wholesale changes with that type of move?

You never know. Because when those moves are made, a lot of times, bigger changes come. What about the Spurs, Dave?

Where do you think they fit into all this? The Spurs. I mean, the Spurs kind of made their move to get De'Aaron and kind of emptied some of their future flexibility to make moves there. Don't they have a chance to get two lottery picks on Monday, though? Yeah. So, I mean, again, I think he's the type of guy.

So many people around the league that I spoke to after the Luka deal were like, if this was a different type of negotiation between Nico Harrison and it was just one-to-one with Rob Plinkett opening up the league, like, what does Luka get? Seven first-round draft picks? You know, that's a number that was floated to me. Wow.

You kind of had to be somewhere in that range, you'd think. There's no question about it. There's no question about it. The guy on the MVP ballot again this year, he's the best two-way player in the game, accounting defense.

He's a winner. So don't take any of the cheese when you're hearing Heat, Lakers, Knicks, you know, the supposed blue bloods of the NBA. I just don't see the... They don't have the capital. They don't have the room.

They don't have the pieces. None of the three. The Heat, I mean, if you could convince Milwaukee that, like, they want Bam or they, like, much the same way that AD was coveted by Dallas, made up for some of the draft pick gap. If you can, if Milwaukee covets Tyler here or covets Bam out of bio, sure.

The Lakers, there's no, there's no pathway there. Dave McManaman here on the program. Before I let you go, how long have you guys known each other?

How long? Dave was a freshman when I was a senior at Syracuse. Okay. We worked, we met each other through the intramural officiating referees and stuff.

What do you mean? I was one of the senior, I don't know, whatever you want to call it. I had worked there all four years. And Dave started doing it his freshman year and I kind of... Officiating? Yeah. He was kind of my boss, I guess. Sort of, yeah. So it was a work study job and you got paid, what was it, like maybe $20 a game or something like that, maybe? Something like that, yeah.

To get yelled at by guys and friends. How was he as a boss of officiating? How was he? Honestly, he was great.

He was great, great to wait for. And we would play pickup a lot too. So it was like you officiate and then, you know, you'd be there at the gym on a random Saturday playing for hours and hours and hours. Yeah, one of those things. I mean, you're playing basketball three, four, five nights a week for three hours. Yeah. What's it like playing with a black hole?

You can shoot it, man. I mean, but did he ever pass it back? One of the best memories I had playing pickup was we were on opposite teams and we both had a heater that day, but he did get the, I think he got the better of me, but it was like going back and forth, which was fun.

It was a fun day. And he was like a tough looking guy in college. He had like a goatee. Oh, I looked like Stone Cold.

I had this giant goatee. Yeah. Yeah. Geez.

And yeah, just like not to be trifled with, so. TJ, did you know he had officiating in his background? Yeah.

He's mentioned that and the goatee, and I've seen the picture and he did, he did look like a longshoreman. Wow. Yeah, exactly. I knew, but I mean, the officiating in your background, when did you go all John Halliburton on it? Well, interesting. One of the, I used to, well, one year I was on the band list, even though I was an official, like I was like a player to look out for, even though I was also an official. So technically you were warned about yourself.

That's an impressive achievement. Yeah. Wow.

Ran hot, ran hot in the young days. Warned about yourself. Wow. Yeah, you definitely had a temper. Yeah. Big temper. For sure.

Well, I mean, he's out here too, right? Didn't you, weren't you banned because you punted a basketball, like blue chip style and you hit an exit sign? I, well, I punted the week before I got kicked out of a pickup league because I punted the ball into the ceiling one week and then the next week I threw the ball at the ugly sign and it broke.

It broke in the middle school gym. It's a great, honestly though, great work study job. It was great. A lot of fun. You're getting paid to exercise. Work study. And if a frat like, obviously a frat would get too drunk the night before and they wouldn't show up to their games, you'd still get paid and then we'd just kind of screw around for an hour.

Damn. I mean, it's a work, you know, it's a, you're, you're enriching the, the university experience for everyone by determining that role. Work study. Work study.

It's real sports, man. It would be all over you on that front right now. Talk about waste, fraud, and abuse. Good Lord. First to go. First line item.

First line item. I got wasted, fraud, and abuse over there. Hey, 2001 Syracuse, man. Damn.

Oh, the statute stuff. You know what I'm talking about? Great to have you here. Safe journey. Appreciate you. And again, thank Malika for doing women's sports.

They loved, they loved having her and hopefully she had a great time. Awesome. That's by the way, available on Roku right now.

Dave McMenamin can be seen on the Disney family of networks, including, um, tonight. Are you, are they going to make you work tonight? No. Okay.

Nothing until about mid-afternoon. There you go. So there you go. Check out Dave starting tomorrow from Minneapolis and look for more of our calls and invitations, sir. That's Dave McMenamin. McMenamin.

We are on the rich side of your page, Gene McMenamin. See, I said over and over again, take that perk. This rich Ackerman in the NFL, there is no margin for error.

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That's P-E-S-T-I-E.com slash E-I-S-E-N for an extra 10% off. Not once have I been able to live out my long dream. As a young top growing up in Staten Island, New York, I've always dreamt to do a show like this one wearing a mustache with one of my colleagues in full clown makeup and a black wig and a red clown nose, Chris Brockman. Wearing that on this show, Having March Sadness. Rich, I'm so sad. And you will be out on the DirecTV thoroughfare dressed like that with a Rich Eisen Show sandwich board that reads, I have March Sadness.

This is the most public yet of my many humiliations. I have March Sadness. Can you come give me a hug? I'm so sorry. I'm so sad. I feel better. Thank you. You'll be okay.

Okay. Congratulations to you for getting more out of the clown makeup this year than last year. At this point last year, hour three, you had already removed it, crying like a baby about how your skin had hurt. It hit me in my leg.

That's pretty easy what it was. You kind of look like Zach Galifianakis in baskets right now. Yeah, that's a good one.

On FX. That's a good one. You kind of look like that angry sort of disheveled clown right now. This is not a good look for me.

I disagree. For a third consecutive year has finished dead last in the Rich Eisen Show bracket competition, thus having to wear clown makeup for all three hours, none other than Chris Brockman. From Modern Family, our friend, Eric Stonestreet. How are you, Eric? Well, I'm not doing very well, Rich.

Oh, no. Take that wig off right now. Okay. I'm watching you. Remove the wig, Brockman. Come back. I have marks. I'm just going to follow you now.

Oh, she hit the wave. I don't know where you're going. Now this is creepy.

Now this is creepy. Come on. I have mark sadness. Just give me a hug, my man. You get it. Oh, yeah. You get it.

Chris Long. I have mark sadness. Yes.

I need a hug. Yes. Yes.

Management approved. It's a tradition unlike any other. For a fourth straight year, and as per the specs of Eric Stonestreet, you are dressed as an old goose clown.

You're like the Buffalo Bills of this contest. Can I get a hug from mark sadness? Anybody? No? Oh, boy.

The sandwich board's flying all over. What a mess. Come on, millennials.

Come on, millennials. There you go. Come on, big finish.

Finish up strong. There you go. Nicely done.

And it's love. Of your many public humiliations, I don't know why we felt compelled to stroll down that memory lane. Yeah, I'm not sure why we had to do that to be here. That's not even a stray, that's like a giant. Stonestreet did not like that.

No. He thought we were clowning clowns. He was upset. And until one year he made- We didn't know what we were doing.

He gave us full- He sent the specs in. Specs on how to make you up, and then we stopped doing that. I don't know why we did that in the first place. It was fun. Why did we stop?

Because we don't know. We're throwing darts. We're throwing darts. Well, I lost four in a row, and I think I was like, I'm refusing. I'm not doing this again. I'm done. I said that part. Huh? I said that part.

That part. Four in a row. Four in a row. I mean, I was a retiree. And then we did retire. Yeah.

And then we did retire. So. It wouldn't be that fun though, there's not as many people out there. Yeah, that's the other thing. Yeah, when there were a lot of people out there, it was fun. Yeah, it was fun.

When Chris would be going out. Well, this was like a Hopplin' place. Yeah. Just got my man out there.

He's the only person on the thoroughfare. It is a happening place. Just stand in the 10 foot by 10 foot square behind me, and that's where all the action is. That is true. That's right. Did you see the scissor lift? Yeah, I did see the scissor lift the other day, Mike. I was doing my open to the show. I was dying. And I know you were dying, and I'm like, stop reacting. I'm trying to ignore it.

That happened the other day. My goodness, back on The Rich Eyes and Show, Hyundai wants to let you know that if you are wanting to sing along to a catchy tune, and there's a truck drifting toward your lane, don't be distracted. Ignore that lane-splitting biker creeping up beside you, because every Hyundai offers available class-exclusive advanced safety features that can alert you to potential dangers around you.

And Hyundai has over 130 IIHS Top Safety Awards since 2006, and those awards include the Top Safety Pickin' Awards to Hyundai vehicles from 06 to 2025, because Hyundai is always working to ensure the road doesn't catch you. All right. We'll just talk about it, all right? Looks like my football head coach, Jerone Moore, is going to sit himself down for two games this year, weeks three and four, against what are the names of the institutions of higher learning that Michigan's football coach is sitting himself down? I think some school for the blind, and then- No, no, no, seriously, Chris, I know that there's two actual schools.

No, I got it. Central Michigan and Nebraska. It's interesting it's Central Michigan, because I believe that was the school that Connor Stallion snuck onto the sideline for. Just like Bobby Valentine trying not to hit the showers in one of the many clown episodes involving this guy, who I don't understand why he has any status of, hey, isn't it funny what he did, or let's hold him up as some sort of interesting footnote. Everything Connor Stallion's did, I wish he didn't do, and I wish he never showed up on the doorstep of the University of Michigan, and I wish our Friday guest Jim Harbaugh had told him, go away.

Everything. He may not have a championship if he didn't. Dude, you could say that all you want. Charlie Baker, the NCAA president, said on the weekend in which they took on Washington, if Michigan wins, it's fair and square.

So that's my point. My point is, hey NCAA, if you think Michigan did it, put it on the table. Put it on the table and explain to us what Michigan did and why the president of the NCAA said it's all fair and square.

Other than that, whatever, like let's see it. Now clearly there's got to be something for Sharon Moore to say, I've got two games I'm willing to sit. And apparently it's because he, according to Dan Wetzel and Pete Famel's story, erased 52 texts between him and Connor Stallion's from his phone, which Michigan then retrieved and gave to the NCAA anyway.

But the fact that he erased them is a level two violation for which he must account, regardless of whether there was nothing in there, whether it was one text saying, hey man, or, you know, buzz off. I have no idea what it is, but I can't wait to see it because apparently it's so big that two years later, the guy who was the interim for the guy who was sitting himself for something that the president said at the end of the day, fair and square, anything, anyway, the guy who filled in for him is now going to sit himself two games, two years later. So I'd love to see what it is. I'd love to see what it is because until it isn't placed in front of me, all I'm saying is that present it, and if Michigan did it, go ahead and try to take the banner away. But until then, buzz off. But clearly there's something buzzing around because the coach said, I'll sit too. And you know, one of them is not Oklahoma, which is his alma mater and Gerald McCoy's alma mater.

They used to be teammates by the way. So that's my opinion on it. We'll see if we can get Dan Wetzel on a future program, 844-204-rich number to dial. Carol Liefer is in our green room coming out, talking about one of the many, many shows for which she wrote Curb and Seinfeld, SNL, Larry Sanders, hit after hit after hit. Thank you, sir.

So we got our phone calls at 844-204-rich being the number to dial here on the show. I'm willing to take any pushback, if you have any, and you normally do. You normally do.

I want to see what they did. I do. I know. I'm exhausted.

I'm exhausted by this whole story. Yeah. And clearly if something two years later he's suspending himself for, there's still something there. Well, they're still investigating it.

That's for sure. What's there? I don't know.

I'd love to see it. What is there? What did he do? Whatever he erased got retrieved and sent to the NCAA anyway. And if they were told, you need to retrieve everything and he erased them. And that's apparently a level two violation for which he must account right now. And Michigan, whose president just left for the University of Florida, I'm told this has nothing to do with that.

Like I, just shut, be transparent and show us what- I don't know. They're still investigating. I know.

It takes forever to investigate stuff. I know. I know.

They do. So. It's crazy. I agree. But something had to be up.

Michigan, that's the one that he wound up on the sideline for. Yeah. That dude, man.

How does that happen? That dude. You know, I love the, our, our, our buddies at, at Bussin, but they had him on right for like two hours. Oh, did they?

Conner Stallions. It's just like, I, I have no interest, I, the documentary that was, all of that stuff, it's just go away. I wish he had never shown up on a doorstep. And I'd love to see the videos that he took. That's what I mean. I want to see that. That's what I want to show us. I'd love to see the videos that he received from all these people that he paid to go shoot the sidelines and see how viable they are.

I'd love to see it. Yeah. But doing that in the first place is- Was wrong. Yeah. I know. Yeah. That's the offense. I know.

That's the offense. But there are videos that show him clearly deciphering and having figured out signs. So how did he do that?

I don't know. He had to match it up with certain videos. He had to do that. And it worked so well that Ohio State took a big two score lead against Michigan in the game that supposedly they had the plays on. So that was great.

I've, trust me, I would have loved to have been in a rocking chair way sooner on those days. Yeah. 844-204-Rich is the number to dial right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Hour three. What's more, overreaction Monday coming up.

Former MLB All-Star, Sean Casey, AKA the Mayor, keeps hitting it out of the park. Take my 30 years of experience. Take the wisdom and knowledge I've learned from the failures when I got sent down my rookie year, all the injuries I had to overcome. Your mind is the most important tool you have in life. Be relentless.

Keep charging. It matters how you talk to yourself, how you look at the world. That matters. We talk about that.

I don't know. I'm fired up. Baseball's back and it's going to be incredible. I love it. The Mayor's Office with Sean Casey from Believe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.