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Shop today in stores online at Nordstrom.com or download the Nordstrom app. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. It's another hour of the program and it's great to have you with us on this Memorial Day. Hop aboard at 844-204-7424 or you can slide into my ex-account, not the DMs. Hit me up on Twitter. B. W. Weber. Weber with two Bs. We blew through that first hour of the program with no guests. Coming up in 20 minutes, we'll bring in the first of two that will join us in the final two hours of the program. Talking much more NBA with an old friend, Curt Heelan, lead NBA writer for MBCSports.com. We spent the majority of the first hour focusing on the fallout from yet another legendary comeback put together by the New Year.
You put them down by 20. You put them on the road and they're exactly where they want to be and suddenly, when things felt extraordinarily dire with just over three minutes left in the first half last night in Indy, when the Pacers were able to push that lead, the 55-35, everything slowly changed and then suddenly, the second time I've used suddenly, I'm really playing up the explosion we saw from Karl Anthony Towns. And the question I will pose to you, was that a one-off? Was that an anomaly? Was that an aberration?
Or has Karl Anthony Towns discovered who he can be in a high leverage situation? I have my doubts. I think a lot of it came down to the circumstance of that game. If you didn't catch it, I understand it was and is part of a long holiday weekend. You probably should have better things to do but it is my occupation.
It is my profession to track these things for you. Knicks had a funky rotation out there which is all the more stunning because if you know anything about Tom Thibodeau, this man refuses to use the bench. It's like he's got a fatwa against the Rich Eisen show desk or any piece of furniture. He rides his starters like they're going down the stretch at the Kentucky Derby and it wasn't, in my estimation, we'll talk about this with Curt Heelan coming up in 20 minutes, some sort of tactical adjustment last night. It was necessity. Now we'll give Thibodeau credit for being open-minded enough to realize he had to make a change in the starting lineup, going big with Mitchell Robinson, meaning Josh Hart would come off to the bench and play in that reserve role.
And it worked in the two ways it was designed to pay dividends in. Robinson able to clog the lane, help with rebounding, Hart always an energy guy wherever he's played throughout his career and we saw that come into focus with some critical late rebounds to help finalize the victory. So yeah, Tom does get kudos for making that adjustment, but if you were tracking things in the fourth quarter and wondering how we got to a situation in which Landry Shavit of all people played significant minutes, that really was a byproduct of having no decision to make other than having to put Brunson on the bench because of his fifth foul and everything clicked for the Knicks.
So just when it looked like they were absolutely dead men walking collectively, everything has changed in a bizarre series between two evenly matched teams who have both benefited from injuries. And I'm not looking to troll anybody. I'm a fill-in guy. You will not hear my voice on this program until July 4th again. So I have nothing to gain by going after fan bases and I try to be transparent. I've mentioned more times than you probably would prefer. I grew up a Knicks fan.
I'm from the suburbs of New York City. But with a degree of objectivity, you can't tell me if Jason Tatum went down that at a minimum that doesn't go six or seven between the Celtics and the Knicks. And ultimately, I think the Celtics would have found a way to win that series because they're the better team. And if we're looking at Indy's path to this Eastern Conference final, Bucks dealing with injuries, most notably Damon Lillard who came back from the blood clots and then ripped his achilles. And then you go to the Cleveland series and the Cavs dealing with a variety of important injuries. But that's the reality of the postseason.
Our best ability is availability after all. We will preview what could happen tonight as the T-Wolves have new life after obliterating the Thunder on a big word edition of the program. The last time they played felt like OKC once they got down by 20 said, thank you. We've had enough for tonight and we will rest and get ready for now a much more interesting game for coming up tonight in the Twin Cities.
That's on the way when we check in with Curt Heelan of NBC Sports dot com. So you throw in more drama from the Knicks, perhaps more drama involving Kaitlyn Clark, although I don't want to make everything that is connected to sports somehow involving racial overtones. So I'm not going to wade into the Kaitlyn Clark mania conversation and whatever may or may not have happened with Brittney Grinder after what happened with Angel Reese earlier.
I'll just say this. Kaitlyn Clark is an absolute phenomena. And as someone who's enjoyed calling women's basketball for a quarter century, exactly what the sport needed to draw more attention from casual fans. So you throw in Kaitlyn what she's doing in Indy.
You start with a game for the ages last night, especially from the Knicks point of view. And if you still care about the Indy 500, Indiana undeniably the capital of the sports world over the weekend. Quick sidebar. And I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. I see the tweets are percolating.
I'll check those out coming up in 15 minutes. Please keep your thoughts coming. B.W.
Weber, Weber with two B's. As you get older, you wonder about things that used to be resonant for all of us and why they have, I don't want to say been marginalized in the case of the Indy 500. Let's just say it's not as center stage as it was when I was a young fan.
I know it was a million years ago when I walked uphill in the snow both ways to change the channels on my TV that had 13 channels. And that's really the point. But if you're from the 80s, it's I think something that you will agree with this assessment. And if you're not, it's hard to describe the Indy 500 was a big deal, not only in terms of sports, but culturally. And we knew all the drivers and I am not a gearhead. And I think a lot of that is the household in which you were raised. My old man could not change the oil in his car, although he enjoyed calling me a dipstick. So I didn't learn anything. I can barely change a tire.
I've done that once out of necessity. And the only thing I know about auto racing, I faked when I was paid to cover it for Fox Sports dot com. But as a kid, we all knew who A.J.
Foyt and Al Unser and, of course, the great Mario Andretti were. The race has always been a spectacle. It remains that way, having hundreds of thousands of people get together in Indy.
And I got chills listening to back home again in Indiana. But once the race starts, I have no interest in it whatsoever. And maybe it's because of the rise of NASCAR or all you cool people with your fake Rolexes telling me I should care about Formula One. I don't know what has changed.
Other than we have more options. And there's the old line from Seinfeld when they were pitching their sitcom within the sitcom and Jerry's pushing back on George. Why would anybody watch this thing as they were writing the pilot? And George said, because it's on TV. And I think maybe that's the real development that's happened in a 5000 channel universe.
Nothing is important. And you put that in contrast to when you had and by the mid 80s, let's say 50 channels. It was a big deal to watch the Braves on WTBS.
When something was on network television that had history, by definition, it was important. And Fox now has the rights to the Indy 500. They tried to gimmick it up by having Tom Brady hop in a car and go for a ride and all the other Fox things.
I did agree with the consensus on social media. Man, I don't know what Fox paid for the rights for the Indy 500, but they monetized it. Unbelievable amount of commercials to endure. And they almost butchered the end of the race by cutting back to an irrelevant crash way back in the pack. But that was a long winded side part to say.
And I'll throw it out there on social media. What happened to the Indy 500? There were things we knew and appreciated collectively and in my lifetime. And I'm on my way to an early grave at fifty five.
The two things that have fallen in popularity, most significantly boxing, which is dead and never coming back in the Indy 500, which continues, but just does not have the same resonance. I promised I would talk about Aaron Rodgers again. I'm glad I'm meandering to a degree because I think I have a sense of how an audience might feel as a consumer of a great deal of sports media. I get the sense there is a little bit of Aaron Rodgers exhaustion going on and I can't blame you.
Now, my observation would be, as somebody who enjoys working on holidays and will be with you on a couple of different platforms for the majority of two weeks in July when the stars are shining on vacation. Maybe I've been through this enough, especially with Aaron, the first time he was making, quote unquote, his decision to leave Green Bay, that I'm just numb to it. Maybe I have Stockholm syndrome and Aaron has already held me hostage and I've just given up. But for those of you who are sighing and I get it, I can hear you through the radio.
You do not know that technology exists, that here's a guy filling in looking for topics. The reason I am bringing up Aaron Rodgers is not that I am needy or I'm playing the hits. There is a important date on the calendar tomorrow, important for most players, but not for Aaron because apparently at the age of 41, he can do whatever the heck he wants. Steelers have the start of OTAs tomorrow, Organized Team Activities.
Things, since I'm going to go back to 1985 every 30 seconds, that decades ago and as recently as 10 years ago, we did not focus on because they are largely meaningless as a fan. They are important for players on the roster because of all the installation that goes on, all the game planning, all the preparation for players prior to taking their break and then coming back for training camp. And if you care about the actual bylaws of the NFL, the mandatory portion, but all these OTAs are wink wink voluntary unless you're a superstar, mandatory mini camp for the Steelers starts in a few weeks. If Aaron truly cares about the team, I'm presuming he's going to join. Doesn't he have to show up in the next couple weeks at least to go through the motions and pretend like he's going to be a good teammate? I understand stars have their own rules. I get it. And the Steelers clearly are at a point where they have decided to give Aaron as much latitude as he requests. And I'm also aware because I listened to about half of it, I couldn't get through all three hours of Aaron on the Joe Rogan experience. And this is not me punching up, taking a shot at Joe. That's just not my favorite show because of the topic selection and because I was hoping there'd be some football discussed.
And that was naive on my part. But after they talked about everything but football, including and I jotted this down and Mike Florio has it on Pro Football Talk as well. Mike, of course, a great friend of the program. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich.
The phone number is 844-204-7424 or have at it on social media. B.W. Weber Weber with two B's. Rogers didn't express any opinion about his football future, but did articulate concern about nanobot filled vaccines giving people turbo cancer. I just read those words I wrote down. I have no idea what any of them mean now not to make light of cancer. And especially because Aaron has been open in saying that, quote, a number of people in his life are battling cancer. That could be a legitimate reason for him wanting more time.
I think we should all have empathy in that area. Still, of all the sports, football is the most team driven, even with the amount of wiggle room that a quarterback is given. But we're talking about somebody who's 41 years old, who I thought did in the last six weeks of the regular season show signs that were more reminiscent of vintage Aaron Rodgers, but is still trying to and I don't know what he's doing on his own time, but based on what we saw in the field last year, play his way back from the torn Achilles, who has been in obvious decline since the end of his tenure in Green Bay. So my question for the Steelers, the most buttoned down franchise in all of sports, who've had three head coaches in my lifetime since Richard Nixon was in the White House. Why are they tolerating this?
What's the point now? Clearly, there was an internal strategy and a calculus that was made that decided Aaron Rodgers, even at this stage of his career, would be an upgrade over what they got out of Russell Wilson or Justin Fields. And I can't necessarily argue with that, although at least we have tape of Russ and Justin Fields. But if you're the Steelers and it's a franchise, even with all of their stability, I'll remind you, has been hard pressed to win a playoff game. They lost four straight down the stretch last year, including the playoff loss to the Ravens. It's a team that offensively has not had any rhythm since the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger. And I just wonder why they have arrived at a place internally that says we're cool with letting Aaron slow play this as long as he wants, other than they have no other options, because as much as I have evolved on my analysis of Aaron, because you could say if you've endured this act in the past, I'm Brian Weber in for Richardson.
It's a Memorial Day edition of the program. We're live. And I can demonstrate that to you by reading your tweets coming up at BW Weber Weber with two B's. Not too long ago, I'd say heading into his final year in Green Bay, the opinion I would spout with regularity was Aaron Rodgers is the most skilled, the most gifted quarterback of my lifetime. And I put John Elway up there as well, just talking about physical skill set and throwing a beautiful ball. And you put Tom Brady in a different category as the most accomplished. That's not Rodgers anymore.
He is a shadow himself. But here are the Steelers believing that they will continue to be patient because they think they can squeeze at least one more year out of Aaron as a bridge quarterback and then solve or at least try to more actively come up with an answer for their quarterback conundrum a year from now. If you think about what Rodgers is walking into, well, at least he outlasted George Pickens so he wouldn't have to deal with that situation in the locker room. You bring in DK Metcalf, so you've got a legitimate number one receiver. But for a franchise that is all about culture and quote unquote doing things the right way, it is still baffling to me that the Steelers have allowed themselves to be held hostage by Aaron Rodgers now, not Aaron Rodgers at 32 or 36 at 41 and all that comes with him with Danica Patrick going on a podcast calling him emotionally abusive and the alien stuff and the darkness retreat and everything else. But if you don't have a quarterback in this league, you don't have a chance. And the whole notion of the NFL is hope and parity and you're one player away from a radical turnaround as we've seen what, 21 the last 22 years, somebody's gone from worst to first.
But it feels like the Steelers are smoking the hopium much more than a legitimate degree of optimism, thinking that whenever Rodgers shows up and it won't be tomorrow, it feels like for the start of OTAs, he's going to radically change their fortunes. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen, 844-204-7424. I will head over to social media coming up. I'll review your tweets if they're good.
I will share them to this massive audience. Coming up, we'll get back to the NBA. Did Tom Thibodeau stumble across something that he's going to stick with moving forward? Now the Knicks have changed the entire complexion of the series with their 20-point comeback, their latest 20-point comeback on the road last night. And indeed, we're talking round ball with Curt Hylen of NBCSports.com.
That is on the way. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. This is the Rich Eisen Show. In the NFL, there's zero margin for error. As we all know, one single mistake can change the outcome of a game, a season, livelihoods, my goodness. As the official sleep and wellness partner of the National Football League, sleep number knows all of that and makes it their mission to provide players with data and insights to optimize their sleep for the ultimate competitive edge. And thus, you get a sleep number bet, you get the same exact thing.
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You can X me. It's B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's.
Let's also maintain our momentum, talking more playoff basketball with one of the best in the industry. It is Curt Hillen of NBCSports.com. Curt, thanks for taking the time on a holiday. How are you? I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me on, Brian. I need your expertise and I need a little bit of nuance from you because you know I'm a blowhard as a sports talk radio host. So I was trying to come up with context as to how the Knicks keep doing this. Down by 20 on the road, somehow, some way, finding a way to pull off a miraculous victory. On the road in Boston, I felt like the Celtics lost those games because they just couldn't make a shot. And were stubborn and refused to take it to the paint and just kept bombing away from three-point range. Conversely, I think the Knicks won that game last night. I don't think the Pacers blew it that much.
I think Cat somehow got on this unstoppable role that we couldn't have foreseen coming. And turned himself into Michael Jordan for the fourth quarter. How do you see it last night? How much was a Knicks victory? The key takeaway or how much did the Pacers squander something?
I think there is some squandering. I think the Pacers, whether you want to say, took the foot off their gas, started playing some prevent defense. I think there was a little of them trying not to lose as opposed to the more aggressive Pacers we'd seen earlier in the game. But conversely, that was the best Knicks performance of this series by far. In terms of both towns just taking over in the fourth quarter after, frankly, not terribly inspiring.
In the free hit, he started two of eight. He wasn't great out of the gate. But also, that was their best defensive performance.
That was the best job. They held the Pacers to 100 points. Their ability to kind of switch and stay in front of Halliburton and still get back to the pick-and-pop shooters and stuff that they failed at. The Knicks were just bad at through the first couple of games. They were much better at in this game. They challenged the Pacers. And Indiana didn't quite handle that well in the fourth quarter. We'll see what happens at home for them in Game 4.
That becomes the critical game, frankly, in both series. Talking hoops with Curt Heelan of NBCSports.com. Curt, a couple strategic things to discuss from the perspective of Tom Thibodeau. What did you make of him putting Mitchell Robinson into the starting five? We saw the energy Josh Hart provided off the bench. And then, and some of this just felt like he had no other choice but to do so, how about him actually playing nine players last night because Brunson was in foul trouble? Yeah, Kenny the Jetsmith cracked everybody up with the... Thibodeau wouldn't play nine players at a baseball game line, which was brilliant.
Look, those are things everybody's been calling for for a while. In the case of the bench, it gives you just, and you've seen this with Oklahoma City, you've seen this with Indianapolis, playing those guys over the course of the season, getting them into the rotation just gives you versatility. Like, hey, we really need McBride's defense. And he hits some shots and sometimes he misses a few, but what he brings defensively has been huge for them in this series. And hey, Shammett can take up, he's a solid veteran.
He can take up some minutes. So I think being forced to do that, like you said, it was because of the foul trouble, but it really gave them a boost. The bench was huge for them in this game.
Towns won it for them in the fourth. The bench kept them close for stretches. And look, the only question about starting these guys was why'd you wait so long, frankly? I mean, they've been struggling for a while, but that starting five, they got off to the 15-10 lead before there was a sub. They were plus that starting five, 14 minutes plus one for the game. And by the way, the old starting five played five minutes and was minus nine. Like, you can't keep going back to that.
I was told there'd be no math involved, but I'm glad that you were able to break out the plus-minus effectively. Kurt Halen spotlighting the NBA. Check out his great work at nbcsports.com. Kurt, there's no question that Jalen Brunson has transformed not only to Knicks, but the culture of that franchise with the way that he plays with such rugged determination.
But you know there's a but coming here. He is so ball dominant, and I understand it's been a key to success, but just watching the Knicks, it feels like every possession, they get late in the shot clock and then they get bailed out by some heroic shot by Brunson. Do you buy the notion at all, if we're just talking about the eye test, and we saw it when he was on the bench with the five fouls, that the ball moves more freely when Brunson is not on the floor understanding he plays just about every minute when he's not in foul trouble?
There is something to that. I think you saw it in this game because they, again, by necessity with him being out there. I also think he's capable of being part of that offense that he doesn't have to be as ball dominant, but they've got it.
I think what comes out of this is their need to get secondary shot creation. Again, when you look at when Indianapolis made their run, when they were up 20, what they did was not only involve, they involved him in every pick and roll. They attacked him on the defensive in one end, but the ball, like you said, it got stuck.
Everything was Brunson centric. Nobody could or would do anything else, and that makes them so much easier to defend. When the ball moves a little bit, it's better. They've got to find a way to get, and Bridges was supposed to be this, but they've got to find a way to get consistent secondary shot creation next to him just because as you get this deep into the playoffs, the teams are too good. You have to have, again, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, these teams have multiple guys. You can handle the ball and bring it up and do all this stuff.
That's good. The Knicks need more of that. Given how temporary and fleeting momentum has been in this wild series, what's your outlook for Game 4 coming up tomorrow in Indy? I hate to say the Knicks have to win this one, too, to keep their season alive, but Ryan, the Knicks have to win this one to keep their season alive, and I think you're going to get a steadier Pacers team. They missed some threes. I think the Knicks upping that intensity on defense threw them on their back heels a little bit, and I think you'll see them handled better. I kind of like the Pacers in that game, but the Knicks have got to come with the desperation because if they're down 3-1, I don't think they're getting out of this thing.
I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich Eisen. We're taking you across the NBA postseason with Curt Heelan of NBCSports.com. Well, with all the drama last night, it feels like ancient history that Minnesota came alive the other night and came up with a win they absolutely had to have. How much of that do you view as a one-off, or were there building blocks that you thought were sustainable heading into Game 4 tonight?
There are sustainable building blocks, but it was a bit of a one-off from Oklahoma City. That was as flat as they've looked all postseason, and they kind of let go of the rope early, and it's easy for them to kind of write that off and say, we just had a bad game and bad shooting. We're better than that. But what we saw from Minnesota, especially from Anthony Edwards, when he's getting downhill, when he's being aggressive like that, obviously he took charge early, but the whole team then followed along, and they had great games from Jayden McDaniels, and the best Rudy Gobert game and all that. That's all.
Brian, isn't that all stuff they can do again? I think you're going to get a heck of a game tonight. I think that this is, again, Game 4 here is critical because it's obviously 3-1 or 2-2, but this is the one where Minnesota, I think, you're going to get the full Minnesota experience, and we'll see if Oklahoma City can beat that. They will play better. This will be closer.
But I'm curious. There's times they've made me doubt them a little during the playoffs, and I didn't going in, and they've had their moments where I've questioned Oklahoma City, and tonight's one of those nights they've got to have a big Jalen Williams night. They've got to have a much better Chet Holmgren night, and Shea's got to be Shea. Kurt, Shea has been Shea, and that's why he's won the MVP award for the first time in his emergently brilliant career. But he's also not the first player to be adept at drawing fouls. James Harden obviously comes to mind.
We can go old school if we want, with players backing down the opposition into the paint and getting to the line. What do you make of all the criticism directed at SGA and that line that he's a free throw merchant going viral every time he plays a playoff game? Free throws are incredibly efficient shots, and the ability to draw them is an amazing skill that all the great players frankly have had. Jordan, Jordan likes to draw fouls. Jordan knew how to draw fouls, and you can go back through Iverson's and farther back obviously.
Certain guys are really good at it. It's become a little more of the offense for some guys, but that's part of his game. You know why he gets those fouls? Because he's aggressive. He goes downhill, and he also, unlike Harden, he just has a funky game. He plays at different angles and paces than really anybody else in the league, and because of that it just tends to throw guys off, and he gets the calls. And I don't know that he's going to get as many tonight on the road, but he's going to get to the line a lot because that's what he does. That's just part of his game. Well, Scott Foster I don't think will be there, although with the NBA you never know.
He could officiate every game moving forward through the NBA final. Hey Kurt, I always am mindful that the audience should not care about TV ratings. They're not in the industry. It doesn't really impact you or I. We don't sell advertising, but we use it as a metric of overall popularity.
How big of a challenge do you think it could be for the league if we're looking at OKC versus Indy in the NBA finals? Look, market size in this case does matter, and specifically more than that, brand size. I think you can have a big brand.
Look, LeBron James was in Cleveland and drew huge numbers because he's LeBron James, man. Shea doesn't have quite that kind of brand. Oklahoma City doesn't have quite that kind of brand. Certainly Indianapolis and Halliburton don't in the way that the Knicks do just by virtue of being the Knicks. And frankly, it's easy to root for Jalen Brunson. I like watching Jalen Brunson play.
Everybody likes watching them play. So it would be a little rougher on the ratings, I imagine, but I don't know. I think that that's how you how you establish the brand if you're Shea and Oklahoma City is. You don't look good winning one of these things and then you're a threat next year and the buildings start to fill up for you. And I agree with that assessment. I want to be respectful of your time because it's a holiday. I was talking about Giannis's future to wrap up the first hour of the program.
You're far more dialed in than I am. We know that either he had a meeting or meeting is scheduled to come in the next few days with the front office in Milwaukee. Ultimately, do you think he moves to a different team this summer? And what a potential landing spots that that meeting. There is another meeting to happen if one. It's more of a process. And then they're putting together.
Mark Stein talked about this. They're putting together a plan to try to pitch him and get him to stay. But here's the thing. If I'm Minnesota, Milwaukee, I want to say, hey, you're not in. We're doing this. You're not just in for this year.
I don't want to deal with this again next summer. Like you're in or you're out because if you're out, we'll do it now. And again, I think he wants to be loyal. He wants Giannis wants to play one team for his career.
But if I were going to make a bet, I'd say 60 40. He's out just because if winning is the most important thing to him, that can't happen. And it's not going to happen when Milwaukee and like it would take multiple years to turn that thing around with with the Dame injury and everything. And if he's traded, I mean, Texas, San Antonio, Houston are it's really easy to make those trades happen and work.
And if he wants to contend, drop into drop onto either one of those teams. And they're a huge threat. And the idea I love the idea of Giannis next to Wimby, Brian. Oh, yeah. I like that was my quote to wrap up the last hour.
Give us a decade of that. And I'm all in. Kurt, as always, I appreciate your availability and the information. Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.
And that means summer fill in season is coming up. You know, we'll be reaching out in July. Look forward to chatting with you again then, my friend. I look forward to it, man. Take care. Thanks very much, Kurt. Not only excellent information and excellent person, as I hope came through in that conversation.
We've been doing that dance for a long time. And I will say it again. Anybody willing to share a few minutes on a holiday is a great friend of the program. And I also mentioned in passing, understanding the audience is always changing, especially on a holiday. I'm Brian Weber. I appreciate the company on this Memorial Day in for rich that Giannis to San Antonio. And forget about NBA conspiracies. I'm just talking about fit and situation. That lovely bromide.
I'm not your bro. Would be exquisite because when be coming back from the injury is only going to continue to grow into his body. And you got Giannis, who is forget about all NBA balloting and how those teams come about.
But however you want to slot it. Top three, top five, top seven players in the league. And coming up, because it's all about appointment audio on Memorial Day, an hour from now, I'm going to run through where the NBA is in terms of the turnover year to year of champions, because this league, more than any other league, has been dynastic over the history of the NBA. Seven franchises account for 70% of all of the championships. That is completely changed because when the Celtics were knocked out by the Knicks, I got a couple tweets saying I didn't give the Knicks credit.
You didn't listen to what I said. In terms of that Boston series, yes, obviously the Knicks deserve all of their props for their resilience, for believing in themselves. But you can't tell me the Celtics didn't hand them a huge opportunity, most specifically in game one, when all they did was jack up terrible threes and never change their game plan.
And a lot of that's on Joe Missoula, who just stood there and stared because that's what he does. Game two, similar situation. So the Knicks were handed a major opportunity and they capitalized on it. And I'm of the belief, and I understand, that the Knicks had the lead when Jason Tatum went down, but I believe if Tatum had been healthy, and again, this is ranked speculation, the foundation of compelling sports talk radio, if Tatum's healthy, I think the Celtics win that game, I think they win the series, we'll never know. But as we think about the future of the league and where it's evolving, what does it mean that we're going to have a seven different champion crowned next month? And if we think about the progression of the face, quote unquote, of the NBA, sure it's LeBron until he finally walks away, and Steph on that next year, but when Giannis won it all, he was going to be emblematic of the league.
And then it was Joker. And then I think OKC wins. SGA, does he become the poster boy of the NBA? Is that a positive?
Is that a negative? We'll get there coming up an hour from now. Straight ahead, because this is the football show of record. After all, Rich Eisen, the face of NFL Network, the first employee when they launched in 2003. I'll make this football adjacent. Let's get ready to rumble. I can't say that too demonstratively, or I have to write a check to Michael Buffer who needs the money.
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Visit Amazon.com slash Prime to learn more. We get closer to the final hour of the program. We'll get back to the NBA coming up. More thoughts on how things changed so wildly last night in Indy. Was a mean for now a even spicier game for coming up tomorrow in Indianapolis. And more thoughts on OKC and Minnesota.
Candidly, I've gone heavy New York, Indiana, not because of the East Coast lean or not because I'm trying to placate those who will always tell you that the majority of the country lives east of the Mississippi. Got to go that way. I'm just staying in the moment. And even as I was watching another epic comeback for the Knicks 20 point rally.
This time, though, I think they deserve more credit for doing it than the opposition collapsing as the Pacers did contributed to a degree. And I'll defer to Kurt Halen, who does this for a living, who just joined us. And check out his great work writing about the NBA for NBC Sports dot com. He's about to get even busier with round ball rock being queued up and the NBA returning to its rightful home.
Although a few creepy thoughts about that. I'm not sure what Michael Jordan is going to do as a special contributor. Clearly, Mike doesn't need the money. Get the feeling he's just going to pop up on Zoom, say a few things, probably try to protect his legacy.
And I'm not doing LeBron versus Michael Jordan today. I got too much content prepared. Just seems like an odd choice unless they made the Godfather offer and just showered him with money. And he did the math for how much of return on investment he could get for minimal work.
Secondly, they, thanks to permission from the family, are going to use an A.I. version of Johnny Big Voice. He used to say, this is the NBA on NBC. That was a horrible impersonation. Just odd to me. I fully get nostalgia. That's a huge part of whatever brand I have created as much as I shouldn't even go down that road.
Sounds like I'm an influencer trying to shake my tuchus on IG. But you can't come up with a new young person who deserves to get compensated. Just an odd choice. And then finally, and I know Reggie's a friend of the program, so I'm going to tread lightly. And Reggie Miller has had a huge career that any of us in broadcasting could aspire to beyond being a Hall of Fame player. Reg, can you please talk 20% less, especially in a poorly constructed three-man booth? I think Stan Van Gundy is terrific and amazingly candid, but it's just a clunky listen between those two stepping on each other. And then you have the best in the business, in my opinion, in Kevin Harlan, who could do the game by himself. Because he's doing a pseudo-radio call, and especially for Kevin calling the NFL on Westwood 1. He is a tactician.
He is an artist. Maybe Turner's tapped out because this is their last run. Although, remember, inside the NBA we'll continue on ABC and ESPN. So I appreciate all of the hosannas and tributes they're getting. The show's not going away, folks.
It's just going to be in a different context. Again, some of my pontificating is by design, just as I didn't want to do 18 minutes of that nap down on Aaron Rodgers. I did not want to do much more than a handful of minutes on Bill Belichick because it's just an absurd story. I know why we have to talk about it. And yes, I get the salacious interest in it.
Maybe it's because I'm in my mid-50s and single, and perhaps on a good day can date younger. I don't have an issue with it. But with all of the developments and the Belichick-Jorn Hudson saga, are you aware of an offer from Celebrity Boxing?
Yes, it's a thing. The people who brought you, Lamar Odom taking on Aaron Carter. They brought Coolio, Jose Conseco, and Octomom into the ring. Now they want Jordan to... Let's get ready to rumble with Linda Holliday, the hoodie's former girlfriend who, according to reports in People magazine, had a bit of a kerfuffle with each other at a holiday party in New England a few months ago.
What is left in this never-ending story? Are they going to the WWE next? I'll say this. This is a sports show, after all. Belichick better win a lot of games for all of the baggage he is dragging with him to the ACC and North Carolina. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. Final hour coming up back to the NBA.
More takeaways from a wild night in Indy here on the Rich Eisen Show. If you're a lineman in charge of keeping the lights on, Granger understands that you go to great lengths, and sometimes heights, to ensure the power is always flowing. Which is why you can count on Granger for professional-grade products and next-day delivery, so you have everything you need to get the job done. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done.
