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Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. Check, check. This is, this out. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Into the corner where Siakam hits a three and then turns to the New York bench. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'm not sure yet.
For some reason, if Rogers decides to not play football or the Steelers decide to hedge a bet, there's really only one option remaining. You like that? Today's guests. ESPN NBA insider Brian Wenthorst. Actor and producer Elizabeth Banks.
Actor and comedian Jeff Garland. And now, it's Rich Eisen. That's correct.
That's correct. Welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. Live on the Roku channel. Live on the terrestrial radio affiliate. Smart enough to have us on the Infinity Sports Network. Sirius XM channel 375. The Odyssey app streaming us live. We're appreciating anybody's listening to us on our podcast. Network as well.
All three hours, every single day. No contest wrestling. TJ and O'Shea recorded it yesterday. The latest episode is waiting for you wherever you get your podcasts or on the YouTube channel.
The Rich Eisen Show YouTube channel also has the latest overreaction Monday. What the football. Susie and Amy had a chat with Mike Florio. Lots of you for maybe interested in what's going on in the National Football League world. I'm saying maybe you do.
That stuff is of interest to you. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial. Here on the program, we've got two great in-studio guests. Jeff Garland is returning.
He's one of our favorites. The first time ever to have Elizabeth Banks on this program. Liz Banks coming to this studio in advance of The Better Sister that premieres tomorrow. Exclusively on Prime Video, which you can see right here on Roku.
All eight episodes. Binge-worthy for sure. She's going to be here.
And we've got a great celebrity, true or false, all set. One of our favorites, Brian Winhorst, will be joining us in 18 minutes time to talk about what we saw last night. What we're going to see potentially tonight on ESPN and ABC in Oklahoma City.
And what's over the steering wheel for free agencies. We're live all three hours on this program, taking three hours out of what we normally do here in California, which is chew on bark. So, we've got that to discuss on this program. Good to see you over there, Christopher Brockman. How are you, sir? Just finishing my bark, Rich. Excellent. Put your bark away.
No, can't do it. Mike Del Tufo's bite is worse than his bark. Good to see you over there. What's going on, Mikey? Morning, Rich. TJ Jefferson.
Almost a better batting average than Juan Soto. Good to see you over there. How are you, TJ? What's going on?
I mean, the Mets are rolling. They are great. And, you know, there are six different types of tree bark that you can eat. And I'll get them all out in the next three hours. We're going to have this discussion about what goes on here in California, according to Terry Bradshaw. That'll be later on.
Terry Bradshaw, who spends a good amount of time here in California. It's fun. It's fun.
I can't wait for all that. Hey, listen. We start this program with me demanding names. I need names.
In this day and age where there's unnamed sources, per source, per family of sources, per source, as you know, is the Scandinavian cousin of unnamed source. And we just need to know names. Put names behind your comments. Put names behind your votes that are sometimes not announced. I need names of the individuals in the association that voted Tyrese Halliburton as the most overrated player in the NBA. I need names on that front.
The Athletic held a poll, took names from these unnamed people and outspat one name for the most overrated player in the National Basketball Association. And his name is Tyrese Halliburton. I need your names on the table. Let's get them all. Let's get them all. Frank Pantangeli wants to know.
Let's get them all. And I got to tell you, Tyrese probably felt like Frank Pantangeli getting a C-Note from the Rosado brothers. That's that was offensive to him. Oh, yeah. And being named overrated is like getting a C-Note from the Rosado brothers.
We're making Godfather Part 2 references nonstop here. That's what we do. How the hell does somebody take a look at Tyrese Halliburton and say that guy's overrated? That should be over. End of story. Sigh all you want about what the regular season was or whatever it is. I'm not talking about last night, I'm talking about the previous years.
You could see why. This is two post-seasons in a row for this guy. And what he has done is he showed up in this series with Jalen Brunson, the Nick who brought me back in. OK, I don't care how many basketballs James Dolan gives out to Nick fans standing by like it's his bread and circus from the back of his limousine. Won't get out. But here, take two basketballs I have in the back here. Please tell everyone about it.
Shoot it on social media. I'm a great guy. I love Kat. You know how I feel about Kat. All of the Villanova guys.
They've been great. But one guy showed up and says, I'm the best player on the court. I'm the best player in this series. And he wears number zero for the Indiana Pacers. And that's even with Pascal Siakam coming up with a 30-point game last night.
He had 39 a couple of games ago. He's playing out of his skull. Everybody in Indiana wearing a Pacers or a Yes Sirs shirt is feeling it right now.
And they are following this guy's lead. 32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds in a game Indiana had to have to avoid going back to New York all square again. Going back to square one in Madison Square Garden with a best of three series for the right to go to the NBA Finals. With all of that pressure on Halliburton and the Pacers, Halliburton says, I will come up with a triple-double almost by halftime. I will come up with a triple-double overall and the most important stat of all, zero turnovers. Zero. Point zero.
Full Butarski on that category. First player in NBA playoff history with 30 or more points, 15 or more assists, 10 or more rebounds and no turnovers. Well, since they started recording turnovers in the 1977-78 season. I don't know why they weren't recording turnovers before then.
I guess, what, just dribble it off your leg all you want? There was a lot going on back then. I guess so. There was a lot happening. I know. Exactly.
One person with an abacus sitting there. And Koozie was just, you know, had the balls going all over the place. Here's an even more impressive stat. He scored 32 points. The Pacers scored 33 points on 14 of 22 shooting, 63.6% on the 15 assists. On the passes that Halliburton sent to his teammates.
22 passes and he had 33 points coming off of Halliburton passes last night. And that's all she wrote. And what the Pacers do is they just run you out of the building in this day and age where it's just like pound the rock, pick and roll, find the open three-point shooter shot. They're tough to stop.
They are relentless, relentless. And you got to give it up to Rick Carlisle. He plays, he plays a deep bench. He doesn't tighten the rotation.
He trusts everybody out there. That's not a shot at Tom Thibodeau. It's just what the Pacers do and what the Pacers have done is take a three games to one lead and Halliburton leading the way and give it up to Carlisle. Mark Cuban on a podcast for New York Magazine. Don't really usually mention these, but Cuban was on this podcast just dropped just yesterday telling the story again that he told, I think on Pat Bev's podcast a couple of years ago that they were considering, they were trying to move up to beat the Kings to Tyrese Halliburton in his draft.
Okay. He was just a mere college kid, roommates with Brock Purdy or those guys killing it these days. And, uh, and the, the, the Maverick saw something in Halliburton, according to Cuban, they were considering trading a pretty damn good player to move up for the right to take Halliburton and couldn't do it. And the player they were considering trading to move up named Jalen Brunson, according to Cuban, couldn't pull off the trade, but one guy did pull off a trade for Tyrese Halliburton after he joined the Indiana Pacers as their head coach.
It was the coach at the time of the Mavericks, Rick Carlisle, who has had his eye on Tyrese Halliburton and has believed in Tyrese Halliburton since the jump and has every reason to say this after going up three games to one with that perfect, damn near perfect game in the biggest situation by Halliburton. He was really throwing the ball ahead tonight too, which was really important for us. And to not have any turnovers in any of those situations too is it's pretty remarkable, but this is, this has become his thing.
And, you know, there will be a new statistical category, perhaps named after him somewhere down the line. Um, you know, him and Chris Paul, these guys, you know, there aren't a lot of guys. I know Stockton didn't turn it over much back, back when he played. Um, there are others, you know, LeBron James didn't turn it over very much.
Um, you can go, you can go right down, down the line, some of the all time greats. And so, um, I know he takes great pride in it and that's, that's a motivating factor. And he's going to have to be better than SGA because that appears to be what's next because unless Oklahoma City suffers a three game losing streak after winning 68 games in the regular season. And unless the Pacers suffer a three game losing streak after doing what they did in the first four games of this series, which is essentially run the Knicks out of buildings or run them down after the Knicks have big leads in their own building. These two are going to meet in the NBA finals. And that's something the Knicks fans are going to have to deal with because they're going to have to dig deep now, everybody. This team that felt, everybody felt destined and they're celebrating the dispatching of the defending champion Celtics. Saying, we're going to take, at least this time around, we're going to take on the Pacers and OG's not going to have a hammy and Brunson's not going to have an ankle. We're going to be healthy.
Only one once. That's it. They're not the better team. They're not the deeper team. They're not the better coach team.
That's a fact. It's tough to, it's tough to handle right now. It ain't easy. It's not easy because, you know, Knicks are supposed to beat these Pacers because, you know, they had a better record than the Pacers last year. It was because they were injured. That's why they didn't beat the Pacers. Now they were healthy at home court advantage, dropped in their laps because the Celtics blew two 20-point leads at home and then lost their all-world player to an Achilles injury. And the Cavs in their 64 wins, they got hurt, they got eliminated. That's the reason why the Pacers made it to the Knicks in the first place.
Well, guess what? This is a better team. And unless the Knicks find some reserve here, some kind of way to slow down the Pacers and defend Halliburton in a way that calls me one turnover. Just give me one.
Force one. Keep Siakam off the boards. Have an answer for him. Have an answer for Miles Turner.
Have an answer for Neesmith and Nembhard. TJ McConnell coming off the bench. The killer last night, that killer three that put the nail in a coffin from Obi Toppin, for crying out loud, in front of Chalamet. Got country in Chalamet again.
I think that was the most depressing and disappointing part. Toppin? For a Knicks fan to have Obi Toppin.
Yeah. That's the guy that put the nail in the coffin after Turner fouls out. So they've got to win game five, force game six, put the pressure on them again, because you don't want to go back to the garden in game seven, then win game seven. Good luck with the way that these Pacers are playing and being coached. This is what the leader of the Knicks had to say afterwards.
We've been a team that has kind of found a way to do the impossible when it always seemed impossible. You know, we just keep fighting. So it's going to be a testament to our whole playoff run. You know, now we have to be in one of the biggest fights of our lives and of our season. And it starts with next game. So just taking it game by game. Don't look ahead. Just worry about the first quarter of the next game and we'll deal with the rest later. Yeah.
I mean, that's Carl Anthony Towne sitting next to the leader in Brunson. You know. Does Cat need Tom Cruise or something? Because it's impossible. Well, as you know, that was my review of Mission Impossible. As you sit around and you talk about the mission and how you need to complete the mission. And then everyone around says, well, that's impossible. And then they cut to the next scene where you as the fan of the movie already know what the mission is and how impossible it is. And now we cut to Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.
Rich, if I can offer just a slight bit of pushback. You said that earlier that you felt this was a must win for the Pacers going back to the garden. But the Knicks are three and five in the playoffs at home. So they home isn't even a sanctuary for them. It's the other thing, too, is what is their record in front of Shalom?
Should he just stay home? That's not for me. I mean, I'm sure that every game. So it's why would you blame it on Shalom? You can blame it on Ben Stiller, too. And maybe those guys should stay home. I don't think it's on them. You could blame it.
You know, I'm a celebrity. You know what they need? They need more.
More of the fans all wearing the same shirt because those teams are going to the finals. I guess so. I can't believe you just hill turned shallow me. You could blame it on the sunshine.
The moonlight, the good times don't blame it on the shallow. Pacers didn't. Pacers didn't mind doing it in front of Triple H. John Cougar, Mellencamp and Pat. Now we're talking Indiana's finest electric wages from New Hampshire last night.
They were at the American Express table. I mean, come on now. That was getting fired up. Call them sons of bees. I know that. Let's go.
That was great. I saw that nobody talks to shallow me that way and gets away with it. I mean, he called them all out to spite. But probably no shallow me from from college game day. Right.
Didn't you pick games? At any rate, the bottom line is the Knicks are up the creek right now. And the question is, is what do they do with this paddle?
What do they do? You know, and you know. Tyrese Halliburton, to his credit, got it done.
End of story. Who are the ones who call him overrated? I need to know names. I want answers. And I can it's tough for me to handle the truth, which is he's the best player in the series, best player on the court, best player in the series.
And Siaka might be one B. We'll take a break. Our friend from ESPN, Brian Windhorst, will be back on this program. He's getting set to see if Oklahoma City can complete their mission tonight. It's mission possible, I think, in that respect. Mission likely?
Mission likely. Doesn't have the same ring to it. You know, but he's going to join us next. Brian Windhorst from ESPN. And the NFL, there's zero margin for error.
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Ask your doctor about Evglis and visit evglis.lily.com or call 1-800-Lily-Rx or 1-800-545-5979. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show. We're on the Roku Sports Channel. Radio audience will rejoin in a moment, but this man is pressed for time, so let's hop on right now with him, our friend from ESPN joining us. All camera ready, Brian Windhorst. How are you, Brian?
Good to see you, man. I'm sorry. I don't mean to rush you, Rich.
Whatever you need. Brian, you're not rushing me. I'm jamming you up. That's the way I look at it. You know what I mean? I'm just jamming you up.
Like all mixed fans do when they see a gym. Brian, you know what I mean? I live in existence where I can be in a hotel room in Oklahoma City and yet have absolutely negative free time. So that's how I roll. Okay. All right. You're not Netflixing. You're doing your job, man. No, I promise. I got it.
You know, your phone must be crazy busy and ringing and what have you. So, what's your sense of the Pacers-Nicks series and why it is currently three games to one, Brian? Well, it's three to one because the Knicks allowed the Pacers to take game one from them. You know, I don't want to necessarily just say they blew it because the Pacers were and are a great team. But you know, you can survive a game where Tyrese Halliburton is awesome or whoever you're playing, you can survive a game if you don't hand one away. In a series that's close, you just can't.
This is sort of obvious analysis. You know, in a series that's tight, you can't hand a game away. And if the Knicks had won game one, which they should have, this is 2-2 and the Knicks are going home with home court advantage and they're in a much better position. And if this feels like you've heard this before, I was saying this exact same thing to Cavs fans the last round because the Cavs totally botched slash let the Pacers steal game two in that series from them. And then when they got their, you know, their noses smashed in game four in Indiana, they went home down 3-1 like the Knicks are instead of it being 2-2, which it should be. The difference between these two teams is not that great. There's some issues that the Knicks are facing, having difficulty overcoming.
But this is not a wide gap. And so that's why, you know, if you're a Knicks fan, you're probably pretty frustrated. And if you're a Pacers fan, you're feeling pretty proud. Brian Windhorst here on the Rich Eisen Show. Our radio audience has just rejoined us. So what are the Pacers doing that have caused the Knicks, Fitz and Tom Thibodeau to stare at the ceiling over the next night to try and save his season?
Brian? They're playing so fast, Rich. They're playing so fast. This is what they do. This is the way they're designed. They're designed to wear you out over the course of a game, over the course of a series. You know, if you watched the game last night, there was this huddle in the second half, I'm pretty sure my memory serves, where they're playing the audio of Tibbs.
And I mean, I'm not sure how previous it was to the actual, when they played it, because sometimes they have to okay that stuff. So, but Tibbs is really challenging his players. He's like, sprint, run back, get back, run with them. And you look at Mikael Bridges and he's panting and Karl Towns is like, you know, towelling off, you know, like they're tired. And that's what they do. They're running, number one. Number two, they're attacking Brunson and Karl Towns on defense.
And like, I don't want to make it seem like this is a revolutionary concept. Every team goes after those guys. And by the way, they win many games because Brunson and Towns are awesome offensively and they crush. It's a proposition that the Knicks are ready to sign up for.
And they both made all NBA. I do not want to make this sound like the Pacers just unearthed this concept, but against the Pacers, the Knicks are having problems handling it. They're having trouble overcoming that side. You know, in last night's game, when Hialiburton had the ball, 25 times they set a screen to get, to take advantage, to get Brunson on him.
25 times. And a lot of those times Brunson didn't even get in position. Hialiburton just ran right past him. And so you're wondering, well, how is Hialiburton kicking the ball to these wide open shooters? You say, why are these guys wide open? They're wide open because the guys are running to the rim to try to get in Hialiburton's way because he zoomed past Brunson on a switch or on a pick and roll. And again, I am not, this is not an insult to Jalen.
This is not, you know, but this is what they're attacking. So in this series, when Carl Townes and Jalen Brunson are on the court together, the Knicks have been outscored by 24 points. A two man lineup is not, does not make or break a team. There's, there's other lineups where I could find where it's very positive, but your two best players are getting, you know, and then last night it was only minus four, Rich. It wasn't like it was a glaring hole, but they didn't lose by 30 last night. They lost by nine. They gave up 130 points and Hialiburton was awesome. But the margins against the Pacers are very thin. And, you know, you're basically in a situation where Hialiburton's scoring 32 generating 38 more points off assists. That's awesome. And Brunson's scoring 31 and generating, I don't know what his number is, generating something less than that off assist.
So there's your difference right there. And it's hard. It's hard. It's hard to play the Pacers. They're a really good team. So how do the Knicks win three in a row? Well, first off, they've got to do better at the point of attack. Just, you know, you don't watch the film.
Just trust me. Hialiburton is getting right past the screen and into attack mode like that. Super duper fast. Absolutely not acceptable. So they just got to do a better job of that. They don't have to shut him down. You're not holding them to three points. They need to do a better job point attack.
The second thing they need to do, and I know this sounds like basic stuff your eighth grade C.Y.O. coach would tell you, don't turn the ball over. You know, the turnovers are crushing.
It's like, you know, lifeblood to the Pacers. You know, Josh Hart had five turnovers last night, for example. You just can't afford a non-ball handle like Josh Hart to have five turnovers. Don't turn the ball over. Keep the turnovers down. Fight a little bit more on defense.
And all of a sudden, the margins look a lot different. And again, Rich, if they take care of Game 1, it's 2-2. This is not some 3-0 series where it's been outscored by 75 points.
The margin is not that great. The Knicks can overcome it. The Knicks can win Game 5, and they can get it back to Indiana.
But they're going to have to clean it up. Their margin for error is very thin. Brian Windhorst here on the Rich Eisen Show from Oklahoma City. And so how do the Timberwolves win three in a row, Brian?
It's almost the exact same advice. Actually, I felt kind of the same about the Wolves and the Knicks in the last two days. I don't think the Knicks played poorly last night.
I know that you can highlight individual moments. Like, I see people criticizing Mikhail Bridges. Yeah, there were moments where he got lost defensively. He also made four out of five threes.
Oji Ananobi had 22. Towns has had some really good moments in the series. Brunson had 31. You know, the Wolves the other night scored 126 points, shot 51 percent from the field and 43 percent from three-point range. In the fourth quarter, they scored 41 points in the fourth quarter against one of the best defenses of the last 20 years or so.
The idea that they were dominated or that Ant Edwards didn't deliver, I think that's flawed. What happened is when you play Oklahoma City, your margin for error is this. So in this situation, they had 23 turnovers.
And it's not because they're bumbling, stumbling around. You know, Oklahoma City tries to take the ball from you. That's what they do. That's what they did in October. That's what they do in May.
That's probably what they're going to try to do in June. And they give up 19 offensive rebounds. There was one point in this game, Rich, I think it was midway through the third quarter, where the Thunder had 23 more shot attempts than the Wolves.
People are screaming about Shays fouls. The Wolves take more free throws. It is the turnovers and the offensive rebounds, the old-fashioned possession game.
I get to shoot more than you. Now, the Wolves did a really good job. By the end of the game, it was only 11. But still, against the team like Oklahoma City, you can't let them have double-digit more shots.
You will not win. So basically, they need to stop turning it over. And I think specifically Julius Randle, who averaged seven assists in the last round against the Warriors, he's averaging three assists in this round. And that is a big difference. It may not seem like that big of a difference, but those four or five baskets a game are so important because it means that Ant is not creating. And what's happening when Ant has the ball in his hands is that they're sending two and three bodies to him. They double-teamed him 100% of the times he was going into the lane. Now, ideally, you get into more up-tempo and stuff and you don't have to deal against a set defense.
But when you're going up against two players every time you go in the lane, it's tough. He was kicking the ball out and his shooters were making the shots. So having Julius Randle be more of a playmaker, and by the way, he had five turnovers in one basket. That's not going to get it done.
Randle's assistance would really help them offensively. So you're saying the Timberwolves are getting more free throws than Oklahoma City. I should cancel my tickets to the free-throw merchant of Oklahoma City, Shakespeare in the Park. Ryan, is that what you're saying?
I should cancel that? I'm learning. I learn every day.
Earlier this round, Tyrese Halliburton taught me about aura farming. So I learned that, and I've now learned that calling somebody a free-throw merchant is an insult. I mean, I agree it's kind of, you're mocking them, but now people are using it as an epithet. And I'm like, oh, okay. Well, I don't know. Maybe I'm going to have to issue an apology for him saying the words.
I'm like, I'm sorry. Shea tries to get fouls. He does many things extraordinarily well with the ball. He also is pretty good when he doesn't have the ball. One of the things he tries to do is get fouled.
That's right. As thousands of basketball players were before and thousands after him, he tries to get fouled. And if you put your hand in the wrong position, he puts his arm there and gets fouled. That is not why the series is going the way it is. Try not handing or letting the Thunder take the ball from you and get a defensive rebound. By the way, the Wolves had a bunch of offensive rebounds themselves. It wasn't like, you know, the Thunder are susceptible in that area too. But Shea is, he gives you no margin for error. In fact, that's what I would just say about this Thunder team.
You have to hit, the level that you have to hit to beat them once is really high, which is why they won 68 games in the regular season and have been extremely tough to beat in the playoffs. Before I let you go with your day, Brian, your colleague Shom Sharanya on Pat's show yesterday said he believes this is going to be one of the craziest off-seasons ever once all the pieces from the NBA Finals and draft settle. Would you agree with that assessment, Brian?
I do. I think the conditions are right. How about that for being in Oklahoma? The conditions are right.
I would say, you know, Blockbuster Watch. And I'll say for two reasons. One, you know, we're in an era where the salary cap has gone up very little in the last couple of years. So we've got a log jam with salaries. It's going to go up a lot next couple years, but there's a little bit of a log jam with salaries. The salary growth has outpaced cap growth. The aprons are coming, so it's squeezing a bunch of teams. Not only that, a whole bunch of teams went all in over the last three or four years and were disappointed. And so those teams are trying to retrofit.
There's financial pressures with the new rules forcing parity. And you've got some star players who may want to move. I don't know for sure whether Giannis does.
Conditions are right for it. If he does, that's going to have a lot of fallout. After Giannis, I think you're going to have KD, wherever he may go, will cause a lot of fallout.
And I know what people are going to say. Well, who? Give me the 11 players who are going to get traded.
Let me say, let me just give you one example as I have to leave you. Two years ago, I could argue that the most impactful trade that happened in the NBA was when Drew Holliday became a Boston Celtic. If I told you on May 28th, 2023, that Drew Holliday was going to be a Boston Celtic, you would say, well, number one, the Celtics are going to win the title, which they did. Number two, you're going to say, well, how does Drew Holliday become a Boston Celtic? He plays for the Bucks. Why would the Bucks trade Drew Holliday to the Celtics? It would dramatically help a team that they're competing against for a championship. Well, Dan Willard got traded to Milwaukee and Drew Holliday ended up in Portland and on the market.
And so this is why it's a little bit unpredictable and I say the conditions are right. What I think you're going to see is some people and some assets and people move some places that could potentially trigger other deals that become fascinating. And I also think you've got a number of teams with their toes on the sidelines not necessarily making calls right now, but when they see things, the conditions are right for them to move.
And I also think, Rich, we're going to see this action around the draft. There's not a lot of free agent money out there. There's not a lot of big name free agents. The two biggest free agents are James Harden and LeBron. Both of them, I think, are staying with their teams.
LeBron might not even opt out. And then you've got Julius Randle and Myles Turner, who are guys who are still playing, but there's not a lot of cap space out there. So the action is going to be in and around the draft because people may use draft picks. Also, there's a handful of teams, some of them even high up in the draft, like I would watch very closely Philly. I would watch very closely San Antonio at two and three, where you may see those picks come into play. So Shams and I are getting ready to work very hard in and around the draft, not just in the first week of July.
OK, I appreciate that. And 30 seconds here, if you'll indulge your best call on Giannis, if he does go, it will be to a spot because they have the assets or it'll be to a spot because he is personally asked to go to that spot. We don't know that you don't know.
We don't know. But that's important. I would say this. There is a big difference about whether it's a bidding war or if it's the Bucks working with Giannis to get to a preferred destination. And the other thing I'm going to say, when you run to your trade machine and think you're going to out think everybody, the Bucks do not control their first round draft pick for five years. What I mean by that is they've either traded the pick itself or they've traded the swap. So if you have the worst record, the other team can swap with you. So that means it doesn't behoove the Bucks to do a deal where they're in a rebuild unless they get their picks back, which are pretty much controlled by New Orleans. So unless there's a deal that involves the Pelicans handing the stuff back, if on the other side of the deal it's some sort of rebuild, I don't think Milwaukee is going to entertain it.
So those are unknowns as far as what Giannis or the Bucks may or may not want to do with that. Brian, you're the best. Thanks for the time, Matt. Go to your next 15 gigs. Take care of yourself. We'll chat again soon. Have a good day. The great Brian Winhorse, our favorite right here. Off he goes.
Okay. A couple of takeaways from that. Number one, the two teams up three games to one are the ones that have the smallest margin for the opponent to beat him. Didn't he say that both times for the Pacers? You got to have the, you know, the margin for error is this much for the Knicks and the margin for error is even smaller for the Minnesota Timberwolves. These teams are up three games to one because they're playing better. And I guess in the case of the Knicks and the Pacers, he points out the reason why it's three games to one is because the Knicks handed game one away.
And I was saying that the day after, man. I'm just wondering if by the end of the day, we're going to be talking about this series was over when the Halliburton shot went off backheels straight up and all the way down the chimney and through didn't touch anything but net to force overtime. And then obviously the Knicks had a better shot of winning it after that. I mean, they had a two possession lead in that overtime and I'm just wondering if you know what that's going to be.
That's going to be the whole conversation. Like everybody thinks the 86 World Series ended when the ball went through Buckner's legs, but there was a game seven. And the Red Sox were ahead in that game.
Yes, they were after a rain out the next night. So everybody was like arrested. And everybody thought that that's, you know, in retrospect, that's when the series ended. I'm just wondering again, and the way it looks right now is I'm for Knicks fans, unfortunately, right.
But and then also. I guess around the draft, huh? That's when everything's going to be moving around the draft. That your Sixers in the the Spurs, they hold the second and third, the third and second picks, respectively, go Spurs and then six. It's a much deeper draft as opposed to last year. So, yeah, I mean, teams are going to want players that are out right now.
I have no doubt in my mind after decades of study on this subject that the Philadelphia 76ers will take that third pick traded to someone who will then become an all time great NBA player while the Sixers player will be out of the league playing in Europe and out of that within. I don't know, four years. Is there an example of that that you could think of, Chris, that he's referring to? You won a championship last year.
Yeah, I don't know. Third pick. There's a guy sitting right there. No, let's trade for. Oh, here's Moses Malone.
Let's trade him like Brad Doherty, the one that traded away Jason Tatum. It's different people. Come on now.
I'm saying they have a long history, Rich. We can go back. Who do you want?
I wave a wand and you can't be honest. You want Kevin Durant? You really want Durant?
On the Sixers? Yes. Sure.
Why not? OK. But who are you giving up?
Nobody. Number three pick. Take it.
Get out of here. We're going to win now with Embiid. Embiid, Durant, Maxey. Don't forget playoff P. And Paul George.
That's pretty fun. But I have no doubt they are going to do the not like Spike Lee. They're going to do the wrong thing. OK. Without question.
That's who you want is Durant. I don't know. But I just I don't have faith in them. Like I said, history is on my side when it comes to them.
Making boneheaded draft day maneuvers. So. Well, from what I saw on social media, you and Durant have something in common. Both talk?
No. You both like to chat it up with Miss Brink. With who?
With Cam Brink? I've never chatted with her. Oh, my bad. You just wanted to listen, bro. I got enough on my plate. I'm just I saw that on the old social media machine. Well, Katie, he's a Hooper. He loves Hoopers. He was at the downtown Hoops dojo last night.
I know. He's checking out the Sparks. All of them. Eight four four two or four riches.
The number dial on the program. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime from streaming to shopping. Prime helps you get more out of your passions. So whether you're a fan of true crime or prefer a nail biting novel from time to time, with services like Prime Video, Amazon Music and fast free delivery, Prime makes it easy to get more out of whatever you're into or getting into.
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See Lowe's dot com for more details. You know, when I was a kid, I loved the Steelers and I one time I was able to get into the locker room with a guy who knew Bradshaw. I saw Lynn Swann over by the locker room. How old were you? I was about 10.
And and my guy that was president, Bradshaw worked with my dad. He goes, you want to go say hey to Lynn Swann? And I was like, I'm OK. I so badly wanted to do it, but I was so nervous that I just couldn't bring myself to doing it. And and then most of my life, even as an adult, I was like, why didn't I say hi to Lynn Swann?
I would have really that would have been really, really cool. I used to before I moved to Kansas City when I was a kid, I we had a football pencil machined at our school. And I used to give the Steeler pencils to this guy that worked with my dad that was from Pittsburgh. And so the Steelers were playing. I was living in California. They were playing the L.A. Rams and he took me.
I was in first grade and that changed my life. I was a such a Steelers fanatic as a kid to this day. If I need to remember a number and a phone number, an address or something, right.
I'll associate it with a player from like the 70s, late 70s Steelers. If you name a number, I'll see if I mean, I don't even know. Go for it, Chris. This is all this is we have a plan. We have a plan. This is OK.
This is this all jog. Go through the go to the pro football reference standby. And and we'll we'll we'll put together a phone number for Paul Rudd area code first. We'll figure it out for his Steelers. What year in particular? I don't know. May go like seventy nine. Nineteen seventy nine Steelers. Call him up. I don't know.
This is fantastic. I have no idea. Seventy eight.
Seventy nine. What? You know, I don't know. Let's see. You got it over there, Chris. OK. For Paul Rudd.
Let's let's do Rocky Blyer. He's twenty. Twenty. Correct.
When Swan. Eighty eight. Benny Cunningham. Eighty nine.
Larry Brown. Seventy nine. Nailing it.
Or do this. Theobell. Theobell. Eighty three. Eighty three. If you want.
Come on. Say a number and I'll see if I can get that player. Nice. Sixty three. Sixty three. Was that Ernie Holmes? Tom. Oh, no. Tom Dornbrook. Yeah. Oh, right, right, right, right, right. Ernie Holmes was he was before seventy nine.
OK. Give another one. Forty seven. Forty seven was Mel Blount.
Correct. Fifty nine. Fifty nine was Jack Ham. Fifty two. Fifty two. Mike Webster.
They're all correct. Fantastic. Pretty impressive. Paul Rudd. Fifty eight for the win. Fifty eight for the win would be Jack Lambert from Kent State University. Guys.
Paul Rudd. I mean, name me another Chiefs fan who could do that, right? Name me another Chiefs fan, by the way.
Seems like he's coasting in on the Chiefs fandom. I got it. OK, very good. Very good. He's one of his co-stars of Wet Hot American Summer. He's going to join us in studio next hour. Elizabeth Banks.
They go way back in the day. Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks. Great stuff coming up in the next two hours. Elizabeth Banks in studio in hour two. Jeff Garland in studio hour three.
So that'll be a lot of fun. Eight four four two oh four. Rich is the number to dial to have a conversation with us on this program. I heard, you know, watching the Knicks and the Pacers, I heard a window crash. It was the home run ball of Ellie Dela Cruz bouncing off, skipping off the water in Kansas City. Did you see that one last night? Yeah, I, I sent that to Stonestreet, one of the minority partners of the Kansas City Royals and his big slick.
Speaking of children's charities, Children's Mercy Children's Hospital is going to make some coin from the great folks at Big Slick this very weekend when the Tigers are in town. I mean, that's a pretty big series for the Royals and the Tigers. But any rate, I asked Stonestreet, has he ever seen a ball hit where Dela Cruz hit it? And he said, Bo Jackson, maybe. But certainly not. I don't think Bo went oppo right into the field.
I would believe it if someone told me. Yeah, right. That was measured at 450. It seemed like it was way further. I've never I've never seen a ball like float in in the the the water in Kansas City. Now, like it's like found off the like the fountain that's coming down and into the collection area of the water. Never seen it. Never seen anything there.
Never seen a ball. And then there's Otani, who is, I believe, the fastest to 20 home runs by the third player to get to 20 home runs by fifty five games in Dodgers history. And did you see Max Muncy's quote on watching Otani every day now? It's really cool, Muncy said.
A little bit of jealousy, probably. You know, he basically miss hits a fly ball today and it still goes out. It's just one of those things where he does that stuff that no normal human beings can do. It's really fun to watch and see it. 20 home runs in fifty five baseball games, 20 home runs for Shoyo time.
And we're seeing a lot of great stuff. Major League Baseball. Carlos Redone, you know, Tony's former workplace last night, all in seven scoreless with 10 strikeouts.
Only two other lefties have done that in Yankee history. Their names are Whitey Ford and Ron Guidry. Those are. And that's an update on both your baseball teams, Mike.
Thank you. You choose this weekend. You have to choose this weekend.
I'm going Saturday night. Excuse me. That is not that is not the answer. I mean, what are we doing? Second, that's Yankees.
You choose the Yankees this. Yes. This weekend.
100 percent. You're going to the game. I'll be wearing Saturday.
Yes. Did you choose Saturday? Because that's the Fox game. You're getting the tickets. I got to get in the tickets because that's the Fox game.
I got in. I'm going Friday and Sunday. So we got the bases covered.
So good. So we have Yankee fans. I'm going Friday and Sunday. Yeah. We have Yankee fans all weekend long. So you are choosing the Yankees this weekend. Yeah.
And your story. They're playing better right now. What if they play in the World Series again? See the front.
So you're front running. They play in the World Series again. I'm still choosing. I got to go Yankees. It's just an outrage.
Wow. I can be a great fan. I like the Dodgers. I'm not against the Dodgers. I don't like the Lakers.
I don't cheer for the Lakers, by the way. The Angels. I tried the Dodgers, too.
Let me tell you something. I got another team. The Dodgers hurt me so badly last October. The Dodgers hurt me so bad. Well, Freddie Freeman, an ice cube. Yeah. All of them. They hurt so badly. But even I can say.
Otani, Freeman, Betts. What what's to hate about it? Exactly. You can't dislike the team. You know what I mean?
They're like you, Chris, when when Jeter and Bernie Williams were we're winning World Series, right? No. Really? You hated them, too? Yeah.
Brockman's. Come on. He's never. I gave him a shot. He's a chance. You know exactly where that was going to go. Why? I'm with Brockman. He's not going to get away. You got. I mean, respectfully. Look, you're dealing with. Yeah. Chris is all about his thinking of which. Speaking of which, if you add it up.
The division leads of all three divisions in the National League, the National East, Central and West, if you added up the leads held by the current leaders of those divisions, they would equal the Yankees current lead in the American League East seven games. Because I'm looking up as I was told to do by a guy I just gave a shot to. I mean, OK, I just gave a shot to be above it and he didn't take it.
That guy told me all I did. You'll be looking up and see the Red Sox. And all I see is nothing but blue sky. And all I look down, I need binoculars to not even see the Red Sox. That would be the Tampa Bay Rays there. It's not going great.
I'm looking down and I see everybody. Not going good. Seven games.
They lead the American League East by going for the sweep of the Angels tonight to take on your Dodgers next. Maybe Soto was the mush. Soto is no mush. Soto was smashing.
I know he actually was, to be very, very honest. Unlike right now. Liz Banks second hour coming up. Hey, but the Mets are winning in spite of Juan Soto, who's now below 230. Oh, that's fine. Let's talk about the good things we're doing.
Wow. Soto is hitting 220 and change. He's near in the interstate. Juan Slomo is the nickname. Third by the 21. Two point eight four earned run average amongst our pitchers far and away. The best the Mets are playing well.
That's our plane. Well, Edwin Diaz is not allowed to hit in twenty seven. He's back. And you know, and you know, and you know, Soto is going to hit at some point. You know that that's why you're right now, because you know, it's going to happen.
And you know what? I'm not going to be you. I'll be better than you. I'm not going to when he's on a roll and on fire. I'm not going to say don't be better than him. Actually, I lied. I will be worse. Don't lie. Hey, we didn't get to this yesterday, but I wanted to.
We had an overreaction Monday on a Tuesday topic. We've got a nice home run chase sneaky going on right now. Judge Swarber and Otani. Judge Swarber, Otani. Well, Cal Raleigh is throwing his name in the mix as well.
Nineteen. One of the chances this is more exciting than the 98 chase with less of the saving baseball around it. The 98 chase.
Nothing will be. Yeah, that was amazing. But that was saving the sport. And those guys were juiced out of their minds. Well, I know that right now, you know, we were suspecting they were juiced out of their minds.
We didn't, you know, and they weren't the only ones who were so out. The guys on the other end of that baseball were also both, you know, there were a there was a lot of that going on. I think this home run chase has a chance to be really, really special, especially especially with the background of Judge, you know, flirting with 400. That's another, you know, Tony, you know what he's doing. Judges currently in a position of going of going two for five on a night and lowering his average. I mean, that's I was explaining to Cooper was, you know, he's dipped. He's a three ninety five. I know that.
I know that because he went one for four last night. Yeah. But it is exciting.
I mean, we didn't we just actually talked baseball and it wasn't, you know, like what's wrong with the sport? Exactly. You know what I mean? And there are a very, very group of very, very talented players like like all time talented players that we're seeing right now.
Oh, yeah. And it's exciting. It sure is. And I'm just thankful that my team is surviving in a Mets town.
So you can do really dude. I'm not giving this up like this is this is where we're not even in June yet. Yeah, we can tell. They're the same number of wins. Exactly. Chris, what are we talking about? It is it is it is at least half a Mets town.
Not really. In the house, represent represent to New England. Stay in your through way. The mayor's office with Sean Casey from believe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
