James Edward III: The Knicks Don't Want To Be Satisfied With How Far They Got

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Did you just ask me if I believe that he's the right guy? Yes, it's clear that Brunson thought the idea of Thibodeau not being back with the Knicks was absurd. The Rich Eisen Show. So congrats Knicks fans back to a little bit of square earlier on the show. WWE superstar The Miz coming up, actor Joshua Jackson, plus your phone calls, latest news and more. And now it's Rich Eisen.

That's right. Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Great chat with The Miz and our number one of this program, the actor Joshua Jackson, who's in the new Karate Kid Legends movie, which is available now exclusively in theaters, released last week. He's joining us in studio hour number three. I have a lot of questions for him.

We're going to have a great time chatting with him and I appreciate him coming into studio, especially since he was supposed to be on last Thursday's show and I called him for jury duty and because I'm a lead pipe wielding American. I went and did what I'm supposed to do, which is postpone. Postpone.

Yeah, I'm going to say try to get out of it. You waited that long until you actually. I was playing the system and got played.

No, I didn't. I'm going to serve if necessary, but that's for a long that's for another day. I need to know what's going on with the New York Knicks and a man who covers the team for the athletic is joining us here on the Rich Eisen Show. A maiden voyage here on the program. James Edwards, the third joining us here on the show. Good to see you, James. How are you? I'm doing well, Rich. Really appreciate you having me on.

You got it, man. So listen, I read your coverage, James, and I saw you in a double byline story after the Knicks season was over, essentially saying that Leon Rose of the of the Knicks front office was in favor of keeping Tom Thibodeau and that it's essentially that plus Jalen Brunson essentially basically saying what a silly question it is to even question his tenure here as he dropped the mic in his final press conference of the season. Made me think he was safe and he's not.

What happened, James? I think in the long haul, this organization, obviously they don't want to just be satisfied with how far they got. And you can see how maybe they, those, the suits, those in higher powers view this maybe season as a bit of fool's gold, right? The first round series against the Pistons, they beat the Pistons in six, but the point differential in that series was five or eight points, right? They didn't play great basketball credit to the Pistons who are a good team, but it, the Knicks were down in the fourth quarter in those games and the heroics of Jalen Brunson, who's an incredible player and Carl Anthony towns was incredible player, helped them squeeze that out. Then you look, the Boston series, they're down 20 and the games one and two, they make miraculous comes back, comebacks and both. They were down 14 plus and pretty much every game in that series except one or two. And then you look at the Indiana Pacers, once Boston's at home, Cleveland's at home, they put together this roster that being the next, that is full of this talent. And they, they struggled, obviously they lost, but they also struggled with the Indiana Pacers. So I think when you kind of scope out and you look, you could understand how maybe the powers that be maybe looked at this, this season, this, this playoff run is a bit of fool's gold, whether that's fair or unfair.

I don't get paid big enough bucks to, to answer that, but it is certainly I think a reason for, for how we got here today. Did something happen in exit interviews? Leon Rose, apparently sitting in on these, that the players said stuff that, you know, their body language was saying throughout the season and argument, as we all saw taking place on the bench at the end of the disastrous game one regular, uh, you know, um, game one of the, uh, Eastern conference finals in regulation where they were arguing, seemingly barking at cat. Then we're seeing all these videos come out now and in light of Thibodeau's firing, taking a look at things differently. Did anything happen in exit interviews based on your knowledge, James?

They did it in a unique way. And, and Begley S and Y was the first to report this James Dolan, um, sat in on the exit interviews with the prominent figures. And I've been covering the NBA for seven years.

Uh, this was my eighth season. I have never really heard of an owner sitting in on, on exit meetings of with players. And, and obviously they evaluate coaches and things like that, but it was very unique. Um, it sounds like to me that there was a hope that there would be an admittance of some of the flaws that, that took place this year, um, that necessarily wasn't the case. And I think it's a situation where this organization wants to, they need an, they say they need a new voice.

Um, tips has been there a long time. He's the best coach they've had in over a quarter century. To be fair to him, this roster got put together hours before the started training camp and they still got this far. Um, I think one thing too, with all the talk about this team, obviously they had a successful season. And I think a lot of, I think, I know a lot of the issues that have arise and been talked about, it was all basketball related stuff. It wasn't personal drama. It wasn't like you were going in the locker room and these guys were like, couldn't stand each other.

It was all basketball related stuff. And I think that was probably the biggest issue throughout the course of the season. This team is very talented, but they struggled against the other top teams in the NBA during the regular season, they would put a great performance together. They would put a bad performance together. There was no consistency. Um, they talked often about the lack of communication that they had on the floor. Um, there was always kind of talks about, we need to put our egos aside, we need to sacrifice.

And it just felt like in terms of basketball, the team was not able to click. Um, so whether or not that came across in those meetings, I'm sure it did. Uh, but those were common themes that anybody, you don't have to be, you didn't have to be an insider to know that, um, this team consistently talked about how they technically did not gel consistently enough with one another during this run that again, landed them to the Eastern conference finals for the first time in 25 years. I gotta be honest though, James, when you hear egos need to be checked, that sounds personal. You know what I mean? That sounds like somebody's personality is grinding a gear here that might lead to lack of cohesion in a basketball sense.

I think Josh Hart might've been the one who would say, uh, uh, that quote about egos need to be checked at the door. So, you know, which is it, you know what I mean? Like it's, it's so confusing from the outside, looking in here to figure out what there has to be more to this iceberg.

We just saw the tip, you know, certainly. And I think that's a great point. And I do think when we're talking about egos and sacrificing, it's, it's basketball related.

Of course that stuff is rooted in personality. Um, but I just think this group did not, they couldn't find a way to gel. Uh, there were, there were talks that people didn't know that what their role was.

Um, it's, it certainly was a unique situation. I think if you were in the locker room every single day, again, it didn't, there wasn't like personal drama. It felt like it was a group that was, couldn't understand why it couldn't figure it out, why it couldn't be consistent, why it couldn't do things like, why, why do we continuously, why are we not communicating on defense? Uh, why are we not playing fast consistently? Why are we not moving the ball? Like it just felt like things that they couldn't figure out, um, to get done. And in the end, with the help of the Indiana Pacers, it ended their season.

James Edwards, a third of the athletic here on the Rich Isaac show covering the Knicks. All right, I'm not done before turning the page yet. Cause I'm reading so much stuff online. I don't know what's true and what's not. Is there an issue with, uh, Jalen Brunson's dad, Rick being an assistant on this team? Is there a problem in the locker room with this James? That has never been brought to my attention.

Okay. Um, yeah, that's never been now. If would I be surprised if there was a player or two that had an issue with it? I mean, it's a unique situation, right? I have never been told that, uh, Rick has, I know obviously been with tips for a long time, been with Leon Rose for a long time, brings value to the organization.

Now, I, like I said, I haven't been told that specifically by any players, but if you told me that there were players that were, uh, struggled with it at times, like you could understand why from a, a human personal standpoint. Well, I'm going to put the Knicks fan hat on here, whoever those players are. It's too bad. Like there's one guy out of everybody else, certainly with this Yana stuff that might be out there, James, that is untouchable, untouchable.

He is a Nick for life and it is the son of Rick Brunson period. End of story. And so that's the thing.

When I read that, I'm like, Oh man, you want to talk about how this thing can get ugly and spun out of control. It's that you're talking about Jaylen's dad and his presence is an issue. I, I mean, I'm, I'm, so I'm kind of glad to hear that you're, this hasn't been brought to bear to somebody who's an insider. Yeah, this wasn't something that, yeah, this wasn't something that like came up in conversations with people. It's not something that was talked about off to the side or anything, at least with me and a few others.

I know again, from a human standpoint, could you understand how somebody could have an issue with it? Of course. But Jaylen Brunson is the face of the Knicks. He's the best player of the franchise had in quite some time. He's a tremendous leader. He's a perfect representative of an organization and its transformation from somewhat laughing stock to stability and respect.

There's not a better face for that. And of course we know how talented he is as a player, but that's, that's how much Revere and how much kind of power he has here. Like he's in that when I mean power is like, he, this is his show. This is his team. This team was built around his abilities and his development of a player. Sir, you could remove the word somewhat from that statement. Again, I know you have sensitivities about covering the team and being around players that you, you have access to. They were laughing laughing stock.

And that's why, again, I'm somewhat surprised. So Thibodeau's firing means the team, the team is completely sold on the roster that they currently have. And thus it's this guy who didn't have the right rotations, didn't have the right ingenuity, didn't have the right touch, didn't have the right communication skills. And thus he's, he's the one that's got to go despite the laughing stock, no longer at all being the case for this franchise.

So James, so that was, that was my thing. Like you can point to reasons why you could come to the conclusion, why he was fired, right? Like this talented starting five, they, they were, they had a negative net rating for the second half of the year.

They struggled in the playoffs. If you want to say you should develop the bench, that's, that's fair, but there was a lot of young rookies on that bench. It was a situation where this guy, I thought maximized the situation, but as I mentioned at the top of the show, this team got put together hours before training camp, Carl Anthony towns was traded the Friday before training camp. That is a big piece.

And that's also comes with a lot of changes to how you operate, right? Like he's not the defender, Mitch Robinson is our highest as a heart and shine was like, you have to build a whole new system around that. And I think for Tibbs, the big thing for me is he's a guy who has helped turn this culture around. He has helped provide stability given that this team was put together in a year and not even a full year. And they still got to the Eastern college finals. Not everything needed to be perfect, but I thought just his track record alone would give him another season to try to rectify whatever it is that they felt was not correct this year. And that was my biggest thing. It's again, you can point to certain things, basketball stuff, why they decide that they maybe need to get another, another coach in there.

But I feel like out of respect for what he's done, give him another chance to try to smooth out whatever the basketball stuff is that, that they feel needs to be fixed. James Edwards, the third here on the rich eyes and show covering the next few minutes left with, with you, James. So let's turn the now, now I'm ready to turn the page. No, no, no, no, no. I mean, you want to talk about Michigan state? Um, hold on a minute. The answer to, I have it written down here.

I don't know. I love, I love Izzo. I'm happy to talk football if you'd like, James, we can, we can do that.

Okay. Um, so the Knicks are looking at who on a coaching front, because you're, you're hearing that there, who's the individual who's on the staff that they really like, and their concern is about being poached and there's word that, uh, that, uh, they're, they're afraid they might lose him and he could be the next guy. Although I'm sure Knicks fans are, are, are looking at some big names, at least what's the search looking like, James walk me through it. So I think, I think you're referencing Johnny Bryant, who was on the staff last year and left, uh, this past season for Cleveland.

He was just up. He was a finalist for the Phoenix job. Um, listen, there are assistant coaches in this league who I know do a lot and would be able to somewhat vouch for their opportunity to be a head coach. I think a lot of fans get enamored with what they don't know, right? Like we always want to see the rookie. We want to see the guy who hasn't played, like, let's see what he looks like. It's the same thing with assistant coaches do.

I know a little bit in other, in other reporters do, because we're around the assistant coaches, we know how much they do, but your general NBA or sports fan doesn't really know how much the other assistant coach does. Right. Um, so that is a name that is a potential candidate. He has been in the system. He is a, a, a, um, a guy that was brought in by worldwide West a few years ago.

Um, so that's definitely possible. Now people have mentioned Mike Malone. I don't see that happening. To me, that's, to me, that's like firing Tibbs and hiring Tibbs, uh, very similar, how they go about their business, both great coaches. I'm not saying that as a, as a knock by any means, but kind of from the same tree, one of Tibbs's mentors was Brendan Malone. That's, that's Michael Malone's father. Um, both are very much like have a plan and stick to their plan.

Both, um, play their starters a lot. If that is an issue for the front office, like Mike Malone has shown to do that too. It just, it feels like when you do these coaching searches, if you go from like the old school coach, the next coach is the young, uh, imaginative coach. When you move on from that coach, you go back to the old school coach.

Uh, so I, I just don't see that happening. Taylor Jenkins is the name to watch. Obviously he had success in, in Memphis, but you also, you, you want to learn why did they kind of run him out of town? Um, he's another CAA guy.

Obviously there's people that know the Nixon's CAA ties run strong. Um, James Borrego is the name to watch. I think, uh, Sean Sweeney in Dallas, who has been with Jason kid at every stop and the guy I covered in Detroit that, that is well-respected and very good and close friends with Giannis Antetokounmpo and helped him become the player that he is. Uh, Michael Norie in Minnesota was another guy that, go ahead.

I'm sorry. What about Jay Wright? What about him? What about going big, massive? Yeah. What do you got for me, James? So this is my thing with Jay, right? I'm not going to say it's not possible. It sounds like to me from all the stuff, whenever you hear Jay Wright talk about coaching, he's, he's, he's fine where he's at, but even more than that, if you're, you know, maybe they do. I'm just, this is just me talking. If you're Jalen, Josh and McHale, do you, do you want your college coach as your NBA coach?

Um, like it's like, you're out on your own now. Like maybe I could see that being a little weird. The other thing is if there's talks about the clickiness throughout the organization, there's nothing more clicky than the Villanova guys getting their Villanova coach. Right? Like I think obviously maybe there would be roster moves to come, but I don't, I don't think like for a situation or people were, if there were in fact players on easy with Jalen's dad being around like, dude, will they be any less on easy with the Villanova guys coach being around?

Like that's, that's something you have to consider. So Jay Wright is a phenomenal coach. I think he deserves an opportunity if he wants one, but I think there are other things to consider with that too. Dan Hurley.

I don't see it. Um, again, one of the, I think one of the best offensive minds in the sport, I don't know about the personality. He's a bit outspoken. Um, the Knicks as an organization don't necessarily, uh, like the most outspoken of people when they're behind microphones.

I just think that one would be kind of a hard to reign in. So basically you fire Tibbs to either bring in another Tibbs or you bring in, uh, who's Michael Malone or you bring in some other people who might be out there who may or may not be a fit after all, or you're, you go get somebody from another team, right? I, I kind of kid I kind of relationship with Jalen Brunson and obviously weird stuff going on in Dallas. Maybe he, I don't know this, maybe he would like to try another opportunity, but yeah, it's not like this isn't at the greatest coaching cycle in terms of Nate proven names that find a good blend of newness, but also have had success.

So they're either gonna have to take a risk or double down and get another person that was, um, somewhat similar to tips. And then there's, you mentioned Giannis, his name just moments ago, James, um, that my last one for you is, could there be a roster shakeup of massive proportions at the same time of a coaching change? I mean, this is going to be in the ether over the next two weeks with the draft coming up. Every insider that I've had on is saying, this is going to be a, a seismic off season that could potentially start draft night.

Uh, that's right around the corner. How do you do this hand and glove if Giannis does sort of raise his hand off camera and say, I want to go to the Knicks. I mean, or you can't do that because you're changing your coach, right? Like, yeah, no, yeah.

I think there's a lot going on and you're creating, you're a hundred percent correct. I think the big thing when it comes to Giannis, I think he would have to come out and tell the bucks, Hey, I only want to go to New York. And if you don't trade me to New York, I'm not resigning in two years. And Giannis does not strike me as a guy like that. The Knicks traded essentially the rest of their draft capital last summer to get the Cal bridges trading five first round picks. I have a 2030 pick swap left.

That's really of great significance. If you're the bucks and you're trading Giannis are you not rebuilding? You have to imagine you're going to start fresh.

You're not going to try to keep a float. I maybe they do. I, that would surprise me. Like, is there ways to get it done? Yeah. You'd probably have to factor in another team or two and it would be a big, long drawn out trade with a multiple and a multitude of names. I, that one still seems hard to me unless Giannis just straight up comes out and says, I'm only going to New York and Milwaukee then obliges. Um, when you look at somebody like Kevin Durant, like, is that possible? Uh, there's talks about other stars moving around in this league. So we'll see. I do think what you said, rich, like the coach, isn't the only issue here. I do think they have to consider some roster stuff, uh, whether big or small, I don't know. That's not my job, but they certainly, whatever they had, um, it necessarily, it didn't gel on the court always.

And I don't think you can solely put that on the coach. James appreciate the time of love to have you back on, but you wore the wrong hat. So I won't do it again. It's I won't, I never knew if I'd come back on. So I had to rep what no, you're fine. Stay true.

You know, you know, Sparty, let's go. It's not the only hat I had. I actually dug through a bunch of hats to get to this one just for your show. Beyond purposeful Hoskins. Take the wide shot again.

Take the wide shot again. Is that an actual diploma from Michigan state over your left? I was more focused on the shoe box.

You know, Brockman and I are curious about that sneaker collection. I got a little bit over here. There's worse addictions, right? So that's what I tell myself every day. Okay. Very good.

James. Great chatting with you. Thanks for the information. You appreciate it. I really appreciate you guys. Thank you for this change. Edwards the third right here in the athletic lots to unpack. We'll do that when we come back.

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That's O'Reilly Auto dot com slash Eisen. How many brothers do you have? Three.

Three. Yes. So you're the are you the lone? I'm the second oldest. So I had some power.

But you're the lone girl. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. So I played a lot of sports growing up. What'd you play? Soccer.

Okay. Yeah, I played on all boys teams. Karate Kid.

She plays soccer. Oh, yeah, I had to pretend to be bad at Karate Kid. I pretend I didn't know what I was doing, but I was better than Ralph Macchio at soccer.

And probably a karate kid too. Of course, I didn't train. I'm sure it would have been much better if I trained. That wasn't part of your role in the films. I could have kicked his ass. You could have swept the leg.

You could have done all that stuff. What was it like for you being a new actress in the world and getting to be in the Karate Kid right off the bat? What was that like for you, Elizabeth? Well, I had been in the business for about five years before that.

So it wasn't this sudden experience. I was the Burger King girl. I did a lot of commercials. I slowly, slowly, slowly learned my way into it. So you were then you just showed up on the set of Karate Kid. Did you have any idea how special that movie was when you were doing it?

None. I was worried. I thought it sounded a little strange. The Karate Kid. Yeah. And Ralph being Ralph. I didn't think that he would have any credibility as a karate expert. Wow. Ralph had no idea he's waking up today.

He's gonna get thrown under an Elizabeth Shue bus. Sorry. That's okay.

I mean, hey, it is what it is. No, it was amazing, though, to see that movie actually stand the test of time. All my kids have watched it. I love what it says about sports and about the relationship between Miyagi and Daniel is so beautiful. And so there's so much that's good about it. The great Elizabeth Shue.

I'll be honest with you. That made my day when she showed up in our studio. So do I. Oh, my goodness.

My current day, the day of me being in high school day. Karate Kid Legends. We'll talk about it with Joshua Jackson, who is in our green room right now. Coming up in hour three.

Eight four four two oh four. Rich is the number to dial here on the program. Manny and El Paso. It's been a while since you chatted with Manny. How you been, Manny? Oh, man. Greetings from an eighty nine degree bring it down El Paso.

I missed you guys. If you're driving, you did. Can you give us the traffic and weather together, Manny? Well, let me see.

Going eastbound on passing into twenty four on three seventy five. Okay. Traffic is moderate. Okay. It's smooth. I'm moving regularly. Okay, great.

Smoothly. Manny on the seven. What's going on, Manny? Well, first of all, Mr. Bruckman, you need to put cage in that golfing tournament. He could take down the minutes.

I've seen a swing on Instagram. You can take a brother. Thank you. Second of all, actually, I got two questions for my buddy, TJ. Sir. TJ, did you have an evil laugh when called Anthony Counts got eliminated by the Pacers?

I mean, I see it as karma for all the BS he did with the balloons and people colored flowers. I mean, I still choose men. That question is a wrestling question. Okay.

Who's on your mount Rushmore of wrestling managers? Oh, I'm enjoying the drive. I'm enjoying the show. I love you guys. I miss you guys. Let's watch some sports fans.

Eighty nine degrees and traffic is moderate wherever he's driving. So the answer, man, is one question. Of course not. You know, that was all friendly banter. Oh, you know, I made it seem like it was I would have done it awful. And it did. It's one thing. I'm not going to lie. By the way, still good stuff.

There's one thing about, you know, good banter about being rival fans, the others like his professional career. And that's what earlier somebody said. I should say something like that's completely different. No, I said I should say something about me.

It's totally different, but it's completely different. I do love this photograph that's on the screen. And Manny, as for the manager question, here's what we'll do Monday on the podcast. So Shay and I will we'll work that question into the pot. Fantastic.

Our Mount Rushmore of wrestling managers. He's got to give it to. Yeah. OK. You'll each do that on no contest wrestling for any. And that'll be also post money in the bank. Yes, sir.

You'll have lots to talk about on Monday's pod. OK. T.J. Jefferson. He just bought himself four days of thinking rather than four seconds of thinking and use it as a promo. I don't even know who he is anymore. I think we have honed this man into a professional broadcast. He was already a professional broadcast. I mean, you already were. I was a professional. I was always on the other side of the camera. I love T.J. Jefferson more than now.

Anything more than most. I don't know about that, but but he wasn't. He was not a professional. I mean, I was professional on the other side of the camera. He was professional.

He might still be. We can all improve your professional Jason, at least. Yeah.

I like the wolf just because you are a character. It doesn't mean you have care. I'm still trying to get my ten thousand hours in rich ten thousand hours. Steve in Melbourne, Florida, is here. Did I say that right? It's not Melbourne, right? It's Melbourne, right, Steve? Did I say that right? Yeah, it's Melbourne. OK, very good.

And I'm just trying to brush up on my Florida bona fides. What's going on, Steve? What's going on? Hey, not too much, guys.

How are you all doing today? My main question is, since I'm a Jags fan since ninety five inception, my question for Travis Hunter, I've heard rich and Brockman on their show discussing with Travis Hunter play time and everything like that. I just wanted to get your thoughts also because I have a feeling it's going to be about sixty five offense, thirty five defense, you know, second along third and long red zone. Get him out there.

But also, in your opinion, watching the sport for as long as you all have. Do you think opponents might dictate play time as well? Like week two, we played Bengals. Bengals aren't running the football. They're going to be throwing the ball.

So, yeah, I want to see Travis out there a little more. Or we play the Chargers. Rich, your guy, Jim Harbaugh, you're going to run the ball. So maybe a little decrease in defense, Travis Hunter, since they're mostly going to run the football. And I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. Maybe a dictate of opponent might affect playing time on the ball.

How about this, Steve? I'm going to flip your idea on its head and I'm going to say Travis Hunter is going to dictate the teams about what they should do on offense, whether he's out there or not. I'm just going by rookie here. I know it eventually is going to be. No, I know that. I'm just so high on this guy. Thanks for the call. Yeah, of course.

And you should be so happy, honestly. Like so if you've got Najee Harris and you've got a Marion Hampton, you're going to be prone to run the ball. Certainly when you're a team with Jim Harbaugh hitting, hitting a line of scrimmage always in the draft, you know, he always talks about offensive lineman or skilled players. He was here just a couple of weeks ago when he said he was woke up in the middle of the night thinking he's got to get his quarterback to the hall of fame.

Part of that will be having a terrific run game to take the pressure off of his quarterback. And you know, he's the one who also says about offensive lineman, name me another position group in the NFL that must perform so everyone else can perform. But when everyone else performs, it doesn't really affect what they do, right?

Is the only one that's there alone on an island, but they affect everybody else from their island. That's the offensive line. And I'm like, huh, boy, this guy's a savant, right? But, but if Travis Hunter's out there standing where he is for the Jacksonville Jaguars. And by that point in time, when he sees the Los Angeles Chargers in Duval County, it's week 11, we should have a general sense quite a bit on how good he is and what he's going to do. Snap count wise by week 11 should know potentially if he's going to take half the field away, then yeah, they're going to run the ball a lot more. That's what I'm saying. He will dictate to others, not others dictating whether he's going to have more of a snap count on one side of the ball or not, because if he's not on the field, well, Justin Herbert might find Ladidi a bit more won't he? That's the way he usually works in the NFL. And that's why I'm saying, man, let's get the kid coached up as much as possible now and in training camp and take the governor off. Take if this is Florida, take the DeSantis off.

You know what I mean? Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

He's got the energy now. Exactly. Do it now. Oh, do it five years from now.

You might not be able to. I saw this. I saw this when I wasn't in the chair this moment in training camp or OTAs. I mean, here he is on coverage and he just he turns his head. He gets in position to make the defensive play and picks the ball off.

If he does this in the regular season, two things, one, it will be ruled incomplete because the ball hit the ground and there is a replay. Okay. I understand. But let's, let's not nitpick.

He does stuff like this in the NFL in a regular season and Jacksonville Jaguar games will be in the palm of everyone's hands in a way it has never been. Period. That's why they went ahead and took him.

That's why the Miz sitting in first class that night on the draft night is bummed when he first heard the Brown said no to that. Yeah. Yeah.

That's what he knows. Now, yes, they got Mason Graham. They got a draft choice next year. They got a whole bunch of other good players. Yes. And they might be better off for it.

We don't know. That's the beauty of the NFL. That's why as Berman says, they play the game, but man, when I saw that, I thought to myself, they will be nuts to not have them on the field for every snap possible.

Can you play that one more time? Because again, he's on defense. He's going stride for stride in his coverage.

He turns his head perfectly. He does not commit interference. He makes the play to tip the ball with his outside hand.

Okay. With his outside hand and tips it to himself and has the presence of mind to make a play on the ball. After making a play on the ball, he is a receiver playing corner and he's a corner playing receiver.

Holy cow. All right, Liam Cohen. Now you're on the clock. I mean, every single time he talks about something about Travis Hunter, I'm going to want to hear about it just to hear if I can get a kernel about what his plan is for. I saw so much of it, obviously a different entity with Cooper cup in LA where you're getting a lot of double coverage, whether more so be from the slot where maybe they have a nickel playing outside leverage and then a safety or a linebacker inside of them to double and then go to Tampa with Mike Evans and he's more of that outside receiver that's getting the corner and the safety double. So it's really just about creating balance and okay, if we put them on the same side, well, can we dictate maybe where those, the double may go and help maybe get one-on-one coverage elsewhere. So, you know, as we go and see maybe how people defend us that way with Brian, it'll help kind of dictate whether we want to get the one-on-one match up in the, on the inside or on the outside at the running back position at the tight end position.

So it kind of helps dictate terms, even though it can be annoying at times to get double teams. Yeah. Well, you know what, if he can help Brian Thomas and he can help on defense, what are we doing here?

And Rich, real quick. What are we doing? What are we doing? Do you mean L.I.M. Cohen? You said Liam Cohen.

Do you mean L.I.M.? Okay. Listen. How old is he? How old is he? How old is he?

He's like Travis Hunter. Yeah. Chris, I'm not overreactive. I don't think so. No.

What do you mean you don't think so? He's 22. Oh. And he's smart. Yeah. And he can handle it. And Dion put him in, like, what do you think? He's, he hasn't had coordinators tug on, tug on, tug of war with him saying, you come in my meeting, you come in my meeting? Yeah. Because he knows coverages. Like, look at that right there.

That was impressive. Right. And then, and then if he's on offense, go ball, get ball. See ball, get it. I don't care. Listen, give, hydrate, put them out there.

I put them out there for what? A hundred snaps a game? Gotta do it. Does that seem like a lot to you though? Yes. It seems like it because it is. It is a lot.

Yeah. But let's do it until he can't handle it. And then you, then you pull them back a little bit. If that happens to happen, I want to, I want to go the way, the way, what, what Mona Lisa Vito talked about, you know. It's like a Ferrari, Rich, you drive it fast until it can't go fast anymore.

Let's go. I tell the first day that he has a, Ooh, what's that little twin? And then you're going to get everybody being like, is he playing too much? Should he choose one side of the ball?

No, obviously that is going to happen. You use how special he is. Even if you are creating match-ups for Brian Thomas, just by having them on a certain side, you know what I mean? Even if it's just that let's go, man, Dion said it best. He said it best when he was talking about whether a team's not going to draft him because they were concerned about this very subject matter. And he's like, if you need points and you're a head coach in the NFL and your best offensive player standing on the sideline, if you need to prevent another team from scoring and your best defensive player is standing next to you on the sideline, who's going to be the one holding the bag on that one? And it's not going to be Travis Hunter. Oh my God. That's why they traded a first round pick next year's draft for this sort of stuff.

Got two first rounders. And guess what, guys? I'm sorry. I'm going to give you this heads up.

This is a drum I'm going to be banging for a very long time. It starts now also. It's already started.

I was banging prior to the draft, draft night after the draft. But now I'm seeing that moment I saw. That was amazing.

When I saw that, what a bummer. My colleagues at Good Morning Football would actually say it hit the ground, parse it out. I mean, wait, I think I did a whole segment on how it hit the ground. It doesn't matter. Whatever. You know, some replay doesn't catch everything. Whatever. The fact that he used his outside hand to make the play didn't interfere with his inside hand, turned at the right time.

His head was, you know how many of these defensive players don't know when to turn their head and they can't because when they turn their head, their body starts going in different directions, they wind up turning at the wrong time. And he may have those moments as a rookie anyway. Or not. We got to figure it's going to happen. Chris, what are the odds for him? Is there a place there odds to win both offensive and defensive rookies of the year?

Oh, yeah, yeah. There are odds for that sort of thing. For sure, for sure.

There are. That's worth the bet. Just one second.

One second. Just to give you a little pushback, because I believe you should play twice both ways too. But you know, there are going to be people who say, well, if he would stay on one either side of the ball would make him that much more dominant.

What would you say to someone? He's like, he should take all these reps at receiver because understood. And then he's more than he's more dominant receiver than he would be at cornerback.

What if he's dominant in both? Okay, there's your pushback that he's that gifted and that you don't put him out there because you're concerned about the gas in the tank when he's 22. And it's on you. It's on you, Lee. I am going to take a break. Who's calling somebody on the phone right now? I heard who's whose phone is buzzing right now. I was getting a spam call right now.

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Learn more at NavyFederal.org. Had a little bit of a curb moment last night. Uh-oh. You know, we were invited to a post-graduation party.

Sure. And it was a drive. Taylor was already there.

We adore the people that we were hanging with. My only issue was, it was a white party. Oh, you got to... I wasn't wearing white at the time.

So it was gonna force me to put something else on. You know, which isn't much. It's, you know, just a trip to the dresser. Right. Closet. Yeah.

There's some white pants, something whitish here. I just got to put that on. Yep. I didn't want to do it.

Okay. I thought it was presumptuous. Please tell me you wore all black. Well, that would be provocative as well. I mean, because that would add a change out of my clothes anyway. And now I'm changing it to something that is the antithesis of what the party's supposed to be.

So I went back and forth. The shirt works only, Rich, if you really want to do it. What does that mean? I've done a ton of these as a DJ. You do not have to have white pants on. I think you do. I mean, I've been to two all white parties and I wore all black both times. White kangol, white shirt, you're good. You're covered. Did you really do that?

Yeah, that's providing. That's a provocative. I don't like wearing all white. So I wore all black. Then I thought to myself, if this was, you know, the fanatics party in Long Island, would I would I have the same approach?

You'd be standing out there. No, you would have changed from Michael Rubin. So if I'm going to be able to change from Michael Rubin and we are, you know, going we're all going to Fanatics Fest. Right. Yeah. I went and I changed. Oh, wow.

I put on white pants and a grayish sweater. OK. And I showed up. A lot of people didn't do it.

Oh, you got a picture of yourself. I mean, that's messed up. Yeah. You don't have to. And I would actually go through the process of changing. But it made you feel good that you respected. I respect the people, you know, like we're, you know, Taylor is moving on to a different school. So these are all, you know, in this day and age, it's like you're breaking up with the parents, too. Although we're adult enough to say we can still hang out. But do you know, like a couple of years came up to me and just like, you know, we're so sorry. You and Susie are leaving.

And I'm like, just Monday through Friday, we're not leaving the planet. Oh, you know, but that's the way, you know, parents all have kids that go to the same school for a while, like you become friends. Yeah, but you're not going to hang out with these parents again if your kids aren't in the same school. That's not true at all. No, I'm just asking.

No, that's not true, which is why I changed. OK. You know, because I know someone who wouldn't. I felt like evolving what you wouldn't change. No, he wouldn't hang out. I wouldn't went. Yeah. Come on, man. Come on, Chris.

Anything to get out of going somewhere? Oh, man. But it was local. It was in your neighborhood. I was in my neighborhood. Yeah. You'd have to travel more than an hour.

Thanks for saying hi. Right there. Oh, this was geographically compared to as the crow flies from your house to this spot was close. Right there. Got it. Right there. Oh, to the point where I'm like, do I want to stop by and say, I don't know. You're watching the softball and that's the time I wanted to go back home.

That's messed up. Back here in the rich eyes and show. Eric DaCosta went on a baseball podcast and broke some big broke some baseball news. The Be More Baseball podcast. Who is the host? Jerry Coleman and Mike Bortick broke some news.

Bortick, you mean? My goodness. Does that mean Mike Gallegos is going to break some news about the Buffalo Bills? Wait a minute. We can keep going on this. Finally, it's something obscure. Is Randy Velarde going to break some news?

OK, keep going. Jeremy Giambi. Oh, no, he was safe. I still kind of think he was there.

How do you watch that play right now? Go for it. In the meantime, I'm going to break some news of Eric DaCosta talking about talking about resigning a particular raven to a new contract. So are you talking with him right now about things or just letting things lie as they are? Well, we've had some conversations before the draft, after the draft in person last week.

I think we're in the introductory sort of stage of looking at what an extension might look like. We've got a lot of business that we're conducting with different players and we're in a situation where we're blessed to have most of the team coming back. But as we look out over the next two, three, four, five years, we're trying to keep as many good players as we can. So we've got some guys that we feel like have the chance to really be prolific players for us that can be here a long time. We're trying to get as many of those guys signed up as possible. That's a big challenge and Lamar certainly a big part of that.

But there are other players as well. Lamar, let's talk contract with him now. Interesting.

Smart before the price goes up. Wow. And then some more news on Lamar and Stan Javier's podcast. It's the only comment I can make because if I'm, by the way, if I'm Eric DaCosta, I am opening up contract renegotiation extensions with Lamar Jackson every other, well, every three years. I'm not going through the last one, man.

No, I'm not doing it again. We all know he's there for life. He's the guy. He can do it. He's got the ability. Remember the last time this one, I was sitting here going, I wouldn't give up two first round picks for this guy because that's what you'd have to do to try and sign him.

Despite him being franchise tag. That's what you'd have to give up. Yeah. I have since changed my stance because the last time this happened, it was like, well, there was eating habits is this habits.

It's that habits. Is that the right thing? He's got the friend with the shake weights or whatever. So hell yeah.

Like if he's willing to throw more years on the contract, do it. Right. The entire gym is what that was. Is that what that was? Yeah.

Because I mean, I'm, I'm on, there's nothing else to argue about. It's only three years left on this deal. Right. So start talking now.

Yeah. Because in 2028, it's going to cost a lot more. He might be, we might be up to $70 million a year for a quarterback. So you might as well sign them now as well.

Save yourself some cash. You know who wouldn't do that though? Jerry Jones, the day before the day after, but I found that interesting if they're already thinking about that. It's really smart.

It's a very smart organization. And you know, um, my, my, I, I, I can't wait to find out more information on Felix Jose's podcast. And by the way, two different angles, John be out on one, John be safe on the other. Chris, I don't know if he was safe or out.

He's safe. And we'll find out on the Carlos by Erica podcast like I have open Ozzie. Can't say goes podcast.

We'll have the latest. Oh my God. I can't breathe.

Breaking it down with Walt Weiss. Oh my God. I got my head in again. It's funny. I just timed in with his voice.

He goes, David, I was watching a Carney lands for fishing. We're riffing. Now we're riffing. Now there's nothing better than just dudes naming random baseball players. Lance Blankenship with the latest on Lamar's one. Felix me on, by the way, it's looks like Mike Bortick was traded to the Mets. Did you know that after Ray Ordonia has got hurt? Yeah. The Mets traded away Melvin Mora for him. Oh, Melvin Moore. Yeah.

Mike Barks from Maine. Good to know. It's good to know. So, and I learned that on the Jermaine dye podcast. Did you meet, I honestly thought we were done with the back end for one more time. That's the Letterman style, right?

Just get a joke, beat him down on the ground and then keep repeating it. Next week on the Dimitri young experience. Wow. 10 Phelps was on the 90 is the famous.

Yes. The famous former Yankee traded to the mariners and Phelps for Jay Buhner leading to one of the greatest moments in sitcom history. Baseball people said Ken Phelps when George was dead and George Steinbrenner broke the news to the Costanzas in the Costanzas house. And you watch Jerry Stiller sit there steaming and you're thinking he looks miserable. He looks so upset. Just look at that scene again. And it's just like, he's playing it. Like he's so upset that George is gone and he just bursts out. What the hell you trade Jay Buna for? I remember where I was.

I fell off the couch left. God bless the people of Seinfeld because why the hell did they trade Jay Buna for Ken Phelps who then wound up on the A's and stay tuned to the Ken Phelps podcast for the latest on when Aaron Rodgers is going to sign with the Steelers. You couldn't tell me Mike Greenwell wasn't going to be a star back in the day, man.

I had like 13 of his rookie cards, not on the 90 A's. That was a funny laugh right there. Thanks for riffing with me guys. We got right in that jet stream.

I don't know if there's any. Willie McGee was on the 90 A's or a Rick Honeycutt. I think was a great name. Good stuff.

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