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So book your test drive for Polestar 3 today at Polestar.com. Yeah, this is The Rich Eisen Show. Goats have Home Lives 2. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Rich Eisen.
Hello, Rich Eisen. Rich Eisen. Oh, that's Susie Eisen's house. The Rich Eisen Show. And now, sitting in for Rich.
Here's Dan Schwartzman. That is correct. I am in for rich here on a, what is today, a Friday? July 11th. Beautiful day all around the country, I hope.
So much to get into, but I'll tell you what, it's that time of year. Baseball season nearing the all-star break coming up in a couple of days. The ever popular home run derby is going to be upon us as well. Yes, I said that tongue in cheek. Wimbledon, we are in the women's final.
We're setting the men's final up too. We'll give you an update on that. Lot to get into. Cooper Flagg making his NBA debut in the Summer League yesterday.
Some called it uneven. I call it who the heck cares. Dan Schwartzmann in for Rich Eisen. We have a lot to get into. And before we get into the meat and potatoes here.
I do have to admit something. I liked tennis growing up. I watched tennis growing up. I was what you would call a fan of tennis growing up. And then the sport kind of lost me.
I remember when I was a kid, I went to Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena, as it likes to be called, and I watched I think it was called the Nabisco Masters back then. And I saw Boris Becker, Yvonne Lendl, Stefan Edberg. I mean, really the greats. You know, the g the the generation before we got to the big three and Andy Murray. I'm not going to say the big four because no offense to Murray.
He does not belong in the same sentence as Jokovich. and nad Nadal and Fenner. He was pretty good. And injury kind of robbed him a bit, but I'm not going to group him in with the three greatest. And then tennis kind of lost me for a while, and I didn't really pay attention.
And lately, I've been kind of. Putting one foot in, a toe in here, started to watch a bit. got into uh the French Open a bit. Wimbledon's been kind of fun, I have to admit. It's fun when Americans get far.
And I think that's what it really comes down to. It's fun when the Americans are in it, and the American men have been so bad for so long That now to have like Taylor Fritz, who was ousted today by Carlos Alcaraz. And Ben Shelton, who was ousted a couple was that, yesterday, the day before? To get to the quarters, the semis, whatever it might be, at least it keeps you interested a lot longer than it used to because. The state of American men's tennis was horrendous.
From in when Andy Murray won uh no, excuse me, Andy Roddick. One was that the U.S. Open, whatever the heck it was. Seems like twenty years ago. It may have been twenty years ago, by the way.
And from that point on, no American man has won anything. And now you have guys like Shelton, you have Fritz, you have Tiafo. You have what Nakashima, I believe it is. I mean, you have American men. who are actually pretty good.
I'm not talking the John Isners and guys like that, the Marty Fishes of the world. I'm talking about guys who legitimately have a shot. to potentially win a Grand Slam event. And I think because of that, it has re-piqued my interest in the sport a bit. To where I have to admit.
Right? Call me a loser if you want. I got into this Wimbledon a little bit today, and I was disappointed to see Taylor Fritz. Lose today in four sets and very competitive four sets to Carlos Alcaraz, who is the 22-year-old stud.
So I have to tell you, though. I actually don't mind Al Garaz. I do think he's kind of a sore loser. I think he's a little too emotional on the court. I think that's, you know, I chalk it up to age really, because he's 22.
I get it. When I was 22 and younger, I was kind of a jerk when I played sports. No one likes to lose, right? And when you lose a bit here and there, you kind of act a little maybe inappropriately. You might say something, your body language may not be the best.
I think Alcaraz is guilty of doing that here and there. And in the women's game, you see it with the number one seed who went out to the American. I'm talking about Sabolenka, right? Irina Sabalenka from Belarus. She lost to Amanda Anisimova, the American, yesterday who goes on to her first Grand Slam final.
And there was an incident on the court where Sabalenka had said Like, are you going to apologize? Because apparently, Anissimova hit a shock that hit the top, and then that went over, and some people apologized for that in tennis, which I found to be ridiculous. What are you apologizing for?
So, should a baseball player who hits a ball and hits off the top of the wall for a home run apologize because it barely scraped over? No, who cares? A point is a point. A run is a run. You reach over a goal line and you get the nose right there.
It's still a touchdown, and the box score is the same thing. Who cares how much of the ball crossed over? Who cares? Ball hits the net, goes over, it's still a a point in tennis. There's no asterisk next to it.
And then Sabalenka is the same one who lost at the French Open to Coco Goff, and instead of just saying Goff played great, She said, Well, Goff didn't beat me. I beat myself because she had 70 unforced errors. And sure, she played terribly, but still. Give credit to where it's due. GOF ON Sablenka apologized for it.
Her and Goff were cool. They posted, I think, a social media video together, kind of joking about it.
So at least that's fine. But you do see guys and gals who have, I think, poor sportsmanship. And I get in today and I'm chatting with our esteemed. Producer Across the Glass. Art Martinez, and the first thing he says is I hate Alcaraz.
I hate the guy. Again, I have no problem with Carlos Alcaraz. I really don't. I mean, you know, I think he's a. Heck of a player.
But Art, what is your deal? Like, you're like steamed up today about Carlos Al Garaz because he beat an American. You know, we're going to figure out what the deal is here, and I'm going to give you a chance to kind of collect your thoughts and say this appropriately on the air.
Okay, so when you collect your thoughts and you can say it appropriately, I'll let you say it. But I really have no problem with the guy. I admire a guy, especially, you know, you gotta remember, like, In women's tennis, Players mature much quicker. You could have a teenager win a tournament, right? You can have a 19-year-old, an 18-year-old.
Win a Grand Slam event, and it's like, wow, they're young, but still, it's not unheard of. In men's tennis, it takes a bit longer to mature into a star. You very rarely have a teenage man win a Grand Slam tennis event or any tennis tournament. And Al Kharaz, of course, has been winning since he's a teenager. He's 22 years old.
He's got five grand slams. He's following in the footsteps of his fellow countrymen. Nadal, although he's kind of won a plethora of tournaments, you know, Nadal was obviously. The greatest French open tennis player ever. Probably the greatest clay player ever.
I wouldn't even say probably he is the greatest clay player ever. But that really is what it comes down to.
So we'll get to that a bit later on. I want to throw that out because it's obviously ongoing right now. And right now, it's going to be Sinner versus Djokovic, another great semi, by the way. To have the number one rank Verstyokovich one of the all time greatest. All right, I want to switch gears because We witnessed yesterday Cooper Flags first NBA game.
And it was a summer league game.
So, you know, let's be honest, it's not exactly. A true telling of his abilities. And people are calling it an uneven performance. He has described it as one of the worst games of his life. And yeah, it wasn't a great effort.
He was, what, six of 21, I believe, on the. You know, on this shot selection, so it wasn't like he was, you know, throwing up great shots here. And once again, it is a Summer League game.
So take it with a grain of salt. Bronnie James played a bunch.
So, right there, it tells you something.
Okay. But, you know, Cooper Flag is going to have games where he's not great. I understand that there is an expectation that comes with being the number one pick. There's an expectation that comes with. the hype of being a player that everybody looks at and says You know, this guy's going to be the next superstar.
I've been reading the articles about him. And what people are saying about Cooper Flag is they expect him to be a superstar. And I don't think that's a real fair assessment for a, what is he, an 18-year-old kid. that's in his N you know, first NBA season coming up. He shot five of 21 from the field, 0 for 5 from 3-point land.
Did get 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals in 32 minutes. But I got to tell you, I watched him play at Duke. There was a ton of. You know, there was a ton of expectations on him at Duke. He was the number one recruit in the nation.
He had reclassified to go a year earlier. People forget he's got a twin brother who's actually going to be a freshman college basketball player at the University of Maine this year, the same year his twin brother is going to be an NBA rookie as the number one pick. And he goes to Duke. He dominates a Duke. I mean, dominated, was a player of the year.
Lived up to the hype?
So, I don't think it's going to be a transition that's going to be very difficult for Cooper flag. It's great to see him play in these Summer League games, get the experience. Be in a position where he kind of gets these jitters out of the way before the regular season gets off. And there's plenty of time, by the way, before the regular season. tips off, but I think for people to have these expectations this early for Cooper flag to call it an uneven performance, or even call it anything, frankly, is utterly ridiculous.
I understand the microscope is on the kid. I get it. But what expectation did you have? I had none. Let the kid go out there, let him kind of, you know, test the waters of the NBA, and then let him go dominate.
But I saw that incredible uh Statistic. I guess it's a financial statistic. Last week, I believe it was. Because, you know, NBA salaries are now absolutely through the roof. Like NBA salaries are at the point of being ridiculous.
I forgot who just signed an extension. Maybe it was Devin Booker, where he's gonna make $72 million a year in this contract extension. $72 million a year. Shea Gilgius Alexander is going to make $71.5 million in his extension, the Supermax. Contracts these guys are entitled to sign because it's a Set percentage of the salary cap, which is obviously set by revenue.
And the NBA's got unbelievable TV deals, although their ratings aren't very good, yet somehow they have these incredible TV deals. And these guys, because there's so few players on a team, they're absolutely making a fortune. And good for them. I don't begrudge a player going out there and earning as much money as possible. Go ahead.
It's mind-boggling numbers, by the way, but still it's you know. You're talking about. Booker's going to be earning about almost a million dollars a game. And probably more. No one plays 82 games anymore, right?
He's probably going to play about 72 games this year, meaning he's going to get about a million dollars for his 48 minutes of action. And in those 48 minutes, he probably plays 32 or 36 minutes. If you can get it, go do it. I don't begrudge it. But I read that if Cooper Flag turns out to be the player.
That he is envisioned to become. Which means he will be an all-NBA player. He will make all-NBA teams. He'll be a perennial All-Star. He'll be one of the best players in the league.
I read that if he signs all these Super Max deals that he can sign along the way. When he's thirty one years old he would have earned not that Not total, this is just salary, okay? He would earn $931 million.
So it's like 13 years, right? Because he will be in the league 13 years because he's. 18. He doesn't turn. nineteen years old till uh the end of December.
That's how young Cooper flag is. He literally turns 19 December 21st.
So he'll be in his 12th, 13th year, signing all the Supermax deals along the way. Cooper flag is going to earn $931 million. And here's where it gets even funnier, okay? He's not going to retire at 31, so he's going to continue playing. And who knows what TV contracts are at that point?
Cooper Flagg will earn literally in salaries if he's as good as we believe he's going to be. He will earn more than a billion dollars. Just in NBA salary. Over a billion dollars.
Now, you throw in the endorsement deals. And I believe Cooper Flag will probably get a bunch of endorsement deals. Why not? He's going to make multiple billion dollars when it's all said and done. Again, the caveat is he's got to live up to being the player that he is expected to become.
The money is outrageous. You know, it's always a fun conversation when you sit around with your friends and you're like, well. You know, if my son, if I could have my kid playing any sport. What would it be? And I like when people are like, well, I think golf would be great.
Yeah, golfers make a ton of money. If you're like Tiger Woods or Phil Nicholson, whatever, they can make a ton of money. Tennis make a lot of money too. Individualized sport. I'm like, soccer is pretty cool, right?
You travel to some of the most beautiful cities in the world. You do the s the you know the the the winters in like Dubai and stuff and train there. I mean, I'm sure it's a lot of fun. You know, soccer players have a really good time and they're highly paid. But I think basketball's the way to go.
82 games. Every game is in a climate-controlled environment, right? Think about that. Every game is in a climate-controlled arena. Dead of winter, but it's going to be 70 degrees in the arena, right?
72 degrees, wherever room temperature is.
So you're not going to be uncomfortable. Oh, by the way, you have the summers off. If you're a star, you're not playing summer league basketball. You literally have the summer off. You know, baseball players, they're playing during the summer.
Sure, the wintertime they can go vacation to whatever Caribbean island they want or Mallorca, Spain or wherever the heck they want to go. There's plenty of places, but they are vacationing in the wintertime. A basketball player, first of all, is making more money than a baseball player. They're playing half the games. They're playing indoors in a climate-controlled atmosphere.
And they have the summer off.
So forget golf, forget tennis, forget Soccer, forget all that. If my kid, and I don't have a son, if I had a son, and by the way, they would never be tall enough because I'm like 5'11 and my wife's like 5'5, but. Again, this is not reality, but seriously, I would steer my kid to play basketball. When Devin Booker is going to make $72 million a year. And I read that after this.
Shea Gilgas, Alexander, Supermax, he signed his next contract, would be like for a hundred million a year.
So, the money's outrageous. No question about it. The money is outrageous. But what are the expectations? What do people think when it comes to Cooper Flag?
You know, obviously, one game is not something that you can base anything on, but I want to talk a little basketball. All right. The Knicks bring in Mike Brown. They fire Tom Thibodeau. Was Mike Brown really the choice?
Is that a lateral step? Do they go backwards? Cooper Flag, what are the expectations? What do we think he's going to be year one with the Dallas Mavericks? Mike Vorkhanov, National NBA basketball reporter for the Athletic, he's going to join us next.
We are just underway on a Friday. A nice hot steamy Friday. Dan Schwartzmann in for Rich Eisen. It is The Rich Eisen Show.
So, you know, we love talking movies around here. You know, we love talking comedy around here. We also love talking about classics around here.
So, you know what I'm all about. That said, All of that said. You know how I must have felt when I was sitting in the movie theater like I was the other day watching the previews, and up came a preview. for the naked gun. with Liam Neeson as Frank Greben, junior.
That Preview had me at hello. I loved police squad back in the day. I loved the naked gun back in the day. And here comes the naked gun once again with yes, Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. Come on now, son of the celebrated police squad, Lieutenant Frank Drebbin from the original movie, Paul Walter Hauser's in this movie, also Pamela Anderson.
Guess who also makes an appearance? WWE superstar. Cody Rhodes and the producer of the movie is Seth McFarlane, the creator of The Family Guy. Come on now, this is going to be so much fun. I'm excited to see The Naked Gun in theaters on August 1st.
So. What do you do on August 1st? Of course, you're going to a theater near you and you're seeing the naked gun. I might even be there. Getting the zone, autozone.
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Cooper Flag making his NBA debut in a Summer League matchup yesterday. Result doesn't matter. 5 and 21 from the field though for 5 from 3 point land. Wow, he struggled. Whoa!
Who would ever thought an 18-year-old kid making his NBA debut would struggle a little bit? But he did. But he's human. I do think he's going to be a heck of a player. Let's talk a little bit more about NBA basketball.
Mike Vorokunov, National NBA Business Reporter at the Athletic, joining us. Mike. How much stock do you take in what we saw from Cooper Flag yesterday? Um negative 100%. I agree, man.
It's amazing how people are like, oh, it was an uneven performance. Whoa, this happened. Who cares? Let him get his ears a little wet here in the NBA before we start judging what an 18-year-old's going to do. He's going to play subsumber league.
Let's see how it goes, and he's going to get into the regular season. Is the microscope on him a little too much? Yeah, probably, but you know, that happens with being the number one pick, right? Once you get to that level, everyone kind of like. Yeah.
looking at everything we do and putting so much weight and value on it. Um, and you know, it's probably less so than it is for even recent number Olympics. Like, I remember Christuwa Manyama, like I was there for his, you know, summer league debut and he was not very good at all. And people are starting asking questions about him, and it's like, Yeah, that turned out fine. It was just summer week.
It had been a long few months for them. Same as it's been for Cooper, where they're spending the last few months. Getting stockings in the college season, doing all the marketing stuff, and go straight to summer league. You know, Mike, what's interesting to me is he goes to a place like LA or New York. The media attention is going to be through the roof, of course, right?
You have a press conference, it's going to be 30, 40 reporters. He goes to Dallas and it's like, okay, you know, they're a good basketball town, but it's still Dallas. I think of Dallas more as, of course, as a football town, but. He's kind of in essence in people's minds replacing Luca, right?
So when you think about the pressures on top of being that number one pick. He goes to a market where their beloved player gets The rug thrown out from under him shipped off to LA in a very unpopular deal. What has that done in terms of How people in Dallas are going to be looking at Cooper. Is he always going to be compared to Luca? I think maybe the way that Luca got traded, he's not going to be compared to him.
I think really he's like. You know, this, uh, he, I think he almost gets the benefit of the doubt and the fact that I think there's so much animosity towards ownership and GM Nicola Harrison over there, um, and that he was kind of like this life raft for them after they traded Lucas. I think it'll be probably a little bit kinder to him than maybe if he was just if the sequence of transactions that trade that got Luca off that team and Cooper to that team happened a little bit differently, if that makes sense. It does, you know, it does make sense. And I, you know, I think you have a great explanation for how it should go for him, considering how the deal happened and the hatred, as you mentioned, for ownership in the front office there.
But I was speaking earlier about what I saw last week, which was that if Cooper Flag is as good as advertised and he makes all the NBA teams and all-star games and all he's supposed to do, when he's 31 years old, he would have earned, I think, $931 million in NBA salaries. And while I think it's great and make as much as you can, the first thought that came to my mind, and maybe I'm just dumb and twisted, is. Is this sustainable for the NBA? I get it's about revenue, it's about salary cap, it's about percentage of a salary cap. And I see players getting $20 million a year, and I'm like, he's a 10.4 rebound a game guy who shoots 40% from the field.
But is this just going to be an up, up, upwards trend? Or is there going to be a time, Mike, where the bottom's going to fall out? T V ratings aren't that great right now in the NBA. Is this sustainable? Guys making seventy million a year.
I mean, I guess it all depends on how sustainable you think the NBA is. You know, like, if you're thinking the NBA is going to fail at some point, then you're. Probably thinking that the player's salaries are going to fail and you know drop off after a while, but at least for the next 11 years, they have. $76 billion coming through in just media rights, and the players get 51% of that. Um, so yeah, I mean, I I think we see the player salary as kind of like the tip of the spear for how much money the league is making, but it means that the owners and teams are getting the other forty nine percent of all that revenue.
So I I are they making too much money, I guess I would ask. You know, when they sell their teams for six billion and ten billion and then also turn a lot of them turn profits every year.
So it's just the players are the faces of it, but everyone shares in that wealth. Yeah. Chat with Mike Vorkhanov, National NBA business reporter for the athletic here on the Rich Eisen show. Dan Schwartzmann in for rich on this Friday. But is it a good deal for the networks?
You know, ESPN, NBC, everybody paying billions and billions. You mentioned the crazy amount of money in TV rights deals, what, 11 years, 70-some-odd billion dollars. Is it really a good deal for them too? Are they just taking a loss to be able to say, ha ha, we show the NBA? Yeah, I I don't know.
I think that's a good question. I would love if somebody from NBC or Amazon or Disney was like, hey, here's our books, how much money, here's how much money we make off all these games. I think part of it was interesting is because so few things. Really attract people reliably anymore, right? But we know that live sports like the NFL, like the NBA, baseball, do.
And so that's why they're paying for them. And especially if you're launching streaming services like Peacock and ESPN has its streaming service, and obviously Amazon is. uh streaming too, like that gets people to pay for your service and it they hope that You know, it it. You know, you get more stuff on Amazon Prime Day or whatever, right, while you're there. And they'll have a Black Friday game for the NBA and you buy more stuff there.
And, you know, I'm sure ESTN and NBC have their own ways of monetizing. Does it make, you know, is it going to be a rock leader for them? I don't know, truthfully. But I think. If you're betting on something that's basically a marketing engine for your other products, ProSport is a pretty good thing to bet on.
I guess it's like having your flagship store in New York City knowing that you're taking a loss because the rent is so high. But if you want to be a legit brand, you have to have that Fifth Avenue or Madison Avenue address, regardless of the fact that you're losing money. If you want to be, you know, Airmas or Gucci or things like that. But I bring it up because, you know, you look at the NFL, for instance, we know the money's ridiculous in terms of media rights deals for them. And if you did the per-game amount of money, you think with the number of commercial spots that can be sold, things like that, are they really making a profit?
I think for the NBA, with the money being so ridiculous, there are more games, obviously.
So it's spread out a bit more. I do wonder, are these networks making money or are they losing money? And as you said, it's just an engine or vehicle to get people to go for Amazon, for instance, to spend more on Prime Day or buy more products. And my wife does that. She doesn't even need the NBA to do that.
But, Mike, I want to get to the Knicks real quick.
Okay. Okay. I'm a Knick fan, grew up a Knick fan, and I think Tom Thibodeau did a nice job turning this franchise around with Leon Rose. He gets axed. The Knicks are turned down by at least three teams in terms of talking to their coaches.
They bring in a Mike Brown. It seems as if they scrambled to do so. I watched the press conference. I think he's a really nice guy. You know, are the Knicks at this point just trying to save face because this has been a terrible offseason for them in terms of what's happened at the coaching position?
Well, I don't know if this has been a terrible offseason. I I think I think you could. I would argue there probably wasn't a reason to fire Tom Thibodeau. But I think Mike Brown is a good coach. Was he better than Tib?
I wouldn't say that. Uh but he's different than him and he'll coach differently and I think In the front office, we'll be able to get more involved and they'll probably play more players and have more depth as you've seen them kind of round out the location a little bit. And I think in the NBA now, it's really, really hard. To win deep into the playoffs without depth and without a long rotation. Like, if there are any lessons to take from the Thunder and the Pacers, it's that you need to go like 10 deep in the finals, right?
You just need to give some guys a break and be able to play really hard for that long. And that was something Tim wasn't doing. He had to do that at almost like a gunpoint in the Eastern Conference finals when he brought in Landry Shannon right off the bench and all those guys. The the actual coaching search is obviously very clumsy, right? Like a scatter shot and it seemed like they were giving to something out of uh you know because they hadn't expected to do a coaching search and so they were trying to go get guys that they probably knew they weren't going to get.
But it landed them in a decent enough place. I think Mike Brown is a good coach. I think it's really important to see whose coaching staff is, because I think They are probably going to try to optimize that offense because it wasn't under Tom Thibodeau. And I'm curious to see what that coaching staff and that offense is going to look like next year. Mike, it's very early.
We are in the offseason. Summer league has just begun. But the Houston Rockets so far have won the offseason. The seven-team trade, they land Kevin Durant. They brought in a bunch of guys.
You talk about depth in the NBA, how important it is today. They've added incredible amounts of depth. Are you right now on that Rockets bandwagon?
So Uh Yeah. But not for the Kevin Durant reason.
Well, obviously, he's great, but like, I think Amin Thompson showed that he's a soften player last year. Yeah. And Tari Ethan is great defensively. And it's because everyone else around Kevin Durant, I think, is going to be really good. And so you're going to have him there, right?
But he's going to have so much more help. And he didn't feel it. where we saw the limitations of just having Kevin Durae, right? You need to have a really strong lineup around them. You need to have a really strong rotation around them, right?
And they have a really good coach with Emil Zoka. And we saw that they're probably a little bit early this past season where they had the second seed, but still the offense wasn't there. They just couldn't score enough. Kevin Durant should help solve that. But I think that's kind of what makes me interested and excited about the rocket texture: the team that Durant is going to be popping to.
I mean Mike, there's no question Kevin Durant is an all-time great player. The guy can score with his eyes closed. He can be lying in bed. He can shoot three-pointers. He'll hit him.
I mean, he's an all-time great player. Prolific score, but this is gonna be his, what, fifth team, I think. In the NBA, and superstars usually don't play for that many teams, they stick around. How do you view Kevin Durant? Is he at this point just looked upon as kind of a mercenary?
He's going to go someplace, maybe help some win. He just moves on. It's like a movie, right? I mean, does it kind of hurt his overall legacy a bit that he's now played for, you know, going to go play for what, his fifth team and potentially more? Because who knows how long he's going to stay in Houston at this point?
Yeah, that's an interesting question. I mean like the way I think about it is like To me, like Kevin Durant is the archetypal modern NBA player in that he has No home, right? Like, so to speak, with a franchise. I don't know if Sunger fans claim him anymore, Warriors fans, Nex fans, like all that. But he has a fan base.
There is a huge Kevin Durant fan base. And so, like, he's one of those guys that supersede. one team or one franchise, and he has just like his own fans that he takes any with him wherever he goes. Does that inc you know, factor into his legacy? Not for me.
I mean, he's an awesome player. Like whatever team he's doing that on, I don't know. That's I guess to some degree his choice, but like he'll go down as one the top, you know. 12 to 15 guys in NBA history, in my opinion.
So I don't know. That hasn't changed how I look at them. When you think of him though, do you think of him in that OKC jersey? I don't know what I it's really hard. I guess I kind of will probably remember him.
Uh as a warrior? Just because that's when he was on the best team that he was on. Um And and probably playing his best. But I don't know if that's a minority view or not. Like, I don't know.
Like, I don't know who claims it. Do the Thunder fans want to claim them as a Thunderer? Yeah. Like, I don't know. I don't know.
He just, you know, when he retires, like, and he goes into the Hall of Fame, is he just going to wear that Player's Tribune picture as his like his jersey? I don't I don't really know what where where that's going to end up for him. He just wears a Jerry West logo, I think, at that point, right? I mean, it's like the baseball player wears him. The the K D logo or something as a as a thing, as a baseball hat.
You know, like, I look at him as a thunder still just because he played the majority of his career there, right? A couple of what Golden State was three years, Brooklyn was three years, Phoenix is three years. He's kind of got this little rhythm going of playing places for three years. OKC was there for pretty much double that, almost triple that, you know.
So the fact is, I think if I'm going to overall look at him and what jersey would he wear into the Hall of Fame, if that's a thing, then obviously I think OKC would have to be it. But you're right. Do Thunder fans look at him as a, and you've created a new word on this show. Congratulations, a Thunderer. I mean, Frankly, probably yes at this point, although That's a great question.
What would you see him as? Mike Vorkhanov, National NBA Business Reporter at the Athletic. Mike, appreciate you. As always, my friend, have a great weekend. Yeah, thank you for having me.
Happy that we all created a new word on the show together. Absolutely. I'm going to remember that one. Our palt Martinez is going to cut that piece out there. Art, if there's ever somebody who uses that word thunder again, please.
Vorkhanov gets the royalties. Got it? Got it. All right, good. Cut that out.
We just got to make sure, you know, we made history on this show today. Not we. Mike did. Thunder. That's good, I like that.
Is that an actual word? No, right? Thunderer I don't know. And I like that. I'm going to start using that.
But I don't worry, Art. I will cite Mike Forkenoff for doing thundering. Thunder. Yeah, I think of Russell Westbrook as a thunderer, right? I kind of do.
Yeah. That's a good question. I. You know, to me, it does hurt a legacy a little bit. I have to admit, it does.
No question. Kevin Durant. Will go down as one of the 10 to 15 best players in the history of the NBA. Do you blame the player or do you blame free agency? I mean, well, who do you blame?
No, no, I blame the player. He is a guy that has orchestrated. Every move that he's made in his career. He has orchestrated every trade Every signing, he is the one pulling the strings. He wanted out of OKC, went to Golden State.
Remember, he could have stayed in Golden State, won it out. wanted to go to Brooklyn, right, form a big three with Kyrie Irving and James Harden didn't work out. He orchestrated his way out of there to go to Phoenix. And then he wanted out of Phoenix.
So now he's going to Houston. It's not necessarily the money, it's the chemistry. You know what? The money's there regardless, right? I mean, Kevin Durant's going to make his money regardless, wherever he goes.
He's going to make $52 million or whatever it is this year for Houston.
So the money's there. And When he decided he was done in Phoenix, I remember the list came out of what teams he wanted to go to. And it was like San Antonio, Houston, and I forgot the other team. Maybe you want to go to a team in a state with uh Uh no state income tax. But He's the one pulling all these strings.
And I just have this vision that when you are an all-time great player. You should not play for a Large amount of teams, like even LeBron James, right? LeBron James played for Cleveland. Miami? Cleveland LA.
So he's played for three teams, maybe the greatest player in history. Played for three teams. Michael Jordan played for two teams. Tom Brady played for two teams. But, you know, they didn't go there really in the prime of their careers.
I mean, Brady obviously still won a Super Bowl, but. He was an older Tom Brady. Michael Jordan went to Washington and He was like a part owner, so probably played if he wanted to put fannies in the stands to make the team a little bit more appealing. Almost cost himself his average of 30 points a game, by the way, because he played for the Wizards. And by the way, at like 30-some-odd years old, and obviously not the same Michael Jordan, he could still put up 20 points a game.
It's fairly impressive, don't get me wrong. Really impressive. Really impressive. But when you think of Michael Jordan, you think of him as a Chicago Bull, right? When you think of Tom Brady, you think of him as a New England Patriot.
Boo. Right. Jeter played only for the Yankees. Colby played only for the Lakers. Kershaw.
Although he was, of course, drafted by the Charlotte Hornets. Kershaw, only a Dodger? Right? There's something to be said about being a legend. But also being a legend that stuck to one place.
The only uniform you ever wore was blank. And Kevin Durant, again, all-time great. One of the fun players to watch because he is a sniper. But Kevin Durant Kevin Durant is a guy that has now. will be donning his fifth jersey.
I don't count the first year in Seattle that's still OKC, same team. But that's a lot for a guy who's an all-time great. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance, fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more.
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To qualify for the $250 bonus, car purchase and financing must be completed by September 2nd, 2025. Terms and conditions apply and are available at NavyFederal.org slash TrueCar. Credit and collateral subject to approval. Navy Federal is insured by NCUA. Dan Schwartzmann in for Rich Eisen.
It's the Rich Eisen Show, and it is a Friday. The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is almost upon us. The Hall of the Home Run Derby. We're gonna get to that a bit later on as well. It's I have such mixed feelings about it.
I really do. We're going to get to that in a bit, though, because I do want to talk about it. But it's funny. You know, we've been talking about these NBA salaries, and we've been talking about How much money guys are making now at these Super Max type deals. What it means for the players?
And Mike Vorkhanov, National NBA business reporter at the Athletic, who joined us a little bit ago, really kind of broke it down. When you talk about the T V revenue, how the salary cap is impacted, and how when you look at these types of Super Max Max deals, you're talking about a percentage of the salary cap.
So when Steph Curry Signed a Supermax deal. That was back in 2017, 2018. He was the first player to sign one of these types of deals. His contract was $34.7 million. 'Cause the salary cap is $99 million.
Okay. It took five years or so to then get above 40 million. But now, when you start looking at these deals, okay. The money is incredible. Are you ready for this?
So contracts that start in 2026, 2027. The first amount of money in the deal is close to $58 million. By the fourth year of that Supermax deal, it's almost $72 million. But based on the dollar amounts of the T V contracts, the revenue brought in, the share that they have, players and owners, fifty one percent for the players, forty nine percent for the owners, If a deal is signed in 2032-2033 season, the first year of that contract is going to be one hundred and two point six million dollars. The fourth year of that deal is going to be 127.
I mean, that's unbelievable.
Okay. Hey, Dan. Yeah. And the salaries are so outrageous. One player is making more than the Miami Marlins, the whole team.
Yeah. Look at the big three for the Thunder. They're each making more than the the whole Miami Marlins team. Yeah. But that but that you know what though?
But that tells you why baseball is so warped how they have to have a minimum salary cap. in baseball. You have teams like the A's, you have teams like the Marlins. You have teams like the Rays, the Pirates, Who don't want to spend money? who cry poverty Who pocket the revenue sharing that they do and they get from the big teams like the Dodgers and the Yankees and the Red Sox and teams like that that make money and then share that revenue out, right?
So they're pocketing that money. They're not putting it all back into the team the way that they should. And I look at it and I say, not, wow, I can't believe how these NBA players are making more money than an entire baseball team. My response is, I can't believe a baseball team is so cheap. That the entire roster makes less than one NBA player.
Right? I mean, that's, I think, how you have to look at it. And that's why earlier this year, with Paul Skeens, the unbelievably talented pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's going to be a Dodger, by the way. Or a Yankee or a big market team, right?
The fact that the pirates still control his rights for like four and a half years. When you throw in the years and then the arbitration years, And yet they're already talking about big market teams trying to trade for him. Because everybody and their mothers understand That there's no way the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to be able to afford it, and maybe they can afford it, they just don't want to. There's no way the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to want to pay. Paul Skeens.
The amount of money it will take to keep him in a pirate's uniform.
So let's word it that way. They don't want to pay what it's going to cost. To keep him. Not they can't afford to keep them. I'm sure they can actually afford it.
Now, it would impact the rest of their roster. But you know what art? The San Diego Padres are not a big market, right? I mean, that's a sleepy area. That's, yeah.
You know, when guys sign to play for the San Diego Padres, no offense. It's as if they disappear they disappear off the planet. Like, people forget Manny Machado actually exists, but he does. He just plays in San Diego. Juan Soto kind of disappeared for a year.
Well, no, he actually just played in San Diego. It's as if you Darvish went back to Japan to pitch, right? Oh, actually, no, he stopped in San Diego on the way. It's a place where guys go and then you forget they actually exist. But yet, you know what?
That ownership there spent money. $250 million payrolls. Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah.
So that's a doggy thing, I can attest. Yes, they are fierce competitors. And they spend money.
So, if they can do that in San Diego, I don't think they have massive TV deals in San Diego. It's not like LA or New York or Boston or a place like that. You're telling me the Miami Marlins or the Pittsburgh Pirates? The Oakland A's can't spend $175, $200 million in payroll? They can't make that kind of money.
If that's the case, they shouldn't be a team. Like, yeah, the owner's entitled to make some money, no question about it, but. Don't be a welfare case and not spend any of the money you get on your team, rather than you're pocketing it. But these NBA contracts are utterly insane. No question about it.
We're going to get. I mean, a hundred million dollar a year player is not that far off right now in the NBA. It's more than a million dollars per game.
Well, baseball all-star game is almost here. The home run derby roster has been set. We're going to go over some of these names. Does anybody on that list get you excited? Is there anybody you're paying to see in the list of players that are there?
Also, first half, what's happened? We'll talk to Jared Diamond, covers baseball for the Wall Street Journal.
Next, Arrow one in the books. Dan Schwartz has been in for rich. It's the Rich Eisen Show. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why?
Because you're not playing me. With rapid fire takes. And a lot to get to, and I'm not sure you're going to like all of it. Honestly, I don't even care if you like all of it or not. I have a job to do.
Scorching debates. On any given week, you have lots to beef about. Take advantage of it. Get up in here. He's the Spitfire of Sports Smack.
Which is not my fault. We will get to all of that. The Jim Rome Show podcast. Get up in here and we'll beef later on. What's your beef?
Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned. Yeah.
