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Now. On with the show. Victor Wembinyama. The Rich Eisen Show. It's a 40-point game.
Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. We will have a quarterback. On Sunday, I would tell you that. Today's guests: Patriots head coach Mike Brable, ESPN NBA senior writer Brian Windhorst. Senior NFL writer for the athletic, Diana Rossini.
And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Mike Vrable of the Patriots joining us shortly in a matter of moments here on Disney Plus, the ESPN app or ESPN Radio, presented by. Progressive insurance. Then Brian Winwurst is going to join us from ESPN.
We almost cancel him because what's there to talk about with him? Wait a minute. I'm told everything. Oh, yeah, bro. Yeah, okay, all of it.
Yeah, all.
Okay. Jamil Hill, I just saw on threads, calls this the sports story of the year. I mean, the year right now.
So, yeah, there's lots going on. I mean, when I was just reading during the commercial break some of what we heard from the press conference, so we'll talk about that with the FBI. We'll talk about that with Brian Winhorst. coming up on this program in just a matter of moments. Um and then Daya Runi Roussini of the athletic We'll join us shortly on the program.
Um Is our next coach, next guest ready to roll?
Okay, great. His team is number two in the AFC right now, but he was also 59th. Uh, at the American Century Championship, where I saw him last, where I finished tied for 88th. Just to be full disclosure, Mike Vrable, the head coach of the New England Patriots. Yes, sir.
Good to see you, Coach. How are you? What's up, Coach? Hi, Rich. We are there to smile, tell jokes, and sign autographs.
That's our job and to take pictures. Remember that. You know what? I appreciate you giving me that coaching point because I wasn't beginning to get down on myself. You know what I mean?
But that's all you're there for, right? We'll leave it up to the five guys that can actually win that tournament to go compete for it. The rest of us will just try to have a good time. No doubt about it. Because, again, I played with one of the guys I played with in the first round of the American Century Championship coach was Matt Ryan.
And um I I topped my first drive. Screw it. I'll just come straight through the front door with you because it's the first time I'd ever done this, and the fans are all there. And I'm walking up the fairway with him, and Matt says to me, Do you feel your hands again yet? And I'm like, no.
And he said he, he said it took him two and a half holes the first time he played to feel his hands again. And he's a one-handicap who played in the Super Bowl. You know what I mean? I hit one guy twice. I hit the same guy twice in one round.
I mean, I ran out of stuff to give him. I was like giving him autographs and hats and money. And he's got like a knot on his head. I'm like, oh, man. But anyway, it's good to see you again.
Listen, I know it's your business to hang banners and you play in a building where there's some banners you look at all the time that you helped hang and there's no place to have a hang a banner when you're. You're five and two. But that said, how do you feel about your start here through the first seven games? I feel like we've gotten off to a good start. I think we've improved.
I think we're having we're embracing coming to work and preparing and With that, you can have a good time and still work, and you know, trying to build. You know, build a program that's got some consistency to it. I think that's the biggest thing we're trying to do. And in terms of how does one coach consistency? How do you get it?
How do you do that? What do you do?
Well, it starts with me. It starts with me and the things that I do, and I coach. you know, after positive plays or Plays that aren't very favorable, that we're still coaching things that go on. You coach the action, not the result. And sometimes, you know, because we didn't fumble or we didn't give up a big play doesn't mean that we shouldn't have based on our technique on that particular play.
So I think that we have to continue to do that.
So it starts with me and then everybody else and how we approach each day in our schedule. Were you that way when you started? Coaching? Where did you have to learn? I mean, I tried to be.
Yeah. I mean, I've tried to be, and sometimes that strays. You know, as far as again, I think I've learned to try to have non-negotiables and then mistakes. We have to coach. non negotiables are things that we can't have as far as our effort and the type of teammate that we are and our identity.
We're going to make plenty of mistakes, and we'll coach the mistakes and make sure that we're teaching them. But then again, I think having non negotiables help you navigate Well, I mean, in terms of, you know, obviously you can emulate what you experienced. Do you still draw on your experience as a player? As a coach, to say this is what I liked when I played, or those days are gone, and you're now, it's totally different now. For you, uh, no, I mean, I do try to put myself in the shoes of a player as far as the schedule and when we come in and uh.
treatment and Weightlifting and the time that they have to get ready for practice and the meeting time and the walkthrough, how we're teaching them, how they're going to learn. And what we're asking to do, and the techniques that are You know, if it's realistic for them to be able to do their job and the answers that we're giving them to be able to do it. Mike Vrabel here on The Rich Eisen Show, head coach of the New England Patriots at 5-2. Top place in the AFC East and number two in the conference overall.
So let's talk about your quarterback. Obviously, we're in a quarterback-driven league, and he looks really special. Mike, I mean, and I'm just wondering how you coach somebody like Drake May. How do you coach him? I mean, again, I'm not a quarterback coach and probably won't ever be one, but I think just his ability to.
Lead the group, lead the team. You know, what's required of him, what's required of the head coach. His energy, the way that he talks to the players, the way that he communicates with the coaching staff. You know, those are all things that I'm trying to help, and I think I can help. And he's done a great job with that and improving it, and sharing our message, and making sure that, guys, when he says things, that he says it in a manner that gets their attention.
Would you mind sharing with us what your first meeting with him was about when you're in the new head coach of the New England Patriots? and you sit down with Drake May what you told him. I didn't tell him anything. We had a conversation. This is trying to build relationships and connections, and that was what I tried to do.
Uh early on, and it will still contra continue to do. But I've never just met with somebody for the first time and told them anything. I asked them about his family, asked them about his experiences, and Just like I would most of our other players. But no, no messages about you're the quarterback and I'm going to need you to do X, Y, and Z. None of that stuff?
Well, I think the best thing is to um You know, for me is to evaluate and then make a decision. You know, and where I need to. You know, interject, you know, myself and the things that, first of all, you need to figure out what it looks like, and then you have to go and. you know, make suggestions and and Figure out where you go from there. And that's what we did in the offseason with a lot of our guys.
You know, getting to know him, and we do think that, you know, connection and relationships are important in this business. Any part of his development surprise you that he's getting it so fast? Um Man, it's just really accurate on the move. You know, it's been really fun to see him, you know, extend and be able to remain accurate. But I think Josh and Ashton have done a great job of showing him things and how he can improve.
His ability to lead our offense and to put the ball into good places and being able to take care of it. And, you know, Kurt Warner. I was on this program yesterday, Mike. Said Drake May is the best deep thrower in the National Football League today. He called the deep throws that he's making right now handoffs.
Would you agree with that?
Well, I mean, I'm not going to say that we're the best at anything yet because we're not. But we've hit some balls down the field. And he's put him in good spots. You know, guys have done a nice job of Of going and taking care of the football and getting it in traffic, whether that's down the field or contested catches. Mike Vrabel here on the Rich Eisen Show.
I'll ask you the million-dollar question here. I'm kind of going to guess your answer, but screw it. I'll just ask it anyway. Anything that reminds you of Brady in his early days? From Drake May.
No, I mean, he doesn't drive a yellow Jeep to work, so I would say that's one thing that's different. I guess from his gameplay, from his command, from his from everything that you're seeing that this kid light up right now, anything you were there front row seat for the ascension of Tom. My, you know, I mean, I just know you don't want to put it on them. I get it, but no, I don't think it is even accurate. You know.
So a lot of years ago. And um You know, I do love Drake's youthful energy. You know, 23 years old, I'm like. Oh God, I got kids that are 23 years old, so. Um That's been fun, Beg.
That's been fun to have that energy around here.
So, I guess none of your kids have ever handed you a game ball like he did the other day?
Well, we won the fifth grade diacon league baseball championship. I was the head coach once offseason. I was a grounds crew and the head coach, and I did get the game ball after that, the baseball.
So we won the fifth grade diacon championship. All right.
So there is some St. Michaels. There is some precedence. There's a little bit of precedence here.
Okay. I appreciated that. You know, I mean, that was cool to see him do that. And again, I appreciated it. And again, this will always be about the players.
You know that. Yep. They're the ones that go out there and. I'll play this game and make the plays and Yeah, we're just We're an extension of them and we're excited for them when they do well. Is there any moment that you've had in the first few months, Mike, where you're like, you can't believe you're taking the same drive to this stadium as the head coach of the New England Patriots?
Have you had any of those moments at all? Probably on game day. I would say the home games is probably when it flashes back a little bit of. you know, leaving the same hotel, leaving the same home hotel. Coming down the same route that I did as a player, I think that's probably when I.
I I think feel it the most or recognize it the most. What do you feel? Like, what goes through your mind, your gut? Thank God I don't have to play today.
Okay. All right.
It just is pretty. Listen, I've got a Patriot fan here. I married into a family of Patriot fans. They are just over the moon that you're the guy, you know, and that you're the guy, you got your red jacket, you're the guy, and obviously there's lots going on, and you're just getting started. But you represent a lot.
You represent, you know, bridging. worlds, uh past, present and future. And there's yeah, I mean, again, I'm excited because the fans are excited and they are understanding and get to know our players, and they're supporting our players, and they're supporting our team. We have to give them something to cheer about and continue to To play well and play with our identity so that they can rally around us, you know, coming back home now here for a couple of weeks.
Okay, so moving forward, what do you want to see? What should we look for for you? For everybody to realize that these patriots are for real. You're for real. You're five and two.
I mean, we're not trying to be for real. We're just trying to be consistent. We're trying to do the things that we think help us win. And do it over and over, and continue to practice it in our meetings and our walkthroughs and on the field. continue to allow it to transfer into the games.
That's the most important thing. And so. And we don't we're not looking for anybody to To look for anything other than, man, these guys are gonna have a certain style and they're gonna have an identity and they're gonna try to be good enough to take advantage of bad football. Mike Frable here on the Rich Eisen Show. Before I go, I'm gonna go here with you, too.
Um you know the Pro Football Hall of Fame is is um you know, beginning to consider who should get in and who should not. I don't think I'm going to get in, Rich. I don't think I'm going to get it. I'm going to go in the other direction. I'm going to go Robert Kraft.
Mike, I'm going to go to craft here. And I'm just, again, wondering, you want to pound the table a little bit here? You played for them. I mean, when you start to really look at the history, when you look at the history of this organization and it haven't. known people when I played here.
You know, that went to the stadium for $10 and wore, you know, and carried in 30 packs of beer. And it just, the whole thing has changed since the time that. You know, Robert, um Bought the team and made it just such an important part of this community, made us relevant with the. With the Celtics and the Red Sox. And obviously, that's from great players and great coaching.
But again, somebody had to take the. To get it started, and he's done that, and he's continued to give us and support us everything that we need. We're getting a new practice facility next door here. That's going to be an amazing building to be in. And I would say that everything we've asked for since I've been here, we've been able to get to help the football team.
And the Brady statue that's out there as well, is that the moment after he threw you the touchdown pass in either of the Super Bowls? Is that that moment right there? I don't know. Was that the first person in time? I don't know.
I don't know which picture they used. I'm sure somebody here could tell you which picture they used from it, but I don't know what it was. All right, man. First Super Bowl in NFL network history we covered. You had a sack force fumble of Dalome and a touchdown catch in it.
I remember that as the day as yesterday. Coach, I remember that.
So I appreciate you taking some time here. Uh, as always, being on this program, I don't take it I don't take it for granted. Thanks for the time, man. Thank you so much, Rich. I appreciate your support.
I appreciate you saying that. That's Mike Vrable, the head coach of the New England Patriots right here on the Rich Islands Show. I'm going to get him back out on time because. By the way, I respect that of all New England head coaches back in the day. when I hosted the uh kickoff uh dinner.
Belichick came up to me, first thing he said to me. Only thing he said to me, get us out of here on time. Really? Oh, yes. Get us out of here on time.
Get us out of here on time. No pressure there, right? That's it. Did you? To the dot, you kidding me?
I even got him out like on Coughlin time a little early. A little early?
Okay. Oh, yeah. What do you think? I was. Doesn't that?
I think that was 2011? I don't remember. Oh, I interviewed Brady before our pod. It might have been that. I think it was 2011.
That was when I showed up wearing a. You know, my my finest thing. It looked like I was wearing a burlap sack. I will take a break. Brian Winhorst is going to only be able to join us for 10 minutes because I don't know what's going on in the NBA.
What's what what what Why is his time so constrained? I don't get it. Oh, wait a minute, I'm told everything's happening. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Disney Plus, the ESPN app everywhere and ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance.
ESPN senior NBA writer Brian Winhorst is here on the program. I give you the floor. What do you know right now about what the FBI is alleging? Yeah. Brian.
Yeah, I spent a lot of time this morning reading the indictments. And, you know, there's two cases, as you may know. One is a pretty spectacular in terms of details case about illegal poker games, which I assume somebody will make a movie about someday. And that really does involve NBA players or personnel. And there are, I think, about four people who are charged in both cases.
But that is not really what the NBA is going to be focused on and having to deal with. What they're going to have to deal with is the fallout of the other case, which involves illegal inside information on NBA games.
Now, a lot of this was already known. You know, Jante Porter has already pled guilty to some of the stuff that's in this indictment. Terry Rogier of the Miami Heat was already known to have been under investigation for a certain game in 2023. The NBA. In fact, it is probably going to have to answer for why they allowed him to keep playing while the FBI was very clearly still investigating and still planning on possibly charging him, which they have done.
And then there is a whole slate of incidences of people having leaking inside information of when players might be available for games. And some of these players are gigantic names. They're not named in the indictment, but if you pull back one layer, you can figure this out. In fact, Chauncey Billips isn't even named in this indictment, the head coach of the Trailblazers, who's now been put on leave by the league office, as, by the way, as Terry Rogers, I'm sure you've told your viewers. Chauncey is just described as co-conspirator eight.
Who is described as an Oregon resident who played in the NBA from 1997 to 2014? Yes, we can figure that out. Yes.
So, what this, these are, this is what the new information is, which is that Damon Jones and Shaun C. Billops use their positions as coaches of teams to tell people who may be available. And what appears to be Damian Lillard and LeBron James, potentially also Anthony Davis. I'm not 100% sure about that.
So, wait a minute. Let me just jump in here.
So, you're saying Chauncey Billops, it's not just the poker thing, that he is also in this indictment. alleged to have given out information as to who's playing and who's not. Yes, that's correct. And that's what the, you know, I'm not downplaying the poker thing, but I hear you. I did hear you.
The NBA isn't concerned today with. Whether people who are playing in illegal poker games got defrauded. I mean, you know, they may feign that they care about that, but, you know, they don't care about that. They care about sensitivity information about their players and their games. And so what Chauncey is being accused of is: you know, there was a tanking job going out in 2023, going on because people were really interested in getting their hands on Victor Wembanyama.
And the Blazers weren't participated in that tanking situation. And there was a moment in March of that year where the Blazers basically seemed to have decided to put their tank in overdrive. And they decided they were not going to play their regulars anymore, but specifically they were not going to play Dame Willard. And there was this day, I can't remember who they were playing, maybe the jazz. But uh Damien was listed as probable.
With a calf tightness, and um, according to the indictment, I'm not saying it happened, I'm just according to the indictment. Uh, Chauncey told somebody that Dame wasn't going to play amongst other players, even though he was listed as probable. As the day went along, he was then switched to questionable and then out, and then he never played again the rest of the season. The Blazers lost 15 of their last 17 games and ended up with Scoot Henderson, the number two pick, but not the number one pick. Um, and then uh, Dame, Damien Jones, uh, Damon Jones, sorry, not Damien, Damon Jones, um, who was um sort of a volunteer assistant with the Lakers for several years, um, they accuse him of uh saying that LeBron was, and they don't say LeBron's name to be clear, they just say they call him player one or player two or something like that, but they reference the game against the Bucks.
In 2023, it was the game after LeBron broke the scoring record, Kareem scoring record. That game was against the Thunder, and LeBron was a relatively late scratch in that game. And obviously, not having LeBron, who was really close to the peak of his powers at that point, at least for that age, didn't play. And that information was used by people that Damon Jones told about it before it was public information. Then a year later, Um, Damon, uh, apparently, according to the indictment, told uh these uh co-conspirators again that the LeBron or Anthony Davis, it's not clear which because both were on the on the injury report for a certain game against the Thunder, that they would either not play in that game or play less than normal minutes.
At the time, the Lakers were under 500, and the uh the Thunder were a very strong team. They had Shad Holmgren, he was playing, they had Jalen Williams, he was playing, and Shay Gildis Alexander all played in that game. And in fact, LeBron and A.D. did play in that game, did play their regular minutes, and the Lakers pulled the upset. They had been not favored, and they came back and won.
And the betters, according to the indictment, the betters were pissed off at Damon and asked for their money back that they had paid him for the information.
So it doesn't even imply that this information was always accurate, but just that it was given. And there's also another game that was referenced between the Cavs and Magic game, also in 2023.
Now, what I think I just want to point out is that. This is so what the NBA is going to have to deal with here is obviously players with pulling themselves out of games with unders, but that's. We frankly have known about that, unfortunately, for 18 months. That's Jante Porter thing from 18 months ago. The thing that the NBA is going to have to deal with, and they already have dealt with in a certain extent, Rich, is that.
For decades, There has been this soft spot. where people involved with the team, whether it's the players or other people, support staff, know.
well before the injury update injury list is changed that a player is going to play.
So let's just say you have an average Thursday in November. There's a shoot around in the morning. A player is listed as questionable. Everybody at that shoot around sees that that player can't walk.
Okay. He still listed as questionable. Even though everybody knows he's not playing that night, that has happened for decades, and there have been people who could have passed that information on.
Now, since sports betting became legal, the NBA, they recognize that this is a soft spot, and so they very vastly tightened their injury reporting. They now do injury updates all during the day, and they fine teams that they don't accurately tell injury situations. But that said, there is still this soft spot, largely in some cases because the teams don't want to let their opponents know who's going to be playing. And also, sometimes it's genuinely a game time decision.
Sometimes you don't know whether a player is going to be able to play until he gets out there and warms up. And how does that calf feel? How does that wrist feel? And so, but there's this gray area there. And so, what I suspect will happen out of this, I don't think that this is something that is a scandal that is going to rock the foundation of the league.
I mean, I'm sure that some people will get on television and say that. This is a problem that the NBA has known about and has been trying to address. That there are instances now where it's coming out that people are exploiting it. But they are going to probably have to tighten it up even more and pressure teams more to be more honest about player availability so that. a volunteer assistant coach Um or anybody else may not be able to give inside information, that the information is much more transparent.
Well, I mean, in the few minutes I have left with you here, the just at first blush, the issue I think the NBA has got to square for a lot of those who are observing. and fans is How does Terry Rozier get arrested for something that the NBA apparently cleared him of? That is absolutely going to be. The NBA is going to have to answer that question. And as you probably know, there's a player under investigation for irregularity right now in Malik Beasley.
And there's been, I think, frustration from people that Malik Beasley hasn't had it. It cleared one way or the other. And this is part of the reason why I think the NBA is going to have to be extremely careful with this going forward. And you were absolutely right, Rich. The NBA at some point is going to have to explain.
why Terry Rogier was allowed to keep playing. And I just want to point something out. The sports books caught the irregular betting on Terry Rogier the day it happened, the morning it happened, when all of a sudden there was hundreds of thousands of dollars coming in on Terry Rogier unders for a relatively meaningless game in November, I'm sorry, in March, involving the Charlotte Hornets. The sports books caught it. They told the NBA right away, and guess what?
The NBA. Rozier didn't play the rest of the season, and he had faked the injury, so it wasn't because of the injury. The NBA pulled him. They pulled Jante Porter, too. They flagged Jante Porter and pulled Jante Porter.
The NBA's. Um Measures, their protection measures, the sports books protection measures, triggered this. They caught it. The issue, I think, is, Jante Porter, they caught. Convicted and tossed him out of the league within weeks.
Rogier didn't. And in this investigation, and I don't know if Terry Rogier is guilty. The NBA obviously didn't feel that he was, they wouldn't have let him play. But this indictment implies that there was a swath of conspirators. There was like his cousin, his cousin's friend, I mean, all the way down to like low-level guys who won money on this bet.
And then immediately bet on other games and lost all the money and had to tell other people, man, I lost the money, I'll have to get it to you. Like really low-level people who were betting hundreds of dollars on this game, in addition to people who were betting tens of thousands.
So, my point about saying that is that there was a wide swath of people who were benefiting from this inside information on Rozier, according to the feds, and that the NBA. Either didn't discover that or knew about that and cleared him, they're going to have to answer for it. But this is. This is not like, you know. Hmm.
I hate to bring up the name. This is not like Tim Donaghy. This is. This is sloppy stuff that needs to be tightened down. I know the people who are going to attack the league and people who are against gambling are going to be able to hammer on this, and there's some points to be made there.
I do not think this is going to rock the NBA to its foundation based on the information that I have. Obviously, more information could come out, but it is definitely very interesting, particularly the poker aspect. Certainly, you know, it involves a head coach as well, Brian. I mean, that is. That's particularly involves inside information about whether a player is going to play.
I think the key is: did Chauncey? Tell the guy and say, They'll make a bet on the game. Got it. Or did Chauncey tell the guy? because he was having loose lips and then that guy went out and made money on it.
Understood. That's the question. I don't know the answer to that, but that nuance is going to be important. All right.
And I know your time is limited.
So I do want to give you the floor on Wembunyama. I mean, that was insane. Like an actual conversation about an actual game that actually happened. And I mean, 40 and 15, no turnovers. That is exactly what you're everybody when you first were visiting France to check it all out was envisioning that type of performance right from jump.
Right. And when I met his coaches who coached him when he was 12, 13, 14 years old, one of the things that they said was that they begged him, Victor. Please go buy the basket. Every step away from the basket you take, your height advantage gets mitigated a little bit more. And, Victor, Really didn't want to hear it.
Victor wanted to be a big man with guard skills. He didn't want to be defined by his height. You may have noticed that just this week, he complained about people focusing on his height. And the spurs have been Rich Victor is very, very tall. He's taller than he's listed.
Okay. The Spurs looked at him at 7.3 coming into the league. He was not 7.3. He was taller than that. Then this year, because the NBA cracked down on it, they corrected it to 7.5.
I think 7.5 is still wrong. I think he's taller than 7.5. I started talking about it on TV. Victor started complaining about it, and the Spurs changed it from 7.5 back to 7.4 in the last few days and said it was a clerical error. I don't think there's a clerical error involving his singing, but he doesn't like being defined as somebody who's really tall.
He wants to be defined as a great basketball player.
So throughout his life, he wanted to focus on being a great basketball player, not just a tall basketball player. And by the way, that's one of the reasons why he's so special, because he is this big with. Guard skills. But here's the problem, Rich. It still is very helpful to be very tall.
So last year, he averaged nine three-pointers a game, and he did okay on them. He shot 35%. That's okay, that's not bad. But when you take 19 shots a game and nine of them are three-pointers and you're seven foot five or whatever, that is not the best use of your skill set. And so, Victor.
Has come around and now the league is in trouble. Already in the preseason, the scouts started flagging it because they noticed last year 40% of his shots were in the paint through the season. in the in the preseason i know it's a small sample size sure 75% of his shots were in the paint.
Okay. Do you know how many?
So last night he took two three-pointers. Do you know how many times last year, Rich, he took two three-pointers in a game? Go for it. He took under five three-pointers. Once, okay?
He had 11 free throws last night.
Okay, do you know how many times last year? He took 11 free throws in a regulation game. Yeah. A couple of same number. One okay.
So Now we have a guy who's seven foot whatever who has decided I'm going to play like that. I'm going to play bully ball. And he's also stronger. It's not just. It's not just that he's come around.
He's also gotten more bulkier and stronger. You look at photos of him from two years ago and now, yeah, he's not going to. Make you remember the rock, but he is much stronger. And the same thing happened to Giannis, except for Giannis came around on it in about his eighth year.
Okay, like last night, for example, Giannis took 21 shots in the paint. Because Giannis knows he's unstoppable. But it took, I mean, one of the years that Giannis won MVP, so I'm not exactly criticizing him. He took five threes a game. It's insane.
He's a terrible three-point shooter. Last night he took three. He probably shouldn't have taken any. Yannis figured it out and has become unstoppable.
Now at age 21. Victor. I think he has figured it out that he needs to play like he's seven, whatever, and the league could be in trouble because of it, as you saw last night. Thank you, Brian Winhorst. Really appreciate the time.
I know you've got a lot going on. Let's do this on the regular, as you know. Take care.
Sounds good, Rich. See you soon. Bye-bye. Right back at you. Our favorite.
Barnot, our favorite barnon. Wow. Because he just he can boil it down just like that. Mm-hmm. It's as simple to basically say.
Wrestling league's in trouble. How about that? He calls him seven foot whatever because he doesn't want to hear it from the Spurs or from Wembonyama that he's calling him too tall. But we know he is tall. Very tall.
It's kind of like how we lay off the show. I said, this dude's a problem, and everyone else have to deal with this. That's what Wynn Horst has confirmed it. And we can confirm he's tall because we saw him at the Fanatics. That's my son Coop with Jack Schuster.
Of Fanatics now. He's about six foot right at this time, if I recall. He's now a little bit too. He's now six, two. He was literally six foot tall right here.
Not even to his shoulder. Yeah. Yeah, I mean come on. Yeah, unless it's a guy. That's it.
Cooper six six one at that time, let's call it that length, you know. Six foot, whatever. Yeah, six foot. Yeah, come on. We don't need Susie getting upset at Stoop's height.
Susie is fluent in French, like Wembanyama. And you got Wemby, who's 7'13 in that picture. Very tall. Confirmed. 7 feet 13 inches.
He's 6'6. 16. You could do it. In that photograph, I think, right? Point being, imagine taking your greatest blessing and deciding, nah, I don't want to use it.
No, your height, that is your blessing. He did like an up and under reverse dunk and his were like two inches off the ground. But I can understand what Windhorse just described: is that if you're 7'5, right? Let's just. About 3% of the people that lived can relate to this.
I've never started a sentence that way. If you're seven foot five and have the handle like he has, you're sitting there going, That's my differentiator. I'm 7'5 and can do things that somebody who's 5'11 can do. I love Wendy pointed out something that I've said on this show before. Shout out to my boy, Keith Perry from Pittsburgh, a big man with guard skills.
Because that's what he is. He's got handle. What can you do to stop this?
So he's sitting there thinking, that's my differentiator.
So, of course, I'm going to, if I can hoist threes like I'm Steph Curry at my height. That's my differentiator. And people are telling him, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Your differentiator is you're just 7'5. Yeah.
That's your differentiator. The other stuff is a, yeah, that's nice that you can do, but in this sport. you're not guardable closer to the basket. The further you are away, you're mitigating, as Windhorse is pointing out. And to basically tell this to a young.
Kid And say, no, no, no, no, no, you've got to reconfigure the way that you've been thinking about yourself. He says it took Giannis eight years to understand it, and he's done it already. I think we just broke down what just is occurring in just one game. Let's take a break. 844-204-RICH.
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Sono sound. Go ahead and get Sonos. Susie and I have it in our house. You will love it. Studio quality sound makes you feel like you're right there in the stadium when you're watching a game.
You can play music, one in the kitchen, one in the, you know, in another room in your house, friends. It's okay.
So, and you got, you know, listen, when you got one kid who loves Taylor Swift and another kid who does not, you need to, do you need to have different? Indeed. Yeah, my goodness.
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Sonos, they look as good. As they sound. Drew in the great state of Michigan. Let's take your phone call. What's up, Drew?
Hmm. Drew, you got to hop on. Air, Drew, turn off whatever you're listening to, and what do you got for us, brother? You're on. All right, well.
Rich, I'm a lot like you. Hi uh I know you talk about and how it affects your mood for the week. Yeah, and I'm in three leagues right now. Who was it, Michael Bublay? Talking about he's an eight.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. He said that last year. Yep, okay. Going to be crazy.
What's going on? I was looking at Lamar Jackson for Justin Herbert to start.
So that's my big dilemma this week. Chris, you want to handle this one? Ari's consulting wants to. You got to start Herbert, right? Herbert had almost 400 Hyundi last week, and I know Brian Flores defense, but.
I don't know. I feel like I feel like you go Herbert, especially at home. You know, actually, we have John. Here's John Harbaugh giving you information on Lamar Jackson Drew. We'll play it for you.
Hit it. It's hard to put a number on. I think it's just part of the process right now. I really don't have any shareable Injury, intelligence. For you guys at this point.
What do you think of that?
Well yeah, okay. What do you think of that?
No shareable injury intelligence, no SII for you. True. Right. Okay. That gives me nothing, but I appreciate it.
Oh, man, what a big weekend this is going to be. Just go up to East Lansing and lay it on Sparty and just keep laying it on thick.
Well, Bryce, Bryce had his best game throwing last week.
So I'm pretty hopeful that we finally haven't really been able to put it together for four quarters like that. But thanks for the call, Druid Michigan. Hopefully, uh. Start Herbert. I think that's her advice, right?
Yeah, I think so. I think you want to see what Lamar looks like when he's back and if he does play this week. And the Bears were on a heater, so I would just chill. Start Herbie, feel good about it. Go on to the weekend.
In uh in hour number one, we were talking about uh Saying truth or not. Into a microphone at a podium in the National Football League, believe it or not. And as we were saying, hey, you don't believe Aaron Rodgers saying it's not a revenge. Not revenge. Sean Payton's like, I wasn't referring to Russell Wilson when I told a story about telling the owner of the Giants you couldn't make that move after you played us with Jackson Dart.
And Yada yada yada. And I basically said, you know, those who tell the truth sometimes get crap for it. Um Certainly, if you're a head coach whose quarterback keeps throwing interceptions and bunches and you're Mike McDaniel and you say, Tu is still our starter, let's just hope he doesn't throw 10. How does the quarterback take that?
Well, Tua was at the podium on Wednesday and was asked about that. That's true, no? Like, you don't want anyone that's going in there to hinder the team from being able to win the game, right? And as I said, Yeah, earlier You go out there like for me, I I go out there with the expectation to Help our team win. You turn the ball over, you turn the ball over the way I've turned the ball over this year.
You can't expect to help the guys win the game. I just want to root for this guy to do well, man. I feel you, man. He hasn't done a lot to help himself out over the last couple months. He's being as honest as he possibly can be right there.
You know, obviously, he'd want to be one of those guys, steps to the podium, and go, Yeah, I've got this team with the. Six and one, like Daniel Jones, can step to the podium and say without really saying instead of being oh yeah I know we're The exact opposite, one and six, and a lot of the reasons why is I keep on turning it over in bunches. As a matter of fact, he started his press conference. Remember, I said.
Somebody How he bristled at turning it over in bunches back in week one. He started his press conference saying, so.
So who said uh I turn it over in bunches?
Something like that. Like he's trying to, like McDaniel, use humor as the umbrella here. Um And then there was this what everyone's talking about. About hey Let's get the ball to Jaden Wa uh Jalen Waddlemore. How come you're you're having trouble getting that?
I think with that, some of it Has to do with being able to see guys with their guys also up front and our guys. And I'm not the tallest guy in the back there either.
So being able to see and then You know, sometimes when that happens, you don't want to just throw it blindly. And you gotta progress.
So I think that had some merit to reasons as to why that happened for Waddle. Yeah. Because you know that's Always the knock against guys who aren't that tall. That's why you shouldn't be playing quarterback in the NFL. Because the guys in front of you.
Or tall. I mean, it helps if you're having Joe Ault, for instance, if he's questionable for tonight's game, if he comes back, hopefully for the Chargers, block for you. It helps to be Justin Herbert's height. to play quarterback beside someone behind someone like Joe Ald. Pushback is also, Drew Brees wasn't, you know, breaking any vertexes, and he's.
going to be a first Ballot Hall of Famerer in a few months. We can baker Mayfield this year. Not a big guy. Not a big guy. But again, it's just a I I don't want to criticize anybody for being Honest.
I mean, that's as honest. He's being honest. His answer could have been: you know what? We're looking at this on film. We're noticing some things that I could do better, and that's what we're going to do.
Instead, he's just like, hey, I'm not the tallest, and it's tough to see him. Can't get mad at him for saying that. You can't get mad at him for saying that, but the general manager who's on the hot seat, who drafted him and then paid him all that money. It doesn't help him either. You know, what would help everybody is just winning a game and not turning it over in the process.
And the Miami Dolphins. This week. Or um at Atlanta before taking on The Ravens on a short week.
So the next five days after this weekend are pretty huge. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Mm-hmm.
