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Did you say Tom? I'm at y'all. Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gun down. The key to this case, it's Brian.
An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. Being placed under arrest, we had a killer amongst us.
Murder after you. Listen now. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody! Can't get enough of The Rich Eisen Show?
You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast, so you can listen anytime.
But here's the best part: our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com/slash rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment.
Now, on with the show. Oh my god, you guys are my favorite. This is The Rich Eisen Show. The one and only. Rich Eisen.
I know what I'm talking about. That's the headline. The Rich Eisen Show. With guest host, Brian Weber. I mean, honestly, he's brilliant.
Brian Weber. I've got a long resume. Google me. It saves time. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.
And now, sitting in for Rich. It's Ryan Weber. To the program, always an honored to sit in for Rich and the guys enjoying the much-deserved day off on this President's Day. I come to you from our regal studios in Southern California, where very few people seem to care about the NBA All-Star weekend, especially All-Star Saturday night, which was the afternoon here on the West Coast. But we're going to jump right in talking about the resurrection of the All-Star game.
It was watchable. What do you know? NBA players can actually expend effort when they want to. In 20 minutes, we'll talk football with the combine starting next week. Which team has the worst QB situation heading into the draft?
And there is news in the NFL because. As you know by now, say it with me. There is no off-season in the National Football League, no holiday when it comes to transactions. Not stunning news, but significant to a degree. As expected, the Dolphins with the regime change, new GM, new head coach and Jeff Hafley have released Tyreek Hill.
So in twenty minutes, we'll talk about potential landing spots for the Cheetah. Wide open here in the first hour of the program. You can pick up the phone, eight four four two oh four Rich. That is 844-204-7424. Coming up in 45 minutes, we'll bookend the NBA talk to kick off the first hour of the show.
We'll get into the tanking crisis. Thank you very much. Is there anything realistically that Commissioner Adam Silver can do to preserve competitive integrity? Just two guests along the way because I'm delusional enough to think I'm just that fascinating. Plus, I'm only here selectively by design.
There's a reason why I am a guest host at this stage of my career.
So. In addition to the NBA thoughts that are coming up momentarily, we will get the analysis of what happened over the weekend and spin it forward to the post-All-Star Game break action when we're joined by Kurt Healen of NBCSports.com. In the next hour, final hour, we will talk NFL with Eric Edom of NFL.com. If you want to get interactive, you can always hit me up on the X platform, tweet at me. I don't get paid by Elon, so I'll go old school.
My handle is BWEber. Weber with two B's. I probably should not admit this because going young is always a wise course of action in our business, but I'm older than my business. Way to enthusiastic delivery at 9:03 local time here in Los Angeles would suggest.
So I got a head start in my career roughly 35 years ago because I was. Almost psychotically passionate about sports, and I used to get extraordinarily worked up over all star games.
Now, some of that was a byproduct of scarcity. I didn't see a lot of Xavier McDaniel when he played for the Supersonics when I grew up in the New York Tri-State area.
So when all the All Stars got together, it was meaningful because every game wasn't available on my phone. But as I'd gotten a little bit older and maybe more beat up, I try not to get worked up over things that are merely exhibitions and designed to entertain, but that's been the problem with the All-Star game. If you're not compelling, if you're not interesting, if the players don't seem to give a damn. Why should we?
So I was optimistic that the format changed, and we're not going to go through the whole chronology, the history of the All-Star Game. It was founded in the 1950s to fund the NBA Players Association Pension Fund. Clearly, I have no life as is coming through the first couple minutes of the program. I'm Brian Weber, In for Rich. Hop aboard at 844-204 Rich.
That's 7424. But. The tipping point occurred a few years ago. What was that debacle in Indy?
Something like 211 to 194. 168. I looked it up just to confirm. 168 combined three-pointers in that dumpster fire.
So Adam Silver had no choice but to blow the thing up. They went with the mini-game format last year with a tournament style as well. That was better. And then they figured, okay. Whatever There is something that can be in doubt in sports.
Go with patriotism. Go with nationalism, especially an Olympic year. USA, USA against the world. And the format worked.
Now I don't think it was primarily driven based on that aspect of nationalism. I think it really came down to the man we're going to hear from momentarily, Wemby, who truly is a unicorn, setting the tone, heading into All Star Weekend, saying, I'm going to play I'm going to treat this as a real game. And when you have somebody who's going to be the next face of the league. Coming out with that kind of bold statement, I don't think it's a coincidence that other dudes responded. In fact, if you watched any of the action yesterday and it was a lot more watchable because they were bite-sized chunks, the mini-games also led to players having a real shot of going out and balling out because they only had to play 12 minutes instead of going through the motions for an unwatchable 48-minute affair.
From the very outset, from Jump Street. In the first game, Wemby came out with a dunk, then he railed a three-pointer. Showing that, in fact, he was going to back up his words.
So let us hear from Wemby after the game summing up what he thought was a stellar all-star game experience. The very least. But it is amazing. And again, I'm not going to get into some kind of cultural examination. Why does it take a young man from France to, quote unquote, save the all-star game?
I think the players at some point were guilted into trying. I think there is a generational gap because the next fellow we're going to hear from is also one of the young faces of the league. If you want to get nerdy, and this really would be the demonstration of absolutely having no life, you can argue Kawhi Leonard perhaps should have been the MVP, although by the time we got to the championship game, USA, USA versus USA, USA, he flamed out.
So I got no problem with Anthony Edwards picking up the hardware. And I did find it interesting that we got the endorsement from another transcendent star who happens to be well beneath his 30th birthday that he, talking about the Ant-Man, also is a fan of the new approach. And that is exactly what we want from our athletes, Trend. Transparency Candor and honesty. And I know people out there, especially on a holiday.
And if you are working, one of the little-known powers as a filling hack is: I get to tell you, you can mail it in today. Stick it to the man. In fact, you can mail it in because the mailman isn't even working. Don't go downstairs and check your mailbox if you still do that. Of course, I do because all my references are dated in 1985.
Put your feet up, but if you are driving around right now saying, wait a minute. Here's a young multi-millionaire telling me he's He decided to play hard because the game was shorter. That's a you problem. And back to my evolving mindset about everything in life, control the controllables. It's never going to be the way it was in any of these sports, not even just the all-star game format, because I could sit here and shout.
About Pete Rose knocking over Ray Fossey before I was even born, but we know that highlight will live forever. The world has changed. These guys are friends on and off the court. They're all their own individual corporation.
So the bloodlust that we used to see is never coming back, and that's okay. We're just looking for A baseline of minimal effort, and we saw it yesterday.
So, The answer moving forward until we have the next crisis in the NBA. And what is it about basketball that all we do, and if you remember me, probably not, because I do fill in for other platforms as well. I'm very fortunate to. Be a guest host occasionally in demand. But I was infra-rich throughout the majority of Christmas week.
And I'm the guy who was telling you on Christmas Day, I was more interested in the five NBA matchups in the NFL, understanding the NFL crushes everything in its path. And I used to work at NFL Network. I am more of a hoops fan just because I like the sport better aesthetically. And we all played basketball to a degree because all you needed was a ball and a hoop. Football, yeah, you could tackle your buddies on the concrete if you're old school from the mean streets of Brooklyn, or if you can find some field near your house.
But all it took coming up was. Either you're going to shoot baskets in your backyard or go to the local playground or play pickup with your friends, maybe because we all have some sort of personal connection to basketball, but all we do is slam the NBA, and I understand the reasons why we have the objections. The three point revolution has been a negative for this league. There has to be a degree of balance. I'd like to see some traditional big men, and then you get Wemby, who truly is one of one because he has that unbelievably unique skill set.
We complain about load management. I get it. If you were somebody who paid big money for the one visit that LeBron and the Lakers were making to your town, and LeBron's not the guy to point the finger at, and coming up as we tip off hour number two, we will get into his future. If you're looking for the most passive, aggressive, and cryptic answer about LeBron, could this be your last all-star game? You'll get that answer from the king coming up to start the second hour.
I am not minimizing load management. The avalanche of threes and tanking, which we're going to talk about on the business end of this hour. I'm just saying that We don't dissect the NFL for having hideous officiating that's uneven. And now replay assist coming from New York City. We still watch and we love the game.
But for whatever reason, in hoops, we spend the majority of time pointing out what is wrong. And I don't want to live my life that way.
So the game is designed to be a celebration of the sport. Mission accomplished yesterday with the return of energy, with the return of competition, because. You could pick whatever that line is, however many years ago it was. Was it five years ago? Was it a decade?
Somewhere along the way, it became a drag for these guys. They just didn't want to be there. Yes. The slam dunk competition is abysmal, and I'm not coming up with some fix-it. Panacea because that thing is dead, it's a coffin on roller skates, but If you're willing to take some chances, as the NBA does, I don't love the NBA Cup, but I understand why it exists.
I thought the play-in was a worthless gimmick. Undeniably, it's been a success. And of course, now, if we're talking about the NBA, what is a potential solution for tanking? Let's have another tournament, but we'll get there coming up in a half hour.
Some total, I was just looking to be entertained. I wanted to believe the players cared as much as we do as fans. And if you watch the product, I don't think it's even a conversation worth having. It was undeniably much better with Wemby leading the way. There was talk that this might be a one-off in terms of USA versus the world because it coincided with the Olympic year.
The NBA, for all their problems, they're not fools. I think you move forward with this format. And as we heard from Anthony Edwards, you stick with the mini games.
Now, if you want a quibble, by the time we got to the fourth game, maybe it was one too many. And you saw some of the older players like Kawhi hitting the wall, but that is just parsing something for the sake of poking holes in it. You put it. In a big picture perspective, Dare I say the NBA All-Star game was fantastic? I won't go that far, but at least it was watchable.
I'm Brian Weber, Infor Rich. You can pick up the phone, 844-204-RICH. That is 844-204-7424. Hit me up on the X platform, B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's.
We'll get back to the NBA. And the tanking issue that refuses to go away coming up in 30 minutes, we'll hear from the commission himself. Straight ahead, NFL has no days off, including President's Day. We've got a reaction to today's news: the Tyree Kill has been released by the Dolphins, and the NFL combine starts a week from today. Which team has the worst quarterback situation on the road to the draft?
Just getting warmed up on a very busy holiday edition of the program. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich here on The Rich Eisen Show. Um The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. And Weber, back with you. Always a blast to keep the chair warm for Rich and the guys.
Do not worry, Mr. Eisen and the crew. Back with you tomorrow, 844-204-Rich. The number of the call. If you want to have at it on social media, B.
W. Weber. Weber with two B's is my handle. Coming up in 30 minutes, we'll return to the NBA. We'll hear from Adam Silver.
Who's always measured, but if he's capable of going on tilt, of going full throttle, is somewhere in his arsenal. He came close this weekend talking about what is clearly becoming a tanking crisis in his league. We'll get there before we wind down in this first hour of the program with a reminder: if you miss any portion of any show, you can catch up anytime with the podcast. That'll be pushed out at the conclusion of the show.
So. With the NBA All-Star game. RETURNING To the forefront of our consciousness, and I don't want to turn up the hype machine too much, but once we get beyond the Super Bowl, we're looking for things. To captivate us, to capture our attention. And I know there's a lot of you who are saying, hey, fill-in guy, whoever you are, over-enunciating.
I'm not going to watch a minute of the NBA until maybe the playoffs. That is fine. You do you. But there's a large portion of the Viewing when Rich is on the simulcast and listening, audience here on ESPN radio that love soups. I realize the ratings will be complicated because they went head to head with the Daytona 500 with that wild conclusion.
And what do you know? Michael Jordan is back in the winner's circle in another sport. But Whether it was Wemby, whether it was the format change. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see a semblance of defense yesterday.
So the All-Star game is back. NFL news never seems to slow down, especially this time of the year, as we ramp up for the combine. Franchise tag designations come out in a week or so. That means players are either looking over their shoulder. to get a tag they don't want.
Like George Pickens and Dallas, or it's time to clean up the books. In advance of the start of the new league year coming up in early March. To free up money for free agent frenzy.
So a purge is underway in South Florida, and none of this is surprising when you consider the change at the top of the org chart. Got a new GM and head coach Jeff Hafley, both from The Green Bay Packer organization, and we'll talk about Tua coming up. In the final hour of the program, when we're joined by Eric Edom, who's Rich's colleague at NFL Network, I'm Brian Weber and for Rich. We're live on this President's Day, and you could be a part of the program. Hit me up on X, BW Weber, Weber with two B's.
Whatever the future holds for Tuatunga Valloa. Miami clearly looking for cap space if, in fact, they just decide to eat the remaining money on his contract.
So as I mentioned, these are predictable moves that became official today. Say goodbye to Bradley Chubb on defense. And the headline is: Tyreek Hill is no longer a member of the Dolphins. Thirty-one years old. You know about the injury problem last year.
Had that gruesome leg injury. Only played four games.
So he'll be coming back from a torn ACL. I just saw a tweet from Tom Pelisaro, another one of Rich's colleagues at NFL Network, saying it's unclear when Tyreek will be available, so it's no guarantee he'll be out there for week one. And you know about his checkered past. I don't have to play the hits and go through all of the off-field issues, but remember. In college, he had legal trouble.
That got him jettisoned from Oklahoma State. Wound up at West Alabama. As somebody who loves the draft and has been fortunate to cover the combine three times in person. It was interesting to me early in his career And I understand NFL announcers on the network level have to be careful with the words they use because of the relationship with the league. But you would hear things like, How in the world did this fast guy, Tyreek Hill, wind up being a fifth round pick?
Well Look at the police blotter. There were major character issues. He's 31 years old, which is. Not where you want to be in this league. especially with the bumper crop of wide receivers.
This is the golden age of receivers, and I don't know why. I know I'm supposed to know everything about everything as a guest host. Maybe it's guys who. Might have ventured towards basketball, realizing, okay, the NFL is king, although you can make more money in hoops. I don't know why the.
Position seems to have been transformed over the last 10 years. Maybe it's the gloves. We always go back to OBJ in his Spider-Man catch. The gloves do help, but we just have. A Embarrassment of riches at this position.
Just think about JSN. I know we got banged up in the Super Bowl. Justin Jefferson, I don't have to go through every playmaker across the league. And if you're looking ahead to the draft, Ohio State has become University of wide receivers, Carnell Tate projected to be their latest top ten pick.
So. What does the future hold for Tyreek Hill? The knee-jerk reaction will be. A reunion with the chiefs? I could see that.
Obviously, he didn't leave on great terms because he was looking for more dough, and the chief said thank you. Enjoy your time in Miami, but it feels like the return of Eric Bienemi as the offensive coordinator could be part of that reunion. Buffalo comes to mind. Because they really have never effectively replaced the Font Diggs. And I'll believe Joe Brady, at least I'll take him at face value, that he's willing to give Keon Coleman a second, third, and fourth chance.
But when you have the owner of the franchise, Terry Pagula, getting into the minutiae of how that pick was made to try to defend his GM Brandon Bean, who he promoted after he whacked his head coach, doesn't feel like Keon's got a bright future in Western New York.
So we'll talk about this coming up. As the program continues, and as I mentioned, we'll get real-time analysis from Eric Edom of NFL Network in the last hour of the show. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich. Eric is also a draft specialist.
So, If you, like myself, Love the underwear Olympics, and it's not just what you see on your screen. The whole point of the combine is it's an unofficial football convention. Personnel executives. GMs, quote unquote football journalists. Bloggers.
Is the NFL going to embrace all these kids on TikTok the way the NBA has? I was watching the coverage of the. Stars media availability on Saturday, and there were more people Holding a camera on a stick. I'm sure there's a term there. That was very eloquently described as a wordsmith.
A camera on a stick. There were more content creators than actual basketball journalists. Welcome to Media twenty twenty six. But when we get to the draft, after all of the conversations that occur at St. Elmo's and the fine steakhouses across Indy, and perhaps Mark Sanchez will be a cautionary tell Nothing good happens after midnight during the combine.
Most of the attention is going to be focused on the presumptive number one overall pick. It seems like a done deal. Fernando Mendoza on his way to Vegas to play for the Raiders. He has nothing to prove with the combine, probably won't. Throw But because it is a gathering of football minds and it advances the conversation of the NFL, the chatter out there comes down to a few things that we kick around every year.
Especially for a quarterback. Does player X have the potential to develop into a franchise quarterback? And secondarily, what's the cop?
Well, ESPN's NFL draft analyst Phil Yates, you see him on NFL Live and across the other platforms here on ESPN, had an interesting parallel for Mendoza. He linked him to a fellow who just won the Lombardi Trophy. As many of you know, supporting pediatric cancer research is something I care deeply about. That's why I'm proud to share what Hyundai is doing through Hyundai Hope on Wheels. For over 27 years, with every Hyundai sold, they've helped fund pediatric cancer research.
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Rich Eisen here. The tax deadline will be here before you know it. And you just want to know your taxes are actually being handled. But the old way, you hand everything off and then silence. Days pass, weeks pass.
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So this tax season, get your best possible outcome and every dollar you deserve without the guesswork. Visit TurboTax.com today to learn more. Real-time updates only an iOS mobile app, only available with TurboTax full-service experts. That's an interesting point of comparison, and one I had not thought of. I've heard in terms of Quarterbacks in, let's say, the last 15 years, if you want to backdate things, and I'll give you a contemporary name as well.
But quarterbacks who've had success. 6'5, but not burly. We're not talking about a Ben Roethlisberger kind of physique. I've heard Mendoza compared to Matt Ryan. Insert your own neck joke there, but Maddie Ice won an MVP, and he's going to go to the Hall of Fame because all the premier quarterbacks now, other than Eli, who just has to wait his turn as a two-time Super Bowl MVP, are going to get there because of the massive stat padding that's occurred in a league that's all about one position and one position only and airing it out.
I've also heard a comparison to Jared Goff. That strikes me as lazy. That's just the cow thing, right? Golf? Went to Cal, number one overall pick to the Rams.
And I give him credit, like Sam Darnold, for reinventing himself, although I still have a hard time divorcing. My memory bank from my opinion making part of my brain. How in the world did Jared Goff play that poorly on Christmas Day in a game the Lions had to have against Max Brozmer? Remember him? As we talk about quarterback situations, Minnesota's spicy.
We'll get there coming up. I'm Brian Weber, In for Rich. The goal is to be interactive, but as a veteran of holidays, I know. Few people want to talk to a substitute teacher.
So if you're hanging around waiting for Rich, I get it. You can give him a call tomorrow, 844-204-7424. He'll have his take on what went down. On NBA All-Star Weekend, plus Tyreek Hill and the other NFL news. If you want to lurk in the shadows of the X platform, you can hit me up, BW Weber, Weberwood2B.
So, in terms of Mendoza. How could you not like the story? How can you not Respect his intelligence. If you don't know the full trajectory of his career, he had committed to going to Yale. And they don't have athletic scholarships in the Ivy League.
You have to get in. That's how Brighty was. got his degree at Cal, went to Indiana, you know the rest of the story. I don't know that it's a lock. That he'll be in NFL store, but I do know this.
The Raiders have to do something, anything, at the quarterback position.
So if we're talking about what happened last year, and I'm a fan at least of Geno Smith's comeback story. Remember, they wrote him off, he didn't write back. But he was hideous last year. You can't put Kenny Picken on the field. I don't want to hear about Aiden O'Connell.
So I'm cautiously optimistic about the future of Mendoza, but at least it checks a box if we're going through. A survey of the teams in the league with the worst quarterback situation. You can cross Vegas off the list. That gets us to the Jets. Because we're always talking about the Jets.
Now, this could be my regional bias. As somebody went to games at Chase Stadium when the trash was blowing on the infield in September before the Mets season was over, and I went to that dump where the Mets were terrible. I went to that. Place that should have been blown up in terms of a football venue a long time ago. Remember, the owner, Leon Hess, quote unquote, left to the Metal Ends because he didn't like the unclean toilets.
But in that era, we're talking about Lee Mazzilli being the face of the franchise. The Jets have had such a For lack of a better word, grotesque quarterback situation. I throw this out to my friends, and I was a fan. million years ago I tried to be at least As unbiased as possible. Who's the second best quarterback in Jets' history?
We go Broadway Joe number one, running off the field Super Bowl III, waving his index finger. Who's the second most effective quarterback in Jets' history? The answer from my perspective is Chad Pennington. And don't bring up Mark Sanchez. I've taken two shots at him in this one content block.
We know the Jets have been adrift. For a long time. And I don't have to go through the revolving door, the conga line under center that continued last year with Fields and Tarot Taylor, who I give him credit for being a professional. Going through that muck and mire he had around him and Brady Cook.
So anything. Anything will be better for the Jets. Potentially, Kyler Murray, my concern would be Does he care? Back to the effort conversation we had. Connected to the NBA All-Star game.
And I'm not saying you have to go to bed with a playbook. But I do think you have to have a passion for what you do. According to reports, And we know that the divorce is coming up between Arizona and Murray unless something radically changes. If the new coaching staff led by LaFleur, the latest protégé of Sean McVay, if you want a job in the NFL, just meet Sean McVay at your local grocery store. You two will get an interview next year.
Maybe. Because this is the Demise of so many coaches. They watch someone on tape and they think, I can fix that.
So maybe LaFleur thinks, aha. I've got the cheat code. I'll get Murray back to what we thought he was going to be when he was the number one overall pick. But you know the knock on him with the video game clause in his contract. That would be a pretty jetsy move to pick up Murray, but at some point.
Because at number two, you're not taking quarterback, obviously. And when we're joined by Eric Edom of NFL Media in the final hour of the program, we'll talk about guys like Ty Simpson of Alabama. Chambliss, Trinidad Chambliss, got the extra year of eligibility at Old Miss for now. He'll get another payday, big NIL money, and he wasn't. the most attractive candidate.
Let's be Completely transparent about blossoming into a frontline NFL starter. It's lean this year, meaning. If you're the Jets. Or let's say the Cardinals now looking to replace Kyler Murray, if in fact he's going to be kicked to the curb, or the Dolphins or the Browns, who are always looking for a quarterback. And Chadora Sanders was serviceable.
We can skip the Pro Bowl nonsense, but he didn't completely throw up on himself and. The fifth round pick was an aberration. But the words we're hearing not only in terms of reporting and innuendo, but from the new head coach Todd Munkin about being optimistic about Deshaun Watsons return is the perfect example of the Browns being the Browns. But considering how thin it is out there on this quarterback market, you're going to hear Malik Willis link to all of these openings. And potentially even Indy, because we don't know about the status of Daniel Jones coming back from that Achilles injury.
Remember, it happened very late in the season, leading to the return of Phillip Rivers. Malik Willis now is being treated Like The second coming of Joe Montana. And I'm not bashing Malik Willis. I was on the air when he was filling in for Jordan Love, and I thought he did an admirable job, especially in the game against the Bears when Love got concussed. He came in cold, right off the bench, and played well.
Held that offense together. And as I've mentioned a couple of times in passing, I'm all about redemption stories. That's what made Sam Darnold such a compelling narrative heading into the Super Bowl. And Geno Smith for a while before it fell apart last year. Remember, Willis did absolutely nothing in Tennessee.
Some of that might have been an indictment of their coaching staff, but it's all about. The right fit in the NFL. He landed in Green Bay, got coached up by Matt LaFleur, who Packer fans still want to run out of town, but is not going anywhere with a contract extension. But every team with a quarterback issue now has been leaked. leaking or Agents are leaking.
This is all out there now with a linkage between. Pick, say, the Steelers if they don't have an answer from Aaron Rodgers. And coming up an hour from now. Are the Steelers going to allow Aaron Rodgers to hold the franchise hostage the way he did a year ago? We'll get there coming up as part of our approach to the second hour of the program.
I mentioned the Vikings clearly. They need depth around J.J. McCarthy. I'm not going to write him off just yet. But you are what you consistently do.
Unfortunately, he's been injury-prone, and if you can't have success, Playing for KOC. Maybe you're not fit to be a starter in this league because that guy is the quarterback whisperer. If you think about Darnold's path to resurrecting his career, it started by landing with the 49ers, having a gap year. On the roster, learning from Kyle Shanahan, going to Minnesota with a transformation. I realize he collapsed his last two games.
That's why he wound up in Seattle, and now you know the rest of the story. I'm Brian Weber, Infor Rich. You can hop aboard at 844-204-7424. Or the conversation continues on the X platform. It is B.W.
Weber, Weber with two B's. As we get closer to the next hour of the program, we'll incorporate our first guest coming up At roughly 1:20 Eastern Time. Talking NBA with Kurt Healand, the lead NBA writer for NBC Sports.com. Straight ahead, back to Hoops. Beyond threatening.
to take away draft picks. Is there anything else the NBA and Adam Silver can do to address what is a tanking crisis? And why does anyone believe the solution is another tournament? That's coming up as we roll on on a busy President's Day edition of the program. I'm Brian Weber and for Rich on The Rich Hazen Show.
The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. Brian Weber Always enjoying the opportunity to contribute whenever Rich and the guys need a day off the crew back with you tomorrow. As we continue on a busy Monday on ESPN Radio, remember you can always catch our outstanding content on SiriusXM Channel 80 as we close in on hour number two of the show. In less than 15 minutes, we'll hear from LeBron James talking about his future. I'll let you.
Listen to the king and try to decipher what he's saying. It's my job also to. Break it down, but we'll do it together because you might need a soothsayer. You might need a fortune-teller to figure out what LeBron is talking about. And we'll be joined by our first guest coming up at 1:20 Eastern Time, talking NBA with Kurt Heelen of NBCSports.com, tanking the topic here, but first.
I do give out the phone number for a reason, not just because I'm auditioning to be a carnival barker. 844-204-RICH is the number to call. We want to get interactive, so let's say hello to Marcus in Virginia. Hey, Marcus, you're on with Brian Weber. What's up?
Hey, what's going on, B Web?
So the question you asked is how to solve taking without stripping draft picks? And here's my thought. I wanted to get Uh what you thought about it?
So right now the teams are ranked one through fourteen. And the odds are distributed through the teams based from worst to Uh Beth. My idea is to invert The lottery odds.
So team fourteen now gets the best odds. and so on and so forth.
So you still rank the teams one through fourteen, which guarantees the worst team will at least have The fifth pick. But the odds to get the top four are inverted.
So the better you are without being a playoff team, the better odds you get for a top four pick. And I think that will solve teams' outright tanking because the thought would be you need to win more to get the better odds, and that would probably also cause teams to spend a little more on free agency. And my last point about the idea. Is if you think inverting the odds like that strongly favors teams eleven to fourteen, where their odds are so strong to get one through four that it's unfair. then you could just change the odd distribution.
of your odds for one through four You still invert it, but you can uh evenly display it so the Team 14 gets the better odds, but it's not. to the point where they're so heavily guaranteed a top four pick. I got you. I wanted to know what your thoughts on that was. I will respond.
I appreciate you taking the time to call. And that was thoughtful and filled with analysis. My summation without getting granular is this. Any time there's an incentive to tank? Teams will tank.
And that incentive is, even though you did a nice job of narrowing the probability. Of getting rewarded by changing the distribution of the odds, it's not going to solve the problem because teams will roll the dice and take a shot at getting that lottery ticket. And The possibility of getting, say, Cooper flag or all of these dudes. And coming up, we'll hear from Adam Silver: the reason tanking's at an all-time high, and it feels like. maybe six, could it be eight teams led by the Jazz are clearly not trying to win because this draft class is loaded and next year is perceived to be thin.
So you know the names like Darren Peterson of Kansas when he's healthy enough to play. Cameron Boozer of Duke. AJ Dabotsa of BYU. There is a ton of talent leading Adam Silver. To address at length over the weekend what is a major problem for his league.
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The bottom line is this. It is clear a big chunk of the NBA is not trying to win. And You can threaten even heftier fines. It's not going to mean anything. I'll steal from front office insider on ESBN, and you hear him here on ESBN radio, Bobby Mark saying, once the fines were dropped last week, the jazz getting hit for $500,000, the Pacers for $100,000.
Someone he talked to him in a front office capacity in the league said. We're willing to effectively, metaphorically, give Adam Silver a blank check. Whatever it takes to enhance our probability of getting into the top three, to get one of those. Premier players, I just talked about.
So, money is not going to solve this problem. Will silver have the stones to take the next step? and strip teams of draft picks. I'll believe it when it happens because I like Adam Silver. I think he's progressive in all the right areas.
As I mentioned. If you are stagnant as a league, you're not going to be able to evolve and grow your audience. Baseball, I didn't love the n notion of the pitch clock, but undeniably it's worked. I thought that the play-in was a gimmick. It has added more intrigue to the end of the year.
I'm not a huge fan of the NBA Cup, but at least there are stakes now at the beginning of the season when the vast majority of sports fans don't give a damn about the NBA.
So now the NBA is tinkering with this idea. Let's have a tournament. A tanking tournament.
Well, they won't call it that. A lottery tournament. to determine. Who gets the number one overall pick? And the rest are.
Of the slots behind it. The problem with that is you're going to have, I think, more of an incentive to get into that tournament because, let's say, you're a good team, or at least you have some good players. You tank, as the Jazz clearly are doing, but you think, okay, let's get into this tournament. We can win on the floor. And now we'll lock up the number one overall pick.
So I know I'm supposed to give you. A thermonuclear hot take. And a perfect solution for this problem. I don't have it. Unless you abolish the draft.
Now, the WNBA, if you care about that league, and I've called women's basketball games for years and enjoy the product. They come up with this formula, which I think makes a little more sense. Their lottery is determined. Based on your performance for the last two years.
So it's a larger sample size. But the pushback is When was the last time the Wizards were competitive? They've been tanking for years. And teams point to Oklahoma City and say, well, tanking is rewarded. Look at the renaissance of that franchise.
Overlooking the key element there. Which was the SGA trade because the Clippers don't know what they're doing and were dead set on getting Paul George.
So. It is an interesting topic, one that's not going away. It's a horrible look for the NBA, and the problem is it has started way too early. We were talking about this at the end of January, and for once, the man with all the answers to all the questions, yours truly, does not have the solution available. I'm Brian Weber.
Do appreciate the phone call. Open to more of them coming up in the next hour of the show. 844-204-Rich is the number to call. Straight ahead, we'll tip off hour number two, examining the future of LeBron James. I'm Brian Weber.
Always a blast singing for Rich and the guys. It's the Rich Eisen Show on ESPN River. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Mm-hmm.
