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Now, on with the show. Hola. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Victor Wembinyama, Windmill Right Hand Jam. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.
Block Wenvinyama blocked it on the closeout. Today's guests. ESPN NBA Insider Ramona Shelburne. ESPN NBA reporter Dave McMenamin. Plus, your phone calls, latest news, and more.
And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Ladies and gentlemen, Ramona Shelburne is in our green room. She will be out shortly to talk about what's going down here in this town, the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, as well as the NBA playoffs. What happened in Philadelphia yesterday?
What's going on in the WNBA? Dave McMeniman, whose deep dive on the Los Angeles Lakers present and future, is sitting out there on ESPN.com. The headline, interestingly enough, as Dave's coming in in hour number three to discuss this work and so much more. What LeBron needs to return to, needs to return to LA and why it's not simple. That's the headline.
On his social feed, though. The headline is news story, because he wrote this headline. It's interesting how he writes a headline and he headlined it himself on his social. The desk writes a headline. And then the desk writes a headline.
LeBron and the Lakers might need each other more than either side would care to admit. Hmm.
So it's never simple. He wrote that. Dave McMenamin wrote that last one. Yeah. Yeah.
And, you know. The headline writers there back in Bristol or wherever the ESPN.com community resides. Um Wrote a a different headline. What LeBron needs to return to LA and Wyatt's. Not simple.
And the first. third of the article was the night Um that um I'm gonna get the date right. It was back in March when, remember, this team was just crushing it? 15 and 2 in March. Luca was the Western Conference player of the month.
Austin Reeves was crushing it. And LeBron. Took a role or began to seemingly get more comfortable in the role of being the. Third man in. You know, a complementary role with which he's not very familiar.
And one would think not very comfortable, but he was beginning to. you know Show that there is no I in LeBron or James, right? Despite the narratives involving mister James? Um And it was March 31st. They had just smoked the Cavaliers 127, 113.
And um It was 16 and 2. over that thirty two day stretch, LeBron Won the 1229th game of his career, moved past Kareem for most victories by any player in NBA history combining regular and postseasons. Luca topped 15,000 career points. Rui Hachimura reached 5,000 career points. And this was something that J.J.
Reddick was in the locker room afterwards. Reading off of a card about how this victory had many milestones, and he mentioned. all those milestones. At which point Rob Polinka, the general manager, had the game ball in his hands and he strolled up. He took the floor and mentioned how it was the 100th coaching win of J.J.
Reddick's career. And in advance of that, they had his two kids shoot videos to say, Congratulations, Dad. And you could see JJ had tears in his eyes and he got the game ball. Um Reading straight from here.
Okay. According to McMeniman, James has a great relationship with Reddick, sources close to him say, with one telling ESPN that Reddick's hiring is, quote, one thing the Lakers got right. Yeah. Hmm.
One time.
Okay. I mean, it's looking out right. Is Luca not right? You know But James, who played the last eight seasons in Los Angeles and helped deliver the franchise its seventeenth championship in twenty twenty, saw Polinka's priority in that moment as yet another example of the Lakers taking him for granted, sources said. Adding to James's ire, sources said, was the fact that the past dozen or so wins in that stretch came with James willingly taking a supporting offensive role behind.
Luca Ann Austin Reeves. It was nearly an unprecedented move, and especially so for a player of James's caliber. And so without even stopping to change clothes, James marched off into the LA night, simmering from another perceived indignation delivered by the organization that, as one so close to him, told ESPN tried to quote him push him out the door. after acquiring Donchich last season. And then the next paragraph just pretty much brings you to the present day.
Forty-eight hours later, James's annoyance with the franchise was overshadowed by a disastrous season-changing game in Oklahoma City. Reeves strained his left oblique muscle in the first half, Donchich his left hamstring in the second, and the thunder rocked. LA by forty three points. And it did all go downhill from there. I added that last part.
Dave McManiman will join us in hour three. Get the real. Dave's been talking to sources. But the bottom line is this: LeBron did his part, man. In the playoffs.
He did what he needed to do, and he was spectacular. And there's no way, even with all this, And if you're in any way, shape, or form in the Lakers' front office, rolling your eyes and going, what are we going to do? And obviously, LeBron has got. If he views this moment as something that Polinka is sliding him on. You know, it's a weird take.
then even with all that And this all comes out. And it looks like it's from his side, willingly telling this to Palinka, I mean, to Dave McMenimum. Yeah. Even with all that, you gotta keep him. You got to keep him.
You're not letting LeBron James walk at age 41, 42, playing like this. No. Chance. No reason you should do that. Just overlook all of this stuff.
And you're J.J. Reddick, and if you're now learning about this stuff, you go to his house and go, come on. Where are we going? Like, what do we need to do to bridge all this stuff? What do we need to do to bridge it?
And I don't know if it's money. The guy's got Nothing but that. One more ring, that's what it is. Do we need to have some sort of off-site with him and off-site? Nice.
You know what I mean?
Some off-site. We can have it here. We're just up the road. Yeah, we're down the stream. You know, we can, you know, LeBron, Polinka, Reeves, Donchich.
They're closer than the Chargers are to us. That's true. We'll host the offsite. I think this hinges on Reeves, the Lakers, offseason. How much money does he want?
Does he care about being getting every last penny from wherever he decides to play? Or does he want to stay and be part of this trio that can that was playing as well as they were in March? I does he like living out here? That's a big part of it. That's a big part of it.
Do you like living out here? 'Cause I do. And I I'm also going to say this. of Luca and LeBron and Reeves. Who's hitting it for the first time?
He is. Yeah. So I would take every penny I could possibly take that money, man.
So if someone's going to offer you, you know, I don't know, what, $200 million to go wherever.
Well, what's the wherever looking like? Yeah. It's Miami, Dallas. I don't know.
Well, 200 in Miami is.
Well, you also named two states that are not taking state tax from you, too. Yeah, but that's going to be enticing. But Miami is what I'm saying. I hear you. But you're not playing with Luca and maybe LeBron.
Who goes first? Reeves goes first, right? Where it's LeBron goes first. Like, somebody's got to sit everyone down. It seems like an air needs to be cleared.
Well, if the Lakers, you care about Reeves first. Because he's younger and he's going to, he'll be around longer. He's your running mate with Luca for the next yeah, but you're the Los Angeles Lakes, seven, eight years. Yeah, you know what? You're going to give LeBron the jersey goes up.
You maybe even put a statue of him out front. They don't need LeBron. They're the Lakers. They should go after Giannis. Like they're, they acquire the, they, they do it every time.
Who are they going to give up for Giannis? Here's where you give up for Yannis, right? Who? Who are you trading to Milwaukee for Giannis? Whatever you currently have under contract.
You know, DeAndre Ayton is apparently going to opt out. And he's a guy like the thing is, they acquire stars. Who does? The Lakers do. In their late 20s, early 30s.
They don't let them go. LeBron's the biggest star there's Maybe ever been. He's 41. They don't need him. They need it.
They need them. They need them. The defending champs. They got, by the way, ruin their season. On a night that they whipped him by almost half a century of points.
And both of these players get hurt. And then they sweep them out. In front of God, country, and for whatever reason, Dylan Brooks in the front row.
Well, that's whatever. I show you up to the funeral meme. That's great. That's great. And then go on with your lives.
Everyone goes on with their lives, and he's still Dylan Brooks. I mean, the Lakers. The Lakers season ended when Luca got hurt. Who cares? They were not winning the title action.
Right, correct. I understand that. That's kind of a fluke thing. But. Uh uh you don't let LeBron James walk out the door.
You just don't. Starve stars, come down to crypto. Watch him play maybe one last two seasons. In the same way, and I know this is a terrible analogy, but I don't care. In the same way that the Browns are going to see what they've got in Deshaun Watson over anybody else, it's because they're already pot committed.
They're already kind of pot committed here. I don't know how you figure out the money. Don't you want to see what LeBron and Luca look like in the playoffs, playing a full season together? Everyone's healthy. Don't you want to see what that looks like with Austin Reeves, too?
Your franchise has got more money than God. You own the Dodgers already. You've got more money than God in the bank for whatever the hell the Guggenheims have, all of it. Who the hell cares about a second apron? If you're if you're them.
And I know that they still are money conscious, everyone is, because they told half the Dodgers. And I know I'm exaggerating. Uh defer your money so he can not pay a luxury tax. But it's different. You're not paying a luxury tax to you know Half the Major League Baseball franchises that are just pocketing the money.
I don't know if that's the same way in the NBA, but Um You got more money than God. Go into the second apron. What the hell do you care? And go get Austin Reeves, and go get, you know. And again, I'm saying this without being fully familiar, admittedly, with the cap rules and what the second apron means and whether you can sign other people and whatever.
I know it is very prohibitive to go into that second apron. But whatever you have to do to keep these three guys together with J.J. Reddick, clear the damn air.
So LeBron's not looking at a game ball. and sitting there and going, What's with this guy's malfunction? Rather than obviously, he's a dad. We understand what he knows about being a dad, and he's seeing J.J. Reddick's boys.
If you see the video of it, it's very moving. Yeah, I haven't seen it. Video's out there. But clearly something is up. Clear the damn air and keep everyone around.
Whatever you got to do.
Now then. The San Antonio Spurs are one game away from meeting the Oklahoma City Thunder in a Western Conference finals that I will tell you. Is gonna be some good eats. Right? Certainly if Victor Wembanyama shows up like he did in game five.
Fully restored. And we're all wondering what's he going to look like in the first quarter, coming back, not suspended. Coming back. In a pivotal game five, how does 18 first quarter points? Mm.
Sound to you. Um That's what he did. And it wasn't even close last night. Oh, it was close after the first quarter, let's put it that way: 34-30. But then it just spiraled out of control.
As Wembunyama came up with 27 points, 17 rebounds, 5 assists, and the one assist that made it everywhere. was him ball faking And putting the stifled tower, as our friend Chris Weber calls Rudy Gobert, in a spin cycle. He was spinning around two different ways.
Okay. Before he dished it, I mean, this Dylan Harper, I love watching him play basketball. 12 and 10 off the bench, and he is a meme. Machine. His facial expressions are fantastic.
Did you see the one that he made after the Vic? The the Victor Wembanyama Ball fake dish? Yeah. He just was Like, it's funny. I love this.
I love watching him play, man. He's great. NBC has, there needs to be a. A Dylan Harper camera. I think they have one on him.
That look that he made after the the elbow, right? Heard around the world. I will tell you, I did see two Spurs fans making fun of Timberwolves fans about crying over an elbow. I mean, that. That elbow was uh Not right, but I understand he's trying to defend himself.
I get it, he's being mugged all over the place. Um and the Tombawolves are in trouble. They're in trouble.
Now they go home, and hopefully, even the series enforced a game seven where anything can happen. But that was just a home court advantage. galore with a different kid that showed up in Victor Wembanyama in Game Five, and this was uh the uh sound bite that's going everywhere about What type of player The Spurs were expecting to show up last night. Yeah, whether it was stemming from the Flagrant 2 or not, something Devin said at Shoot Around this morning was that the Spurs were going to need an upset Vic to come out tonight to get this win. Mitch called it more of a mature Vic.
I'm just curious if there's either one of those that you prefer, maybe another word. Just, you know.
So uh they ain't mutually exclusive, so. Right. I'm uh looking for both.
Okay. Immature and angry. Pissed Vik. Hmm.
Why not, man? Good luck. There's no one like him. Yeah. Don't you want to see him versus Chet?
Yeah, they fight each other. It's awesome. You know what I mean?
Then they'll throw Hartenstein at him. Then they'll just they'll run loot door at him. Yep. They're just going to run, you know, if he thinks he's getting beat up in this series. Right.
I like watching the Spurts team play. They're very fun. And I love the storyline. I mean,. Yeah.
Greg Popovich apparently was the one who met him at the airport. Do you see this video? I saw Pop at the game last night. Uh showed up. At the airport.
He greeted Wembanyama when he arrived. Fresh back from getting ejected from Minnesota. Nice. And Talking to him. Just standing there.
Delivering a message. That's cool. And then the guy goes out and torches the place. And he was asked after the game what that was about. Feel like I'm not gonna leak anything he said obviously, but She maybe wanted to m you know, make a statement or make his uh talking even more impactful by being there.
But he gives feedback and talks to us. Um regularly you know, throughout series, throughout games.
So, as always, when he speaks, everybody listens. What a secret weapon, huh? Can you imagine? Is it? You're 22 years old.
Your head might be spinning. I don't know.
He seems to obviously have his head properly snapped onto his shoulders. Yeah. Yeah. And He's He comes off the plane, and there's Greg Pop of it. It's like friggin' Yoda shows up.
To personally deliver a message to you. This is not going to be a phone conversation, this is not a Zoom conversation. It's not a FaceTime. I'm going to put myself in a car where obviously he doesn't get around very easily, and I'm going to stand there. And you get off the plane, I'm going to be there, and I'm going to say something to you.
That's significant. I can't get enough of that. Man, do I miss that guy But then again, I also wasn't the one with a microphone in my hand trying to get a sound bite out of him every single night. Good call. But I miss him.
I miss what he has to say about real life, too, every My gosh. What a secret weapon that is And the Timberwolves are like I said, they've got their hands full here. Um We'll see what happens, obviously, in that game six. We'll talk about that with Ramona Shelburne and Dave McMenamin, that story that we just. That he popped out there on ESPN.com, and we just led our second hour with.
We'll talk to Ramona about this as well. 844-204-Rich is the number to dial. We'll take your phone calls. Also, on this very busy Wednesday program, PayPal is proud. to be the official peer to peer payment sponsor of the NFL.
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Ramona Shelburne is here, our friend and colleague from ESPN.
Next, right here in studio on The Rich Eisen Show. Oh. Bye. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Rich Eisen here.
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Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for details. Everybody, back together as one happy family. We're live on ESPN Radio now, along with Disney Plus and ESPN, and Ramona Shelburne is here. Dave McMenamin, our colleague, is showing up in hour number three. What's going on down the street, do you think, in the Lakers' offices right now?
Look, you know, I think they're all digesting Dave's story from today, which was, you talked about it a little bit earlier, which was essentially LeBron was offended when. Rob Polinka, the general manager, came in there and gave J.J. Reddick the game ball for his hundredth win. But it wasn't so much that and I have had people describe when I drive down here, I was calling around about it. You know, I think people in the room knew that night that that didn't go over particularly well because there's actually videos that you can watch of that moment of the, you know, the Lakers do an announcement after games.
Like, people have career milestones. JJ makes it. This is like something they do after every game.
So. If you watch it, you go, oh, Rui got his 5,000th point. Luca, you know, the only player ever to score 600 points in March. And LeBron, this is a big one. You know, he became the all-time wins leader.
So it was like JJ made these announcements, and Rob Polinka comes in and gives JJ the game ball. I heard, you know, LeBron clapped, but people who saw him in that moment. could tell he was a little upset.
Now, he had been taken out of the game at a weird moment in the game. And so maybe you thought he could have just been upset that they took him out of the game. But I think it was more a function of You know, are you know, this is confirmation bias?
So, when you have a feeling of how somebody feels about you, and I think LeBron has felt taken for granted, you know, in LA, at least at least this year, maybe for the whole time he's been here. He's never been embraced the way Kobe was, he's never really been appreciated. Like, even the championship he won, it was in the bubble. And so, there was no, there was no parade here. That connection with him in the city never materialized the way that it did in, let's say, Cleveland or Miami.
And he's been here a long time. I think, you know, I host radio here in LA, and you wouldn't believe the amount of people who call in all the time and are like, let's get rid of LeBron. Like, people, you hear it, and you're like, Do you not recognize that this is one of the greatest players of all time that came to LA after this franchise had been in the wilderness forever? They'd been in the wilderness. I mean, how many years did they were in the lottery?
Just totally irrelevant. He came of his own volition. They barely had to recruit him. He just wanted to be a Laker and turned the whole franchise around.
Now, Has he leaned in to LA? Has he done all the things that you would do to make to say this is my town? Like, I think Luca's probably done more in two years or one and a half years than LeBron has maybe done in eight to be out in the community, to connect with people, to feel like this is my town. Like, Luke, remember when he was paying for people's parking in the playoffs, right? He was doing all those things pretty quickly.
But it doesn't matter, like, although that's just personal style. And I think that you have to evaluate on the court. LeBron James turned the franchise around. He restored them to glory, and I don't think he's quite felt appreciate. Plus.
It sucks when somebody is brought in, even if he appreciates Luca, even if he understands like how good Luca is, why the franchise made that trade, even if you appreciate it, it doesn't feel good to kind of be moved out. Dynamics change. I understand that. You know Not many A story like the one that, again, Dave put out there, and he's coming in to talk about in hour three. Very few look good in this story.
And I'll say this: I think that there had been. A real repairing of the relationship that went on this year. Last summer was pretty bad. Right? LeBron issued that statement that was pretty shot across the bow.
They did not offer him an extension. I think LeBron sort of said, oh, I didn't ask for an extension. But the truth is, he's never been in a situation like this where the signals had been sent like your time here is ending and it may not be your choice. Like that's a really hard thing to swallow for anybody. I know he's at the time he was 40, but Uh the the empathy uh that I think Um he was expecting for How he digested the Luka trade, how he tried to embrace him.
I don't think that was quite there. And I think he was, you know, you can have a pity party if you want. I think there was some pouting and that the relationship was frayed last summer. But that relationship had largely been repaired during the year to the point where I think there was going to be more of an embrace of him this summer. Like the path back to the Lakers is probably there if he wants to still be in LA.
The question is how much money and how do they go about it. But I thought today, and I'll be curious to see what Dave says, what his read of it too is. I think LeBron wants to be appreciated and he wants to be respected for the fact that he did sacrifice. He did step aside. He did embrace that third role.
And then when things changed and they had all those injuries, he embraced that role again, too. And I think there's a sort of, I don't know, you know, do you want to get him a domination with a DeAndre necklace? You want to get him one of those? Right. Is that what he needs?
I don't think so. I think you can't fake. You can't you can't Do lip service. You can't be you feel it when someone respects you or you don't feel it. Ramona, it's all about communication in this world.
Certainly when you're dealing with somebody who's in. In the spotlight like LeBron, or in front of a camera in our business, you know, management talking to either one of us, for instance, right? And and you know, here I am equating myself with LeBron James in that regard. But it's okay, Richard. It's a big deal.
Thank you, Ramona. You need to come out of the world. I felt it too. No, but it seems to me: is it like, let's just go way back to this now. Is it true LeBron found out about the Lucatray just like the rest of us?
Did nobody give him a heads up? Because that would be the beginning of something. Yeah. Hey, LeBron, guess what? And I know it was deep, dark secret because they had the greatest pocket listing in history of NBA trades.
I understand that, but I think that's a good question. I don't think he found out from Shonda's tweet, but did he get. A couple minutes. That's see. I think he got a couple minutes.
Now, that to me, if you're LeBron James, it's just like, wait a minute. This changes a lot of dynamics. By the way, Great job getting Legaluca. This is great, but we're What does it mean? What's the future?
Yeah. And in the same way, you know, that Stafford here in this town just learned about Ty Simpson. Not yet. But they told him. But the point of that is, though, is that it still puts a clock on something that you, as the MVP, wanted to, like, it's my clock.
I don't want to be shoulder tapped by someone else. I'll tap myself on the shoulder when I'm done.
So that's the sort of communication stuff.
So let me just. Move it to th this story in itself. Ramona Shelburne here on The Rich Eisen Show.
So you could sit here and go, as you said, pity party for LeBron or whatever.
So there's probably a lot of people out there saying, how many alcohol? Does he really need a basketball to actually tell him that you're a business? I mean, he literally breaks a record almost every game he plays on. And I totally understand that. But on the flip side of it, it's still the management.
Position, or at least my position on management. Let's put it that way. Either way, I look at management, you must. manage egos. You are generally managing egos.
That's literally the job. It's literally your job to manage egos. And if you're saying that there are people in the room going, oh, that's LeBron, I'm feeling a little bit of a chill in the room right now. Is Rob Polenka like his head in the clouds, or he just doesn't care?
So, from what I understand, no, I think he knows he doesn't really care himself. I think this was pre-planned.
So, from what I understand, like they had clearly, you saw JJ Sons.
So, if you watch the video, it's beautiful. JJ Sons give him, and they knew this was a big thing coming up. I think they felt like they had announced something for LeBron during the game. You know, do you need to have two game balls? I don't know.
Which one of the records? I can totally see the Lakers side of this. Like, which one of your all-time records that you break are the ones that are meaningful to you? Let us know beforehand. We'll make sure to do a bigger deal about it.
But it's literally, he's so good, and he's breaking records all the time now. I can see why this one didn't ring a bell like. You know, hey, but it's like, hey, we need to do something special for him here. Or if I give JJ the game ball, he might feel some kind of, I think LeBron really likes JJ. I think LeBron, from what I understand, he clapped.
He appreciates JJ. It is a big deal to win 100 games in your first two years.
So it's not the JJ of it all. It's the sort of, if you watch, just watch the video at the timing. It's like he sort of steps on the LeBron announcement. But it goes back to the larger point, which is he's already felt unappreciated. He's already felt.
you know, like I'm being moved aside. He's already felt like he was in the middle of having taken that. After many conversations, after many, many conversations with the coaching staff and him deciding himself, like, okay, look, they've played great when I've been on the sidelines with Luca and Lamb with Luca and AR. They played great together. He finally stepped into that third option role.
That's hard to swallow. I mean, you know that. Like, we've been in show business a long time. Like, you know, when they hire somebody else, like, they're not paying them all that much money to not be successful. Like, you know when your successor is getting groomed.
You know when you're being moved. And you have to just decide to be okay with it. And it leaves a lot of other people in the room wondering what's this, you know, what. You know, can we not all coexist? Trust me, I live that almost every day sitting in this chair.
I remember my senior year at college, my coach said, Hey, hey, this girl's hitting really well. I'm gonna have her play the outfield. Can you show her how to play outfield? Sure. And I go, So, you want me to train my replacement?
Like, Like, whoo, that's a tough one to swallow, but you do it because you're supposed to be all about, you know, I mean, he did it. He, he stepped into the third role. And this is like game six or seven of that. They've been winning. I think when you sacrifice, you kind of just want that acknowledged.
And I, so I see both sides of it, but it's also not one incident. It's a whole ecosystem. And to me, I think they got to get over it because I think everyone should coexist because there's enough room for everybody. And, you know, one last one on this, and I'd love to move on to Philadelphia and what happened there. Is there only one game ball?
Like, the Lakers can't afford to get, give me four more basketballs. Yeah, I think they just wanted JJ to feel special. You can, though. Like, they made him feel special. We've been hanging around USports too long.
Everyone gets a trophy. I don't. There's a game ball. There's enough game balls. Like, hey, Rui, here's one for you.
Luca, here's one for you. LeBron, here's one for you. And, you know, for the coach, here's your kids presenting you with one. I don't know.
I'm w I Dave McMenamin's coming in an hour through what happened in Philadelphia? Daryl Maury showed faith in Joellen Biede and James Harden before that and Ben Simmons you know, like sometimes as a general manager, you have to show faith in your players. You have to give them those max offers. I Ownership was on board with those offers, right? Like nothing happens.
No, it's not one person. I think, though, when you look back at the totality of this run that they've been on, somebody has to pay the price, right? And they have not broken through. They just, they haven't gotten to the conference finals. They haven't gotten to the finals.
You had a guy who's an MVP caliber player. The James Harden thing was a mess. The moves they've made on the margins haven't worked. They, you know, they went and got Paul George. That hasn't worked out.
It's. You know, it's not that Daryl Morey's not a great general manager. I think he'll get another job. I think he's widely respected in the industry. I don't know if it'll be this cycle here because when you hire Daryl Morey, you're hiring someone to run your whole franchise.
It's not just a second-tier guy there. That's like Masai Ujiri, who just got that job in Dallas. You need somebody who says, okay, we're broken, fix us.
So I just think in Philly, there were just too many cumulative things that when you lose and things, when things fall short. Um, somebody pays the price, and this time it was Daryl.
Well, and you know, Bob Byers is involved with the search, he and he obviously a guy who's a Josh Harris. Yeah, um, uh, What would you say employee? I don't know.
He has that title special advisor, which means like you're really smart, you know, and I just want to have you around to do everything.
So I want to say this: I don't think Bob Myers is going to be their GM. That's mostly. You've heard vice presidential searches wind up where the person doing the searching is the vice president. That happened in our country. That's what I'm saying.
Yeah. So that won't happen. I don't think so. I mean, I would. The only way that would happen is if they really can't find someone that everyone likes.
And if Josh Harris asked Bob Myers to do that. But Bob Myers has graduated. Like, do you know what I mean? He's graduated to another level. And I think this would be a I hate to call it a step down, but it is from where he is right now.
Correct. He didn't. Take that job. As the sort of special counsel, special advisor, whatever you want to call it, to all those organizations to go back and be the general manager. This is, I think he really is truly looking for a replacement.
So the, the, uh, um, issues or presence That Maury bequeaths.
Okay, so there are some contracts that are the issues. But the presents are Maxie and Edgecombe, and some other players that are on the team. Which one do you think balances Eventually, where the Sixers can't overcome the contracts, or they can. And the talent that's remaining actually turns things around. Like, what's your I think, and I think that's why they finally made a move here because you can't really do much.
And so. When you have somebody who's built a team that is somewhat stuck now. They're just stuck by these contracts. There's not that much you can do on the margins. They gotta keep Oubre.
They gotta, you know, they gotta keep Quentin Grimes. They gotta keep people. From a team that just got swept by the Knicks and look like they're not close. And I think, you know, we keep saying this year after year in Philly. It's like if Joella and B can be healthy at the right time, and then there's only, I think they successfully.
Pivoted to becoming Tyrese Maxi's team this year. Where they're not built around Joe Ellen Bi, they're built around Maxi. And Embiid is somebody who's there. And when he plays, he's great, but they don't count on him night in and night out.
So their fortunes don't necessarily rise and fall when he can play. I think what happened in that Knicks series, I think Maxi got hurt. His pinkies messed up. And they just, and Embiid was still playing his way back into shape after not being able to play for a while after appendicitis. Paul George was good, but the Knicks are a buzzsaw right now.
They're playing great. And they just lost to a better team. And you don't have the same guy who architected a team tear it down.
So bring somebody in with fresh eyes, bring somebody with a different perspective. I think that's what they'll do, and they'll take their time with it. But I don't see how you can move Joe Ellen Bied's contract. He just, his three-year deal starts this year. It's just now starting to kick in.
You might be able to move Paul George. Might. He played well enough. He doesn't have as many years left on that deal now. Maybe.
Um But they're somewhat stuck. And that's why you bring in somebody new to look at it with fresh eyes. Ramona Shelburne here on The Rich Eisen Show.
I've got to take a break. Can we stick around? Let's talk about the Giannis market. And then I would love to talk at WNBA with you. We're sending you out on the rest of the day.
That is Ramona Shelburne here on The Rich Eisen Show. We're back in just a moment. The Rich Heisen Show, the podcast. Rich Eisen here. PayPal is now the official peer-to-peer payments sponsor of the NFL, which means all the money moments that fandom creates, whether splitting tailgate costs or chipping in on tickets and game day food between friends, are covered.
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What is the market for Giannis Atetakumpo as you and I sit here? What do you got? What do you think? I do think that the Bucks finally have a little more clarity on what they're going to do.
Okay. And I wrote a story a couple months ago, I think this was March, where I talked to the owners, Wes Edens and Jimmy Haslam. And they said, you know, look, for us, it's pretty simple. Like, he's either going to sign that extension or he's going to be traded because we can't afford to lose him for nothing. Yes.
Well, his extension can't be signed until October.
So that. That put a strange wrinkle on this. But Jimmy Haslam came out the other day and said. We want to have this resolved before the draft.
So he's either got a signal to us that he'll sign that extension or we're going to trade him. And I. I don't think you're actually allowed to do that. I don't think you can say, I'm going to sign it until it's offered. It's okay.
But I think that finally has some organizational clarity because when we went through all this stuff back at the trade deadline, I got to the point where I was like, oh, they're not ready to trade him. That's what most of the teams who were engaging with them felt is when you're going to trade your franchise player, when you're going to trade the guy who brought you a championship, the most important player in franchise history, you can argue might have been Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but probably Giannis now at this point. Everyone has to be on the same page. You have to decide: okay, it's time. We're going to do this.
This is what we want. Teams put up like red lines. You know, like, if you want this player, you have to meet these specifications. Here's the red line. You got to cross that.
Everybody's got, like, look at Utah. When they traded for Darren Jackson Jr., everyone knew if Memphis got a couple first-round picks, Memphis had a red line. They had all gotten on the same page to say, we're ready to do this. Here's our asking price. Everybody who called and offered one pick, no.
If you offered two picks and this, they were going to do it. That's how you trade a guy like Giannis. And I think the Bucs are finally to that point where they're starting to get everyone on the same page. And that's because they got a new coach. They have a general manager in there.
They have clarity, at least from the ownership level. Like Jimmy has. I'm coming out and saying that I thought was interesting because he's not actually the controlling owner. He's the minority owner there. But he and Wes Edens are partners in this, and I thought it was interesting he stepped in to give his voice there.
And look at what he's done as owner of the Cleveland Browns. Baker Manfield didn't want to be there, he traded him. Miles Garrett? Gave him the largest contract in history.
So you either sign it. Or they trade you.
Well, and Browns fans would say they should have kept Baker and they should trade Miles Garrett to get the graph choices and never have signed Deshaun Watson.
So. It's interesting how that's playing out, and obviously that's going to heat up over the next few weeks. Before I let you go, I want to talk WNBA with you. It's been such an entertaining first few days. How about the Portland fire?
They are awesome. Did you see that finish last night? You were talking about it before. Yeah, wild buzzer beater. Buzzerbeater put back.
For an expansion team, this is two years in a row. The expansion team has been good. And the Fever Wings game that started a doubleheader on Saturday. Ooh, I'm going tonight. Yeah, Susie's bringing our daughter, Taylor, to tonight's game with the Fever and the Sparks.
It was a fascinating game. Beckers bought with four number ones, and Aaliyah Boston, and Caitlin Clark, and Paige Beckers, and AZ Fudd, all balled out, except the most recent first overall draft choice, who was essentially benched. Um, towards the end of that game, it felt like. Unless she's hurt, but she was probable on the injury report for um last night's game against the Dream. And then she didn't play.
She went from probable. Home opener, by the way. And now, and that was, you know, for precautionary reasons. And I don't recall her being banging. Yeah, Tim Collishaw had a good story on that.
So, is there something up with AZ? Yeah, look, she's had knee surgeries, okay? And Tim Collishaw had something on that in his column today that she had swelling or something in her knee. I checked on it this morning when you and I were in the green room and. I don't get the sense it's anything serious.
I think they're just bringing her along slowly, which, by the way, is totally understandable when you're talking about a number one pick who just got done playing. I mean, everything is so condensed in women's basketball. Like, she just got done playing in the final four. She didn't have an offseason. You just got to go straight into playing in the WNBA, training camp, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
So I understand, you know, somebody who has a history of knee issues, you want to bring them along slowly. But this is what you do that. This is how you do it. You message that. You do it right from the beginning.
You set expectations that we're going to bring her along slowly. She may not start right away. She may take a few games off. We're going to manage this condition. Instead, They feel like they've been reacting to things and and kind of hoping that people don't notice or people that people don't ask or whatever and I and I think that is How the WMBA needs to change This is now a new environment you are you guys are legit We're talking about you every day on the show like we're talking about the WMBA not in a general sense We're talking about day-to-day things that happen and that's everything you want for the WMB you're part of the daily conversation And so that's why we have injury reporting protocols.
This is what we talk about Joel and Beat all the time. He'll show up as doubtful and then he'll be upgraded one hour before game time. And guess what happens when you do that? You get fined for not. Reporting injuries accurately.
And so I think. This has got to happen in the W-2. Like, they've got to start enforcing injury reporting policies. You've got to have some clarity. I understand there's, you know, there's rules.
Athletes don't want certain things released, but you have to message how you're going to do that. And there are certain guidelines of how to do it.
Well, I mean, we might be overreacting right now as we're talking about it, right? But. With AZ Fudd being essentially benched at the end of game one, because that's what it sure looked like to me. And then in game two, it doesn't play at all. And no one's asking about it if that's their plan.
Well, Olivia Miles balling out is going to make it only more intense because and again, I know rosters are different and coaches are different and situations are different, but she crushed it. In her first Outing. And if she continues to do that, and we're all wondering what's going on in Dallas, this is going to be a conversation. Yeah, of course. And she's in a different role, right?
Because Nafisa Collier's out, you know, and this, and so she's got to play a bigger role there. But I think that, you know, with more eyeballs on the sport, there's going to be more scrutiny. And that's a good thing. You got to lean into it. And I think, look, we're talking about the Dallas Wings right now.
Because they're fun to watch. I mean, that Fever Wings game, again, I know that they've since played. That was the first time in the opening weekend of the NBA history. Both teams went over 100 points. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast.
Mm-hmm.
