REShow: Asher Roth - Hour 1

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Try Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on dry, clean feel all day. This is the Rich Eisen Show with guest host Ben Lyons. What do you hear? What do you say? Live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. What do you think of when you see that toll booth scene again?

If there were no girls on this set, I wouldn't have done it. What do you mean? I've got an image here. James Caan, you are the best for doing this. Today's guests, singer and 49ers fan Asher Roth, host of the Cinephile Podcast, Adnan Virk, plus host and reporter Daniel Robay. And now, here's Ben Lyons. Welcome everyone. Welcome to the Rich Eisen Show.

I am Ben Lyons. I am honored, humbled, excited, thrilled to be back in the big chair for another week this summer. You guys are welcome to be back. We didn't burn it down last time, huh? Look at that.

You're still standing. I can't thank you enough. Been looking forward to this week all year long. I love showing up here.

I'm going to be here every day this week, nine o'clock on the West Coast, pulling into the Rich Eisen Show Studios. And everybody's on brand. It's like walking into a time warp.

It's like everybody is just doing the cartoon version of themselves. First of all, I never knew that TJ had like an iced out goat around his neck. Saw that glimmering in the marina dew this morning. He didn't mention that one time for the last two hours. He didn't even mention it.

I was just so blinded by it. He's paparazzi-ing me when I pull up in my rental car. Like I'm already on camera.

We're making content. So TJ, very on brand. Jay, fresh from the set of Fast 10. Yeah. Ibiza with Vin Diesel went well this year. No, it's Ibiza.

Yeah, Ibiza. Excuse me. Don't get it twisted. TJ's lighting candles. TJ also, of course, when he found out that Asher Roth was going to be on the show, it was like, oh yeah, I'm in the I Love College video. Wait, what?

What are you talking about? Oh yeah, Asher's been my friend for 25 years. I used to hand out his CDs. Very on brand performance from TJ Jefferson. And then we get to Brockman who tells me about how he hates Karl Anthony Towns, would never pick him up and pick up.

He said that, yeah. And yeah, he's got the Red Sox hat on. He's all psyched from the big comeback last night.

We're only 14 back. Didn't talk NBA finals once. You know, we didn't talk any Boston Celtics. Well, what is there to say? Yeah, see, very on brand.

Didn't want to get into that. We talked so much basketball. Oh, I have something to say about your Celtics, Brockman. I got something to say about your Celtics. We're going to win the title this year. Well, I'm not going to say that, but I do have something.

We're way better than Philadelphia. And Adam in the back looking like Broke Zuckerberg. So everybody is on brand.

Everybody is on brand. And a lot's happened since I've been gone. You know, TJ and I have crushed a lot of rigatoni together over at Stella Barrow.

We watched some great NFL playoff games and some NBA action. Thanks for the invite. Well, you're always on dad duty. Every time I email you to do anything, you got it. I got hit with three assistants.

You're like on a Palm pilot. You're like figuring out your schedule. You got to tweet them.

I mean, you got to beep them, bro. I mean, I can fit you in. I'm just saying, give me a heads up. You're not going to come from the Valley the whole way to deep in Santa Monica to have a pizza in a pasta. Let's just read Tony.

You don't know that there's not as famous as the Carbone rigatoni, but it's very good rigatoni. We watched the, that Bill's chiefs. Oh my God. That was one of the all timers. Huh? That was a great game. That Bill's chiefs playoff game, which I'm pretty sure I said with like two minutes left, I'm like, there's going to be like three more touchdowns.

Yeah. I think you ordered some calamari then as well, but a lot's happened guys. The LA Rams are Superbowl champions. Brockman and I went to the, the death star that is the SoFi stadium. We went to the game.

I talked to you after the game because during the game, I couldn't hear you. And we saw the goat, Tom Brady and his cheekbones throw a touchdown pass in person. So I checked that off the sports bucket list, but I feel like, you know, as a long suffering LA Rams fan, I didn't get the respect I deserve as a Superbowl champion coming back to these studios. Like no one is talking about how after years and years of putting up with traffic on the four Oh five, like I finally got a Superbowl and nobody even mentions it around here. I can tell you why probably no one mentioned it.

It's because nobody knew you were a Rams fan. Oh my God. You haven't heard about my spiritual journey, the quests.

I have not. This is like that show where he goes off for Aviato or whatever. Last summer when you were here, it was all about your diehard Laker fandom because Carmelo Anthony, it's a tough season for my purple and gold this year. But Ben also did say that the Niners should just stick with Jimmy G last year. And they did that. We're going to get to that with Asher Ross, who's the biggest 49ers fan I know. So I was like, you know what? First segment out of the gate, first interview, let's bring in the biggest 49ers fan I know. So you can remind everyone how on this show last year, I said the Niners should stick with Jimmy G. They did. They went to the NFC championship game. I just want to put that out there.

Asher Ross will come on at 9.20 to talk about that. But you know, I was a lifelong diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan. I grew up in New York City in the 80s and 90s.

How could this possibly be? Well, as you guys know, my sports hero happens to be my dad who is New York City's biggest Boston Red Sox fan. So for years and years, I would see him suffer in entire subway cars with chants, Boston sucks, Lions sucks, which really imprints you as an 11 year old. And you're like, wait, that's me. And I saw him, you know, get four World Series.

So I idolized my dad. So I fell in love with the Philadelphia Eagles when Randall Cunningham was comeback player of the year. He had a devastating injury early in his career, missed like a whole season, came back the next year. I think it was a Monday night game in 92 or something. Both teams, the Cowboys and the Eagles are 4-0 on Monday Night Football. And the Eagles go down into Dallas and they put on a show.

They're wearing the clean whites. Randall goes for a touchdown on the first drive. They end up on the cover of Sports Illustrated the next week, 5-0. I'm like, this is my team. So I stuck with the Eagles.

I love them growing up. I got to see some great football. Sadly, I went to the last game with the vet where Joe Jaravicius scored two touchdowns and Ja Rule got booed at halftime.

That was awful. And they lost all the NFC title games, but I stuck with them and then they made it to a Super Bowl. And despite T.O.

with aluminum rods in his leg, they couldn't get it done again. Tom Brady, Andy Reid still waiting for the hurry up offense in the fourth quarter. So I stuck with it for years. And then I went to a Monday Night Football game in 2000, I want to say 14 or 15, 15 down in Philadelphia. And I've told this story before. It felt like I was on the set of Mad Max.

There's trash cans on fire and just people being violent in the parking lot. And I just said to myself, this is not my tribe. I'm a positive guy. Hopefully, if you're listening or watching this week or hanging out with us on Sirius XM or Westwood One or the Odyssey app or on Peacock or you find our clips on YouTube or wherever we are, you hopefully realize, hey, that guy, Ben, I didn't really like him Monday morning, but by Friday, he seems like a positive, nice guy.

Yeah, that'd be nice if that worked out. I'm a positive person. So all this negative energy, you guys, they sell crab fries.

There's not even crabs on the fries. Like the place is garbage. So I denounced my fandom to the Philadelphia Eagles. I went out to the beach. I had a seance. I went in the water.

It was the whole thing. I wept. It was really a lot and signed up for the Rams. First play in L.A. after 20 years in St. Louis, some Schmendrake from the Cowboys runs it back to the house for a touchdown. And I was like, OK, I'm getting in for rock bottom. Right.

The first play back in L.A. in the Coliseum after 20 years, the first play, the guy runs it back for a touchdown. That's rock bottom. Right. Jeff Fisher saying we're going not eight and eight, not nine and seven or whatever on hard knocks.

They go four and twelve. That was all right. So I feel bad.

It was bad. And then the Eagles go on to win a Super Bowl. Oh, my God.

What an opportunity to bail from this plan. This disastrous soul change. I don't tell anybody about this.

I went out to the beach, but nobody else. So I became a Rams fan despite the Eagles winning. And then I saw the footage of that Eagles fan eating horse manure in the streets of Philadelphia the night they won the Super Bowl. And I said, I'm confirming my feeling that this is not my thing. Google that, Brockman, Google Eagles fan. Oh, I remember.

I don't want to do that. It happened, Chris. And so that was a reminder. And then I stuck with it.

And then Jared Goff and the babyface quarterback lost to TV 12. And I stuck with it. You guys, I persevered.

I put in all those hours taking the metro. It's not as easy, Garcetti, as you think it is to get down to the games. I'm sorry. And so I finally finally got the Super Bowl ring and not even a mention from anybody. Nothing will allow.

Let me to clarify that wrong. Congratulations on your Super Bowl. Thank you very much, CJ. I hope you get one in your lifetime. I will in February, actual season ticket holder. Like, congratulate me.

I feel like you go for fantasy implications. And you made me do something at the football game that I will never do again. Oh, my God.

When this happened, I was like, so horrified. And you said it was such conviction. And I was your guest. And so we had to do it. Peer pressure.

Mr. T would not be happy. I pay the fool. You're like, we got to play the 50 50. What are you talking about? I spent $100 on lottery tickets at a football game.

Yo, it was like 200 grand. He has an addiction. 50 50, bro. Give me a hundred bucks. Ben moment.

Oh, what? Ben Lyons. Here's the deal.

He has it. He doesn't ever play the lottery. I occasionally will buy a scratch off game. If it's one of those games that takes more than just three scratches, like I want a bingo. That's going to get me about nine minutes of entertainment for my $1. Probably mega mega 440 this week. I'd like $10 worth last night.

You know what? Your odds of winning that are basically zero zero. Your odds of winning are zero. You're not going to win. Someone's going to win a deal, though, at a football game. When you play the 50 50, there's only 70,000 people at the game. Someone is going to win one in 70,000.

Much better than one in three trillion. Okay. He does have a point there. When he, when you have a system and you're approaching the 50 50, it's too intense for me already. We're already at a football game. Everyone's being the worst version of themselves already. We're eating garbage. We're yelling at people to hurt each other. We need some positive.

We don't need to then just lose another hundred hours. I slammed like two 32 ounce Modelos. It was like so fast. And you don't even drink like that. I don't even drink like that.

Oh, that's why you did the 50 50. Are you going to do it again this year? You're going to go back to so far and you're gonna, you're gonna watch the defending champs trying to defend banner night.

Let's go. That's going to be a big one. We'll see the place the rest of the season.

He's going to sell those tickets. But I joke about my own experience as a Rams fan and the lack of respect that I've gotten from this crew of derelicts. But I think that's actually the sentiment around the sport and around the league. Nobody is really talking like you have to go through LA in order to get to the super bowl. Nobody, everybody's, you know, talking about a million other storylines and moves and trades and people who haven't moved. And we'll get into all that this week.

I want to get into Russ and Denver and a lot of stuff. But nobody's talking about the Rams and how good they are and how they've been knocking at the door pretty much every year since they've been here. And I'm fired up for them to repeat. I think they are going to repeat. And I think that, you know, it's about time that people start talking about the Rams as we head into this football season.

Wait, you're you just called a repeat? Yeah, right here shot the way that rich calls World Series games in June. I'm calling Super Bowl games in July.

Wow. The Rams are, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six betting favorite right now. Twelve to one.

OK, that tells you everything you need to know. First of all, Vegas always puts the L.A. teams a little higher up than they should be because they know guys like Jay take the Maserati out to Vegas and they put money. But then there's six now. That means they really should be like ninth in their eyes. So they're inflating them up to six. So right now, bills are your betting favorite.

They're about six or seven to one, depending on where you have your action. The Bucks are second, followed by the Chiefs. Chargers ten to one. They're not even the favorite in their own stadium. Chargers. OK, I didn't know if I was like had any meat on the bone for this first segment of, oh, Ben's not getting respect because he's a Ram fan. Oh, the Rams are. This validates my theory on the drive over here this morning.

Are you kidding me? The Chargers are favored over the Rams to win the Super Bowl. Packers in a crazy week. You got twelve to one. Let me ask you, what are the Arizona Cardinals odds? Because statistically speaking and we're in the statistics, they are going to win the Super Bowl this year based upon what we've seen the last two back to back home team winning.

Let's see. We got Ravens and Niners. Eighteen to one. Bengals. Broncos. Twenty to one. Cowboys. Twenty two. That's way too low. All right.

Once we get to Cowboys Super Bowl odds in July, we know it's time to go to break. We've got Asher Roth coming up on the show today. Adnan Virk is going to be hanging out talking a little tennis. He's a big Roger Federer guy.

So I wonder how he's dealing with all the Joker stuff. My friend Danielle Robay was out at WNBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago, which looked like a vibe. So she's going to give us some stories from Chicago.

Should be a lot of fun. And yesterday I was out on the golf course. You guys, my friend Sam, she hits bombs. She plays Callaway. Every golf equipment company claims to be longer off the tee.

But I saw it in person yesterday. This woman hits bombs. Callaway's new Rogue ST driver, she had one of those, is the only one built to completely bomb it. It's been speed tuned to be Callaway's fastest, most stable driver ever.

Every Rogue ST is engineered with a new tungsten speed cartridge, TSC, which gives you more speed on off-center hits and provides more forgiveness thanks to high MOI. So many acronyms, but that's just the beginning because Callaway has engineered a Rogue ST for every player. Most golfers will fit into the Max because of its incredible combination of distance and forgiveness.

But there's also Max D, their dedicated draw model for players who need more shape correction. Now, if you need something more low spin, they say I'm like Mike Trout on the golf course. I hit these low drives. There's Max LS, which gives you stronger, another acronym, trajectory with a more neutral ball flight. But for the true players out there, players play, right TJ? The Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS is the compact low spin head that the tour players love.

Callaway has thought through every aspect of speed. So all you have to do is go to Rogue, find your Rogue ST driver at CallawayGolf.com slash go Rogue Asher Roth talking 49ers next. Ben Lyons filling in all week on the Rich Eisen Show. All right, welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show. Got a big show on hand today. I'm excited that Adnan Virk's going to be calling a little bit. We'll talk a little Major League Baseball. We've got Red Sox Yankees from last night.

Brockman and my dad fired up. Fenway Park rocking in July. It looked great. And then Danielle Robay was out at WNBA All-Star Festivities in Chicago, which looked like a real vibe. Sue Bird saying goodbye to the W. And yeah, a really cool moment. We're back on the Rich Eisen Show all week long.

Ben Lyons filling in for Rich. A really cool moment yesterday out in Chicago. Candace Parker, of course, in the Chicago sky defending champs in the dub, having a vibe out there.

Chance the Rapper. Just a, I don't know, a great moment for the W honoring Sue Bird. Bringing a lot of attention to Brittany Griner's situation in Russia. So a really important moment for the WNBA this weekend. So Danielle, she covers for AT&T. She was out there hanging out, doing all this stuff.

So she's going to give us some stories coming up in a little bit. Do we have Asher Roth on the Mercedes-Benz phone lines? We do.

We do. We got Mercedes-Benz Vans phone line Asher Roth joining us right now. How are you? My man wanted to talk some 49ers, but then I find out that your buddies with TJ Jefferson for like 20 years and he was in the Isle of College video. So throw it all out the window, dude. This is how it goes, man. And it's still baseball season for me as well, but you know, we can always talk matters. Yeah, but tell me about this TJ relationship. We'll talk Trey Lance and we'll talk Jimmy G and how I'm like the one Jimmy G fan on the planet. But how do you and TJ know each other? I think it's just through the music and sports thing. You know, that connection runs long and strong. And so whenever, you know, the the artists want to be athletes and athletes want to be artists.

And so long and strong relationship with athletics and sports. I love it. I love it. What's up, Ash Roth? You know, it started back in Atlanta with Scooter Braun, you know, and Scooter had signed Asher and I was working on a show called Yo Mama down there with Wilmer Valderrama. And then we all kind of linked up and met Ash Roth. And I was like, you know, we just vibe. I would have loved to have been in the pitch meetings for Yo Mama.

I got this show, just Yo Mama jokes and like sold. Is it a five second pitch meeting? Asher, talk to me about your 49ers. How you feeling, man?

I feel good. I mean, this is the year, right? This is the excitement.

This is what all the speculation has led up to, right? Well, as you know, as everyone knows around the NFL, all things have to run through Los Angeles. So being that the Rams are the defending champions, what makes you think the Niners have enough to get over the top, dude?

I'll give you that. I mean, even last year, just kind of running on a broken wheel, we were still able to run to the NFC championship. I actually got a chance to go to the Niners Rams game where the Niners quenched and beat the Rams in their home with it being kind of 70% 49er fans.

And also just eyeing up the fact that I knew Embry Thomas was going to collect that game feeling interception. And so that's why I feel good about it is because we short up the secondary. We already dominate Los Angeles as far as the fan base.

Anyway, most of the fans in Los Angeles are 49er fans. And so I feel pretty confident going into this. It all rides on Trey Lance. And it's a big I don't know. But if it's up to me, I feel like that kid just looks like the Lion King. I love it.

Asher Roth joining the show. He's pushing his chest out, though, even though he's celebrating December wins. We played football deep into January and February down here in LA. I get it. It's fine. But are you excited about this passing the baton at the quarterback position? Because last year I came on this show and said they should ride out this Jimmy G thing.

Everyone in this room, everyone listening and watching laughed at me. And then they went to that NFC championship game. So are you excited for what's happening at the quarterback quarterback position with the 49ers?

Yeah, I think you have to be. I mean, watching Jimmy play, there's a lot of there's a lot of good there specifically in the system, in the Shanahan system. Keep in mind, as we went, we've had a very complete team. You know, our successes have been like even last year's playoffs, we struggled against the Packers and our struggling special teams ended up actually winning that game and defense kind of keeping Aaron Rodgers in check. So, you know, that's why I feel pretty good about it is because I won't slander Jimmy G because coming from where we came from in the quarterback position and the stability that he brought for the most part. But just it's really exciting to know what Trey Lance is capable of and his potential and to see that this year to watch that happen. I mean, even last year's thing in the second half of that Texans game.

These are things that I think could end up making sure that no championships ever go through Los Angeles ever again. Asher Roth joining the show. I was about to say I love this dude for his love of Jimmy G and then he throws in a ram shot. It's all good. Congratulations on the new video.

Saw it on Instagram. Teammates taking it back to Little League. What kind of Little League player were you?

Oh, man, I was a good one. Little center fielder. I'm kind of like that vocal understanding that it's a team sport. You know, baseball is one of those things where failure, you fail often.

And so it's important to keep your chin up, you know, and keep your head up. And so that was one of those things. Center fielder kind of in the morale booster leading off for a little bit. But then as we got older, kids just got so good.

And so I moved more towards that. What we like to call a second lead off man, you know, down there in the eighth, nine spot to keep some productivity at the bottom of the lineup. But yeah, man, it was good to go back home to Morrisville and just be around and see that that Little League field that we were really responsible for. Our Little League baseball team was pretty good. And it was around the time where there was, you know, sponsorship and radio funds coming in. And the radio station traveled with us when we went to States and some of that money went back into the ballpark. So good, nice little scoreboard and just a good looking Little League field there in Morrisville, Pennsylvania.

I love the record and I love the video. And I love how sports have the power to transport us to our childhood. And I feel like your music has always had sports references, sports, you know, moments from your life as a fan that you then bring to your music. So just describe for the audience, sir, your unique fandom, because you, like TJ, are one of these guys who roots for like a strange collection of teams.

That's right. Well, most of my teams are so it's 49ers and San Francisco Giants because my father's a West Coast kid. So he basically was like, hey, man, you know, Bill Walsh is the guy and Willie Mays is the best baseball player of all time.

So the rest is on you. And so being born 85, it was it was really nice because, you know, I grew up watching Barry Bonds and, you know, Matt Williams and those guys. And so easy to root for and kind of same thing with the 49ers. You're kind of told Bill Walsh is the guy you're growing up.

And then in 94, I'm nine years old. And Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Ricky Waters, Ken Norton Jr., Gary Plummer, like these guys, you're just like these teams were easy to root for. And then and then you get tested, you know, when you're when you're growing up and the teams go to the doldrums. And it's pretty it's pretty hard when they're in the cellar. But that's kind of what makes the fan right now. You definitely live the real fan life. And I know as a fan of sports and basketball, you must have loved seeing Steph Curry win the finals MVP because that video of him doing your record makes the rounds like I saw that two weeks ago and thought of you.

Yeah, you already know, man. I mean, it's nice, too, because I mean, Steph was kind of counted out coming into the league, you know, too small, et cetera, et cetera. He's really, really kind of impacted the game on much larger scale than I think anybody anticipated. And I think you were starting to see that chatter after the championship where people were starting to say, let's let's give Steph his flowers. So, you know, and again, as artists, that's kind of what you want to do. I mean, I'm sure athletes, there's only so much you can do.

But as artists, we want to come in and kind of impact change the landscape a little bit. And, you know, Steph was able to do that in athletics, so it's hard not to admire it. Asher Roth joining the show, Ben Lyons filling in for Rich all week long on the Rich Eisen show, biggest 49ers fan I know. So I had to have him set off the week and get into this football stuff.

But talk to me about what it's like to go to a game as Asher Roth. Like, are you sitting in the nosebleeds like I did when I saw Joe Jaravicious score two touchdowns in the last game at the vet and Ja Rule got booed at halftime? Or are you going with like the Fly Guy pass and you're eating ceviche? You know, I honestly prefer, I prefer the nosebleeds. I really do.

Now, there's a little bit of both. Obviously, I try to, you know, get the hookup when I can. Specifically for baseball games, it's kind of nice to sit close and see what these pitchers are up to. You know, football games for me are still kind of made for TV, so I'm there more for the tailgate, if you will. But yeah, going to the games, I mean, you throw a hat on and you chill and be up there in the what are now 400s.

They used to be a 700 level, but that's kind of my favorite place to watch sports just because you see it all and you just get to hang out with the real ones. If you had a resume, a sports fan resume, what would be on there as the game maybe you're most proud to have attended? The game that I'm most proud to have attended in my sports resume would honestly probably have been this Ohio State Michigan came out there in Michigan was just probably the rowdiest being in the big house too. It's just like an experience.

You know, those things aren't luxurious. You know, it's just like concrete seating and everyone packed into a place. And so, I would probably say Ohio State Michigan rivalry game, this was maybe 2018. That was probably the most impactful sports event that I had been to personally. Just to see that energy and just to be a part of something so iconic and big despite the results of that game. But yeah, exactly.

It's a little bit different. And so that stuff and college football specifically as well, we don't need to get too far into it with the NFL, but college football and what that culture is and what that represents to places when you go down to like Ole Miss or Mississippi State or you see what the SEC means. I mean, again, what TJ had mentioned about being down in Atlanta, that was the first time I really got put on to like, you know, Georgia football and that being a religion and what Saturday meant. And so, being able to experience that on multiple occasions, you know, even doing the Final Four tour back in the day was just like, let me get to some of these college basketball games and go around and be a part of that as well. So yeah, whenever I can align sports with what I'm doing on the road or just with my music in general, it's a win.

That's so smart, dude. You know, you think of screenwriters who want to go make a movie in Bora Bora. So they go write Couples Retreat, right? So Ashley was like, oh, I want to go to college sporting events with the hookup. Let me just write a college anthem that will be around for generations.

When you go back and think of that time in your life, it's such a blur, obviously, but are there any shows or any schools that do stand out as having separated themselves from the rest? Because you must have done so many. Yeah, it's really tough.

And again, that time you're moving so fast. I will kind of, at this moment, give a shout out to Marquette, you know, being out there in Milwaukee and Mark, yeah, just as a... Brockman looks so confused in studio right now, by the way. Just a good host to what we're up to. Yeah, dude, there's just so many. Florida State is a lot of fun. Once you start getting down there in Florida, we burn some couches at Florida University as well. It's a little lawless down there in Florida. I'm sure everybody knows.

So there's a lot of stories that we won't get into right now. But yeah, it's been a lot of fun to just kind of use sports as a way to also see cities, you know, getting to Detroit and seeing how Detroit has their city lined up with Comerica Park, and then you've got Ford Field right there, too. So, you know, it's a really great way to explore a city.

I mean, even a big shout out to Chicago. I think it's really cool when some of these parks are right there in the city. Now, Philadelphia specifically, you know, I love Citizens Bank Park and the link as well, and they have their own little section down there in South Philly. And it's a great way to come visit Philadelphia, start in South Philly, see what's going on here, and then make your way through. So up Broad Street, if you want to go that route.

And obviously, as a Giants fan, I would say Oracle Park is the most beautiful ballpark in the country. Why is it so gray out as the new album Asher Roth joins the show, Ben Lyons filling in for Rich on the Rich Eisen Show? I would be remiss without talking some Philadelphia 76ers with you and what's going on with the state of affairs happening.

I know TJ, a big Sixers fan in my life as well. Please believe it. Just continuing to knock on that door, huh? Nobody's answering?

You can't get inside? What's happening? Oh, come on. TJ, you go, man, you go.

You know, it's great, right? Because now we got the news that James Harden took a, you know, talk about a hometown discount. He really did. People were expecting he could have got forty seven million. People were thinking mid, maybe high thirties.

He took thirty two. Well, obviously, for us normal people, that's an extravagant amount of money. But for some of the impact, the economies of Houston, Las Vegas, Atlanta, suffering about the influx of a single dollar bills that are now going to be trafficked into the Philadelphia in surrounding areas and how many lovely young ladies will be helped their education, graduation rates through the roof, their education will be helped getting paid for by by James Harden.

But yeah, it's great. Now we've got a little bit more flexibility. What's happening in Philadelphia with the process?

Asher Roth, huh? Is it over? Is the process done? Oh, yeah.

The process is dead. Yeah, it's tricky. I mean, you know, and again, with these big men, you have you have small windows, you know, so when now I do like that, you know, Embiid was kind of like, hey, I need some muscle on this squad.

And they went out and got exactly what he was talking about. But for me, yeah. So with PJ, it feels like, you know, might be a little three years too late. I do not really love when franchises are reactive. You know, I kind of always dig when it's like a year too early than a year too late. I kind of feel like the Sixers are on a year too late rhythm right now, but we'll see what we can do. Obviously, defense is extremely important. And James Harden playing with the dog in him is going to be really important for us this year. Obviously, I know they didn't get much time to play together. You know, I don't know, as like any professional basketball player would obviously be way more equipped to talk to you about it, but how much time it actually takes to gel. 24 games, Harden is in Philly.

Yeah, exactly. And, you know, what I got to witness that, you know, I'm admittedly not an enormous James Harden fan. And so what I got to witness when you start to watch him is how ill of a passer he is, was just like, yo, this dude has serious court vision and was creating plays. And now what I think a lot of fixer fans wanted was to alleviate some of the stress on beat and just kind of get those like, you know, 46 points a game. But, you know, I think we have to take the reality of where James is in his career and, you know, take the good and the bad of his game right now.

And hopefully we can add a little bit more muscle and, you know, a couple more scoring threats. Obviously, I saw the movie Hustle. I don't know if you guys saw Hustle with Adam Sandler.

A little bit of love that he threw on the 76ers as well. And so, you know, as far as how far we've come and when the process started and when Michael Carter Williams was winning Rookie of the Year, you know, we're much farther along the path now. But I would say, you know, this window, the window is closing, so to speak.

You know, it's opened and now it is starting to close. Ash with Hustle, too. It's another in the long line of inept Philadelphia front office mistakes. We had Bo Cruz.

He was right there. He was in-house and we let him go to the Celtics. Like, yeah, it's like, come on, man. I love that. I love that, too, as far as the writing is concerned to going to the Celtics. And so, you know, I know Jason Tatum kind of not having a strong playoff helped me a little bit better, but I'll tell you what, if it was Tatum and Embiid, that would feel pretty good.

It's the bane of my existence. Yeah, you get a strong Marquette shout out, a Michael Carter Williams Rookie of the Year nod, and some good T.J. Jefferson college memories. I'm into it.

Asher, I appreciate you taking some time, man. Where are your travels taking you next? I feel like you're always in, like, Denmark or Sweden or just somewhere mad cute.

Yes, mad cute is how I like to say. But we're going to head out to actually, you know, Detroit, the Midwest for a little bit. We'll be in Detroit. We'll be in Chicago and a couple shows out there in October.

That's actually an exclusive. I haven't announced those yet. And, you know, we're right here in Philadelphia. You have Sunflower Philly. So if anybody's interested in that project, it's sunflowerphilly.org.

It's just a community park that we started that's also a music venue for art and sustainability projects as well, nonprofit that we've been working on day to day for the last three years. It's been tricky because, you know, for me and T.J. knows, by the way, for some reason, I thought you were asking me about Tony Jefferson, the 49ers safety. So this is the problem with calling interviews is that I can't see T.J. and give him a hug. So, of course, I know T.J. from the comedy and art side of things, not the athletic side.

But nobody knows T.J. from the athletic side of things. Yeah, exactly. Shout out to Tony Jefferson. But yes, we'll be running around. But for the most part, my heart right now is in Philadelphia and, you know, artist development and really making sure that artists who are coming into the world in this capacity right now on the Internet around 16, 17, 18 years old, getting a break, what it might be is just making sure they're kind of prepared and have some warning signs ahead of how you look out for this and check out for this. So that's very important to me. And, you know, T.J. knows very well how long of a and crazy a game it is, you know, in the music industry, starting in Atlanta and now back here at home. Reinvention, the path to self discovery.

Asher Roth, always working on new cool stuff. Thanks so much, dude. And enjoy this Rams repeat. My boys have fun, man. Go Niners.

Thanks, dude. Asher Roth joining the show. I love I love Brockman just lighting up on the Marquette shout out out of all the party schools about the MCW.

Shout out. He kind of that that guy. Also, did I hear him correctly?

He said Jason Tatum struggled in the playoffs. If twenty six, seven, six and three, not enough. It's not enough.

And then I want to struggle every day. Not enough to get that superstar status. Not yet knocking on the door team. All NBA. He's a superstar.

All right. We got we got this list of the top 10 highest paid athletes in North America. Some of the names might surprise you. And there's something you can take away from this list. If you're thinking about what your team should do, whether it's football or the NBA or even Major League Baseball, you go out there and build a championship roster. Well, let's take a look at the top 10 highest paid players in North American sports right now. We'll get a little insight. Plus, we got Adnan Virk joining the show, Daniel Robay.

We've got TJ's list of greatest NBA players for every team of all time. We're going to do that just like you do with football. Oh, yeah.

So Brockman, you got some of your cooking on as well as some segment over there. Reaction over reaction Monday. Happy 7-Eleven, everybody.

Yes. I believe it took almost an hour to talk about that, but happy 7-Eleven, folks. Too many days. Every day is not a day, right?

It's literally 7-Eleven. Every day is a day. You got to celebrate a taco day. You got waffle day. You got 7-Eleven day. Yeah, but those days don't make sense.

This makes sense. Every day is a day. Literally once a year, it's 7-Eleven. Oh, and it's 7-Eleven. It'll be 7-Eleven twice on 7-Eleven. Do you know that? It's free.

Well, the time. Yeah, but we get free Slurpees. We get free Slurpees at 7-Eleven today, people. Like, come on now.

Then you find yourself leaving 7-Eleven drinking a Slurpee. So joke's on you. All right, Ben Lyons filming In for Rich on the Rich Eisen Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show. Ben Lyons In for Rich all week long on the Rich Eisen Show, a week I've been looking forward to for months. You guys put up the bat signal, I think, right around the Super Bowl.

Thanks. I know Rich likes to take a week off after the Super Bowl, so I was kind of trying to invite myself back on the show. And it didn't get the call up, but you guys said, hey, how about July? Thinking, let's just kick it down the road.

And I think I went to Delta.com that night, bought the fight, so here we are. So let's do it. I'm excited. Let's put it this way. Ben has been cultivating a guest list since mid-March, late March. We got some surprises this week.

Yeah, we definitely have some different folks. I'm saying this is how long you've been thinking about. Yes, absolutely. I was like, hey, what are you doing in four and a half months between 9 and 12 on the West Coast? You want to talk about the highest-paid players in North American team sports? I saw this on Boardroom, Rich Kleinman and Kevin Durant's media company, that is a really good follow on Instagram. Gives you a lot of stuff.

They are a good Instagram follow. Okay, confirm. Turning a little like Robin Leach with some of the homes in the real estates.

I saw a mansion in Hong Kong sold for $111 million. I was just looking at that. Not exactly sure it has to do with sports business, but I guess we're expanding the brand.

That's fine. I was just looking at that in the break. It's like six pools, really? It this thing literally looks like a hotel. That's a house. Yeah, that's one guy's house. No, it's not. That's a resort, B.

There's like a photo of the concierge in the house. Anyway, I digress. They put up a list of the top 10 highest-paid athletes in American team sports. I'm all for athletes getting paid. I think for the most part, despite the high salaries, they're often over. They're often underpaid and they're overexposed. And there are a million people who want a million things from them.

So go out there and get your money. But I think there's something that when you look at this list of 10 and you're looking at your own teams and how they choose to invest in athletes, you might start to see a correlation between winning and spending bread. And number 10, it's the Browns, Deshaun Watson. That's disgraceful. I mean, we can get into the Deshaun Watson stuff later, but this is a joyful show and I want to try to bring some light into the universe this week.

That is just dark and toxic and negative energy. Number 10, the Browns are not going to win anything from that deal. At number 9 is the Nets, Kevin Durant. What have they won? They won as many playoff games as the Knicks did last year. He didn't play for one of the years. And the second year they didn't get out of the second round.

Now he played great. If he had a smaller foot, maybe they get to a conference finals, but they didn't. And they haven't won anything. And now their franchise is in the toilet and they have no idea what's going to happen the next five years. They got swept, but I forget who they got swept by this year. I really, I don't remember that Peyton Pritchard of the Boston Celtics.

There you go. If, if you were like still a single man and you were out in Boston, would you tell people you're related to Peyton Pritchard to try to like, I would probably tell them I am Peyton Pritchard. At number eight, it's Jimmy Butler. And I liked the deal for Miami. Miami's the one NBA franchise that can cut huge checks to players that, and it doesn't work out and they're okay. Like Tyler Johnson, here's $50 million.

And it just doesn't matter. Hey, Duncan Robinson, here's 120. It just doesn't matter why Miami can do this. But Jimmy Butler deserves every penny.

And that, that is a deal on this list that I would sign off on and beat at number seven. We love Joel Embiid. Availability is a skill set. I can't count on him to be available. I can't pay him $50 million a year to maybe show up and play.

Hopefully they're not winning anything with the process. I'm sorry there, TJ. It's another deal.

How about Bradley Beal at 50 million? What are the wizards winning? What do you know? I think of often when I think of Brockman, when people say, what are we doing here? People, I feel like that's become your signature phrase in a lot of ways. What are we doing here? What are we doing here?

Tufa will claim that it was his phrase that Brockman adapted. The idea is to win, right? 50 million. I love Bradley Beal.

Great player. If Brockman had walked into the Washington wizard's front office meeting and simply said, folks, what are we doing here? Why are we doing this? Stop.

I think the wizards will be back in the play together. That's at number five, Aaron Rogers. Like we come on this show every summer. Now when we talk about the state of the Packers and Aaron and the, the most hyped up one time winning quarterback in the history of the NFL without, well, Joe Namath. But yes, there's more hype on Aaron's greatness than there is on Joe's. Joe has looked at for that one Superbowl and for a great career. Joe's in the hall of fame on one win.

Right, bro. Joe, Joe Namath won Superbowl in 69. This is 2022. We're still talking about Aaron Rogers won a Superbowl in 69. So he has, by the way, he has only been to one.

Russell Wilson has at least been to two. All right. Steph Curry, obviously worth it.

Yes. Change the game. Except I coached at a basketball camp last week in the Hamptons.

The kids were a lot tougher than you might think. And the amount of three point shooting from 12 year olds from 30 feet is disgusting. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Hot takes, Steph ruin the game, ruin the game because guess what?

Not everybody. Steph Curry. Steph Curry has a skillset. The man's been blessed. My God. On the pickup game, like I played in the park last week and some guy did some Steph Curry shot and he and he missed it.

And I pulled them aside. I said, listen, if you make that shot with any consistency, you should be making like a mid-level exemption, at least in the NBA. You should not be on 76 in Riverside playing four on four half court with me in a Bonzi Wells jersey. At number three, Nikola Jokic, 54 million. Listen, all my friends love this man. They think he's the greatest thing coming out of Serbia since beige food. I'm not a Jokic guy.

They're never going to win anything. No. What do you mean? His two best teammates didn't play this year. This man was kicked out of an elimination game for pushing somebody in the playoffs two years ago, got swept out of the playoffs. Pushing is putting it lightly. Right. Exactly.

He tried to like murder a Morris twin. Like I'm just not into Jokic. I think he has a ceiling for, for his greatness. I don't think he can elevate his team to get to that next level. And the same is probably true for the two guys in the top of this list for the boardroom, highest paid players in North American T-Sports.

Shout out to Jess Holtz over at CAA, one of the best agents in the game. But I think that the Phoenix Suns are going in the wrong direction. And I think Karl-Anthony Towns is not the best player on his own team and he's making the most money in the NBA.

It makes no sense. Devin Booker, the Suns are going in the wrong direction? I think so. They went to the NBA finals and they went to the second round and now they're either going to be in this KD thing and they're in just a different direction. And you don't think something weird happened with that team in the playoffs this year? I've heard some things.

Yeah, I know. I think that's what I'm saying. You think that's what it really was?

Something weird happened. You don't just win 60, where they win 63 games? Yeah, but when your point guard is 38 and attributes his greatness to beyond meat, I think it's not a sustainable business model. Also remember the point guard had two bad games though, guys. Remember the game?

Terrible, but Luca destroyed those games. Remember the game he went like 16 for 16 or whatever? Right, he had like a perfect basketball game.

And then the next two or three games were awful, but... Don't you think that we should give Chris Paul the benefit of the doubt there, that there is something weird that happened? Suns in the Western Conference Finals next year or not? Do they have Kevin Durant?

I'm asking that right now in July. They're a different team if they have Kevin Durant. It's a different conversation. Revisionist history cold takes might say like, oh, Ben said they're too... Yeah, they got Kevin Durant and they brought Earl Monroe, took a limitless pill and he's playing for them.

I could have used a grip of them pills, bro. Like the pearl? Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Okay, it's a different conversation. The Suns are still very good at basketball.

They're still... The point I'm making with all this is that if you look at this list of guys, it's a lot of noise and a lot of greatness, amazing players, not a lot of championship rings. And I don't know if there's a direct correlation. You want your team to be investing in winning. You want your team spending money on the best players of the sport. But I think there's something like five championships on this list. You know, out of 10 guys who should be making making all this money, I would expect more than four of them are Steph's and one's Aaron's.

And so the teams with the highest paid players and the teams that try to construct their team with the biggest stars and some Schmendrakes, it just doesn't work out in today's sports landscape. Look at the Angels. Oh yeah, of course. We talk about that.

I don't understand. They lost again yesterday to the Orioles. The Orioles, hottest team in baseball. Yeah, they are on fire right now. Greatest player since Mickey Mantle and the greatest two-way player since, the only two-way player since Babe Ruth and you're in the toilet. They lost 14 games in a row. It's something deeper than that.

We're gonna try and figure it out this week. You know, I am Ben Lyons on Instagram, Twitter, all that fun stuff. I really like the community you guys have built here. I genuinely mean that for the majority of my career. I grew up in the entertainment business and around sports. I've worked in sports media now 25 years. Most of the fan interaction is pretty toxic and terrible.

Like most people are really nasty and mean and say hurtful things. So I appreciate having gotten to know some of the folks who listen to this show, who watched on Peacock, who see the clips that TJ puts up on YouTube. Very positive tribe here. So looking forward to engaging with them all week and hopefully we can figure this out. I was like, hey, what does it take to make a championship team?

What's the sauce? What's that je ne sais quoi that these GMs and team presidents are chasing? And it's not just check cutting. It's not just saying who's the best player. I want the best pieces and then going out there and rolling out a squad.

You need Tom Brady. I mean you gotta have I mean you gotta have the best cheekbones. You can have the cheekbones, crypto, vitamins. The guy loves solid colored clothing. Who loves solid colored clothing more?

No, Tom Brady or Mark Wahlberg. Those guys love a very strong pastel solid colored t-shirt person. Is it a Boston thing you guys all share?

Just the love of solid colored. Yeah, but it's so in him now. You know, it's not a Boston thing.

He is a Florida guy now. What products can't Mark Wahlberg sell? We'll get into that later this week. Adnan Virk going to be coming up in about 20 minutes. Talk some baseball.

Talk some movies. His love of Roger Federer. His hatred of Tom Cruise. We'll catch up with Adnan in a little bit.

Richard Eisen's show coming back. Adnan hates Tom Cruise. Hates Tom Cruise. Hates Top Gun. He's against all this conversation around Top Gun getting an Oscar nomination.

That's preposterous. It deserves it. It basically should win best picture. Tom Cruise is inarguably the greatest movie star of all time. Can I tell you my Tom Cruise Austrian story?

No, you're gonna do it right now. So remember the movie Night and Day? Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise. I was working the e-channel and they had us do the press for the film. They had good chemistry.

Amazing chemistry. That's why the film really became a classic. And the junket was awesome.

We went to Austria and to Sevilla where they shot the film. And we did all the stunts with Tom's like stunt guy. You know, he's got us on the rooftop doing all the stunts. Tom's cheering for everybody. Yeah, there's a guy from Kansas City like falling in Austria.

Get up, man. This is how he did the interviews in Spain. Cameron Diaz drove a BMW while you rode shotgun chasing Tom Cruise on a motorcycle through the streets of Spain. And then you got into a town square in front of 2,000 people and interviewed him. Like it was so Tom Cruise, right? And I was just like so just in it and like excited to be in the covering this event. And I found myself in this hotel room, a hotel bathroom in Austria in the lobby and Tom Cruise was in there. And I was like, I want to quit what I do and come work for you. Why did I say that?

I don't know why. I literally was like, I want to stop being on TV and come work for you. That's like Jonah Hill and Wolf of Wall Street. You showed me a check.

So for $70,000, I work for you. And I was and he was like, yeah, man, that'd be awesome. Like you love movies. Like I love movies.

Like high five, like Tom Cruise. I'm always excited. And I left. I genuinely thought like, okay, this is my life sliding doors moment.

This is how it happens. I'm like switching. And I got back upstairs.

I was like, what just happened? No, I'm not quitting. I've worked my whole life to try to get on TV. I'm like, no, I don't go work. What am I talking about?

Just sucked me in. The greatest movie star in the history of cinema. I mean, that's a that's a broad statement. No, he's the only one. He's got the artistic credibility. He's gone there when he's needed to as an actor. He's got the big box office, obviously on the highest level. He's one of the great stuntmen. Like Harry Lloyd and Buster Keaton and Jackie Chan and all that. Tom Cruise is the greatest. I don't think he might have something to say about Jackie Chan.

Jackie Chan can't fly an F 14. He probably with more show coming up next. For the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments, it's something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson to all time hogan opponents. Macho man's got to be in the conversation. Where's Andre for you? I've always said Andre was number one. Wow. Because even going back before, you know, Hulk Hogan was a babyface, Hulk and Andre were able to go in and headline at the New Orleans Superdome at Shea Stadium in Japan. Wherever they went, that was an attraction. Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.