REShow: Hour 3 (7-4-2022)

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Try Dove Men Plus Care Dry Spray goes on dry clean feel all day. Yeah this is the Rich Eisen Show. Goats have home lives too. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Rich Eisen. Hello Rich Eisen. Rich Eisen. Oh that's Susie Eisen's husband. The Rich Eisen Show and now sitting in for Rich Eisen.

Here's Brian Weber. Final hour of the program. We are live. We'll do it live no best of because there's so much to get you across the world of sports and it means a great deal to me to have the ability to keep you company wherever you're going. Maybe you're just hanging out on a holiday.

Don't have to over plan things. Oh FOMO I gotta get out of the house. No.

Just listen to the Rich Eisen Show. At least today. Certainly tomorrow.

My pal Dan Schwartzman's in. I'm back with you on Wednesday. Then Danny's got you the rest of the week. Rich and the fellas enjoying a week off.

They return on Monday. So the pressure is on. Only have one more hour to hopefully entertain you. Plus I have to maintain the standard that Rich has established. Goal number one as a fill-in host.

Do not destroy the brand equity of the program. And since I watch every day on Peacock and listen frequently on the mightier 1090 here in Southern California as I come to you from our Regal Studios in Los Angeles. I have to be equal to not only Rich but his crew. The fellas. My guy Del Tufo on the ones and twos. We work together at NFL Network. Brockman.

TJ Jefferson. So I'm under a great deal of pressure. But I draw inspiration from the immortal Joey Chestnut. So when we wrap up the program in 40 minutes I have detailed thoughts and analysis as to what went down earlier about an hour ago in Coney Island.

Many of you did not see it. And I'm in the tennis business. I'm gonna talk bad boys of sports in 20 minutes. Motivated by the villains that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have become. Along with George Steinbrenner, Al Davis. Both born on the 4th of July.

Certainly polarizing figures. Along with the bad boy of tennis now, Nick Kyrgios. Winning his match today on his way to the quarterfinals.

I'm in the tennis business. But I am astonished ESPN did not at least use the good old deuce, ESPN2, for live coverage of the hot dog eating contest. It was parked on ESPN News. So many of you probably didn't even have the ability to see in real time Joey Chestnut limping out on crutches. You talk about Willis Reed all you want to.

He came out, knocked down a few jumpers, and sat down. My guy, Joey Chestnut. And I was a Nick fan growing up in the suburbs of New York City. Can't you tell?

East Coast accent is out today. Chestnut, despite a ruptured tendon requiring the use of crutches and a protester, listen to the rest of the show and then go on the Google machine to look this up. Because I believe TV cutaway. Don't want to give knuckleheads any air time. But some dude dressed like Darth Vader, apparently an animal rights activist because I'm guessing the good people at PETA don't endorse the gluttony of the hot dog eating contest, came out, tried to disrupt the festivities, and American hero Joey Chestnut pummeled the dude. He choked him out, did it within 15 seconds, went back to annihilating and crushing all those dogs.

But when we get into our detailed analysis with a preview, while Chestnut defended the coveted mustard belt, make it his 15th title, only, I say in air quotes, only came up with 63 hot dogs and buns, don't skip the buns, devoured in 10 minutes, well off the pace of 76 a year ago. And because it should be well understood by now that I clearly have no life, I'm volunteering to work on a holiday. And you'll hear me throughout this week on a variety of platforms and see me on TV because look, I love to work and I'm not digging ditches. I have no life.

That's one of my selling points. I, last night, spent a good portion of time falling into the rabbit hole of the world of competitive eating. Did you know there is a full-time circuit? This is not just a one-off. Chestnut now takes his talents elsewhere. And it's not just hot dogs.

All coming up in 35 minutes. That's the power of a tease. The NBA has dominated the program as it should. I made a business decision though, not to do three hours exclusively of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving conversation for a few reasons.

I get a sense of when the audience, like Joey Chestnut, gets a bit full. And even though the free agent frenzy of the NBA is just a few days old technically, going back to the business end of last week, we've been talking about the future of Kyrie Irving for a long time. The will he or won't he, opt in, opt out conversation. And then the bombshell that Durant wants out of Brooklyn.

And the other reason that we're taking our time with this and trying to approach it rationally and efficiently is we're not close to the end. And when Rich and the guys are back on Monday, this is still going to be out there because there's no urgency for, say, the Lakers to finalize this deal with the Nets. If you believe there is more than just the army of NBA insiders stirring this up, maybe they're being manipulated by the Brooklyn Nets to try to drum up the trade market and find a different landing spot for Kyrie. My question would be, who's taken Kyrie? Sincerely, I understand he is a marvelous basketball player, but with all the baggage, and this is Louis Vuitton kind of stuff, would you really want him as a GM, as a coach? Darwin Ham could say whatever he wants to about, hey, Russell Westbrook hasn't lost a step. And that's another reason why, reminder Lakers have a brand new coach who's not been a head coach in the NBA, the head coach in the NBA, that all of the Laker fanboys who are planning another championship in downtown LA based on the reports that Kyrie could be coming to the Lakers with Russell Westbrook going to Brooklyn.

And how about that scenario? Westbrook and Ben Simmons together. I'll dust off it all movie.

Throw it out there on a streaming platform this weekend. The gang that couldn't shoot straight. Crazy Joey Gallo. How much confidence do you have? A, Ben Simmons is going to get healthy coming back from the back surgery. B, we have no idea about where he is mentally with that fragile mindset.

C, last time we saw him, he couldn't buy a bucket. And now you're putting Russell Westbrook on the same team? You better wear a hard hat if you're sitting courtside in Brooklyn. Well, that's just one other fascinating element of an NBA Bula base with all of this stuff popping up and percolating. But maybe this is the Nets playing 12-dimensional chess, trying to gin up the market saying, okay, well Lakers have interest. What say you Dallas? And Dallas to me makes sense because certainly with Jalen Brunson deciding to go to the Knicks and I cannot in any way fault him for that other than it's the Knicks and I'm talking villains in 15 minutes.

I'm not even going to waste my breath. I threw out crazy Joey Gallo. How about crazy Jimmy Dolan?

I used to work for the Dolan family in cable television. I will skip the stories because Jimmy has cleaned up his life to a degree. Let's just say he had a good time all the time, but that's the problem for Brunson. The Knicks are not winning anything so long as James Dolan owns that franchise and just look at the roster. So now you got Brunson and Julius Randle and Derrick Rose and I think Tom Thibodeau is an excellent coach, but he wears his dudes out. Brunson did the right thing financially. He's reunited with his dad who's an assistant coach. Go back to what he did at Villanova and wanting to get back to the East Coast.

I can't fault him for that, but the Mavs have a major dilemma. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. A live holiday edition here on the 4th of July. Reminder, you can take us wherever you go on the Odyssey app. Be sure to check out the podcast. We'll post it just after the program.

You can catch up on anything you might have missed. 1-8-4-4-2-0-4 Rich. My Twitter handle is B-W Weber. Weber with two B's. So Luca can certainly use our running mate, far superior to Spencer Dimwitty, but how about Luca and Kyrie coexisting just from a basketball standpoint? Because while I love everything Luca does, and to me he's so difficult to come up with the appropriate comp for, because he's got some Magic Johnson to him, he's got some Pistol Pete Maravich to him, he is just a transcendent, wonderfully skilled player. He dominates the ball. Everything goes through Luca. Isn't Kyrie going to want his touches?

The usage rate, if you want to get into metrics. So I don't know, other than the Lakers, where Kyrie would be going and who else would have interest. And the Laker motivation comes down to LeBron being willing to be the big brother once more. Remember, according to reports, it was Kyrie who wanted out after they came up with that remarkable comeback. Down three games to one in part because Draymond Green got suspended because he can't control his emotions.

More to the point, he can't stop kicking people. And everyone forgets that Andrew Bogut was hurt for the Warriors as well, but that does not minimize that phenomenal comeback. And I'm well aware of what Kyrie meant in Game 7.

Hugely important, as the Cavs stunned the Warriors. But after that, tell me a decision that he has made that has made sense. And I'm not even getting into the Flat Earth stuff. And we'll leave the vaccination status out of it today because it's a holiday and I want to keep things light. Although, this is not political. This is an observation based on someone who pays attention, who has a rational mind, who lives in Los Angeles County.

If you're not aware of what's going on in Southern California, what do you know? COVID cases are going up. People, I think, have been more relaxed.

However you want to view it, it's a virus. The virus is going to virus. What do you think is going to happen after this holiday week?

More people getting together, et cetera, et cetera. The leading public health official in LA County is already foreshadowing more stringent restrictions being reinstated. What's to say a vaccine mandate doesn't return to crypto.com, whatever they're calling what used to be Staples Center. Doesn't Kyrie face a dilemma if he comes to Los Angeles with our stringent COVID protocols? Isn't there a chance that he has the exact same problem he had in New York City? This is me postulating and trying to figure out in real time just one other thing to think about. And then there's the basketball fit. Certainly, he would be an upgrade over Russell Westbrook. And if I can self-report, you're never supposed to admit, especially as a Phil and Hack, that you were wrong, but the old Twitter machine doesn't lie.

As the kids say, there are receipts. I could not have been more wrong. In my analysis of Russell Westbrook to the Lakers, I believe I said things like, what a great fit. I was misguided in thinking that he might be willing to come off the bench, but that was me giving an egomaniac, and it takes one to know one, the benefit of a doubt. I did not think that he would fall apart as much as he did last year. And we saw it in real time, and it was tough to watch. And Westbrook is a proud person, tired of being called Westbrook.

It's juvenile, but it does seem appropriate. And when it goes, it's hard to get it back. So yes, strictly from the standpoint of X's and O's, Kyrie Irving would be a positive addition to the Lakers. Now, the problem is, because they have all this dough that's going to be locked up in whatever their quote unquote big three is going to be. Remember, Russ opted in for 40 plus million. Kyrie is going to want a contract extension. That leaves the Lakers very shaky on the margins, with no margin for error, knowing that LeBron, after being a cyborg, the guy was superhuman throughout the majority of his career, will finally tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

Here comes Father Time breaking down more frequently. If I can just again play psychologist on the radio, I think LeBron also, once he won that championship, you can hang an asterisk on it all you want to in the bubble. Still counts, another banner for the Lakers to stare up in the rafters and appreciate he had achieved his goal.

Anything beyond the title they won in Orlando is a bonus. And clearly, LeBron is just as consumed with his business pursuits, all of them. Is there any project he's not involved with?

My goodness, I got to get my semblance of an agent to get Rich Paul on the phone. LeBron is very good at making money. And I'm not trying to claim he's not committed.

He's still all in. You see the videos of him looking like he's in terrific shape, working out with Kevin Love. But at this stage of his career, he's more apt to take a game off here and there. Remember, LeBron never did that. And I give him the world of credit, no load management for the king, believing the traditional notion that if I go to Denver, or let's pick a spot that he goes to once a year, if I'm going to Indiana and some kid pleaded with mom and dad to spend big money to see me, I owe them to show up. And I admire that because we're seeing less and less of that in professional sports. But with an aging LeBron and unfortunately, an injury prone on being nice for Anthony Davis, let's just tell it like it is, he cannot stay healthy.

And it's terrible. And you might have seen Kevin Garnett call him out saying, we talked about you and I covered Anthony Davis, the final four in New Orleans. And remember, he grew late.

He was a guard in high school. That's why he can handle when healthy. Conventional wisdom said he was going to win multiple MVP awards as an individual, just can't stay healthy. So I don't know how the arrival of Kyrie Irving changes those facts, which you can't debate over.

LeBron's older at AD, Anthony Davis has always hurt. And then there's the Kyrie knucklehead factor. And let me ask you this, if he's rewarded with a contract extension and you have to lock him up just to make sure he has the possibility of being happy, do you think he's going to be more or less erratic? He'll be on his best behavior, his best behavior, although I haven't seen that in a long time, but human nature says he'll do the right things to get paid. And then he'll be Kyrie again, because he just strikes me as someone who enjoys being a contrarian.

I'm not going to take cheap shots. I don't know if he has mental illness. I don't know what's going on with him. I am not qualified to come up with analysis, nor would that be appropriate, but I can say he's flaky and just strikes most reasonable people as a strange dude. That's why Kevin Durant doesn't want to deal with him anymore.

And who looks like the genius here? James Harden, because he sniffed that out quickly. James Harden is good at a few things. Eating, well, he's working on that.

Hanging out at the club and recognizing situations he does not want to be a part of. Get me out of Houston, now get me out of Brooklyn. I think it's going to work to a degree in Philadelphia, not because of Harden, but because of his flexibility financially. So here's Durant. And where's he going?

I don't know. Where do I want him to go? Just from a basketball standpoint, I'd love to see him go to Miami because I think the East needs more star power. I don't want to see Durant gravitate back towards the West. Durant staying in the East now, gives us a Miami team that almost beat Boston.

My goodness, I filled in for Rich on Memorial Day. I'm working the night before, coming up with, all right, Boston looks like it's a done deal. They're going to the NBA Finals and they nearly gave the game away. 11-2 run late in the game by Miami. Butler made the decision. I don't think it was the right decision, but he knew he was spent. Goes for three in the win.

You know the rest of the story. Let's say it's Butler to Brooklyn. You still have Durant, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, sixth man of the year in the NBA.

He wants to be a starter. You force Lowry to get in better shape. You still have pieces like Victor Oladipo.

I think Udonis Haslam is going to play until he's 140 years old. I would have Miami Heat second only to the Bucks ahead of the Celtics right there with the Sixers, making the Eastern Conference much more fascinating. But if you're going to summarize things, even if Durant goes to Phoenix, Warriors are a superior team. And I just don't want to entertain the notion because I think we'd all, not all of us, but I think even a lot of Warrior fans, the majority of basketball fans would say, come on, Durant going back to the Warriors.

And I understand the logic. Warriors have the best potential package to offer. You can talk about Poole, Wiggins, Camingo, Wiseman, all the picks. But I don't think, and I'm speaking as someone who spent a lot of time working in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I used to be a broadcast team member of the Golden State Warriors, I think the majority of Warrior fans would say thanks, no thanks. Certainly the Big Three would welcome him back because that just guarantees them even more titles. Can you believe that Durant would be happy in that situation with his sensitivity?

I just don't think anybody wants to see it. Here is the positive. We're going to have plenty of time to run through all of the combinations because this thing ain't close to done. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Isom.

1-8-4-4-2-0-4 Rich is the number to call. Conversation never stops on Twitter. That's B.W. Weber.

Weber with two B's in 20 minutes. We focus on an American hero, Joey Chestnut. But do you want to talk about inhaling oysters?

How about burritos? Going to take you inside the world of competitive eating. Straight ahead, we'll use Kyrie and Katie as a catalyst talking villains because the 4th of July has been connected to Wimbledon for decades. You got a bad boy in tennis, Nick Kyrgios, out there like he was Johnny Mac years ago. Does sports need more villains? Is it better to have folks to root against?

Does it give you more passion and energy for what we all love? Brian Weber in for Rich. It's the Rich Eisen Show.

Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen as we power our way through the final hour of the program. Thank you for spending part of your Independence Day with us. Hope you take time to enjoy yourself however that may be if you're working. I understand. Now I'm not really working.

I think the best part of what I've been able to do for career is I probably would be having a conversation like this at some place and there's actual compensation although it really has been a expanded internship over the years working towards that college degree I wasn't able to finalize many decades ago. Jot the number down. Dan Schwartzman opened your calls tomorrow. I'm back with you on Wednesday. A44204rich.

You can hit me up on Twitter for the remainder of the program or after the show. It's B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's in 15 minutes. We wrap it up with the same ferocity and gusto displayed by Joey Chestnut winning another Mustard Belt.

Yeah he didn't set another record but he did it despite having to come out to the stage yesterday for the press conference on crutches. My man less than 100 percent will give you the details and you didn't see any ESPN because the director was wise enough and I'm sure the producer got heavily involved. They cut away when a protester came out another person not thrilled with the vast resources of processed food that were consumed in New York City. So somebody connected to the animal rights movement came out. Chestnut as he was still eating the hot dogs and the buns just did a quick number on this dude pushed him off the stage.

We'll talk about the exciting world of competitive eating coming up. Now that guy the protester was a villain. In fact as I did more research and I alluded to a couple minutes ago he came out in a Darth Vader outfit. You talk about the dark side protesting the Coney Island hot dog eating contest. What would Yoda say about that? These are not the droids you're looking for. So as I was thinking about the program today and I knew that we were going to spend the majority of our time together talking about Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant both to me seemed very comfortable with being quote unquote the villain in a sports context and as somebody who embraces sports history and likes statistical oddities I don't read you my tax return on the year.

You already have that information. It's floating around on the internet but I don't do numbers driven talk radio but I remember certain facts and I've known for a long time especially because when I was a kid Dave Righetti threw a no-hitter for the New York Yankees 1983 if memory serves. That was George Steinbrenner's birthday and they kept talking about it on the broadcast. The immortal scooter fell risotto. Hey happy birthday George Steinbrenner and since I spent a few years covering the Oakland Raiders the second time they were in the Bay Area as a TV reporter on a daily basis I was aware that Al Davis was born on the 4th of July. I'm sure I did that feature story on a slow Independence Day 20 years ago when I was doing local TV in San Francisco.

So put it all together. KD and Kyrie embrace the resentment out there it seems to use the professional wrestling vernacular. They have no problem being a heel. George Steinbrenner, Al Davis certainly relished being polarizing and then I'm not going to force you to be aware of Wimbledon. I've been lucky to be a part of tennis channels broadcast team since 2003.

I've been going to US Open since 1977. I love tennis. Big part of what I do when I'm not on the radio in part because we also play tennis 11 months of the year. When you work every day you might be able to pay the rent in Southern California but there's a name you should be aware of because he is reminiscent of the personalities the brash quote-unquote bad boys of tennis years ago.

When I grew up you had guys like Yontyriak, Ilia Nastasi, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors. Well Nick Kyrgios from Australia is a tremendously talented player but he has been also the most unpredictable player on tour. There are days when it's clear he just does not want to be on the court doesn't try.

There are days when he goes out and clearly is in a bad mood and his focus is yelling at the chair umpire and there are days when he wants to play and he can beat anybody in the world including head-to-head victories over Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer and the other immortals. Well it's been a nice run at Wimbledon and it continues as Kyrgios was able to win today beating a talented young American player and Brandon Nakashima. So here's Kyrgios in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and the disparity there is stark because Wimbledon is all about tradition.

Strawberries and cream got to wear the white outfits. Look at the royal box. Can you imagine the royal box having to endure? I don't think necessarily he'd do it in a championship match but with Kyrgios who knows and by his own admission he has been transparent that he has dealt with some psychological dilemmas. He is the most enigmatic player in tennis and one of the strangest cats in all professional sports but he's another guy who does not mind being a villain. So it got me thinking in an era in which now athletes can make as much money away from sports as they can on the field on the court whatever their pursuit may be is it a good business decision to be the bad boy to embrace being a villain because back to my youth Pete Rose was not going to make a lot more money and yeah he had the aqua velva commercial and we're talking Pete he probably needed the cash to fund his lifestyle. We know that Pete liked to play the ponies and other things but Pete was a bad boy because that was who he was. Charlie Hustle was not a compliment. He was mocked by the veterans for sprinting down the first base and he seemed to relish in ending the career effectively of Ray Fosse taking him out at the plate in an exhibition game all-star game and Ray was never the same and we lost Ray and I worked with Ray when he was a member of the Oakland A's broadcast team he would talk about it but how would he do that if he was a promising young catcher get your shoulder blown out in a exhibition by Pete Rose and Pete really never apologized? Well that strikes me as being more of a bad dude than a villain or a bad boy. Reggie Jackson, Reginald Martinez Jackson embraced the quote-unquote hate. He lived to be booed on the road and then he stick it to you by going deep twice and he did it twice and he did it twice. And he'd take out your girlfriend as well because he was just that cool.

So as we go from and I don't want to do nostalgic radio we know that nostalgia as we learned on the Sopranos is the lowest form of conversation but it just strikes me with all the money out there now and social media and other ways that athletes can monetize their brand isn't it a good business decision to try to embrace the dark side to a degree? Because love me or hate me just know who I am and you don't have to be Mr. Likable.

You don't have to go to the Rotary Club. I'm sure Kevin Durant does marvelous things when it comes to charity. I know Kyrie Irving is very involved with the community but the need to be universally loved seems to have gone away. That was the difference with the villains. They stood out because everybody else is the villain. Everybody else was focused on quote-unquote having a commercial brand that you could go to Madison Avenue and come up with a way to make a few bucks selling soap. So where are we now in terms of real villains?

I was thinking about this driving into the studio today. Dan Snyder is a villain but he just strikes me as beyond even that just a truly bad individual and what's taking the league so long to strip him of his control of the Washington football team? And don't tell me that quote-unquote suspension had any validity when his wife is running the team. So when they're on their super yacht in the south of France that previous engagement that kept him from showing up on Capitol Hill and poor Roger Goodell earning his 50 million bucks via Zoom taking all those slings and arrows. The league has to arrive at a point well they don't have to do anything because they control the most powerful brand in sports but if they had any semblance of caring about perception how in the world can Dan Snyder still own that team?

But as I said he moves into a different realm. If we're just talking straight villains let's go with Bill Belichick and it's connected to what went down at the hot dog eating contest in Coney Island when the protester who jumped up onto the stage and was wrestled away by Joey Chestnut was dressed as Darth Vader. That's Belichick right? With the hoodie and the mumbling at the press conferences but don't you know you'd take him in a minute if he was available to coach your team. Since I was talking baseball villains Pete Rose and Reggie Jackson I think Bryce Harper I know he's hurt but he seems to embrace the role of being polarizing.

Anybody who could come up with the gem like that's a clown question bro is good in my book. I throw out the name of Trevor Bauer he was a contrarian in the past he just seems like a repulsive human being so let's keep him moving and since we're talking basketball Kyrie and KD embracing your criticisms especially Durant he'll go back and forth with you on Twitter even if you have an egg as an avatar and 17 followers. Draymond Green's got to be the best villain in all sports now right? I know he's beloved in the Bay Area he could run for mayor in San Francisco and win but around the league he's effectively despised. Now Chris Paul is an NBA villain with all the shots that he has taken over the years towards the nether regions I'll be kind on a holiday of the opposition and flopping and whining but he won't embrace that role because he's trying to sell you insurance. He loves the commercial dough out there. Draymond is a classic villain because he revels in it listen to his podcast that guy keeps it 100 plus and the podcast is terrific but I think as we wrap it up we need villains because there's got to be a degree of balance if everybody shows up and says as we learned in Bull Durham Kevin Kosner tried to impart the lessons to a young Tim Robbins well the good Lord willing will have a good day and I just take it one game at a time what would we be talking about villains move the needle I've mentioned as a kid I don't watch the current product but I love professional wrestling when I was 9, 12, even 15 years old who was better than Ric Flair dirtiest player in the game I can't believe Ric is going to get back in the ring at the age of 73 despite all his health concerns I know he owes a lot of people a lot of money owes a lot of people a lot of money and I hope he just goes out there and struts a little bit if he has any physical contact this could be a major issue but as sports gets bigger and bigger remember there's a lot of ways to make a buck and embracing your inner villain could be a good way to get paid as well I am Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen final segment coming up I talked about the protester trying to wreak havoc in Coney Island Joey Chestnut would not be deterred because he's an American hero in addition to having to wrestle that knucklehead away Chestnut had a ruptured tendon to deal with so since nothing says independence like scarfing down hot dogs at Coney Island we'll expand our focus how about inhaling buffalo wings tamales we're taking you inside the world of competitive eating something of course I know nothing about because I am the Jack LaLanne of all fill-in hosts I'm Brian Weber we appreciate your company on the 4th of July in for Rich Eisen it's the Rich Eisen Show I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen July 4th edition of the Rich Eisen Show final segment we are winding down that means my good friend Dan Schwartzman is warming up Dan with you tomorrow I'm back on Wednesday and Rich and the fellas return on Monday one eight four four two oh four Rich is the phone number we'll continue our conversation on Twitter after the program that's B.W. Weber Weber with two b's I suspect as a veteran of fill it in during this week on the radio for several years that when I'm back on Wednesday we will still be on Kevin Durant watch watch watch watch watch and Kyrie Irving will still be available and we'll still have plenty of rumor and innuendo about where they're both going all the speculation about Kyrie to the Lakers so I'll make sure that I spend the intervening hours trying to be creative and come up with other perspectives but I did my best to make sure that we meandered around want to thank our guests with Joey Chestnut and hot dog eating thoughts coming up whenever I'm in the chair will not overwhelm you with outside voices because I'm just that fascinating plus it's July 4th I didn't want to bug too many friends but I appreciate the availability and the insights of our two guests today our number one had a terrific baseball conversation with Keith law of the athletic last hour talked about live golf making their debut here in the United States over the weekend in Portland got you set for Tiger Woods returning next week at the open championship at St Andrews with my good friend Robert Lucettage the noted golf writer let's talk about the event that captivates the attention of many of you out there because I think we can all identify with certain things in life you and I will never dunk a basketball and I'm six feet tall I think I'm the one guy in sports media is not 5'4 if I can be more self-promotional that's probably why I have the back issues with my strapping physique although talking about the pursuit of dunking a basketball if you're a certain age do you remember the shoes you could buy in the back of say street and smith the college football preview or an NBA magazine that were supposed to develop your calves so you could get two or three more inches on your vertical leap I bought those shoes maybe that's when I first tore my achilles and my glutes but I will never dunk a basketball I will never hit a home run I could probably eat a fair share of hot dogs if we're talking shrimp cocktail with the tails I'll put my prowess up against anybody and you throw in as much horseradish in that cocktail sauce as you want I'm talking about I'm talking about our love of eating because what says independence what reflects the American sensibility more than stuffing your face so that's why the hot dog eating contest which has been around for a long time keeps getting bigger and bigger and a lot of this hinges on an American hero and Joey Chestnut now I realize it's not the same as the P competition when Kobayashi came along but just like in boxing when we wait for these super fights and they don't happen I think we're never gonna see Kobayashi and Chestnut again never say never maybe the Saudis will come up with their own competition and throw millions of dollars at the competitive eating circuit but if you did not see it and I'm venturing to guess many of you didn't because it was not on ESPN or ESPN 2 strange content decision there I realize they have obligations to Wimbledon I told you I'm in the tennis business so I'm not second guessing the move but given the popularity of the hot dog eating contest which will be replayed later today a big ESPN if you want to see it live it was relegated to ESPN news there was a degree of healthy speculation about the ability of Joey Chestnut to get it done again because yesterday we had the bombshell oh what a bombshell here comes Greg the Hammer Valentine that the reigning champ going after his 15th title was dealing with physical ailments ruptured tendon hobbling around on crutches and rocking a leg cast now you would say though in fairness how does that impact his guts you're right but it's all interconnected as I'm learning with the sciatica I'm not that fat I shouldn't be limping around like Orson Welles but once you get your frame out of sync it's hard to get it back and one other obstacle the great Joey Chestnut had to overcome today and this just fell in my lap sometimes you get lucky because I was going to talk about the competition to have some fun at the end of the program a fella dressed like Darth Vader invaded the stage at Coney Island a protester apparently part of the animal rights movement not thrilled with the gluttony and here here came Chestnut you got to find the video it's available out there on the internet because ESPN cut away Chestnut mid-bite maintaining his focus effectively choked this dude out so Chestnut's eating the hot dogs and the buns don't forget about the buns that's a key element in mid-bite has the awareness the peripheral vision to see Darth Vader coming his way I just love painting this word picture broadcasting is the best and annihilates this dude takes care of him pushes him aside it gets back to his pile of dogs now unfortunately no record today 76 with the marquee set last year shattering his previous high every year there's been incremental growth had to settle for 63 dogs and buns but won yet another mustard belt make it 15 championships for the GOAT but I have good news for you if you missed it live as mentioned there'll be a replay and if you want to see more of competitive eating and don't tell me it's not a sport because I looked up the definition of a sport we had help from Mr. Dictionary this morning I printed it out quote an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competing against another for entertainment do I have to break that down word by word are you not entertained by Joey Chestnut how much physical exertion do you think there is in scarfing down 63 hot dogs and the buns but wait there's more were you aware that something exists known as major league eating I am not making it up it's a competitive circuit and given all of the different things I have done in my career we're talking about mercenaries and golf with Robert Lucetich might apply to yours truly I have called just about every olympic sport you can think of water polo sure I've called mixed martial arts I've called horse jumping I've called arm wrestling for Fox Sports Net I got a crew cut because the promoter thought I was too suburban to do the gig okay so I've done it all I need to fire my agent where's Jerry to help me out with this one major league eating is a year-round competition let me give you some of the highlights in our remaining moments coming up these are sanctioned events the world pretzel eating championships as we learned on Seinfeld these pretzels are making me thirsty the oyster eating world championship the pepperoni roll let me see your pepperoni roll eating championship strawberry shortcake and now I'm getting sick to my stomach it continues the tamale eating championship rib eating championship not the McRib if you heard me during the holidays I have an issue with McRibs the marketing is brilliant remember scarcity motivates people if you don't think it's going to be there tomorrow you grab it today McRibs are only around for a limited time I put them away like Joey Chestnut did today so if you feel badly about your physical condition and I'm not endorsing obesity we have a lot of issues in this country however why not turn a negative into a positive if you enjoy eating and you want to try to make a few bucks take your talent to major league eating and try to avoid Darth Vader on the podium that'll wrap up another entertaining edition of the Rich Eisen show hope you had as much fun as I did as mentioned I'm back on Wednesday and I won't have the frivolity of hot dogs to focus on so much more to rants Irving the latest on NBA moves plus you have summer league going on that's always a catalyst for conversation across the association I want to thank Rich for letting me fill in again all the great people at Westwood One led by Bruce Gilbert our technical producer Art Martinez my friend Dan Schwartzman is here tomorrow I'm back with you on Wednesday enjoy the rest of your holiday it's the Rich Eisen show for the real story behind some of wrestling's biggest moments it's something to wrestle with Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson too 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 well 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