REShow: Nick Friedell - Hour 3 (11-3-2022)

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Try Dove men plus care dry spray goes on dry clean feel all day. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'm looking out the window. This is the Rich Eisen Show.

I do not see a pig flying out there. I'm gonna have to believe it when I see the Washington commanders apparently up for sale. The Rich Eisen Show.

If you make our number we'll sell the team and the number is going to be north of 5 billion. Earlier on the show, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Coming up ESPN NBA reporter Nick Freel.

Plus your phone calls, latest news and more. And now it's Rich Eisen. Number three the Rich Eisen show is on the air and yes with a lot of heavy talk going on today with Kyrie Irving having spoken and the commissioner of the NBA putting out a statement criticizing the way that the Nets and Kyrie Irving handled the matter of his linking out a documentary to his to his followers to find all sorts of anti-Semitic tropes. And I basically last hour called out Amazon for having that on their spot to begin with. Amidst all the heavy talk we come on hour number three with the start of a scoop by People Magazine.

Sport scoop from People Magazine. Really? Yes.

Did I miss this? Correct. Moments ago Jeff Bezos of Amazon heard of him. I heard of him. Quote unquote looking into buying the Washington commanders. Yeah he is.

And he would make the purchase quote unquote possibly in partnership with Jay-Z. Really? And your mic wasn't even on him we heard that we hear that game. That's why I turned it off. I didn't want to say it into the mic. Let me tell you something. Let's throw up the rock right now.

It's a boy. Throw it up. The rocks in the building. Three quarters of ownership. You're crazy for this one Jeff. Three quarters for ownership. Would have to approve this sale.

But I would have to say. I don't want this to happen. If Jeff Bezos and Jay-Z walk in and say we'll buy the Washington commanders. So I don't want this to happen. I don't want this to happen man. Sold.

I can't like this team. So they could just name their price. If it's anything five billion and above. If it's more than a billion dollars.

I think it's six plus. Right? Like I said this.

Well Forbes like I said yesterday Forbes has them valued at five point six. Jay-Z and Jeff Bezos walk into an owners meeting. And say. Yo get down. Would you have a problem? You'd have to. No I would not like that. You'd have to. I would not like that. You'd have to.

If it's a little party. No. Make some room in the vast T.J. Jefferson sports portfolio. Couldn't do it. Let me ask you this. For the Washington commanders. Couldn't do it.

Let's just have this. How about them commanders? They would have to change the team name again right.

Commanders is awful. Like a complete full on rebrand. Get rid of. We never. Snyder was never an owner. Let's rebrand the team. Fascinating. What if Jay-Z wants to move from the Brooklyn?

Well no they'd have a new stadium. New RFK. Let's go. Dude. Dude. Jigga jigga. Bam.

Or the K and the P and the B. They're coming out. They're coming out. They're coming out. They're coming out. They're coming out. They're coming out.

They're coming out. I knew I'd get Brock. Hey man. This is awesome. I mean this could be great. This is great. I love it.

I've got a lot of problems in owning us. People magazine busting in on this whole thing. That's the first time I've ever seen Florio's pro football talk. Link to people. Link to people. Wow.

It's so crazy. Let me hit the link here. Here it is. Washington commanders.

Who wore it better? No wait a minute. That's the other one right? That's us.

Oh my bad. That's us. That's us.

A source close to the billionaire tells people. They're just like us. Is that? No. No. They're not. That's it. They don't want this.

Like everybody wants this. Yeah. By the way, we didn't even talk about, you know, where I looked out the building and saying pigs flying. Like what are pigs flying? Like what, why would they be up for a selling right now?

The ESPN is reporting that financial irregularities is being looked into by federal authorities. Yeah. They got out in front of that one yesterday. But there you go. Yeah. Yeah. The rest is just a rehash, but that's it.

I mean, that's, that's it. Jeff Bezos and possibly in partnership with Jay-Z. Why would Bezos need a partner? He doesn't. Obviously he could buy every team.

We did the math on this, Mike. Yeah. A few months ago, Mike and I ran down the Forbes valuation list of every NFL team, added that all together, subtracted from Jeff Bezos net worth. He'd still have $90 billion left.

Yeah. He'd be fine if he bought every team. So he doesn't need a partner, but Jay-Z already does a lot with the league anyway in terms of producing the halftime show and whatnot.

So why not? It would be perfect. Let's go. I think the league would have, by the way, how would, how would a membership meeting be an owner's meeting? Jay-Z walking in the door. Hey, Jay-Z, if you buy this team, let's talk about getting me on the competition committee on our basis as a big fan of mine right now.

Cause I'm like, what the hell is that link that, uh, doing on Amazon for, for Kyrie to be able to tweet out anyway. But I don't know. That league's got 99 problems and I can fix one of them. That's good. Let's go.

I mean, that wasn't bad. You're just pissed because someone you adore by, by one of your most hated teams, hated teams, man. I mean, what is happening?

Alan Dallas, you're on the rich eyes and show. How you been out? What's going on?

I'm doing great. You're ready for this? Yes, sir. If you're having football problems, I got to buy for you, son.

Jeff has $4 billion and Jay-Z has won. Not bad. I didn't have that. Not bad, right? He just turned his microphone off. So, uh, Richard, you know, like you've been doing a heck of a job, the, over the last, you know, week or so talking about things that, you know, people don't even like to talk about at the Thanksgiving dinner table. I think you've, you've checked your emotions as best as you possibly could because the nonsense that's being spewed is striking, striking home. And, you know, and, you know, you've probably experienced some of, you know, or heard some nasty things in your day that, you know, that people say.

That hasn't been fun. I'm not going to lie. I've been hearing a lot of stuff. And you're smart enough and articulate enough to be able to express that and make it, um, you know, and it involves a sports figure. So it needs to be talked about, right? Um, I'm not going to Chris Mandelg Russo and I love Russo, by the way, to, to, to listen to this stuff.

So you're doing a great job. Yesterday's show was fantastic. Humor in with serious talk. One thing I am going to say though, about Kyrie Irving is I would bet any dollar that I have that he probably didn't even watch the video or watch the show. The way he's defend, like defending the whole process makes it seem like it's more about pride than about anything else. And there's no place for this in any society, but I mean, it's just the, it's, it's so arrogant. It's almost believable that he didn't watch it. I don't know, man.

And just posted it blindly because somebody told him to do it. I don't know. I mean, we're not getting too many answers and I appreciate the call, Alan.

I appreciate seeing what you said. And again, the, the, the one thing that definitely leaps out at me from that whole press conference is him saying, you know, him saying that, uh, when asked if he met directly with the anti-defamation league said that they reached out to me and we handled it. What'd you handle? What got handled? I don't know.

It's so tough to have a handle on it. All I want is just everybody to respect one another. That's it. And we can all partner together. If he feels the way he feels and I feel the way that I feel, we should be able to partner together. I don't know if he really even cares to do such a thing.

8 4 4 2 0 4, which is the number to dial. So we, I don't know how many years ago this was on this show might've been four or five years ago where we realized when we're having our conversations and sports takes that sometimes in order to believe what we think, we have to go higher register. For instance, just as a, as an example and no offense here. Okay. No offense. No offense. I'm looking at you. No offense. Hey, I think you look great in all those things.

You constantly wear all the time. You know what I mean? Like that's the sort of thing or Hey TJ. I think the fact that you root for 10 sports teams means you're a real good sports fan. It's a lot of college teams, man. You know what I mean? Like I may believe a three example.

Why do I need one? I guess you gotta be, I gotta be fair, fair to all my children. Just because Chris is from Boston doesn't mean he's a complete a hole. You're going higher register to believe it. You're making my point. Yeah.

So we, we used to do this all the time and I just driving in today and I knew that this Kyrie stuff was going to be talked about and it's been a lot of heavy stuff and we figured, you know what? We just have one take where we all have to go higher register in order to believe it. And here we go. Hit it.

There's a chance the rich eyes and shows that there could be higher register. Take of the week. There we go. Very good.

A little Caliendo doing Schefter is part of our, okay. Do we have any, we don't do music for this one. I don't do any music. We still have a little music makes everything makes the people come together. Even if it's like TJ's top five music, let's do that. No, that's a good one.

What do you got? That's it. That's what it is. You want to lead us off? TJ, why don't you lead us off?

Why not? NBA season is in full effect, right? Yes, it is. It's 82 games. It's just way too early to really like get up or get down, right? You know, you got some teams we talked about, some teams understand the assignment.

The assignment is tank for crown Vic, right? Some other guys are just playing out of their pay grade, right? And I got a few teams as you know, and they're, they're both doing so, so, but I want to talk about the Clippers specifically.

They're four and four right now. And the big thing about the Clippers is what's the problem with injuries and Kawhi hasn't played in a few games. And I'm just here to tell you guys that even though he's still sitting out because he destroyed his ACL and he's still load management, load managing, I'm not really that worried about Kawhi in the Clippers right now.

And eventually it came into the season. It's still early. It's not, yeah, there's no reason to panic. That worried right now. I'm with you.

No, I'm with you. No, I mean, I got Kawhi on my fantasy team and you know, the fact that he just hasn't been playing and they said at the very beginning, you know, they're just, it's just, it's just, you know, precautionary. He's going to be fine.

And then he doesn't make this road trip and I think it's still be fine. There's still like 74 games left. So yeah, there you go. Well done. Well done. Brockman, you're next.

You go next. All right. Uh, I'm doing football, no basketball for me.

Okay. The Philadelphia Eagles played tonight in a football game in Houston. They're going to win. They're going to win by a lot. So they're going to be eight.

No. And then I look at the rest of their schedule, right? They play the Washington hovers next week, two weeks actually after their fire or the whole mini buy. They play the Washington hose next week. Then they play the Colts. That's two more wins.

Then I look at the Thanksgiving day. They are Sunday night football against the green Bay Packers. I gotta say, I think the Packers might hit him their first loss.

Okay. I think green Bay gets it figured out. Take build on the positives from last week against Buffalo.

Take the month of November to iron them out. And then they go into Philadelphia and maybe get a W. Huh? Look at last year.

Arizona was the last undefeated team last year and was the team to beat him. Go pack. Oh yeah.

I need to even have to volunteer Adams in that game. Like you won't this time. That's all I'm saying.

I'm hearing you. Okay. All right. I'll go. You go. Let you want to go. Let you go. You go, Mike.

You can go, Mikey. I mean, okay. This is off of the, uh, the subject of sports.

Cause you know me, I'm like, not a sports guy. You guys know, but Taylor Swift just released an album. Oh goodness.

He's the top 10 spots on billboard. And, uh, I was forced kind of into listening to it by one of my friends. I got to admit he's actually not that bad. I got it. It's pretty good. It's actually really good. No joke. It's really good. Maybe she should have her banner hung up and go that far. Okay.

It's the first ever banner right up there. All right. Here we go. I'm going to say, I'm going to stay, I'm going to stay in crypto.

I'm going to stay in Los Angeles basketball. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. I'm going to give you a couple stat lines. I'm going to give you a couple stat lines. 18 and eight, another 18 and eight back to back 18 and eight with an 18, eight and eight. Are you really doing this?

Yes. Points rebounded. This is 18, eight and eight after an 18, eight and three.

And then last night of 13, seven and nine, the Los Angeles Lakers won those last two games. I'm going full hire register here. Maybe ruts coming off the bench could work after. Oh, maybe Dartmouth hands on or something. Maybe what he's buying is being, uh, being sold as being bought.

Maybe it's going to work. The numbers don't lie. Do they? Hey, men lie. Women lie.

Numbers don't. And let me ask you this question. If Russ didn't say, okay, I'll come off the bench with Lonnie Walker, the fourth have the opportunity with Matt Ryan, not that the other Matt Ryan have an opportunity.

Mr. Grubhub, the good Matt, right? Make his big three to send it into overtime. I think not.

Cost me $33. Maybe Russ, maybe Russ coming off the bench is going to work. High register. We need to do this more often. Yes.

You know, I got to be honest on YouTube and the comments, it does get asked for a line. You know what? I think we're back. You know, I think we're going to keep doing it.

It's not bad, right? Well, you're not going to start working on my other questions. I want to keep doing this to the point where our listeners and viewers in the middle of their conversations with friends realize they're doing it too.

Everybody does it. I can remember the exact time when you decide to make it an actual segment. And it was right when I first started and I said something, you went, yeah, that's the higher register thing. And you were like, no, let's actually make a segment. I remember the first couple of times I couldn't like wrap my mind around. Well, you couldn't go. I couldn't go.

Register. It took like three before I could actually get it. I was like, look at you now. Look at me now. You're pretty good at it.

You're crazy for this one, Rick. I'm just doing Jay-Z. I mean, I remember I did a Jay-Z last year and the guy tweeted that he was so mad that I was doing the Jay-Z impression. He said I sucked and he hated it. So it's not like TJ to remember that a year later.

This NFL season, every Westwood one, NFL broadcast streams live for free Mondays, Thursdays, Sunday nights, Thanksgiving and Christmas triple headers, the international series in every postseason game. All right. When we come back, we do return to the subject matter of Kyrie Irving and the Nets. And this is the reporter who first put it on my radar screen because he held him to account on the podium over the weekend.

And he was just part of the media availability for Kyrie Irving moments ago. Nick Friedel of ESPN. When we come back, this message is sponsored by Discover. Did you know you could reduce the number of unwanted calls and emails with online privacy protection? The latest innovation from Discover. Discover will help regularly remove your personal info, like your name and address, from 10 popular people search websites that could sell your data. And they'll do it for free. Activate in the Discover app.

See terms and learn more at discover.com slash online privacy protection. Hey, when was the last time you seriously considered your dream? I mean, come on, you used to think about it all the time.

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So what do you say? Head to the Mercedes Benz van dealership and get that Sprinter. Tell them your dream sent you back here on The Rich Eyes and show 844204 Rich is the number to dial. I will be shoot you straight. I did not. No, I knew Kyrie had posted the Alex Jones link, but I did not know about, um, me neither him linking what he linked to from Amazon, uh, before the press conference, um, on Sunday night where he was asked about it by our next guest and that put on my radar screen and then his answer just enraged me so much that I had to say something about it. Um, so I greatly appreciate this man's work back here on The Rich Eyes and show with our terrestrial radio audience. And joining us here on the Mercedes Benz van phone line is a man who covers the nets for the worldwide leader in sports, Nick Friedel. How are you doing, Nick? Rich, I got to tell you something really quick. Uh, I sent you a letter when I was 12 wanting to get into sports broadcasting.

Get out of here. And you were one of the only people who responded. So it is a hell of an honor for me to be able to talk to you in general. I wish we were under better circumstance, but I really appreciate that you did in that moment. And, uh, thanks for, uh, laying the path down for people like me to follow. I don't know what path I laid, but I'm glad that I did, did, I did respond. And I'm glad to see that you actually found your way into the, to the business.

That's pretty cool, man. I appreciate you saying that. Absolutely. I appreciate that. All right. Now, uh, now that we're all, is there anything else you'd like to share, Nick?

Uh, we can get that out. I know my mom is watching Donna in Orlando. She must be telling Donna must be felling down there.

Um, so she must be in full Cvel mode right now. Um, so right here on the Roku channel, thanks for watching Donna. How are you? Hey, Mr. Dona. Very good.

Um, let's, you're, you're, you're spot on to say about better circumstances because this is a very, uh, deep subject clearly. And one, I'm sure you, did you get any grief for your, your challenging Kyrie Irving at all the way that you did over the weekend? My social media is a mess. And that's where it really has come from.

And it's really, it's disgusting. Some of the responses because rich, I'm just doing my job. I just want to ask questions that I felt like are important. And in the moment when I had the back and forth that now a lot of people have seen, it didn't feel that much different to me because Kyrie and I, I got on the beat in January. I switched from the warriors to the nets. I moved to New York and he and I had gone back and forth on the vaccinations a lot last season. So in the moment it didn't feel any different, even though the subject matter was much more important, didn't feel any different from a back and forth standpoint. It wasn't until that night and the next couple days where people were calling me on my phone or texting me and just saying, thanks.

Not just because I, I pushed him. There were a lot of journalists that reached out, which I appreciated, but just people that could care less about basketball or sports that had seen that and that had been really hurt by those initial posts and, and wanted to get a, a clear cut answer from him and rich, we didn't get one Saturday. And I just walked out of that press conference a couple hours ago in Brooklyn.

We didn't get one today. So there are a lot of different layers here, but yeah, it's been a weird few days for me for sure. I, I'm sure now as for the answers that, that we heard today, I mean, I played the lion's share of the six minute of media availability at the end of the second hour, including the very intense soliloquy that, that Kyrie had about his experience and his upbringing and his ancestry and wanting the same intensity brought about to, to the hate speech that he feels and that he grew up with and that he feels in every day. And I heard that and I'm like, well, yeah, that's, that's basically what I've been saying over the last several days and how hurtful it is that he would place on his Twitter account, a documentary that fuels all of that. And, and, and, and so there just seems that there could be common ground, but I'm wondering why there isn't in his mind.

Whoa. Is there anything you could sort of, uh, I know that, you know, delving into his psyche might not be the best use of our time together, but I'm, I'm trying to figure it out. Nick, I think the hard part for Kyrie rich in, again, covering him day after day in his last year is it's about control. He doesn't want to feel like he is saying or doing something that somebody is making him say or do having talked to Kyrie. And I've had several conversations with him before this in the last couple of weeks.

I can't stress this part enough. He wants so desperately to be a bridge for the generation coming behind him. And he has, I've talked to him about it. He, white, black, every ethnicity or religion, he is so proud of the fact that so many kids watch him play, that so many different people wear his Jersey from all different walks of life.

That's why those initial posts that he made a week ago were so surprising in the answers. The hardest part with Kyrie rich is he wants to be dug in on what he believes and what his position is. But so many times he struggles to articulate that and you're left trying to, as a journalist, transcribe what he's saying and make sense of the commentary sometimes. But it's a, it's a strange juxtaposition because this is a guy who appreciates so much how so many people in the game look at him. The younger players on this Nets roster idolize him. They look up to him immensely as a leader.

He knows how many people appreciate what he has done on the floor. But at the same time, he's posting links to anti-Semitic stuff. And instead of just saying, I'm sorry, like so many people in the league and in the Nets organization wanted to hear from him, he does not do that.

And he decides not to say yes or no, whether he has the anti-Semitic belief just makes things so much more difficult on himself than they have to be. So if you've had these conversations with him, I don't know how many of your colleagues have had similar conversations with him on subject matters outside of basketball. Why would he then accuse you in the middle of a press conference of trying to make yourself famous out of the exchange between the two of you?

Wow. It really bothered me, Rich. And I think a lot of it ties back into the uncomfortable exchanges at times we had last season with the vaccination. But a lot more of it, in my mind, was what happened on media day. And for those that hadn't seen that clip, I went to ask a question.

He was sitting up at the podium. And he doesn't even let me get the first few words of the question out. He says, you and me, we're going to be best friends by the end of the year. And I say, Kyrie, I thought we already were best friends. Like you think that now, you think that now, but we're going to really be best friends.

You're going to give me a hug by the end of the year. And Rich, that's again, just from my perspective, that's the craziest part of the last few days is because player after player, coach after coach, Steve Nash, before he decided he wanted out of this thing and that came to that agreement with the Nets, were raving about how Kyrie was responding to everything in the locker room. And everybody had said repeatedly that they felt like he had turned a corner in how he was responding to everybody and how he was treating everybody and how he was playing on the floor, being a leader.

So for it all to go up in flames on so many different levels in the last few days, even seen it day in and day out, it's been pretty stunning. Nick Friedel covers the Nets for ESPN joining me here on the Rich Eisen Show. So moments ago, you just said Steve Nash decided he wanted out.

So that's the mutual part about it. Walk me through what you know about the departure of Steve Nash from this franchise this past week. Rich, this is one of the few times where I believe the statement from a team where John Marx and Steve Nash sat down, as Mark said, and just said, you know what, this is not working. And I can just tell you that since I got there in January, I can't stress enough how much the off the court stuff was weighing on Nash. All the drama. It's not just on Kyrie, of course, this summer.

I mean, that was just wild. You don't see those type of stories with Durant asking for the trade and reportedly asking for Nash and Mark to be fired and then pulling the trade back. All of that, not just in the last couple of days, but over the last couple of years was weighing on him. He talked to people in the organization. They would tell you that they'd see Steve and you used to see in this mild manner guy who was walking around with a smile on his face and you see him up at those press conferences and you can just tell that he's sitting there going, what the hell am I doing in this mess? Because so much of it was not about basketball.

It was about stuff going on off the floor. Now, I know Nash is competitive and I know how badly he wanted to be able to turn things around, but I think there's a lot of relief there that he's not in the middle of this mess because Rich, I've been covering the league 15 years now. I've never seen a more dysfunctional team in my life. Wow. What can you, what sort of information can you divulge here about the off the court stuff and that you want to just jump out here with on that?

Well, I think for me, it's in comparison to what I've seen covering things in the past. I had the end of the kids, Derrick Rose, Garam Pax, Bulls. I saw up close the Jimmy meltdown in Minnesota, the last year of KD with the Warriors and how messy that got over time.

This is different though, because this is a whole bunch of drama that builds up and seemingly builds on itself. And the example here is, forget the Kyrie stuff and the Kevin Durant stuff for a moment. They acquired Ben Simmons.

He didn't play all of last year. He comes back and this just adds to the dysfunction internally. He's not the same player and now he's got a swollen knee and that's after he had back surgery over the summer and you've added a max player who's not living up to his max contract and you're putting another layer of just seemingly basketball craziness to a team that was built to win a championship.

And we've heard the email, you don't go reports and a whoa, just reported it. And that seems to be hanging now in the next day or two, we could get word, but to add a coach who is currently suspended by another NBA team to take over a team that many thought was going to fall apart and they'd have to press the button on a rebuild over the summer. It just makes you shake your head and you realize that great teams in the league, they have camaraderie and they make move after move that helps the move before it. This Nets team, Rich, they don't have camaraderie and they have made move after move that have eroded at the culture they had before they made the decision to land KD and Kyrie. But I'd say this, it's a decision that everybody in the league would have made given the same set of circumstances a few years ago, but it has exploded in a way here in Brooklyn, the likes of which the NBA hasn't seen in a long time. But I mean, Nick Friedle here from ESPN, you said moments ago that the young kids look up to Kyrie in the locker room, they lionize him in the locker room.

So what's the dysfunction in the locker room? Is it Durant and Kyrie together? Is that what was weighing over this summer on top of Steve Nash that eventually built up to the point where he mutually wanted out?

Yeah, I think it was all of it. And KD is still one of the very best players in the game. I don't think that anybody is questioning how hard he works or how much he wants to be out there. Richard, it's just a combination of all these factors off the floor. And I think the hardest part not only for the players, but the people inside the organization, the people that are working in their day to day, you're seeing all this stuff and you're seeing all the headlines and all the drama built.

And absolutely it weighs on you as much as you try to push everything off. I mean, I'll give you another example. The other night against the Bulls, Kyrie had four points. Kyrie averages 30 a game for all the stuff that happened off the floor with Kyrie Irving. Well, people around the league have always respected is that no matter what was going on off the floor, when the lights came on, you knew he would dominate most nights and you knew he would be there and put up the numbers that he's always put up.

That didn't happen the other night. And I think what you started to see early in this season is all the frustration and all that drama that built in the summer. And let's go back to the end of last season, getting swept by the Celtics and all the uncertainty with would Kyrie bait back on the floor on a full time basis because of the vaccination stuff in New York. All of that lingered and they thought they had all these good vibes. And it was legitimate for a few weeks in training camp, but it all disintegrated because they lost games.

The decision was made on Nash. And now you've got this extra layer of the Kyrie stuff with these social media posts. And I think everybody in that organization is looking around at each other going, what in the hell is going on?

And Rich, then on top of all this, you've got all the stuff that you go through that could potentially be coming. So it's just, it's a soap opera in pro sports, the likes of which I've never seen. But I do think that all of those different storylines and all of the things that have played out have absolutely impacted all of the good feelings that they were trying to build up before the season. The last one for you, then Nick Friedel is the way that the press conference ended today with Kyrie. He didn't answer a direct question on whether he met directly with the anti-defamation league. He said that he had heard that they, you know, wanted to reach out and they handled it. I mean, he could have easily said, yes, I sat down with them, but then again, it would be one of those things he just doesn't want to give in on any friend to make it seem like he, you know, he met with somebody because he was forced to or anything like that. The commissioner came out and made a statement that the joint statement between the Nets Kyrie and the ADL was not sufficient enough for him. Where does this all go from here?

Do you think? I would think Adam Silver is going to listen back to those six minutes that we should know Rich were cut off by a net PR staffer and he'd listen and just go, okay, we, we, we've got to have this conversation sooner than later. The strange part about all this to me, not only the journalist who covers the league, but who's following all this stuff day after day, the league is done next to nothing. They release that statement. They don't have Kyrie's name in it. The Nets released that initial statement. Kyrie's name's not in it. The players association releases a statement.

Kyrie's name is not in it. They let this thing linger for days. And so now Silver comes out just before Kyrie spoke and all that the league wanted to hear and the Nets wanted to hear were two words.

I'm sorry. And that didn't happen. And so you, you tied that in with the lack of a response when asked, do you have anti-Semitic beliefs? You tie that in with, did you meet with the ADL?

He does not answer that question. I would think that the league is watching and saying, all right, we need to have this conversation and we need to move it up. But Rich, the league and the Nets screwed this one up from an optics standpoint, because they all saw what unfolded Saturday night. And now we're sitting here on Thursday afternoon. And this story has crossed that threshold past just a basketball or a sports story. This story now is in the news cycle.

And that's the worst place for it to be for awful reasons. And instead of making everything kind of calm down, what Kyrie did just a couple hours ago was seemingly make more questions than he did have any answers. All right. I lied.

There's one more. Is Yudoka really coming? Is he really coming? It feels like that. It really does. And I'll be honest, Rich, when Woj put that out, even for the Nets, I'm looking down and I'm seeing the tweets and I start talking to people around the organization. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.

Right now, really? And nobody is questioning Yudoka's basketball acumen. The players respect the hell out of him in Boston. He's got plenty of relationships dating back to his time with the Nets as an assistant.

But to throw that layer of all of this into the circus that is the Brooklyn Nets, I feel like they just play the NWO music when they come out to the floor and just lean into it all the way because they are so unlikable for so many different basketball fans now who look around and go, why would you support this team given all the different issues that they're having on and off the floor? Nick, I appreciate the time. Do you still have that letter I sent you years ago? I absolutely do.

It's in Donna's house in Orlando. Okay. Wow.

How about that? Well, I'd love to see it. Tweet it out. Send it.

I'd love to see it. I'm going to get her to find it now. Okay. If she's anything like my mother, she's got it filed under alphabetically in somewhere.

Next to like my fifth grade book reports. All right, Nick, thanks so much. Greatly appreciate the time.

Look for more of my phone calls. Appreciate it. Thanks, Rich.

You got it. It's Nick Friedle of ESPN. I don't even know what to say. He said this is the most dysfunctional situation he's found. If you're Durant, does he look around and go, what is happening? That's why he wanted out, right? Right. I think KD saw all this coming.

It seems like it at least. 844204 Rich, number to dial right here on the Rich Eisen show. We'll take your phone calls and get you set for Thursday night football and game five of the world series.

What a big sports night we've got tonight. Then we got a great guest list set for tomorrow too. Audible has everything you love listening to and more. It's the home of storytelling. There's no better place to find all the stories your imagination craves, like the hottest new releases of the year, audio books, exclusive originals, and popular podcasts, including the rich Eisen show. They're all on Audible. Whatever you're in the mood for, Audible has an incredible selection of audio entertainment for you to choose from.

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NetSuite.com slash rich radio. We went to break and you screamed out a little whoaage bomb is what you screamed out. I just screamed.

TJ screamed and I was like whoaage bomb just a mini, mini, a mini bomb one exists. Bad news for TJ's Philadelphia 76ers. Oh boy.

They're already uh four and five in uh in the first nine games. Well one guy who's been off to an awesome start to the year, James Harden, well he's gonna miss a month. Oh boy. Right foot tendon strain. My goodness. It's gonna be out at least four weeks.

You're out of there TJ? Yeah I mean look there's a way worse injuries. I don't know feeder, feeder, feeder, you know ACL that's an instant season and their right foot tendon strain. It's a strain we'll see.

I don't know. I'm not a doctor guys. You're not.

No you're not a doctor. Jeff in Detroit. Let's take his call.

Always a pleasure to hear his voice. What's going on Jeff? Hey what's going on? How's everything going? What's up with you?

What's up Jeffrey? What do you say? Listen man, first of all let me just say this real quick. I hate that you guys even have to talk about Kyrie Irving to have a platform like he has and not do positive certain things you just stay away from and that's one subject that you just there's no way of getting around it. Just goodness man. It's so much easier to spread love than hate. Why you gotta explain yourself when you shouldn't even be in this position man. My goodness. Now let's get back to it.

I agree 100% with you. Why would you trade TJ Hawkinson in division man? Please why did you guys do that?

He's gonna be like a blanket for liners to Kirk Cousins and usually around this time of year you'll come up with some good nuggets man. We halfway through the season. What is the one story that everybody might not be talking about but you kind of see you know. Under the radar huh? Okay under the radar. I guess what would be an under the radar storyline? Maybe something that's obvious.

I'm going to my head. Will the New York teams finish as well as they started? That's that's one thing but that's very I guess that that's very that's not a national story. Another one could be which sub 500 team makes a run.

Which three and five teams can best make a run. That's not a bad one. Can Gino keep it up? Gino the NFC player offensive player of the month for October.

Gino Smith. Man is that not the greatest reality show ever. It is it's a narrative generation machine. Thanks for calling in Jeff as I predicted great to hear his voice always. Honestly I think the storyline of the second half of the season in the NFL begins tonight. As Jalen Hurts goes back to his hometown of Houston as the dominant quarterback of the lone remaining undefeated team in the NFL entering week nine. Okay last year I think it was week eight when the Cardinals lost their first. So we're we're we're traversing and unless Houston comes up with some magic formula that I don't know if to have we're we're gonna see uh we're gonna see an 8-0 team by the end of the night.

And then the question is is who comes at him? Where are the losses? You had a little higher register about it earlier in the hour Christopher.

Maybe. Put up the schedule Mr. Hoskins. There we go after at Houston tonight home for the commanders on Monday night.

This was supposed to be Carson Wentz's homecoming and now it's Taylor gonna try and hit him with the Heineken. Washington Hovah. What are you calling him? Hovah's. Hovah's. What a Jay Z's nickname.

Hovah. At MC Indianapolis. Home for Green Bay.

I know you pegged that one in prime time on Sunday. No I don't think we're cooking. No. No. Home for Tennessee. Yeah maybe. At the Giants. Yeah maybe. Honestly.

That's what I'm saying. Home for Tennessee. Tennessee. I don't know if they're losing that game with A.J. Brown.

A.J. Brown's gonna tell everybody in that house like we are this is my house and as a matter of fact those three tuddies we had against Pittsburgh let's add a fourth. Didn't he get a penalty for pointing at the Steeler guys like you can't guard me.

You can't guard me. That's what he's gonna do to Tennessee. You get a touchdown. You get a touchdown. I'm scoring on you.

Mark put it back up again. There we go. At the Giants you throw records out but Philadelphia usually wins those games right?

I'm worried. At Chicago, at Dallas. Like week 17 and 18 they got the one seed wrapped up. These guys are resting. No. No.

These guys are resting. That could be Christmas Eve. Dallas. I don't know. Could you imagine they walk into Christmas Eve in Dallas at 14 and 0? 14 and 0? Oh my god.

Walking. I think that's that's gonna be the storyline with each passing week you know and then it'll you'll hear Jaylen Hertz say nobody talked about us when we were two and five so you shouldn't talk about our record now and it'll be kind of be like yeah okay. Certainly if tonight there's a pivotal game five win at home and the Phillies take one step closer to another need to grease light poles in the city of Philadelphia you know this is it. Honestly the second half of the NFL season that that that strikes me right now as a story because I believe you're gonna see an 8-0 team emerge tonight. Look out below for Lovey and the rest of that team is Brandon Cooks is not playing. He said that he hadn't done enough this week to be ready. It's just absurd. It's absurd. It's just like it's it's not like there's padded practices for a Thursday night game like like Brandon Cooks forgot about the offense that he that he was in just four days ago. He didn't even want to go to the walk-through. He's just not in his right mindset right now.

I bet he's just like losing his mind like really? I'm still here. Dallas wanted me and I couldn't go there. Green Bay what are they doing? That's an 18 million dollar figure for next year.

Nobody wanted to pay I guess. So that's tonight. It's all about Philadelphia. We're all rent payers this evening. I want to thank today's guest Nick Friedel and then of course Lamar Jackson.

Tomorrow Cam Jordan, the cheetah Tyreek Hill and Joe Mantegna in studio. It could be information to change your life forever or the something you should know podcast could just be something interesting. Rameet Sadie talking about being rich. The old definition of rich had a lot to do with how much money you accumulated but it wasn't about how to spend it. It was more about how to get it but okay so once you get it what do you do with it? In our culture everybody tells you how to save but nobody teaches you how to spend it. Something you should know wherever you listen.