REShow: Zach Harper - Hour 3

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No. This is The Rich Eisen Show. Here's the other surprising part. With guest host, Kirk Morrison. Buckle up, he's going to put on a show. Live from The Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I've been watching you guys since day one.

You guys are getting better and better. Activating. No. The Rich Eisen Show. Earlier on the show, host of the Business of Sports Podcast, Andrew Brandt. Golf channel analyst, Randall Chamblee. Still to come, NBA writer for The Athletic, Zach Harper.

And now, filling in for Rich, it's Kirk Morrison. Next, like I said, for all the guys, yes, I know it. We got to do it, fellas. They got to get to that honey-do list.

Yeah, it's time. Super Bowl was last weekend, so yes, I call it honey-do list weekend for a lot of us. I got to put together my son's bed when I get home today.

Oh, really? Upgrade it to the big bed. Oh, he's going to the big dog. There it is. Needs to get put together.

Yep, so there you go, Mr. Handyman. Mr. Chris Brockman over there. Oh, man, we got a lot to get to. Also, what's more likely coming up in the next seven, so I can't wait to get to that. But this weekend is also NBA All-Star Weekend. And to discuss that, we got my guy, Zach Harper, the NBA staff writer for The Athletic, joining the Rich Eisen Show. Zach, I would say that NBA All-Star Weekend is sort of the crown jewel of the NBA season outside of the NBA Finals. But what's the biggest storyline going into this year's NBA All-Star Weekend in Utah?

I think it's as simple as what's going to happen? It sounds very broad, but Kevin Durant went to the fun. The Nuggets are really good. The Celtics and the Bucks look like the best teams in basketball. Here come the Sixers. You never know what you can get from the Miami Heat. The Warriors could always get it together. Most years, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on a couple of possibilities that will happen.

There's like 30 possibilities of what could happen right now, and I'm baffled on all of them. You know, Zach, you're talking to a guy who played in the National Football League. And so, you know, here I am. I'm in Phoenix. Super Bowl 57 is coming up. And all of a sudden, everyone got these alerts in Phoenix on Wednesday night, late night in Phoenix. And next thing you know, it's Kevin Durant to the Suns. And first of all, people in Phoenix are excited. But I'm saying, what has the NBA come to?

But then even more so, I'll take it a step further, Zach. Can the NBA push the trade deadline past the Super Bowl now? Because I felt the news was getting lost outside of the NBA circles because we're talking about a Super Bowl. We should be talking about this all week long.

Can the NBA go back to the old trade deadline that happened after the NBA All-Star Weekend, which was always the controversial topic of who's getting traded after the weekend? Well, here's the problem. There's a couple of problems here.

One, I get it. NFL is king. You guys are creeping in way too far. This used to be a January thing. At the end of January, there were years where my birthday at the end of January had a Super Bowl day and everything. Now it's just like, we might as well be at Valentine's Day for the Super Bowl.

They may as well be trying to ruin every single relationship out there with this. So I think the NFL needs to pump the brakes a little bit here. But you can also blame Vladi Divac. Vladi traded DeMarcus Cousins to the Pelicans the night of those All-Star games years ago.

And then they said, all right, no more of that ever again. We're moving it up. I do like that it's before the All-Star break because it gets all that worry out of there. And I think it creates some awkwardness in terms of guys who just got traded from a certain player's team and now they're going to play in the All-Star game together. I like that drama of it. But yeah, the timing of the season for the NBA just in general seems off.

Yeah, it's been really off. But now you mentioned so many teams now that have upgraded or have been able to add a piece that allows them to go out and possibly compete for an NBA title, Zach. So for right now, if you look at the way that I think now are they the favorites now in the West? Because when you do add a Kevin Durant to a Chris Paul, to a Devin Booker, to a DeAndre Ayton, to a bunch of guys with some good role players, are they not the best team in the West right now, the Phoenix Suns? I think the thing that you have to say with trying to figure that out is the four least satisfying words of the NBA, if they are healthy.

If they are healthy, I don't know how you mess with them. They were already a dominant team in the regular season at least the last couple of years with Devin Booker, with Chris Paul, Mikkel Bridges. It's not quite the same as this because the Warriors were at a different level, but when you looked at the Warriors in 2016 and they lost to the Cavs, right?

That's a spectacular feeling. And you started going, all right, well now what does this do? Well, you replace Harrison Barnes with Kevin Durant, right? That's just a ridiculous upgrade, no offense to Harrison Barnes. But you start thinking about that team with Kevin Durant in there instead, and now you think, all right, Mikkel Bridges is super good, really good player. Replace him with Kevin Durant.

What does that look like? That looks like a team that nobody can stop. Yeah, their rotation is going to be a little short. Yeah, they don't have great bulk inside, so that's going to be an issue against someone like Mikkel Jokic, but that team is so unbelievably skilled just from Durant and Booker and everyone on top of that that they can fill in that rotation with. If they're healthy, I don't see how you beat them. He's NBA staff writer for the athletic Zach Harper joining the Rich Eisen Show.

You can also follow him on Twitter at Talk Hoops. Should the, let me try to get this right. Should the Brooklyn Nets be, is it relegated or delegated? Where should they go?

Should they move down? I mean, should they go to the G League? I mean, I feel like a couple years ago, it was all about can Brooklyn win a championship and they've had Kyrie and they've had obviously Kevin Durant and here comes Ben Simmons. And now I look there, what are the Brooklyn Nets doing? Is there any method to this madness?

There's bad method to the madness. I can tell you that like everything they did was right in terms of you went out there and got Kevin Durant. That's what you're supposed to do. You went out and traded for James Harden.

That's what you're supposed to do. Like there are all these things where they made all these steps along the way in terms of the transaction that made a lot of sense. And even once James Harden didn't want to be there, getting someone like Ben Simmons in theory is a great idea for what that team was. The problem is they don't know how to set a culture. We talk about team culture and sports all the time. They let KD and Kyrie do whatever they want. And I'm all for player empowerment. I don't think that there's a bad thing with that to a certain level, but you can't let them run every decision of the team from like practices and all this stuff.

And it seems like that's what happened. So there's got to be a certain point where you check that and say, this is how we do things. If you want to fit in, go ahead. They have a chance to do that moving forward, but I don't know how you sell the next superstars on like, look, it's a great market. It's a great facility. It's a great team concept and everything. But now we're not going to let you have the power that KD and Kyrie had. I don't know a lot of stars that are going to be like, well, wait, so I get less than what they had?

No, you go there to have the power and they kind of just pin themselves into a terrible corner. Yeah. It's funny. Remember, I'm still old enough to remember, Zach, that Steve Nash was the coach of the Brooklyn Nets to start the season. And he very quickly was... That sounds like it was 10 years ago. Unbelievable, right?

Unbelievable. Zach Harper joined Rich Eisen's show. One team that we haven't talked about, the Los Angeles Lakers. They made some moves. They traded away Russell Westbrook. They get back DeAngelo Russell and a couple other players that fit within this, I guess, Lakers of today or right now. How do you forecast or how do you foresee the Lakers going down our stretch? Everybody's excited about a big win over the New Orleans Pelicans who are playing on the back to back, I believe.

Are we supposed to think that the Lakers could be contenders in the West? I can't believe what I'm about to say. Oh, no. Let me brace myself. Hold on. Go ahead. Let me brace myself. All right, go ahead. I'm not certain they can get above the Thunder.

I really am not certain. The Thunder are a good defensive team that's got some good offensive talent. Shaco DeZaligander is a superstar in the making. And I realize I'm talking about a team with Lebron and A.D. and now D-Lo and I love the Jared Vanderbilt pickup. I don't think people realize how good he is and how instrumental he was to the Timberwolves' success last year because when he was on the court, they were a good defensive team. And when he was off the court, they were a disaster.

And so he can really tie a lot of things together. And I do think they upgraded that roster, but they put themselves in such a hole. They play such bad basketball half the time and they have good players, at least at the top. They've filled out their rotation to look better.

But in terms of like contender, not a chance. Like they just, they don't have that championship identity anymore. They don't have those guys to make the sacrifices and play the defense that needs to be played at that level.

Their offense isn't even really that good. Now that should improve with D-Lo, although it was kind of like on-off numbers with him in Minnesota. Like they were the exact same offensive team, whether he was on or off.

And they were horrible defensively with him on. That's going to be different in L.A. because I think that they need his skill set more than what Westbrook did. But contenders are like, no, I'm not certain they're better than the Thunder, which may end up sounding stupid, but the Thunder know how to play. Well, the Thunder are currently in the playoffs or the play-in game.

That means that the Lakers are currently out of the play-in game if they can't pass the Thunder currently. So that'd be something that we watch as we get down the stretch here after the All-Star break. But Zach, I do want to ask you, because when I think of All-Star games of past, it was truly a big weekend. It was our biggest stars going out playing. And for once we had a chance to see all of them play together and it was a great show. But we will have a All-Star game without Steph Curry, without Kevin Durant, right?

The guys are joking a little bit. We won't have Russell Westbrook. I know he doesn't have a team, but you mentioned there are some up-and-coming stars.

A guy like you mentioned, Shea Gilderoy Alexander. You're having a Ja Morant now who I think is starting to be put on that superstar level as well as a player. Who benefits most in this All-Star weekend? Who is the star that we'll be talking about even more? Or who is the biggest headliner for this All-Star weekend? Well, remember, Giannis hurt his wrist last week. Correct. I saw that. Yes. Do we know if he's going to play?

There are a lot of question marks there. I think it will be another celebration of LeBron. It's still kind of crazy to think that he broke the scoring record. Right. And I think there should be a massive, massive deal made about that at All-Star weekend. I think it's someone like Anthony Edwards. He gets an injury replacement. Maybe even someone like Darren Fox.

I think you get a chance to meet these young guys. And like you said, Ja's a superstar. Ja has his own shoe from Nike. He's on highlights everywhere. Ja's a superstar.

Ant has that capability to be one of those star personalities. Everyone loves him. He's got great quotes. He's a fun guy. He's funny. Legitimately funny. Not Dwight Howard funny.

He's a legitimately funny guy. And I think he's got the game to really show up in something like that and take over. It's just whether or not, like do veterans still freeze out young guys in All-Star games anymore? I don't know if they do that or not. They just explode that way. But maybe he would be one that frees out. Yeah. He's one of those guys too that just go out there and just wants to go hoop.

You know what I mean? I just want to go play basketball. It doesn't matter. I know LeBron will go out there. He'll come out and play a couple minutes. He'll wave to the crowd. I showed up. I'm here. Take his acknowledgement.

But this game is for the younger players and I get that. But I know we're just missing out on so many big, big stars. And I mentioned Russell Westbrook a minute ago just because it was a big topic here in Los Angeles, Zach. And currently he's a free agent weighing out his options. I think the Clippers are also a contender in bringing him in. He could go possibly anywhere in the NBA. I think he's a really big piece for a guy who was willing now to come off the bench and give you some solid scoring.

But some of that energy that you need coming off the bench in that second unit. What would be the best place for Russell Westbrook to land for this playoff run? I mean it's a really good question. I don't love the fit with the Clippers. I know all the stuff Paul George said about how they have the spacing to let Russ be Russ.

It's 2023. You don't want Russ to be Russ at this point. That's not something that brings – and I'm not trying to be crap on him, but that's just not his game anymore. This isn't the MVP year in 2017.

We're way past that. But I do think he can be useful. I think the key is – and it's kind of the conversation we had with Carmelo years ago – are you willing to accept a lesser role? He did that with the Lakers. Would he do that everywhere?

That's what I think the hang-up is for teams. He was willing to do this for LeBron. Would he do this for DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaBean? Would he do this for Kawhi and Paul George? Would he do this for Jimmy Butler?

Those are the things where I just don't know what the answer to that question is. I don't like the fit on the Clippers, although that seems to be the likeliest scenario. I think Chicago – I mean, Chicago's kind of dead in the water at this point.

They look really bad, really lifeless most nights. He could inject some real adrenaline into what they do and maybe give them some life. But also – I mean, I know we're not supposed to use the T-word around here. They need the T-word. Like, Chicago needs the T-word. Like, their pick is top four protected. It's going to Orlando. Like, this is a team that needs some lottery luck to go get Victor Wamanyama or Scoot Henderson. Like, they don't need to fight for pride here.

Like, that's a bad idea. NBA staff writer for the athletic Zach Harper joining the British Isaac show, Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich. At Talk Hoops is his Twitter handle. You can follow him there as well.

Just a couple more minutes because I've got a couple more questions for you. Another guy who's now entered the buyout market is a former NBA champion with LeBron James when he was part of the Cleveland Cavaliers is Kevin Love. And I don't know where Kevin Love is as a player right now currently. I know that he could definitely be a good piece or a puzzle piece for an NBA team right now heading into the playoffs. Is there a big market for Kevin Love? I think there's a good market for him.

I think people want to know that he can remain healthy, that he can still shoot the ball, that he can still rebound the ball. He's a great passer in the half court. He's a great outlet passer. He's atrocious defensively. He has been for his whole career, but he's pretty unplayable defensively most nights.

So, my God, this is going to sound like such an insult of the player comp. And I don't mean it to be that way, but years ago, like four or five years ago, the Blazers picked up Enos Cantor. I guess Enos freed him now. And he wasn't great for them, but he put up good numbers and he ended up starting a bunch of playoff games for them. And it was like a little bit of a talent injection into a lineup that they needed at the time, just a guy to go get numbers and play some big minutes. I think he could have a better version of that wherever he goes, but he's not a star anymore. He's not a full-time player and he's someone that is very strategic in how you have to play him. But his skill set is still ridiculous. His IQ is still ridiculous. Someone could use him as a sixth man or a seventh man. Well, I saved this to the last part of the interview because I wanted to keep my fandom inside.

But as a Bay Area born and raised guy, I got to let it out now. My Warriors, when Steph does return, what is the outlook for my Warriors? But more importantly, could this be the last dance for that group of Draymond, Klay, and Steph? It feels like the latter, right? But this couldn't all be because of the punch, right? No, I think we've moved past that already, Zach.

Jordan Poole's got to punch him back? Is that going to get them to win on the road? Is that going to get them to play defense now?

It's weird to think that this season has gone the way it has. They don't have to go out there and be the best team in the West. I know Steph's missed a bunch of time and Wiggins missed a bunch of time and they've had guys in and out of the lineup.

But they're just atrocious on the road. They don't play defense at all at a championship level. I think they can turn it around. Especially once Steph comes back, it just changes everything. He's the most impactful player in basketball in how he affects both sides of the court and what the teams do in terms of how they even play offense because they're worried about him getting out and hitting the three in transition.

He really does change everything in that way. But they have to build up championship tendencies again. That's not something I thought they would have to do at this point in the season. But if they're going to go on the road in the playoffs and look like this, they might be lucky to get out of the playing tournament playing like this, let alone try to defend that title.

I think there's a pathway to them getting back and being the Warriors, but it's going to take a lot of people looking in the mirror. And again, I really think Jordan Poole has to punch somebody. Just put the balance back in. Get balance in the universe, whatever that is. They should make him punch Draymond Green.

Zach, this is my saving grace. Can someone beat them four out of seven tries? That's all I keep saying in my head.

Is there a team out there that can beat them four out of seven tries? It's Steph, right? I really think Steph's underappreciated. And I know he's a major superstar.

I don't think people realize just how legitimate... I mean, I think if Thomas come out here and say he wouldn't get 18 a game in the eighties. Are you kidding me? He'd be tried for being a witch or a warlock in the eighties if he played the way he did and got transported into Isaiah and Larry Bernal. So they'd rough him up. Who cares?

He'd be shooting from half court. There's nothing anybody could do about it. Exactly. Zach, appreciate the time. Enjoy NBA All-Star Weekend, all the stories. And we'll see who wins the dunk contest, right?

Is that still exciting? I don't even know. It's like new rules every year. You got 90 seconds to get two dunks and your third dunk has to be your best dunk. And if it's not the best dunk, we'll average to two. I'm just going off rules.

I don't know. They're really banking on Mac McClung being the Instagram sensation in real life. If that doesn't happen, it's going to be a bad one. That's what the NBA has come to now.

Bringing in influencers into the NBA dunk contest. I appreciate the time, Zach. Yeah, thanks, sir.

Anytime. That's Zach Harper. He's the NBA staff writer for The Athletic. Follow him on Twitter. At Talk Hoops.

Yeah, so that's what the NBA is banking on. The YouTuber. YouTube sensation. Mac McClung, the influencer. Well, he's a player, though.

It's not like some of these guys who really are YouTube sensation. No, he was in the G League this year. He played in the current Sixers. He got the call up. Yeah, he got the call up after it was already noted that he was going to be in the dunk contest.

Then the Sixers brought him up. They're just making a global dunk contest. Just start bringing in dudes. They should have the guys who are Instagram or YouTube junkers, have them do it against an NBA team.

Make it like a team competition. Like a kid, Jordan Kilgannon. You ever seen this guy? The guys who dunk on Instagram are way better.

Incredible. Bring those guys in. Yeah, that's probably what we could do. Or you got to give some of these NBA stars incentives. Like, I don't know what you can offer. What incentives?

You know what I mean? Like $2 million. Like, hey, John Marrett, you win the dunk contest, $4 million. Well, that's a little ridiculous. You know, God rest his soul.

Rest in peace. But that's what made everyone fall in love, too, with Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. It was seeing them do the dunk contest. That's what rolls them in their stature in the NBA. You know, they were great players, but to see them like, OK, oh, he can do that.

Yeah, I didn't have to worry about it seeing them doing it in game. But anyway, what's more likely is what I want to figure out. What's more likely? Coming up next here with Mr. Chris Brockman. I am Kirk Boris and I'm filling in for Rich.

It's the Rich Eiseman Show. More coming up next. Don't let underarm insecurities keep you at arm's distance from the ones you care about.

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The regular season is history and we all know the playoffs are no time for messing around. It's time to get off the sidelines and go to Monster.com and win the job hunt. Monster.com. Ah, it's the Rich Eiseman Show back here. 844-204-RICH at Twitter at RichEisemanShow. As always, we are here hanging out at the Rich Eiseman Show radio network and I'm sitting at the Rich Eiseman Show desk, which is furnished by Grainger, by the way, with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Poll question from earlier. What will you be watching this weekend? Is it NBA All-Star Weekend? The Daytona 500? The XFL's debut part two?

The Genesis Open? Or that good old honey do list that you've been putting off all football season? Let us know at Rich Eiseman Show on Twitter.

But you know what? What's more likely for me to get done or what's more likely for Chris Brockman? Yeah, what's up guys? Hey, before we get to what's more likely, update on the poll. It is out there at Rich Eiseman Show. Give us a call right now.

If you have any thoughts. First weekend without the NFL, what are you watching? NBA All-Star Weekend, 17%. The Daytona 500, 16%. XFL, 40%. What? No way. No way.

The Genesis, 26%. XFL is leading the way, guys. People are still jacked for football. Still have football on the brain. You know what?

That's kind of surprising, but I love it too. I love it. Yeah, okay, XFL. Alright, let's get to what's more likely. Now, Kirk, I don't know if you've ever been here on a what's more likely Friday, but here's the deal. I throw out two things. You have to tell me which one is more likely to take place.

Very simple game we play. Hit it. What's more likely?

Never say never, but never. Alright, first up, a couple NFL topics and then we'll hit some basketball to take us home. What's more likely, guys? Who's more likely to make it back to the Super Bowl next year? Chiefs or Eagles? Oh, that's easy. It's the Chiefs. That's easy.

Easy. They play in the harder conference. No, it's the Chiefs.

What do you mean? Because the Philadelphia Eagles, not only did they lose their offensive coordinator in Shane Steichen, so that's a voice in the room, another voice in the head of Jalen Hurts. They got to replace that.

Oh, man, I forgot. They got to replace the defensive coordinator. You mean the guy that just gained 38 points?

I mean, it was Patrick Mahomes. Let's get rid of that guy. Yeah, but they have to get rid of him. I mean, let's not discount what he did in the regular season, though. This was the number two ranked defense in the National Football League, led to the NFL in sacks, so they got to replace not only one, but two coordinators. And, oh, by the way, they got to figure out how to retool this defense with a lot of aging superstars. Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Robert Quinn, and Dominic and Sue. We could start naming some of the guys. Remember, one-year deals for C.J.

Gardner-Johnson and also James Bradbury. So as much as I think that the Philadelphia Eagles have a good chance, I just don't know because I think the NFC will be a lot better. But the Chiefs, let's be honest, the last five years, the road to the Super Bowl has gone through MCI.

And that's the Kansas City Airport abbreviation for those out there listening. But they're going to be without Eric Bienemey might be nearing a deal with Washington soon. Correct. But is it really Eric Bienemey?

Is it really Andy Reid? We'll have that. Oh, by the way, they still got a quarterback coach over there by the name of Matt Nagy who called plays, or who has been in the head of, or was there when Patrick first started. So you've got that to deal with. So I think that a little bit easier in that sense. And also, too, they're in a division that's still up and down right now.

Justin Herbert, how do you feel about him? The Raiders, they don't necessarily have their quarterback in place. And we've been talking Russ Moore Westbrook on the NBA, but Russ, will he cook in terms of Wilson in the NFL with the Broncos and now Peyton? So I'm still going with their the best team in their division, and they may have an easier road to the number one seed. So I'm going Chiefs. What's more likely? Kirk, we're literally like we're sharing a brain right now because my next topic, AFC West.

Oh, wow. What's more likely? Chargers finally broke through and made the playoffs last year.

You know, they lost in epic fashion with that big Jaguars comeback. So what's more likely? Chargers win a playoff game in twenty twenty three or Sean Payton gets Russ and the Broncos into the postseason.

Oh, man. Chargers win a playoff game or Broncos just make it. I'm going to go with the Broncos make the playoffs. I think they have an outstanding defense. We saw it this year that held them in games. I mean, there's times that they just like the NFL is if you can score 17 points, you're supposed to win. That offense can score 17 in Denver. I think they'll score more than that with the defense that they have. I think that they make the playoffs as a seven seed next year. I just have that faith in what they're doing.

Possible defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, possibly. You saw that being floated around. So I look for that as far as the Chargers. It's the Chargers still.

I mean, let's be honest. They were up twenty seven to zero and they lost the playoff game to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Jaguar. That's still that's still fresh in my mind. And I saw Trevor Lawrence at the Super Bowl and I said, I mean, at the at the Pro Bowl. And I asked him about that, like you were down twenty seven. Nothing was like, yeah, we still feel like we could have the opportunity to win. That's confidence.

But that's also bad coaching on the opposite side, too. All right. We've been talking a lot about it because it's going to it's be there. You're already seeing it everywhere. What the what are the Bears going to do at number one, Kirk? What's so what's more likely? Justin Fields gets traded or the Bears trade the number one pick? I think the Bears trade the number one pick. You have to I think you still have Justin Fields under his rookie contract. You still basically can control him for the next three seasons.

OK, so you have a lot that you can still, I think, figure out. And if you can gain more players, that's what they want. More players.

Right. Remember, they traded away Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith. They brought in Chase Claypool. So they're bringing in assets to help Justin Fields. And you can add maybe one of the best pass rushers in this draft and Will Anderson, maybe even adding a wide receiver. Another offensive lineman.

There's more guys that can be impact players right away for Chicago. And if you're able to gather more picks, then why? Why not?

Why do it? Because if you go out and get a top quarterback, Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, whoever it may be, you could still be in the same situation two years from now. So I'd rather go with a guy who I can still mature and nurture, get things going in the right direction.

Who knows? He could be like Jalen Hurts. Right. Give him a couple more years under his belt. And now you've got some players that are surrounding him that makes him a better quarterback.

All right. One more football one before we move on. We're getting to that time of the year, a couple of weeks before the start of the new league year where the rumors starting up. Guys might get cut. Guys might get traded. More likely to be playing on a new team in twenty twenty three. DeAndre Hopkins, Jalen Ramsey.

Oh, wow. That's a good one. I would go more likely Hopkins. I think Hopkins has to figure it out. And I think obviously we all saw that soundbite with Bill Belichick and DeAndre Hopkins, right? When the Patriots played against the Cardinals on Monday Night Football, how much they respect each other.

Could that be a nice little landing spot? Give Mac Jones and Bill O'Brien, the new offensive coordinator in New England, a weapon? Or could that even could that even work? DeAndre Hopkins and Bill O'Brien reunited. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Could that even work? First of all, as I'm saying it out loud, I think Jalen Ramsey, quiet has kept had a really decent year. I think he's he's had a year in which it's solid for every other quarterback. But when you're considered the best, he gave up some big plays. But I think he also took a lot of chances and it was just a bad team this year. The Rams was just a really bad team.

I think he'll have a rebound year, but he is one of those pieces you have to keep on your defense. Now, the following year, that's a little bit different. But I think more likely DeAndre Hopkins is on a different team than Jalen Ramsey.

All right. Quick golf one before we get to basketball. They're playing in the same group right now. Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy. So what's more likely? Tiger makes the cut in more than two majors this year or Rory wins a major? I think Rory wins a major.

I think Rory, what's more likely is Rory wins a major. I mean, he he seems always more dialed in when it comes to these majors. He was so close last year at the Open. He was runner up in the Masters.

He has been dialed in. I saw him win the Dubai tournament a couple weeks ago. I mean, it was to me, I think he's locked in with Tiger. Again, this was more his tournament right now, the Genesis. So he kind of knows the terrain.

He knows how to handle it. I just don't know with some of the other venues for Tiger Woods. Can he handle obviously what it takes the day to day for him having to recover after an 18 hole round and the process that he goes through? I'm just going to stick with what I do know, which Rory McIlroy definitely winning a major or winning a major this year.

Tiger bogey on six to go to minus one. All right, NBA, what's more likely to be the highlight of NBA All-Star Weekend, the three point shootout or the slam dunk contest? I think you got YouTubers now, so I'm going to go with the dunk contest.

That's all we remember. No one remember who won. Who won last year's three point contest? Who won last year's dunk contest?

I don't remember. Simmons from Simon's from the Trailblazers. Simon won the dunk contest, right? But he's out.

He was going to go for back to back and then he got injured. I think he's doing the three point shootout this year. Yeah, Tatum and Gabe Lillard in the three point shootout. I'm going to be a more star power in the shootout. I can see this three point shootout maybe, but the more what we're talking about more, I think maybe it's McClung.

I will go McClung. I would say we're talking more about the dunk contest only because, number one, either it was really, really good or people are voting to get rid of it. Nate Robinson and Birdman won here. Yes.

We're talking about if it's really, really good, like, oh, the dunk contest is back or we're saying just get rid of it. All right, last one. Who's more likely to be the best duo the rest of the season? The new one in Phoenix, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker or Tatum and Brown, Celtics and Suns, your two favorites for the NBA title right now. Oh, can I go option C? I would like option D. I would like option C. C is what? Is Kyrie and Luka.

Option D is what? And Bede. And Harden. Oh, James Harden is done. He's done. OK.

I say what's more likely? You haven't watched the Sixers at all this year, I can tell. I like the Kyrie Luka. You do? I do like it. How? I really do.

Because I think you have two great scores. Two ball dominant guards. Yeah, but Kyrie is in a situation where he knows this is Luka's team. This is not his team. Does he know that, Kirk? I think he does know that. Does he know? Because he doesn't know. I think he does know.

And I think he's at a point right now in his career where he's like, OK, I'm going here to be a piece. I'm not going here to be the focal point. You have to understand that. You've got to. I'm going to. I'm saying, all right, we're going to see.

And remember, Luka just needed another legitimate score next to him. Clear rules violation of what's more likely. I gave you two options and you went with options.

So is it Booker or Durant? Sometimes you can't be placed in a box, Kirk. You know what I mean? You've got to do your own thing. All right. But if you want to go with your options, I would definitely go with the guys with the Suns.

All right, how about that? I just want to see those Suns uniforms. Any time we can get those uniforms on TV, that is always 35 is going to be the best selling jersey in the league.

Might be. But my thing is, what? So what happens with all those Durant seven jerseys and Kyrie 11 net jerseys?

They now become vintage. Did I tell you what happened? Quick story, quick story. So, you know, I'm out in Vegas covering the Pro Bowl. All right. And this the news had just been released a couple weeks ago, a week prior that the Raiders were going to obviously really Derek Carr will not be a part of the franchise.

They haven't technically released him, but they granted his, you know, his ability to go seek a trade. So I go to an outlet, which will remain nameless because I like I'm an outlet shopper, right? You want an outlet? No, I'm in Vegas. I'm in Vegas, but Camarillo.

Yeah, it depends. You can't get you can't catch it during Christmas time. That's a bad place to be. But I'm over in and at the outlets, I'm shopping and I get to, you know, a sporting store and I get there and I'm like, oh, man, I pick up a cool little jersey for the kids or something. And lo and behold, man, that thing wouldn't it was still fresh that those Derek Carr half off, half off, broke my heart.

I'm saying like, wow, how quickly I mean, even he wasn't released yet. That thing was on the clearance rack. Hey, it's a cold world, cold world. They're in the same box with the Eagles Super Bowl title. Sure. Championship shirts here today.

Eagles, Bengals, Super Bowl shirts. Oh, man. All right.

Oh, man. Coming up to wrap this thing up. Coming back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich. We got a T.J. a little T.J. time coming up. A little return to the big ass grab back. There it is. All right. That's coming up next here on the Rich Eisen Show.

Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich. For decades, Rolling Stone has set the bar for entertainment publications. Today, Rolling Stone music now takes over in podcast form.

SZA. You seem like a person with a pretty high level of anxiety, but you also seem fearless artistically. I feel like ideas have more power than identity, like the excitement overrides insecurity.

That is the only way that I'm ever able to accomplish anything. Rolling Stone music now wherever you listen. Oh, man, back here on the Rich Eisen Show Friday, getting ready for the long weekend.

Hope you all gassed up, ready to go being safe on the highways, as always. Kirk Morrison here filling in for Rich. I've been waiting for T.J.'s big grab bag, so you just go ahead. Take it away, man. What in the world is in that bag? What you got in that bag? Oh, man, it's been a long time since I've done this, but I'm going to hit you with a kaboom.

Guess who stepped in the room? T.J. here. Listen, it's been a while since we did this big ass grab bag, T.J.'s top five, and I'm going to make this one quick. These are just, you know, we came back from Phoenix, Arizona. We had a great time for the Super Bowl. We spent Wednesday through Thursday there, and there were just some observations that I made in the three days that were there.

And so I just kind of threw them all in a little bag and I'm going to stir it up and I'm going to pull them out. And I'm going to give you T.J.'s top five things that I just observed or saw or picked up on while we were in Arizona. Coming at number five, you know, Kirk, you mentioned it was 75 degrees for the game, right?

Correct. And a place where it gets 120 degrees sometimes. I'm telling you what, man, Phoenix really was cold. Oh, at night? It was chilly at night, man, and I didn't quite realize it.

You know, we went to go see Bert Kreischer one night, Jason Feller. All he had on was a baseball jersey, no T-shirt, no jacket. I'm like, dog, you might need to put a coat on. As we stood outside of the mullet arena for 20 minutes waiting on an Uber, it was about 40 degrees out. I mean, my man looked at me and was like, thank God you made me bring a coat. So, yeah, you wouldn't have suspected a place that's so hot in the day to be so chilly.

But, man, it was cold at night. All right. Coming at number four, you know, we do this show every day and you don't really take into consideration the fact that there are people on the other side of the TV screen on the other side of the radio. Right.

Right. It was really kind of a humbling experience that people come up and stop us on the street in the convention center at the hotel and say, hey, man, I love you on the show. I watch the show.

It just it just blew my mind. Like I had a guy, a security guard as I was going up an escalator was like, I watch you on TV. And I literally turned to him. I was like, who me? And he's like, you're the Cowboys fan.

Right. And I was like, oh, yeah, that is me. He goes, yeah, I watch you on TV. So I just want to give a shout out to all the fans that like came up to us, stopped us and like showed love, man. Like I said, it's kind of humbling to know that people are really out there watching. And it was super cool to kind of meet some of the people out there, man. So I just want to say thank you to everyone who came up to me, Chris, Mike, and I'm sure Rich as well. Coming in at number three, right. It was the location of our set there. You know, everybody was in media row.

And let me give an example of something. You remember Atlanta, right? The show Atlanta. Well, in the first season, the season finale, Ernie wakes up. Donald Glover wakes up at a party and wakes up the party all nighter. He slept at the crib. He can't find his jacket. He's walking around looking for his jacket and the guy who hosted the party is a little bit mad because they ruined his house. Right.

Right. And he's like, you know what, man, I know y'all, but I don't know y'all. Like, you know, I knew you, but I don't really know you to be here messing up my crib like this.

That's how I feel about the set. Like we was with everybody, but we weren't really with everybody. You know, we had our own little spot in the corner.

As you can see, we were by the NFL experience. We weren't in the mix of radio row with all the shows on top of each other. That gave our show a really clean, just really cool look, man. So shout out to everybody who made that happen from Roku to James to everyone involved, man. The set looked great. The show looked great.

It was really dope. And speaking of that, we had number two, the incredible guest list we had. I'm talking Hall of Famers.

I'm talking Super Bowl champions, great comics, WWE superstars. Our people knocked it out the box, knocked it out the park with our guest list. So I give a shout out to Liz and all the other bookers, man, who just our guest list was incredible. And literally there were people here that you were in awe of that you got to sit and talk to. So that's number two of the thing that I picked up.

We had a great guest list. Now, coming at number one, let me, Hoskins, play this real quick. I picked up on something. The way things are going now, guys are somewhat taking more control of just their life and the things that are going on. Back in the day, you play with a team for 100 years and you get a pat on the back in the end and it's like, all right, well, whether you were a good player, unsung hero, Hall of Famer, that was it. Nowadays, the kids are like, well, nah. I don't want to do that. You know what I'm saying?

Well, you kind of did that with Minnesota. Yeah, 100 percent. I feel like I'm 100 percent agreeing and I always have something to back it. Like, you got to have a thorough explanation as to why you don't want certain things or why. And it's not necessarily selfishly, because at the end of the day, this is a professional business. This is a business because if I tell you firsthand, if you're not doing your job, they're going to find somebody that is. So if I am doing my job or I kind of just want a different scenery, why not?

All right. So that was Bill's wide receiver, Steph Diggs, one of the best receivers in football. You know, he was talking about, you know, players kind of taking their own careers and into their own hands. And what I picked up by that is he was and he said, now wanting to play for the same team for 100 years, that's kind of out realizing if I'm doing my job and I wanted a different scenery, why not? You know what that told me, Kirk Morrison? That told me by hook or by crook, somehow, some way Steph Diggs is going to make his way to Dallas to play with his brother.

And he's going to be a Dallas Cowboy. That's essentially what he told me. I don't know if you guys picked this up or not, but that's what I saw. And that was TJ's top five takeaways that I took away from our time in Phoenix for the Super Bowl.

That's a long way to get to that. Hell going on. Hell going on is right. I agree with you. What number four fans or amazing.

Your location was was was perfect, right? Because, you know, media row is I mean, media center got too much going on. Too many shenanigans.

Yeah, it's just too much. It's a lot. So we had we had a great there was a bunch of background noise, so to speak. And yeah, we had a great location. And I know about the guest list. You guys bring in a great way of not just sports, but you bring in the entertainers as well, actors and everybody. So you do a good job of being one of the more well-rounded shows when it comes to Super Bowl.

Number five, I couldn't agree with you more. I actually went out with my buddy who lives in Phoenix. And so we had to go to a VIP event earlier. So I said, hey, let's bring a change of clothes. I don't want to wear a suit all night because I had to put a suit on. So I put a suit on for our first event, which was only from like it was a six to nine p.m. event. And then we were going to go to the W and down in Scottsdale. So like, cool. So let's bring a change of clothes because I remember. Yeah, I want to be more comfortable. So I put on my little my little leisure, comfortable, casual outfit.

He put his own. We got out of the car. We're walking over to the W. And I looked, I said, you bring a jacket? He said, oh, no, I'm good, man.

We must have hit old town Scottsdale, Scottsdale Road. And I'm just going to say this, man. I say, look, he was my buddy. But I can't be looking at your chest area because right now I know it's cold.

I'm just going to put it like that. I say it is cold out here. But he was like, man, I don't know how I forgot my coat.

I said, I told you this. The how cold it was at night. And it had like this little wind like that kicked it up even more. And I know in California, anytime it dips below 60 was kind of cold out. But it was a different cold cold.

It was a different kind of cold over there in Arizona. So, yeah. Yeah. No way.

Yeah. With Stefan Diggs, that's just not going to happen. You never know. He's got an out. He's got a contract out at the end of twenty five. I'm just saying you never know.

He mentioned earlier about playing somewhere warm. I'm just saying that's just what I took. I guess, you know, that's just me. But I think if he goes to Dallas, would he be taking money out of his brother's pocket? Well, it's all they they combine all their money in the one.

They care about playing in the postseason. Oh, wow. You know what? Well, he will be playing with us. Speaking of. And I know Hoskins.

I know Hoskins. Which brings me so because if he goes to Dallas, then obviously he won't be playing in a postseason. I did see something from a prominent Dallas Cowboy this week.

This is amazing. Micah Parsons. J Ron curse tweeted, Damn, I want to ring before it's all said and done.

Micah Parsons brought it up. I want to ring so bad. My girl can't get one until I get one. She'll get one soon. So he said it was going to be friendships forever. Well, you know, it's his second year in court. Morrison friendship forever.

This is year two for Micah. Well, she's going to get a promise ring that will never be, will never come true. The audacity together.

The audacity. That's a promise ring. That's a bad man right there. He's going to bring the ring home. She's getting a promise ring.

Micah Parsons is going to let the fact that he didn't get one first place vote for defensive player of the year. He's going to let that motivate him. He's going to give her a pinky swear. Like a pinky swear. That's a little pinky ring.

That's it. He's going to play quarterback. I don't know what he's going to do. From a former linebacker, I can't believe you're going to disrespect Micah Parsons like that. No, no, I don't disrespect Micah Parsons. I felt like he should have gotten one.

It seems like you disrespect him a little bit. He also was the NFL's defensive player of the year. But Micah Parsons should have been in that conversation a lot more. So he didn't get one first place vote.

I'm like, he didn't get one vote? Well, that's because he plays for the Dallas Cowboys, man. The haters going to hate again.

But you know what? I'll give the Dallas Cowboys credit. They did win a playoff game. Finally.

They finally did. So we went from losing the first round of the playoffs and losing the second. So next year we're going to get to the conference championship. We're going to lose that. OK. Because that's just the progression. And then maybe the next year we'll get to the Super Bowl. So it's levels to this.

Levels. I need to go get another receiver, though. That's it. Let's go. Let's see what's going on with the Dallas Cowboys.

It's been a pleasure, Kurt. Yeah, I love the Cowboys. I'm not a fan, but there's just so much drama, whether they win, whether they lose. How about the Cowboys? This is what I've been dealing with for 14 months. Give them Lala wherever you listen.