REShow: Hour 3

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Find tech that's right for you by calling a Dell Technologies Advisor today at 877-ASK-DELL. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show. This is John, in spite of Sally filling in. This is such a great day. I appreciate you Rich and the whole crew. Everybody. I love this show. It's calming.

It's great. You guys know your stuff. My cousin here, I call him CNN for the cousin negro news.

It's a trip. He always lets me know when somebody dies too. And he calls and he apologizes like, sorry bro, like I had something to do with it.

Yeah, I'm sorry. But you know, he keeps me abreast on things and then the whole day is messed up. He'll say something and the whole day will go crazy. We got a caller going to come on in this hour. And so I wish we had more callers so I can hear how crazy some people are.

And so for anybody to call, you just dial 844-204-RICH. R-I-C-H. And you can, you know, say something. Hopefully it's intelligent.

Hopefully it makes a difference to what we're talking about. And I know I'm not going to talk about politics. Refuse to speak about politics or religion. Let's talk about Russell Westbrook. We can do that.

That's political. He went from the Lakers to the Clippers with his own negotiation. He went to Utah for a second. How are you going to remember the Westbrook, Utah years? I know when he went off on them.

You're going to remember minutes, minutes. So explain it. He had a buyout, meaning he can buy his contract, his rights, correct? Take less money or something? He was bought out and so now he's a free agent and it appears, according to Woge and everyone else, he's going to the Clippers. So he doesn't have to leave town. And he's just, same arena, just putting on a different uniform. And now he's going to lead their second unit, presumably T.J. And I guess the big question is, does this push them kind of over the top? Can they really make a run in the West? Five teams in five years? Yeah. Five teams in five years.

Interesting end of his career. Yeah. Just for this season, is this move enough to put them past Denver has been playing great all year. Now Phoenix is the second betting favorite to win the title. Now with Kevin Durant, is that going to be enough for the Clippers? Yeah, I don't know, man.

I think about this. First things first, plays at UCLA from Los Angeles, correct? He is, yeah. Has his whole life here, his car dealerships. If you want to buy a car, go out into the Valley, go to Westbrook and get you a Jeep or a Maserati.

It depends on you. He has those things, which I'm very proud of, of him having. But then he doesn't have to move his kids. But he said something when all these different people start saying things about him and it hits the page, that it gets down to the school level to his kids. And people forget about that, that athletes are humans, too. They shouldn't, but they forget about it. I think that's why I put my girls into French school. They hate sports. At least, they didn't even know that I played basketball. I was like, wait on line over there, sir.

I had to wait in line all the time. So I think he has all the different things Westbrook has to go through. But he came to play, came to play all the time. He's not hurt, hard going to the hole. He goes to the basket very, very strong. I'm telling you, I love his game. I just hope right now it improves in the second half of the season. I really do. At first, I didn't understand why Kawhi was going to the Clippers because the deal they gave him in Toronto, what a deal, man.

They pay your taxes, going to give you a mansion. I thought that was going to be great. So we'll see what happens. We'll see if these L.A. guys playing together, if it pays off, if they play like it's AAU ball. All they need now is, who else do they need on their squad to make them go crazy?

Get Carmelo Anthony on the Clippers. Right? All those guys got something. Right now, they wouldn't play for a check. They'd be playing just to be playing for the love of the game.

And that would show off, definitely. All right, so make sure if you want to call 844-204-RICH, do we have anybody on the line? Should we put anybody on the line? Yeah, let's go.

Line one. Let's go to Jack in Florida. What's up, Jack? What's up, Jack?

How you doing? All right, bro. I wanted to ask John a question about Robert Parrish. Did he not get enough credit for the Big Three, for the Boston Celtics? I think you're 100 percent right. When Chief was on the Celtics, it was him that literally opened up things for everybody else. He and Mikel, think about it too, they had to put Cornbread Maxwell on the bench, which was crazy because Cornbread was almost MVP of the league. So to see that change, to put a younger Mikel on the squad. But I think Robert Parrish, the way he played, I just showed some of my guys, I don't know if you heard, I was showing this guy different things.

And a lot of them I learned from Robert Parrish. First thing he would do when he would shoot the ball is shoot it high up on the corner of the square. And it was going to be a bank shot. But you knew that. When he got in the game, you knew that.

So I do think that they don't give him a lot of credit. But I think Larry Bird was such a shining star that it was hard to talk about anybody else on that squad. Larry was amazing. And it was funny how Tiny Archibald explained it at one time. But Larry Bird, when they're talking about all these different players now, nobody playing now was as good as Larry Bird. There's nobody. You can talk about Joker, you can talk about Jokic, you can talk about Luka.

You can talk about it. Luka didn't move like Larry. Larry was, believe it or not, Larry was faster than that and was quick to dunk on you and quick to talk smack.

And it was just so hard to guard. But going back to what you said, I just think Robert Parrish, he played the role. He was reliable. He was the reliable center inside. He wasn't too big and bulky. He was still lanky with strong shoulders. He looked like, you know, he was built like Gianni. Built like the Greek freak. I met him and I couldn't believe. He's also an alien from the same planet next to Dennis Rodman.

Definitely an alien. All right. Thanks for your call, bro. Hope I answered your question.

Thank you very much. Yeah. Do you want to handicap this NBA race as we had, I think there's what, 23 games left in the regular season? Do you want to, is Boston the betting favorite? Are they your favorite?

Boston is always my favorite. Bomani said that Milwaukee's going to win the title this year. Let's think about it. So let's think about it as entertainers, as a company. Who would you want to win the championship? Adam Silver? Is that who we're thinking about?

If you're a company. Am I running the NBA? Yeah.

If you're a company and you get to pick somebody to represent you, who would you want it to be? I want to see Boston and Phoenix play. You want to see Boston and Phoenix? Because he's a Boston fan. Yeah.

I'm a Boston fan as well. So I would want to see them. But they're the number one market in the East. So yeah.

Yeah. I would want to see them not lose. I think them losing last time really, really killed it for me. And I always see, like during the finals, during the Super Bowl, I watched when the Eagles lost their gas.

When the coach started yelling at the play, at the assistant coaches, and when they couldn't get the offense on the field, when they had the layer games, I really think, and they couldn't capitalize on plays or didn't know certain positions to be in, I just saw the air go out of it. So I think that. When I watched Boston the last time they were playing, I just watched the air, I just watched Tatum get tired.

And it's the third or fourth season. You don't get tired during that time. But I think he's strong enough this time. Once you go through it, and that's what happened when I was a piston, once you lose, you know how not to lose. So I'm thinking the same thing. But I love watching Giannis play. I like the fact that he uses his length. I like that he's intense.

I really like watching him play. So I think it's going to be a good fight. A good fight.

And I don't think anybody else. We don't even talk about Atlanta. What they're doing. Jimmy Butler is about to get my man K-Love. What's going to happen down in Miami. Did we talk about Jimmy Butler? Do they talk about Jimmy Butler anymore? Miami's kind of become an afterthought this season.

After being right there. I mean they took Boston to Game 7 last year. They made the finals in the bubble. They've been a really strong team out of the East for the last few seasons.

Yeah. What happened? What happened?

What's up with the machine? The machine is going to get to the point where I think the NBA is going to go international to the point where we travel to Europe for two weeks at a time. Or we... I was going to say Africa. But Africa got the new lead.

The B-A-L. Basketball Africa lead? Is that what it's called? Something like that? I think that's what it's called. And they got like six, nine guys jumping 14 feet off the ground. They said, you know, we're going to give you your own lead. We're not going to bring you over here. Yeah, the B-A-L.

The B-A-L. Yeah, man. And as a league, what's going to happen? I think we're just going to have to make it a broad lead. It's going to have to change the way it is. With the problems or the situation going on with China, you know, we don't talk about that anymore. We only talk about, you know, as I was told today, Dwight Howard playing for his team in Taiwan didn't make the playoffs. I think they would only talk about Taiwan.

We're not going to talk about going over to China. I think that's a big thing. But I think the league is going to be, if it's going to stay alive, it's going to have to go international. It's going to have to be, it's going to have to expand.

It's going to have to be bigger than we see it right now. So who's coming out of the West? It has to be Phoenix. It has to be Phoenix because Chris Paul still has his commercials. Devin Booker. I'm only talking like a league. It has to be.

Here's a question, though. So last year when the Sixers got hardened, one of my biggest thoughts was, OK, 25 games left when they got him. Let's just say he played. I think he did play 25. Didn't seem like that was enough time to fully integrate him into that team, into that offense. So do you see the same thing happen with Phoenix? Because that starting lineup is only probably going to get 20, 20 games together, probably. No one sits out and everything. Do you think that's enough time?

No. When I saw Kyrie step on the court. Oh, my God, we left Dallas out.

How could I leave? You know, the God emcee. Definitely Kyrie Irvin. We should find a picture of his sneakers yesterday. They were really, you know, had his tribe on it. Pretty slick, pretty slick.

Yeah, pretty dope. When you play basketball, this is one basketball and one rim, right? Two rims, one basketball, two rims. And if a guy is a shooter, it doesn't make a difference where he goes. It's the same conference. It's the same height.

The background may be different. The year, the cheers. But you get to a point where you don't hear cheers or boos. So fitting in. Plus, he has the ball in his hand a lot. It's just that your boy, Joel, was in the way.

Right. He's used to breaking people down and going to the basket with his left hand. But big fella was down there. So he had to throw the ball down to him. So fitting in.

It's an easy, easy thing when you're only doing one thing, playing basketball. All the rest of the stuff is what gets in the way. Definitely.

Definitely what gets in the way. Anyway, we're looking for callers, man. We want more people to call if you want to call in.

844-204-RICH-R-I-C-H. Yeah, we got somebody on, John. Let's go to Tony in Portland. Tony in Portland. I love Portland. What up, Tony?

Sean Sally. Hey, man. Pleasure to talk to you.

Same here. What's your question? What you got to say? Give me something that we can debate. Well, I don't have a debate, but I was hoping you could take us behind the scenes back in the day, the best damn sports show, and tell us what you can on air, the craziest thing that Tom Arnold ever did. Hey, I love Tom Arnold, boy. Tom Arnold gave me a different perspective on this entertainment life. He only stayed four years. He said, you can't do anything. Four years, you got to be on to the next thing. I didn't realize that.

And then you start realizing they really do it like that. Tom was great, man. He did things. We had this this segment that was written, this funny segment. It was called Things You Wouldn't Say. And he would do things.

These are things you wouldn't say to somebody. The one time he did things you wouldn't say to Tiger Woods was the first and only time Tiger Woods watched the show. Oh, gosh. And let us have it. It was like, I'll never come on that show.

And I know T Woods. I was like, no, we got we can't have a show and not have type like he got a great personality. He did not like that part. But that's what we did.

We we made a lot of guys are not good at being self-deprecating, meaning laughing at yourself and not taking yourself too serious. But I got to interview Tiger at Riviera. I went to Riviera, interviewed him and, you know, gave a couple of shots. But that that would buy it. Tom was so big on professionalism. And even then, when we said the show was to, you know, to charge, Tom took advantage. He always took things seriously. He knew what jokes would work. He knew how to be the fan sitting there.

And, you know, you would think, what is this guy doing? But, you know, he made it easier for every other comedian and actor to say what they wanted to say about sports and not just be seen. Without Tom Arnold come on.

We don't have a Michael Rapaport. We don't we don't have guys who you wouldn't think would step on and have a point that was important or a point that was pertinent to what we were speaking about. So I think we opened up a bunch of things on the best damn sports show, changed a lot of views, a lot of ways, helped this show that we're on right here. The show helped helped because you can have fun.

You can say things that are fun and we can go. Thanks for the call, brother. Pretty slick. I was thinking, who is the first person that called you Spider? Me. Self-given nickname?

Yes. And what happened is I have big eyes, if you haven't noticed. And so I was very skinny. So guys wanting to call me Popeye.

I was like, oh, hell no. Not calling me Popeye. And then then I was really, really thin.

So they they said I look like a daddy long leg running up and down court. So I became Spider Sally. And then my real name is Johnny. But then it was Johnny Dawkins and it was Johnny Newman all in the same year as I was.

And and I knew no one was going to remember Johnny Sally. So I went to Georgia Tech as Spider, Spider Sally. And I had a big nameplate said Spider, but, you know, nobody around my way was calling me Spider. They were like, Johnny, what's up with this Spider thing? And so I was like, that's my nickname.

I'm going with it. Spider Sally. And when I got down to Georgia Tech, I sat there and found the guy who announces us. And I was like, yeah, I said, hey, you throw Spider in there?

He goes, where? I said, John Spider Sally. He was like, you want me to say it now? I'm going to say it.

I'm going to sound exactly like I was in Atlanta because I can I'm bilingual. You want me to say Spider? You want me to say Spider Sally? I said John Spider Sally. He said, yeah, I can say John Spider Sally. And I learned to say Sally as Sally because that's how they say it. So so they would say it. And Coach Cremins would look around. It's like, who told him to say that?

Chill, chill, chill. My name, dog, Spider. Like, Spider's your name. So that's how I got to it. And I just thought, you know, you got to have a nickname.

And there was nobody in the NBA named Sally. I don't know why I didn't think that was going to be the thing that we can stick by. But that was it.

That's how I got to it. I literally thought this up myself. I've been planning for my takeover for a long time, bro. Brilliant. Brilliant.

Brilliant. At this point, let's talk a little boxing. Because let's talk. Yeah, we'll tease it.

So we're going to tease. We're going to talk a little bit of boxing, because whether you know it or not, I got an unbelievable jab. And I know how to keep my right hand. Eight foot arms.

That's right. I can jab. But boy, if you come out there, you're in trouble. And we're going to come back with overreaction Monday right here on The Rich Isaac Show.

Jon's out. Wherever personal care products are sold. For a strong performance when it counts. Plus, when you upload your resume to Monster.com, you can be recruited by employers before they even post their jobs. Monster.com specializes in building the right teams for employers and knows how to match you with those job fits. When you score the position, Monster.com salary calculator ensures you're paid what you're worth.

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. Wow. Welcome back.

Sitting at the Rich Isaac desk right here. Now, it is furnished by an unbelievable company. Greener.

And it in case you need to know what it is, that is right, right? Greener. Furnished by Greener. With supplies, solutions, everything. It's the right product for you.

If you've got to go, go to Greener.com or you can just go in there and check it out and buy anything you need. Anything. They have it all. Just thought I'd make that a little sexier than it was before. I just read it straight through. Didn't give any nuance to my voice. I had to give it to that.

All right. So we're sitting here, Jon Sally. I'm sitting in for my man, Rich Isaac. That's my man. My man's in them. My man. Somebody go get your man's. Whose man's is it? Whose man's is this? His wife, the wonderful.

She was a great commentator, too. What happened? Like she just she married him and he said, only one of us can do sports. You got to sit home with the Bambinos. Rich like Gisele there.

Stay home. This is my career. Now, the funny thing about Susie is like almost everyone that comes in or calls in that knows Rich knew Susie before Rich. Like that's how much Susie was. She was out here doing the Fox Sports Net thing and covering the Lakers and the Dodgers and everybody.

And and then Rich came out here after, you know, when NFL Network started up in 03. So she had already kind of met and become friends. And she had Jerry West come is like so co-host.

So guess who's rather this show a couple of times a year. And like, you know, she'll get I mean, Jerry West came in and Barkley calls in all the time in the shack and like her Rolodexes. And so you would think you would think, hey, man, my wife knows all of these guys do. She is such the dude when she talks to you. And when she was around it, he did one thing. The fact that she picked him. And I was like, wow, because she was so when guys had this stupid thing about women over here and guys over here, she blew it out of the water. Like you had to respect her and you still do. And that's why all these guys come on.

And, you know, I have to make me feel better. I don't have any guests. The reason I have any guests because it's President's Day and everybody's celebrating for the president.

That wasn't even where I was going. I'm just joking. But I can't understand why Joe Dumars isn't calling. I mean, I'll be honest, I can't tell you. Can we FaceTime Dennis like right now? I don't know if he has his makeup on. I'm sure.

I'm sure it's funny. I watched Dennis on television on I think it was on VH1 and and he said some things that I had no idea about. He was on with Tamar and he had said that one of his teammates slept with his wife. And I was like, whoa. I was like, what was that? And I tell Isaiah I am with Isaiah.

I said, did you see Dennis? He was like, Sal, where have you been? I was like, when did that happen? Like, who is that? To this day, I don't know the story.

Don't know if it ever happened. And I was like, did he make that up? Am I living in a parallel universe?

Like what's happening? I'm telling you, I was I explain this to my cousin Mike. I was so caught up in things that were going on in my life that I never really paid attention. I would go to practice to get away from my life. It was like, oh, my God, practice at eleven.

I'd be there at nine. It looked like I was so serious about it. I just didn't want to hear any more in the house.

So I was so happy because you had that giant house. Yeah. And I just found out, like I, I went back and I saw it on TikTok. Yeah, I just sent it to you.

We can't play anybody else's TikTok on the air. And I was like, wow, look at the house. And so I do the Detroit, the Michigan Lottery big spin monthly. Make sure you go buy your ticket, scratch it off and then send it back in for your chance to win up to two million dollars on the big spin. All right.

Free commercial. And I went back and I said, I rented a car and I said, let me go check the house out. And I go and they had taken everything out.

The grass is out. They cut things down. They move things out.

They put a new tree in the back. And, you know, used to be my house. So I know how to get in.

Right. And all the other doors are locked. I was like, dog, I know a door that you can't lock. And I walk in the house and they had torn everything.

I videoed everything. I missed it, man. But it was I was 25 years old. You understand how that could have went left in a hurry, right? Especially in Detroit.

Yeah. Especially in Detroit, it could have gone really, really wrong, me sneaking back into a house I used to own 25 years ago. Like, bro, you ain't been in this house 25 years. But yeah, somebody told me that Kid Rock bought it and they're redoing it.

It's totally everything inside is taken down. This house was so nice. It was so nice. I used to I used to say so many things. I would when girls would come visit, I would have the chef, Kimmy, she hated doing it. She would go out and go, welcome, Mr. Sally, would be down in a minute.

And she would walk out and be like, I hate you. I'd be right around the corner. I come down.

Oh, sorry to keep you waiting. You know, just I had to come from the other side of the house. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I got lost.

I move I move my family in so many things I shouldn't have done. And what I said, you shouldn't have done. Well, you know, I it you take care and you put people in positions. Well, you could have put someone in the position in this house that you wouldn't have seen them for like a week. That's how big this job.

That's what I thought. The house is so big. There was more than one kitchen.

Get an apartment just so I can get away. Was there more than one kitchen? There had to be. No, this kitchen was so big.

I'm telling you, I'll show you the pictures. But the kitchen was so big and I wind up getting a chef and I wind up having a fire when I became vegan. Because she was like, I don't cook like that.

And I was like, well, I don't eat like that anymore. But it was, you know, I had my two brothers, my boy, Michael, my cousin, Sabrina, my cousin, Russell, my daughter, Giovanna. I had a house, a house guy, Quavari House got to take care of it. Then I had Ernie, who was in charge of it. And I had can be the chef.

I had two crews. I had the lady Lucille, who used to clean my apartment. She was the only one allowed to clean my room. And then we had the crew clean the rest of the house. So Lucille only did your room, only did my stuff. And someone else at the rest of the house did the rest of the house.

It was the way I kept Lucille. Because you trusted her to not freak out with the stuff that she'd seen. Oh, there's nothing to see. There's nothing to see.

There's nothing to see. I wanted to keep her employed. I wanted to keep her employed. So, you know, she was my house. She took care of my stuff. And I had Fat Cat as security. But then I wound up having, you know, a security crew. My boy Art Davis, who, you know, my brother-in-law just sent me his new card. That was cool, too.

I didn't realize, you know, my brother Ron was so smart. Got to the point where I couldn't go to the clubs anymore because they, you know, people knew I was going to be there. I was in the club. And so we wound up having all the parties at the house. Of course.

How could you not? Yeah. And then we wound up having security. It was a trip.

Because it was a trip when you have to, you know, I find my life so much. Go through a metal detector just to get in your own crib? Yeah. Like I told my I told my cousin all the time, like, I feel sorry for Jay-Z and Beyonce that they're in a prison. They can't go anywhere. And when they do go anywhere, I see it online. Like they can't do anything private and they can't go by themselves. They don't drive themselves. They got to have security. You know, it's not like Harry and his wife.

You could just, you know, pull up places, you know, you miss out on a lot of things. Yeah. They have all the blessings in the world. Let me not take that. But the privacy thing is that's that's security.

Privacy is security. Tell you. Because what's what's this thing we're supposed to do on Mondays? Mondays, guys, you know, we do overreaction Monday, which is basically me just saying a bunch of crazy stuff. I don't necessarily believe it.

Maybe a sliver of it, I believe. And then you tell me if it's totally crazy overreaction or I'm on to something and it's appropriate. Proper reaction.

All right. Hit it. Play my music. That was terrible. That was crap. That was garbage. This place sucks.

Overreaction Mondays. All right. Since you're here, self-given spider Sally. Yes.

Which is crazy. You gave yourself your own nickname, but that's another conversation. I think it's NBA edition, NBA edition.

All right. First up, NBA All-Star game needs to get competitive again or go the way of the Pro Bowl games. It's already gone the way of the Pro Bowl game. No one hits anybody. You hug your buddies with everybody. What I think the All-Star game needs to be the All-Stars get to watch who they vote for to play.

That's that's what should happen. The All-Stars and say, hey, these are the top twelve over here, top twelve over here. You guys pick out of the league the twelve that you represent on the east and you represent on the west. Then you would see competition. You would see competition because if you make the NBA All-Star, you're what? Think about this.

All these guys are Fortune 500 companies anyway, walking around. So imagine if they would have picked if everybody would have picked six, seven and eight to play. Look at Utah.

Utah won the three on three competition, the skills competition. That would have been more competitive if our top three or top five. If you could pick up from each team, it would be different and it would be competitive. What about the idea kind of going around that maybe they should ditch the game and have a one on one tournament? No, that'd be boring.

I was. You want to see LeBron play Giannis one on one? No, this is going to be long guys reaching and is going to be walking in a whole lot of ref, ref, ref. You're going to see a bunch of ref corking.

I was the host of Battleground for Nike since from 2002 until like 2005. And that was one on one. And ref can't make a call. You're just going to back the guy down. You're going to hit him with elbows and throw hook shots. So it's not going to be I'm telling you, the skills really showing fundamentals. That's more impressive to me.

All right. Next up, Mac McClung saved the dunk contest. However, only if it gets the big stars out. Zion, Ja and Edwards, somebody to do it next year. I agree. That's not that.

I think that's not outrageous. I think Mac is going to come back next season. Has to because he has to defend it. And I think Ja Morant is a game time dunker along with I think Zion could do both. I think they both can do both. But I don't I don't think it behooves Ja Morant to be in the slam dunk contest because he if he gets in it, he has to win. Is that why we never saw LeBron do it? Yeah. LeBron is also a game time dunker and he had so much more on his mind or so much more pressure on saving the NBA himself when he came in.

Right. Under tons of pressure, taking a kid 17, 18 years old out of high school and being the king of the league, saving the league. This is too bad because, you know, Nick did it. Mike did it. Kobe did. We saw these like big stars of their time do it in their early years in the league. And we just don't really see that anymore.

Yeah, you're not going to see it. It's I'm telling you, it's too much at stake. Think about this. Is it just ego? Is it just ego?

What if I lose? It's a business move. It's a business move. You always got to be on the upside. You always got to be on the upside when you're a commodity.

And that's what these guys are. All right, let's move on to the big news of the day in the NBA. Russell Westbrook looks like he's going to join the Clippers now that he's a free agent.

How about this? With Russ, the Clippers are going to make the Western Conference Finals. What's the record right now?

All right. Record right now they're the fourth seed. 33 and 28. They're the fourth seed. 33 and 28. Behind Sacramento, Memphis and Denver.

You know, there's a trip. 30 and 28, you said? 33 and 28. So when we won a championship in Detroit, we won 63 games. And then when I was on the Lakers, we won 64 games. So literally how you enter the situation of 28 losses and being a fourth seed is a trip.

Like some of the way these guys are getting to the playoffs to almost 500. It's a trip. It's a trip.

I think they get their new arena next year. Yeah. Yeah. Right. The year after.

Is it coming out? Wait a minute. No, I think it's 24.

I've been to you. Oh, OK. So I thought I'd have to look that up. Yeah. You got to look that up. You got to think about that, too.

The Lakers go into the Staples Center, win the championship three years in a row. I think it's good for the Clippers. I think they're making they're making moves to to want to win. As I was explaining. Yeah.

Yeah. As I was explaining it, you it's about winning now. And I think it's great for Westbrook because now he doesn't have to deal with. I just think this break he needed. He needed this break. And once he had this break and he got that out of the way, he could just play. You know, I tell you, once when I was playing and all of a sudden I was like on a 10 day contract, I play different. You play different when you're just playing basketball, you play as opposed to treating it as the job it is.

It's just hard when you treat it as a job. Are they going to make the Western Finals? You know, who is it who's in the West finals? How how the Grizzlies doing? Their third. Yeah. Sorry.

The second right now. I'm going I'm going with them and Phoenix in the West and Boston and the Bucks on the East. I left Dallas out again. Why? Why do you why are you so high on why do you believe in that?

We're a little confused by that. I am. I am a huge Kyrie fan. And I'm not saying that I was always ever since I saw him play it. I always thought I was like, I don't know what I don't know why they started seeing it late. I saw the ball handling in the way he played before that.

I talked to his pops dread sometime via text. And I just think it. I just think that literally you think they're going to figure it out?

Yeah, I really do. I really feel that they have what it takes. That full squad, what it takes, and especially when guys are just playing hard and they don't have to. Like I said, if if you know all the cameras on Michael, all the cameras on Isaiah, you can do as long as you do things that are great, you can Tristan Thomas yourself into it into a championship. You remember Tristan Thomas all of a sudden was balling and they were like, wow, what's happened? So you can you can get into that situation. No disrespect to Tristan because he's a true Jamaican.

Bloodclad. Definitely. But you can get yourself when you're behind great plays like that. And I think the fact that when he showed up, when Kyrie showed up, it was like he didn't mix his step.

He was right into his playing great this year. Yeah. Yeah.

So that goes to my next one. I think we're headed for a Phoenix Boston finals. Phoenix Boston.

That's because we both love the Celtics. But, you know, it kind of made me nervous when I had to think about the Bucks for a second. But I really and you know, that controversy they lived through. They can make it up now.

We still have no idea what happened. And I'm friends with Nia Long and she wouldn't even like we didn't have as much conversation about that. And then I watch her just come out in great movies and keep it moving. So shout out to my girl, Nia Long, all day team. I'll shout out Nia Long, too. I don't know her, but I just want to shout out to Nia Long. I should have had Nia come over. We would have to ask her questions. She went on with Wanda on the Daily Show.

So, you know, she only. Yeah. When you coming back? Hey, you know, I'm trying to get my own show on Roku.

You know, I don't know whenever I can get back to the last one. I don't know who's going to be MVP this year, but I'm I'm going to say I would vote for him. Jokic can't be MVP if Denver's just going to lose in the first round again. Well, you picked the MVP before the playoffs.

I understand that. But that was part of people's thing last year. Like, how can he be the MVP if Denver's just going to lose in five games in the first round? Because of what he did in 82 games. So in 82 games. And like we said, right, we were talking about the Jets and just happy that they make it to the playoffs. It's so hard to be in the top 16, the final 16 team. So 17, 17 teams. Well, now 20 teams make it. 20 teams. With the play-in tournament. That is correct. But that's why people were saying, look, the reason why MB didn't win it last year.

He just lost in the first round. Like, are you really the MVP? Then they shouldn't pick the MVP until everything is over. That's when they should pick it. They should pick it after the championship. Or they need to give out the award right when the season ends so nobody can complain.

The problem is they give it out at a weird spot and then they're just like, oh, this guy won? He lost in the first round. Yeah, but think about this. We wouldn't have got Akeem's just domination over David Robinson had that fact not happened. Had they not given David Robinson that MVP award in front of the dream. And then if you remember that series, oh my goodness, Akeem Olajuwon was the greatest player on God's green. Yeah, he gave him the business.

Yeah. And he couldn't take the trophy back. And it was David Robinson.

This wasn't like a scrub, bro. This is the admiral. Who's MVP this year? I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with MB. I'm thinking it. I'm thinking it. One, I'm never going to pick a guard.

I'm always going to go with the big fan. I don't think a guard can win anymore. It's a different game now. I don't know. Damien Alillah. He could.

I don't know, man. That kid is an unbelievable player. And we left him out, too. We left Portland out of the conversation.

They're never going to win. But I'm a Clipper fan because of Ty Lue and Brian Shaw are the coaches. So that's my reason. I know I got the dumbest reasons, right?

I just want to see my ex teammates do well. That's probably it. All right. We're going to be right back.

We're going to take a break from the Rich Eisen Show right here. Have you noticed how a lot of insurance commercials are kind of gimmicky? They've got jingles and mascots and they try to be real cute and clever. But really what matters, in fact, it's the only thing that matters is the insurance, which is why I want to tell you about NJM. Because for over 100 years, NJM has been going about their business protecting their clients biggest investments, their homes and their cars with award winning customer service.

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Ask your doctor about Ubrelvi, the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. Learn more at Ubrelvi.com or call 844-4-U-B-R-E-L-V-Y. Sponsored by AbbVie. Hey, everybody. Sitting here, John Salley sitting in for Rich Eisen on The Rich Eisen Show right here at the desk. It's funny, Giannis, he said means Johnny.

Yeah, I played in Greece for six weeks. How was that? This is it. So last summer, yeah, it was last summer, they released Giannis' movie on Disney+.

Right. So they had me come to the premiere. You know, screening, they called it.

So screening and a premiere are two different things. When I get there, they got, Disney got it on lock. And all of his people are coming through. I see a bunch of Greek people. And they look at me funny. And this guy, and I look and I realize this guy's from Greece.

And he touches the other guy and he points at me and he's not happy. And I go, oh, Olympianakos. And he turns around and he goes, that's right, Olympianakos. So Giannis played, when he first talked to the coach from Olympianakos, they helped the kids out in which color. That's what he was a part of. There's seven professional teams in Athens alone. Wow. So there's seven professional teams and Olympianakos is one I paid for Panathinaikos.

And they hate one another. Oh. So Giannis' brother is happy to see me.

Oh, Joe, Sally, you got to meet my brothers. He played for Panathinaikos at one time. So when I met Giannis, he's like, hey, hey, nice.

How you meeting? And in his brain, because he was a little kid when I was there, is this idiot plays Panathinaikos. So I'm thinking, this guy probably doesn't know that. Knew everything about it.

Knew they were so particular about it. But I went to the gas station in a car and they give you a car to drive. I had a beautiful seven series BMW and I drive to this gas station. They pump the gas.

No one comes over. And I'm thinking, maybe no one's here. And I get out and these guys are not moving. And I was like, oh, man, last time this happened was in Georgia and I was in Lake Lanier. But long story.

And they had beards and overalls and Confederate flags. But these guys, because the gas station, if it's the Limpanakos in this town, that's their team. I had to find a gas station that had Panathinaikos sign in it. It was like I was a blood or a crip. I'm telling you. It was crazy. But it was an experience.

I played for the coach who was Tony Cucco's coach. And I said it before. He said that if Michael Jordan played in Europe, he would only average 15 points. And I knew I had to leave. I was like, man, my guy's doing crack.

His coach is definitely on crack to say that. And I don't watch or pay attention to gossip or situations. So I didn't know the problem with Scottie and Michael and Tony.

Not until I saw the last dance. I didn't know that was a problem. Because when I was on the Bulls, it wasn't a problem. They didn't say anything negative about Tony because Tony was putting in work. He was.

So I didn't run into any of that. I still see, at autograph sessions, the last one I did in Chicago, I saw Tony Cucco. Tony is by far one of the greatest players I ever played against.

They leave him out because of Michael and Scottie. But he was one of the greatest. What?

What you got to say about that? Well, I was thinking, they didn't really have beef when they were on the same team, right? It was just during that Olympics.

And I didn't know that. When they wanted to prove, like, OK, let's show Jerry something. Yeah, and they were wrong. They were so wrong. It's like you said about teammates, right? You want to have teammates, you want to create this bond and have them trust you. But they were just like, we're going to set a precedent here.

We're going to let you know what the hierarchy. And it seemed more about proving Jerry Krause wrong than anything else. Yeah, it was senseless. It was needed so they can win.

Because if they would have given Tony any glimpse of letting him do his thing, it would have been an entirely different dream team situation. No way. I'm telling you, man, this guy is amazing. I'm not anybody to play against him. He's left handed.

He's 6'10". Coach was dope, but they weren't winning. They weren't beating the dream team. It wasn't. Well, it would have been. They made that. They made that very important. All right, we'll be back. Listen.