REShow: Bomani Jones - Hour 2

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Find tech that's right for you by calling a Dell Technologies Advisor today at 877-ASK-DELL. Today's guest, host of HBO's Game Theory, Bomani Jones. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's John Salley. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show.

John Salley sitting in for Rich and we got Bomani Jones coming on. And I'm a big fan and I can't wait to talk to him because I see him on more TV now than Stephen A. Smith, which is amazing. His own show, he's on CNN, ESPN.

I think I saw him on Lifetime. He's on everything. He's going to get on and I have so much to talk to him about. We're going to keep the show high and funny.

But he doesn't have a problem on his commentary. Great journalist. So make sure you stay tuned. About what? 20 more minutes. You get him to come on. Think about that.

How many shows he has to be on every day, right? Because times have changed. We got TV, all kinds of places. The best place TV is Roku. Absolutely. See, I know how to do this. To have a show on Roku is big. Not only do they have a network, they own TV.

So you can get a Roku TV right now. If you call me, hit me on johnsalley.com. I got a couple that fell off a truck before they went to buy a Costco. Is that your van parked in the back?

No, I don't have the white van. That's never been there before, not yet. When I got here this morning, man, there was a guy outside smoking a cigarette.

Really? The guy outside smoking a cigarette said, what you doing, man? Get off my corner. Was it Pat Mahomes dad? Smokin' a joe burrow. We smokin' on that joe burrow.

We smokin' that joe burrow. Oh, man. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it.

I love when you interrupt. We hit this on Friday a little bit with Kirk Morrison. I think sometimes people don't really realize if you just look at him, Patrick Mahomes background, right? And then you see his dad, former baseball pitcher, Pat Mahomes, and it's just like, okay. But then you look at Jackson and you're like, wait a minute, how did his dad, who sounds like, you know, the local car mechanic, like, what you got on that end there, boy? Let's see what you got there, boy. You look just like your daddy there, boy.

You got Jackson. And it's just like, the apple did fall kind of far from the tree. It would seem.

It just would seem. That's funny. My father, God rest his soul, Quilly, when I was playing for Detroit and we would fly by my second year, by going into my third, going to the championship year, we would go down to Atlanta and my father would be waiting by, you know, where they let our bus off and he would shake everybody's hand. And I didn't realize how impressed he was. You know, I didn't see him smile a lot, but he would smile, hey, how you doing, Mr. Sally? He'd be like, hello. He knew everybody's name. And then I would put some of my stuff away and then I would go down and get in the car because I would go see my mom and she would have cooked. She, you know, she cooked. So, you know, we're going to get there.

And it would be about eight o'clock at night. And he was so happy to come down and meet those guys. My pops was so stoic. And then one time my teammates kept saying, where do you go? Every time you leave, we go to Atlanta. I said, oh, my mom cooks. Trust me, we almost made the bus one time.

My mom's had cooked enough for everybody. And I'm thinking, I don't want to make this a regular thing. I like a couple of these dudes. I don't even like that much. No, we get along. When you asked me about my teammates, we have, once again, everybody, just to let you know, Romani Jones is coming up in how many more minutes?

Fifteen minutes. My teammates, right? When you think about them, the only ones I talk to really now are the guys I played in Detroit with. We have a chat. Interesting.

Yeah. We have a text. So we've got to pick our fingers. And one of them says we're number one and this is how we salute each other.

And I can't do it on the air. But we would salute each other. And something happened. We all congratulated Isaiah Thomas. Everybody congratulated Isaiah Thomas.

Going to be going to Phoenix Suns, making things work. He makes things happen, as you see. He makes things happen. He's a good luck charm. But to some teammates, man, I don't talk to them.

I don't know where they are, if they're alive. Seriously. And I say this because my cousin Mike talked about teammates and being a good teammate. You really, it depends. You don't get to really hang out with your teammates. You just go to work with them. So you don't get to know them that well. You don't get to know them. Especially if they're married and they have kids, the only time you get them is when they're on the road.

And we've got ten times more security now. It's people you're kind of putting together to force the work with. Not like this place where you guys come for free. Because you love Rich. You just like to support. Jay over there says, here, let me get the fake song.

Rich might be watching. Yeah, it's a job, man. It's an unbelievable job. But it's the greatest one in the world. But the problem with the job, going back to Tua.

I know I'm jumping around. But going back to Tua, having concussions, all that kind of stuff. He's going to retire when most people start making their money. He's going to retire in his early thirties, right?

That's just the way it is. The league is set up for us to retire to. Right, they don't want you going past 34 years old. It's not good for the league when guys go past 35. It's really not good for a league when a guy plays longer than ten years. It's better for the league to keep new faces in New Jersey.

Yeah, churning out new stars and new players. A guy like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers. These guys playing later in life, in their football life, is kind of a one-off. Like TJ, you say it all the time, Tom Brady is an anomaly.

Aaron Rodgers too, if he keeps playing, I assume he'll keep playing. You don't see guys have great success when they hit the four in their age. No, in anything in life when you hit that floor.

In anything, really. I mean, you talk about tennis players. Once they hit 30, their career is basically over. A running back hits 30 and their career is essentially over.

You see, and I've been a long believer in this. That's why I think sports kind of skews people's real-life views of things, right? Because when we were kids growing up, you would hear somebody hit 30 and the announcer would make them seem like, oh, he's at the end of the career, it's over. People grow up with this mentality like, oh, you're 30.

You're old. Or, oh, you're 40. Like to say 40 is the end, nah, man. Like 40 in the real-world, real-life situation, it's not, man.

Like I got on this show in my 40s, you know? So it's like, to me, you know, when we think of 40, I think sports does kind of throw off. Right. It's a young man's game, though. Yeah. Kind of throws off what age really is because you're still a young man at 37.

Yeah. And trust me, at 36 when I retired, there's a hill here, ladies and gentlemen, over in the hood. There's a park that everybody used to train at. And I used to train there. And there's a hill we call Hamburger Hill. And I got to a point where I could run that hill at least twice, three times.

And I'm thinking, I look at that hill right now and I'm thinking, man, they don't have scooters around here, like walking up that joint. So at 40, everything is going to change in your life, period. And if you don't believe me, when you get to 40, you're going to be like, Sally was right. Everything changes. The way you look at things, your political choices change. When you look at life in general.

When you look at life. I became a father at 40. Oh, I did too.

39. Yeah. Same. And it's changed my whole life.

I know. My daughter has destroyed my whole thoughts of anything. When I mean that. She's 19 now and at 40, because I had I had Giovanna early. I was 22, 23 years old. So by the time I'm 39 and I have another one and I have a baby around, you treat them differently. And I would say to her, hey, that's a life experience. Every time she would do something, that's a life experience.

That's a life experience. It would go to the point where my wife was like, you're not going to do anything. I said, what am I going to do? I'm going to tell her, hey, you shouldn't get caught being in trouble.

Like, stop getting caught. I told her the other day, like my daughter and I had such a crazy relationship. She was sneaking out of the house one time and I go, where are you going? She goes, don't tell mommy. Kept running. Didn't care about you.

I was like, hey, you're not going to say you want me. You want me to do this craziness. Life experience, right? Life experience.

Remember that. Life experiences. That's what life is about. Experiencing different things.

The only thing to experience. I was thinking earlier when I when I thought about this and I had gone back to Miami, I think when I went to play in Miami, I think I got better. And when I went down there, they gave me like a 15 million dollar contract for like 100 years.

And it was supposed to be like a great contract. And Hank Goldberg, God rest his soul, used to kill me on radio. He I don't know what it was and why he didn't like me. But he was like this New York mentality when you guys are talking about that, that that attitude. And he would go at me and I was wondering, I go, what did I do to this guy? So I figured out how to get on as a caller.

And I got on fake name. I went on and said, what is your problem with John Salley? And he was like, you like sass again? He's great. He does this. He's a team player. I went through this whole thing with Hank and then I found out that the general manager at that time, I'm not going to say his name because I don't remember it.

Nor do I like him. He go ahead. Look it up. He was feeding him stuff. He was feeding him stuff. He was like, his shoulders hurt. I don't know if his shoulders hurt.

And I don't know if this guy. He was feeding to the point where I got traded. Pat Riley said, the only person you shouldn't have traded was me because I knew how to win. And he got fired and was the same guy. He was a general manager. Louis Schaffel? No, Louis was the greatest.

Okay, hold on. General manager came in. Lou had sold the team, was selling the team.

Louis Schaffel was the great. He was the GM when you were in Miami the early 90s. No, we had another one. We had another one.

President. All right, I'm looking. And he was also on the Nets when I was coming out in 86. And the first question he asked me is, could I fight?

And I didn't know. Could I fight? I was like, yeah, but I heard punches cost thousands of dollars in the NBA.

I'm not going to be throwing any of those. Well, you know, that's the first thing they ask you now when you apply for a job at Waffle House. Can you fight? It's mandatory. You've got to have hands. If you can't fight. You've got to be able to throw. You might as well go work at IHOP.

You cannot work at Waffle House. You know, and there's cameras everywhere. You know what I just heard this morning on the way in is that West Hollywood are about to have drones. So if you've got a 9-1-1 call, they send the drones first. They're going to send the drones. They're not supposed to spy on people in West Hollywood because it's West Hollywood. But they're sending the drones.

Everything is going digital pretty soon. RoboCop is real. Man, Terminator's coming and we're letting it happen. We are letting it happen. Anybody, you're only going to be able to have $200,000 in your bank account. I'm telling you, it's about to go down. If they don't have that much, will they add to it so you can make it up to $200,000? Or that's the max anyone's going to have?

No, they're going to be watching you like they do in China. And if you're not a good person to them, you're going to lose points. Oh, man. It's all happening. Who's the worst teammate?

My worst teammate? I mean, it was like 30, 40 years ago. Who cares? I mean, that's kind of disrespectful to say it like that, though. No, I'm just saying like... It was 40 years ago, Sally. You said there's guys you don't even talk to anymore, so... Who, as a young guy, I didn't understand it. But when I got older and when I got traded to Miami, I love them. It's Bill Laimbeer. Oh, okay. Bill Laimbeer, literally before he said, before I become inebriated at the championship party, I want to say thank you for putting up with, because I had to stay on you to get you to this point.

And you don't realize it while you're in it. But Bill Laimbeer has been more influential in my overall life than most of my, any of my teammates. Wow, that's great. And, you know, for a while, I became a Republican because of Bill. Well, you had money, so that makes sense. I'm joking, I'm joking.

I'm just being serious. But then I got out of politics. I got out of politics because I realized it wasn't beneficial for athletes.

Like you should not, you should, you should, you shouldn't be able to talk about things that are socially important, but it shouldn't base it upon it. Like LeBron is a Democrat, right? Because the liberals love LeBron. That's what it is. And that's what he got, right?

And, and the Republicans didn't like him. It's, it's, it's a trip. It's hard to get to, but Michael Jordan said, Republicans do wear Jordans too. So I just think when you, when you're on a political thing and you're talking, I think that's a, it's a tough thing when you're an athlete. I think it's kind of hard to stand clear and not join a side, but you know, this is life. Sometimes you got to make a choice. Yeah. Maybe you shouldn't be public with it.

I still, I still think, you know, the reason the booth is a booth for you to go in individually, that's the way it should stay. I shouldn't, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't get into it. Look how much it gets into, man. They, they shut up and dribble they said about, oh my God.

I was like, oh my God, what's this getting into? Can you FaceTime Ronnie Cycli and will he answer right now? Yes.

If I had Cycli's number and he would probably say, Sal, let me drop a beat because he's an unbelievable DJ right now. Yeah, that's the word, right? Yeah. I watch him on Instagram and he, and he still got it. Then you had a guy you played with Harold Minor was a dunk contest.

Yeah. Didn't talk a lot. But he was my rookie. So he was, he was, he was good with me.

Didn't talk a lot. I love Matt Geiger was one of my favorite teammates, but he, you know, kind of pushed me out of Miami. Uh, but that's the way it goes.

That's the way it goes. But I love Matt Geiger. Matt Geiger was one of my favorites as well.

Steve Smith, Steve Smith, Smitty. One of my favorite people on the planet. One of my favorite teammates. Um, Keith Askins, I'm naming everybody for Miami. Keith Askins boy, Keith Askins is my boy. Keith was, was hard worker, man. Hard worker deserves everything he's, he's got, gotten.

Yeah. Willie Burton on that team. He dropped 50 in the game once. Oh, Sweet D. Willie. Sweet D. Willie. Sweet D. Willie. Sweet D. Willie, boy. Everybody know what they call me. Sweet D. Willie. Sweet D. Willie, boy. I was my man, 50 grand. Um. Ben Bo Coles was on that team.

Hard worker. Couldn't hear at his left ear though, or right ear, one of his ears. Whatever it was, you had to be on that side of him if he was going to get the ball.

I think it was his left ear cause he bat right handed and he got hit in the ear or whatever. Yeah, wouldn't pass it to me on the left side. I would tell him, man, I'm on the left side, get on my right. And I was like, all right, got it. All right, we're going to take a break. We'll be right back here on The Rich Eyes and so. We'll be right back here on The Rich Eyes and so.

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Well, welcome back to the Rich Eyed Peas Show. Bobani is, I think, shaving his head, so he's not here right now. I'm gonna talk to him about that. Bobani had great hair.

He did, and I wanted to ask him, making more money, what happened? We saw him at the Sports Emmys, literally a few hours before we ran into you on the streets of New York. Great, huge mini fro.

It was awesome. I know. And now he's going clean shaven. I'm glad he has a nice skull because it looks good, but I got to say that sitting at the Rich Eyed Peas Show desk is furnished by Grainger. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Grainger is the right product for you.

Call, click, grainger.com or just stop by. Gotta always talk to the sponsors anyway. When we get, one, I don't know, I didn't get to talk to Bobani before we started, so I don't know if the hair is a sensitive situation, but, you know, he had a great afro, then he had mini dreads, but a lot of forehead, and then he just said, off with my hair. I wonder if it was a forehead situation. He was just like, you know, he's creeping back, you know, like Steven A's kind of creeping back.

Yeah, yeah. They had two foreheads. I'm telling you, those two, when they were interviewing each other, he even made a point, like, whose forehead is bigger? They should have measured.

That would have been a good one. We measured Rick Fox's head one time on Lakers, like, because Brian Shaw had, like, you know, looks like a big head, and Shaquille has a big head. Derek Fisher, you know, stubby body, big head. Rick Fox had the biggest head around in circumference. Yes, the biggest head around.

Like, he has a lot of face, he has a lot of good face, women love the face, but he had a lot of head to go with it, and I had the smallest, because this is a P, and I started realizing, man, I look like, like, this is such a small head, like, my hands look big on my head, but, man, Rick Fox had the biggest head. Now, was that, so you were 99-2000. Yeah. Is that the Kobe Minifro years, too?

Because I loved that look on him, as well. Yeah, that was, that was, that was a good times. That's when he was eight. We would say eight.

We just, we wouldn't even say Kobe. We'd be like, eight's here. Man, eight's trippin'. Man, eight needs to pass the ball. I used to be like, no, eight needs to keep doing what he's doing. Keep shooting.

Keep going. Well, you said he didn't go out. What was he like in those early days?

Kobe Bryant was a student, and all he did is watch. I met Vanessa when no one else did, like, I had seen her at the games, and he was like, yeah, I met her at my video shoot, you know, dating this girl right here, and was quiet about it. I went to, with him in the studio, too, when he was over at Sony, and I liked it. I liked his flow, but, you know, he would go, like, if he wasn't playing basketball, it'd be in a music studio, be around his family, you know. Didn't get to, didn't get to go out a lot. The other place you can meet him at was Powerhouse Gym, a Gold's Gym down in, down in Venice.

He would go to Gold's Gym. I went in there one time, and, man, it was Storoid City. This girl said, you want a shot? I was like, oh no, mister. Oh, stop. Didn't know what was happening.

Didn't know where it was, what I was doing, you know. Anyway, everybody, we're waiting on Bomani Jones. We're affording, we're looking for Bomani.

It's all good. Bomani, this is, and, you know, just think about how many shows, right? This guy goes from ESPN, and you had to sit there and talk sports. Such a good journalist. You know, I remember when Steven A started, and he started right here at the Best Damn Sports Show. I remember George Greenberg, what's up, George? I hope you're watching. He was like, this guy is gonna be a superstar, and then think about it. Ten years going. He has the number one show, Steven A. Smith, on that network.

Hard worker, hard worker. Yeah, I got to help him, and I sit around, and I wonder, how could you know and watch so many sports and be so opinionated? And I'm at jail here, so I understand, in having that piece. What else are we gonna talk about on this wonderful show?

And this is a deal, too. Everybody know, this is unbelievable that we're sitting on Roku. You guys may not realize it, but, you know, all smart TVs. You can watch this show. More eyeballs.

Think about all these eyeballs, though. How many stations are there now? Like 400 and some stations? Just TV channels? Just TV channels. Back when you were forced to watch three, right? Forced to watch three.

ABC, NBC, CBS. Yeah, they're talking about we're being programmed. We had programmed really well back then. I'm old enough to when the TV used to go off at one o'clock in the morning. Yeah, it would just be snow. Yeah, it'd be snow, and then it's such good propaganda. You would hear there would be an American flag, and they'd be playing God Bless America, America the Beautiful constantly going. Infomercials late at night. Propaganda was really good. Kids now don't understand what it is to not have a remote for the TV.

Me either. Like, I was the remote. I'd be upstairs. My grandpa would call me downstairs. He'd be sitting three feet from the TV like, boy, change that to channel 12. I was like... Yeah, remember the dial was like 2 to 13, and then there was the UHF channel. Yeah. Then we got the cable box, and that's when you knew, because that's when we started getting like... Were you rich?

No, not at all. But somehow we got that cable box. We got TBS, so we were getting the Braves. Had to watch the Braves. Then I got NWA wrestling, though, and that was... WGN too.

You'd get Cubs also. We didn't get that one, though, see? We weren't that rich. Oh, man. We got WTBS.

First time I saw cable, I was at Georgia Tech. Coach Kremens had it at his house, and he had us all come to watch Eddie Murphy's Delirious. What? Wait, Bobby Kremens? Bobby Kremens, right? Had you over at the house to watch Eddie Murphy? The whole squad to watch Eddie Murphy's Delirious.

That is incredible. It was the best... I was like, I knew I liked this guy, and this is why it's so crazy, because a year or two years earlier, we would have to listen to Richard Pryor albums in quiet. You'd have to laugh in the pillow, because we would sneak in my boy Mitch Hill's house, and he would play it, and we would listen to Richard Pryor and laugh in the pillow. Like, you couldn't laugh at that kind of comedy. Next thing you know, Eddie Murphy's on HBO in a red leather suit, saying some of the greatest things I've ever seen, one of the greatest stand-ups ever.

I'm telling you, man, it was it was the time. Anyway, all right, ladies and gentlemen, on the show right here is my man, O'Monee Jones. What's up, B?

How you living? Dude, I'm good, man. Apologies for being a little bit late.

No, you just wanted to make me sweat, that's all. I appreciate it, though. Hey, we want... you know, I'm always having fun, and I love what you do. Just to let you know, I'm a fan of yours. I watch what you do. I appreciate it.

I also follow you on your all social media. I got a question, because I was forced to go bald-headed. Like, my hairline started racing to the back of my neck, and I had a sunroof in my afro.

Why did you cut your hair off? Oh, I had to get out in front of it. Like, I knew which way it was going. Like, there's a picture of me at, well, all of us at my aunt's funeral in 2013, and it's me and my brother and my three cousins, and it's four of us bald-headed, and the other one had done an amazing pencil-in job.

Right, like, I knew this is where it was gonna go, and so when I moved to Miami, I made a decision. I ain't trying to sit around no barbershop and listen to what these dudes got to say about sports. Not if the dude on television, I might as well take Madison to bald hands. And then the pandemic came, and I was like, I'm gonna grow this back out. I ain't had it in, like, seven years. I thought I was gonna look like Clyde Drexler.

It just went a little bit better than expected. Yeah, I was sitting there, I was like, man, if I could grow hair, I tried, man, and I look like George Jefferson. During the pandemic, man, I look like George Jefferson.

My hair was going around this way. I couldn't do it. I'm thinking, if I had a chance to get a hair implant, would I do it? I ain't cheating. I refuse.

Man, if a girl can get a breast augmentation. Yeah, I hear you. I could never look at myself the same again if I took that route, because everybody would know I was lying. I feel like you got to do that mad early.

Like, LeBron seems to have tried to get out in front of it, but he didn't. Like, I don't know if he tried to save money on it, but... Alright, everybody, on the phone, we got Bomani Jones, HBO Game Theory, and ESPN's Right Time with Bomani, Bomani Jones. Hey, so this is the question. I see you on CNN, ESPN, HBO. How many checks do you get?

Well, HBO is the CNN one. That's what they call that. Corporate synergy, which translates into, hey, they already pay you over there. Right now, it's a mere two. It is a mere two checks at the moment.

See, it's funny. You think of it in the context of checks as opposed to jobs. I look at it as, I got two jobs. Most people don't want to have two jobs. No, no. There's a guy, Dick Gregory, said anybody with two jobs is broke. Yeah, you can't.

There's only two ways they could be, and I guess I'm greedy. Alright, so I watch you, and you get into some really serious things. Do you ever have to have a conversation with the people at HBO, or they just let you Dave Chappelle and go do what you do? No, HBO lets me go to be honest.

ESPN always does too. Like, I've never, even when I wore that t-shirt that said Caucasians on it, I'd never really got any actual fussing or anything like that. Like, I figured out the space where you can say this stuff, but people can't really try to get you in trouble for it. I don't really know how I managed to pull this off.

I was on a Jabel Hill podcast the other day, and she asked me how it was that I had managed to never get some... so I could teach her my ways, and I was like, I honestly have no idea. Well, if you wore a Black Lives Matter t-shirt, it's the same thing. Because my Caucasian t-shirt was fun though, because there was people trying to figure out if they should be mad, but knowing they didn't have a reason to figure out what to say to them. And most people were like, that's how you spell it? I just didn't know that somehow Caucasians were supposed to be an offensive term.

Like, I'm mad confused. Like, if white people don't want to be called Caucasians, I'm like, buddy, I don't think you're seeing the rest of the list. Oh, let me tell you. When I was on Fox, you know, somebody would say something, and I said, Negro, please.

And they called me upstairs. They said, Hey, you can't say that. I said, I can't say Negro? He said, Well, you know, we know what you're really saying. I said, I'm saying Negro. And George is like, if I know what you're really saying, man, a whole lot of people be out of work. Because I know a whole lot of people really say it all the time. Yeah, I saw it on the Jeffersons way back in the 70s. You can let me say it.

All right. Last night was the NBA All-Star game. Last night was the NBA All-Star game.

What did you think? And do you do you still find it entertaining? I find the All-Star game to be entertaining. And I think the way they change the format to like, make the endings entertaining works, because truth is, everybody's like, I wish they would play defense. No, you don't. Not like super duper for real defense, right?

Like you do want some resistance, certainly. And you get that at the end, and you see cats do like, flash and stuff. So yeah, the All-Star game itself still does it for me.

The Saturday night stuff is always hit or miss. Like, everybody's like, the dunk contest is back. We don't have to bring the dunk contest back like five times. The truth is, a dunk contest is either going to be excellent, or you're going to complain about it.

There's no space in between. So did you agree with the winner? I mean, I don't think there was any question who the winner was.

Although I did think my man from the pelicans did some incredible stuff that people were not going to give him credit for. Because look, man, what sticks with two white Duke Cubs out there that really reckoned that everybody else would go home. Everybody else could go home after Mac McClung did the very first one. It was a wrap at that point.

And by the way, he deserved to win it. But we also know what time it was. They never played an NBA game. The NBA did it for the grail. And it worked. Listen, it's entertainment.

It's entertainment. And what did you say he played in four NBA games? Four NBA games? Did he play? He might have just been on the team. Yeah, I don't think he's played a game. He hadn't played a game with the Sixers.

He wasn't on the Sixers when they put him in the dunk contest. They're like, look, man, this dude does views and nobody in the league actually wants to participate in our contest. And that's the strangest thing to me that nobody wants to do. Nobody wants to lose. Nobody wants to lose.

Even the dudes I've never heard of. Yeah, yeah, they have to do something. But this is the craziest thing. To save the M, to save the slam dunk, I don't know. They might have to change. One thing to do, which really might be crazy, and I know I'm going to get pushed for this one, they should raise the rim to 11 foot. When I saw the guy looking to the rim the other day, I said, OK, they should raise the rim. This is the first time I thought they should raise the rim because, you know, I'm a shot blocker. So I'm thinking I'm going to get you on your way down.

That kid would have dunked on me and and and and literally had his midsection by my by my stomach. And I've been like, oh, this is embarrassing. I can't push him down. Nothing. All right. So we were all the piston and you just came out. I can't push him down.

So I'm sitting around and I watch I'm watching your show and you take these are the questions from the audience and you stand up and you answer them. OK, yeah, I know you got it. I know you got a question for him. I know you I know you got something that you weren't allowed or you don't think we should talk about on the show, but let's ask him so that he can say it and we can edit it and say, hey, you know, the guy is uncontrollable.

But why did the league think it was fine to just trot out Karl Malone this weekend? Yeah, people don't know. OK, so thanks.

All right. You told me that you asked him. Now they have to do the research and you have to go to his Instagram to see what he said about it.

No, I'll say like I think this has come up with people like our sensibilities on things have changed, right? So this was a story when Demetrius Bell, who was drafted by Buffalo Bills, played four years in the league. Karl Malone is his father. Karl Malone impregnated his mother and she had that when he was 13 years old, when she was 13 years old.

Right. And when he came into the league, it was a story and people brought it up and then later it became a story about their reconciliation. But our opinions of people having babies with children has changed. And it sounds like a crazy thing to say. But when you go back and listen to people like talk about when Jerry Lee Lewis got caught up with his cousin, they really leaned in on the cousin part and not the child part.

Like the cousin part was the part that they found to be offensive. So people have known about this, but then they forgot about it. And then Karl Malone, like you played in the league. You notice people don't like him. And so it's not like he'd be hanging around. He just go back to the country and then he's going to disappear again. And we're not going to think about it again because we're never going to see him. And so the NBA was like, hey, don't nobody really know about this. Wow. And they just brought him out there.

So no one know it. And it's so funny when I saw Karl doing a Skechers commercial, that was the last time I saw Karl was on a Skechers commercial and I turned around and I was like, that's a big brother. And I looked, I was like, that's Karl Malone doing a Skechers like in his truck. Does he wear Skechers or does he wear a Timberland? I assure you, he does not know what a Timberland is. No, you're right. You're right about that. So this is the deal.

I'm going to ask you because you're an expert. Aaron Rodgers goes to the Jets or Derek Carr. Who would you rather? I would rather have Aaron Rodgers in all likelihood. But, you know, LeBron and Tom Brady got us thinking that getting old don't matter. And he's old and he's coming off his worst season.

Now, you could say that it was his worst season because he had, I think, a broken thumb or something like that. That's fine. But that's what happens to old people. They break stuff all the time.

Break it up, try to pour a beer. Like anything could happen with that. But I'm taking him over Derek Carr. Like the ceiling or the possibility of Aaron Rodgers is just that much higher and they don't need that much. They just need a capable quarterback because they, I mean, everything else there is set up for them to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender, except for the fact that they're the New York Jets.

And that's the biggest thing they're going to have to overcome because sometimes you just always walk. Yeah, I know. New York Jets. 1969 last time, right? 69.

I mean, you a local. You know what time it is with them. Yes. Yes, I do.

I do. Everybody was sitting here with my man, Romani Jones, on the air. And you can check him out just to let everybody know he has this unbelievable show called Game Theory. And he sits around and he really is, you know, I'm going to use a word you really articulate.

No, you're really good on this show. He speaks so well. He speaks so well.

He speaks so well for somebody who's only 6'2". Right there on HBO. New season is starting streaming on HBO Max. How many seasons do you have?

Are they doing you season by season or are they being lovely? Oh, no, no, no, no. We're proving ourselves.

We're singing for our supper job. Yes, really? So I know I got season two. Hey, man, that's life sometimes, man. They don't know it to me. Don't get me wrong. But if they told me tomorrow it was season three, it would feel good.

It would feel good. So I was on L.A.'s Finest with Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba and season one. And they were like, hey, we might get a season two. We got season two. I was like, oh, this is great. They still didn't make me a cast member.

So during the pandemic, I didn't get any checks except for sneakarella. And it's a trip we were talking about when playing an NBA, playing pro sports. When you finish is when your life starts and when your career starts. Whatever you do after you finish playing pro sports, that's your career.

The other stuff. I can't even imagine jumping and dunking, shooting three. I think it's even funny to watch me shoot a three pointer and watching all these big guys shoot three pointers. Man, if I was allowed, I would have played at least I was 45 years old. I would have. Oh, yeah. You could have made that move outside. And one of my favorite things at the NBA is that they are doing the side.

I ain't doing that stuff no more. Like Chris Bosh got hurt in the playoffs one year. He came back a completely different player. It was like a month and a half. He came back in the corner. Never did he see the post again.

He's like, I ain't doing this no more. No, there's no, especially when they just want points. And I was explaining it. If it's just about putting the ball up as many times as possible, that's what you need to do. I think that part of it, the fun part of it.

And then another thing, they take the fun out of it when you're a professional athlete. I said this before. I say it all the time. When we would win games, coach, all right, calm down. Summer down.

Summer down. There's a lot of things we need to work on. We got to win. And don't worry, we got to get ready for our next game. The next game.

That's what they would do. And then they brush it off. You got 10 minutes to talk about the game. Then they talk about the net. But let you lose? Man, that coach is talking about everything you did wrong the next day on sports radio.

They won't let your kids in school. All kind of things there on top of you. I just thought about it. And I ain't thought about what you said there. There is no regular season win that is like cause for celebration.

You just look like a fucker. Like you win one of those days too. But them losses. And they would say to me, why do you play like this in the playoffs?

Cause that's where it matters most. What's the schedule? What's on the agenda? Top news in the NBA for the next, going into the second half of the season. I mean, I think Phoenix has got to be question number one.

Like what are they going to look like? Cause look, they got Kevin Durant on one side, Devin Booker on the other. Good luck to you guarding them.

But Chris Paul's help is always an issue as you go farther. And I don't know who is a collective they're going to guard. Like that's the issue that I think we have with them. But that's the question.

That's story line one. And two, I like the kind of old schoolness of the East in the sense that we got two teams that we all think are going to get to the East of the conference finals. And we're just going to watch what happens until then and just get really anxious and anticipate getting Buck Celtics.

That's the one I'm waiting on. Okay. So you're thinking who's winning the championship, put you on the spot right now, and then we got to let you go? I am going with Milwaukee.

I'm going with the team with the best player. Wow. With a hurt wrist. I didn't win a chicken dinner. Here we go. He's gone. He's gone with the Greek freak. Everybody, please thank you, Romani, for coming on the air with us. Romani Jones with his big time show on HBO Game Theory. Make sure you tune in. He's streaming on HBO Max.

He's big time. Thank you very much, Romani. Thank you, man. Y'all have a good one. All right. Peace. Good dude. Oh, my God. Bucks.

Bucks. Okay. Let's talk about that when we get back. We will.

All right. John Salley filling in for Rich Eisen right here on the Rich Eisen Show. When you're drafting your fantasy team, do you ever wish you could do the same thing with your business team? Well, if you're building a roster to win the league, you need Indeed. Indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract, interview and hire all in one place. Don't spend hours on multiple job sites looking for candidates with the right skills when you can do it all with Indeed. Because Indeed knows when you're growing your own business, you have to make every dollar and second count. That's why with Indeed, you only pay for quality applications that match your must have job requirements.

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Buy new and improved Dove Men Plus Care Antiperspirant wherever personal care products are sold. John Sally sitting in for Rich Eisen right here on the Rich Eisen Show. And you can check it out on Roku. We got to thank my man, Imani Jones, for coming on. Great, great guest. And I'm sitting here, you know, because we're filling in and I'm I'm I'm wondering different things, you know, to say and different things ready to come out. Right. And so I was thinking this is this is this is a good thing.

This is what happens when you think. Why don't we talk about Steph Curry? Why don't we talk about Clay? And why don't we talk about the Golden State Warriors? Do you think that run and that dynasty is done? First off, first off, are they a dynasty? Yes. Yeah.

One thousand percent. Yeah. OK. And they got four championships in a what? Since 2000. Yeah.

Like 16. So they won four out of seven. They're a dynasty. Yeah.

OK. Go into the finals seven times. Yeah. They've been awesome. Yeah.

We don't talk about them right now because they're five hundred team and Steph is hurt. Yeah. And how quick it can change. Yeah.

It can change so quick. I did. I went over to my boy, Dana Pump, always gets me on these cool gigs. And we went to this high school and over in La Ciena. What do you go like? What do you call it?

Like Don Quignada. Yeah. Right. And I I've never been there.

Me either. Right. And you go around a mountain and it's a brand new Beverly Hills. I was blown away when I was there. And Jerry West was there, 82 years old. I'm telling you, Jerry West looked maybe 60, maybe. And this is the craziest thing is he goes, yeah, I put you on the Lakers 23 years ago. And I was and I looked at him thinking, wow, you're 82 now that Jerry West. I'm telling you, couldn't tell. Couldn't tell that this guy was 82 years old.

Still moving fluid, still paying attention to the game, knowing these different guys going. And I thought about Jerry. I was big Jerry West fan. I still am.

When they start talking about the greats, I always mention him. He went to the finals nine times before he won. Yeah. Almost in a row. So imagine what his summer was like for nine years. That that is trauma.

That is trauma right there. Losing. Well, you got to go to the you got to go to the grocery store. You got to go to restaurants, people throwing your food at you, overcharging you for milk, all kind of things.

The things he had to go through that we couldn't even think about going through. I saw what a WNBA was talking about. You know, they should be flying private. Maybe they should fly private.

I couldn't imagine an NBA player now flying commercial like we used to fly. And I had to sit with Dennis Robin and I had to sit and coach exit row, right? No, we sat the good days. We were right behind first class and we had a seat in between us. Is where I learned yoga because I can put my legs in all kind of positions just sitting in that seat. And I just thought about it like all the different things that we had to go through that people don't think about and then play a game.

So there was more distraction. You fly to I flew into Oakland first time we're flying into Oakland. I can't wait to go thinking I'm going to San Francisco. No, I'm in Oakland. And they don't tell you that that you're in Oakland. You're not in San Francisco right now. You go you go to San Francisco, San Francisco.

But we were in Oakland and we check into the hotel. And the first thing, Mike Avdanow, my man, Mike, what's up, Mike Avdanow, our trainer, everything, president, everything. Mike goes, OK, this is the deal, Rook. When you get off, you're going to grab the balls because I had to carry the balls. We brought our own basketballs and we had to carry I had to carry Adrian Dantley's bag along with my bag.

And Dennis Robin had to carry the VCR and and some other things. And he goes, when you get in, walk straight to the lobby, don't talk to anybody. When we walked through, it was pimps everywhere. And I'm looking to say, hey, young fella, come here, young fella.

And they were like, Sal. And I'm walking through thinking, did I just see what I see in the lobby at a hotel? So that distraction, I left so many things in the in the lobby with my keys.

I left my keys into this joint. All right. We're going to take a break from radio for the Rich Eisen Show. Talk to you in a bit.

But we're still on Roku, which is by far the newest and the greatest channel there is out of the two hundred and seventy five channels. What would have happened in a minute? Maybe not a minute topic. What would have happened if like Dennis Rodman punched out Joe Dumars? Would have never happened. One, Joe doesn't talk. Even to this day, he doesn't talk to us. But if he would have punched out like the microwave, what would have happened?

That wouldn't happen either. Vinny Johnson is by one one of the strongest people I've ever met. Dennis Robin is the strongest person I've ever met. He's because whatever planet he's from, you know, he's he's from a different planet. I'm telling you, he is. He's an alien. He is an alien. And I'm saying it first.

So when apocalypse happens and then Dennis Robin is the president. But you understand my larger point. Yeah. One one. It doesn't happen that way on our squad. The only person ever got into a fight was Isaiah and Tony Campbell. And everybody against Bill and Bill. Mark McGuire. Bill and Bill is the only one that had any scuffle.

We really didn't fight in practice. Sid Green. I mean, yes, Sid Green.

Rick Mahorn. It depends when they when they got tired, when the older fellows got tired, they would start something. It would be a scuffle and they'd be like, all right, all right, break it up.

File shots, file shots. They knew how to get out of practice. Yeah, but it would it would. We didn't fight like that. We definitely was a team. Was it was a family at that time. All right.

John Salah here on The Rich Isaac Show. We'll be right back. This is what I've been dealing with for 14 months. Give them Lala wherever you listen.