REShow: Brian Scalabrine - Hour 2 (5-4-2023)

This is the Rich Eisen Show.

Goats have home lives too. Live from the Rich Eisen Show Studio in Los Angeles. These are the droids we're looking for. Cowboys Jets to open the season, Sunday Night Football.

How about the Jets' first game is against the defending NFC champs. The Rich Eisen Show with guest host Kirk Morrison. Earlier on the show, Yahoo! Sports senior NFL writer Charles Robinson. Coming up, NBC Sports Boston Celtics analyst Brian Scalabrini.

Senior NBA writer for The Athletic, Joe Vardon. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Kirk Morrison. May the 4th be with you. Hour number two here on the Rich Eisen Show. A much smoother hour number two. We had a little rocky start, but guess what? We made it. We were taking off with no radar. I knew it was going to happen.

Del Tufa was on it. The universe loves us. Brockman has the biggest job of all the things. He has to turn on the power behind his rack and reach and get in there and fix the system. And he's a master at it. If I didn't have Brockman next to me, I'd be so easy to do this. I can't reach, I can't make it. It's tough, but he knows where to get. Mike's acting like he's MacGyver, like blue or red wire. You gotta cut one.

Pull one in and plug it in. You know what, man? I'm so glad that we got everything all fixed up because there was no way I was going to call my guy and say, I can't have you on the show today. We don't have a show, but you know what?

We got everything worked out. So I'm excited to bring in my guy, Mr. Brian Scalabrini, Celtics analytics for NBC Sports Boston. I can't wait to catch up with Mr. Scalabrini because I know it's been a hard, tough week for the people in the Boston area, especially what happened to the Bruins this past week. And then all of a sudden the Celtics lose in game one to the 76ers, but they win in game two.

And Scalabrini, break it down for me. Have people calmed down now in the Boston, New England area? A little bit. By the way, good.

When we started out, we were on the come up together over at Fox. And now you're doing your thing. I'm doing my thing.

So it's good to catch up again. But yeah, a little bit. I mean, I think we're all like, I'm an analyst for the Celtics.

I'm supposed to know. And I don't really understand the roller coaster ride that this team goes on. But I will tell you this. I'll take that roller coaster ride if I have upper echelon talent. Roller coaster rides are not fun when you're not good. And I've been a part of teams that were really good and we loved them, but they just didn't have that talent to get to that championship level. And with the championship level comes expectation.

And they think that you should be perfect every night. And sometimes, I don't know how it works in football, but sometimes when the star player is out and you're preparing for the star player and that happens, it could downshift you just a little bit. No doubt Philadelphia was more prepared in game one, but I like the adjustments that the Celtics made in game two. Most of it was just picking up their ball pressure, getting more deflections, playing that game.

Because when you're more talented and you can impose your physical will on somebody, you got to make sure you're doing that. They didn't do it in game one. They did it in game two, but it's going to be a beast.

Game three with MD hosting that MVP trophy. I don't think there's been a game in Philadelphia for about 10 days. So the fans are going to be ready. It's Boston. It's Philly. These are big-time rivals.

So Friday night should be unbelievable. What do you think, for the most part, changed from game one to game two in terms of not understanding how the 76ers were going to play without Embiid? You mentioned in the NFL, you say the team is without their quarterback.

Oh yeah, we got them. And you kind of have this false insecurity that we're just going to be better. The next thing you know, you're in the fourth quarter and you realize, oh we're in a dog fight.

What changed? Was it just the overall game plan or just this team just felt that they had to take care of business, especially being at home? Yeah, you know what? A lot of times in the NBA, you spend, and here's the difference, in the regular season you'll spend 10 minutes, go through some film. Maybe you'll get like an individual clip of how you did against that team or a guy you have to cover and you go through that. But for the most part, you're kind of focused on yourself. Well, playoffs come around, you get these giant books and you study and study and study and study.

And sometimes there's no doubt that that's a part of it, right? There's no doubt that you have to know, is James Harden going right? What's he going to do when he goes left?

What's he going to do? But sometimes you got to throw that out. You have to be able to play hard, get into the body, kind of lose yourself in the competition of the game, as well as in the back of your mind, understand game plan discipline, understand tendencies and stuff like that. I felt like they were so far on one end of that spectrum in game one where they were thinking, okay, well, James Harden, this is what he does.

We haven't seen that this year, but this is what he did five years ago. Sometimes you just got to go out there and just ball out. Sometimes you just got to go out there and just play and be tough and have a game plan in the back of your mind. But you know, get deflection pressure, the ball, make your pick up point 94 feet, as opposed to picking guys up at the three point line. So sometimes little things like that, that are effort based or cracking back on the weak side, grabbing a rebound, crashing the offensive glass, keeping something alive. Those things right there are big moments in the NBA. So I just felt like they were playing the scouting report. And I felt like in game two, they were playing like, we're not going to lose this game.

We're going to impose our will on this game. He's Brian Scalabrini, Celtics analyst for NBC Sports, Boston. Also, you can hear him. I know I hear him in the car all the time. A Sirius XM NBA radio host.

You can follow him on Twitter at Scalabrini. Look, Scal, one thing I do know is that they got a head coach who was only 34 years of age. And so some people may say, is he in over his head in his first time leading a team, leading the Celtics in the playoffs?

What have you seen from Joe Mazula, especially from the first series and the first two games of this series against the 76ers? All right. I'm not going to like, I'm not, I'm going to put you on the spot right here.

Please, please do it. And I know you love your warriors. I know you do, but you know, Steve Curzon all time, he didn't go to Hall of Fame. I can guarantee you, he goes to Hall of Fame as a coach, you know, their staff did not inform Steph Curry that they didn't have any time out. That is like a catastrophic failure on their part. So, hold on, hold on. You don't want to stop you there. Like, like, look, Steph Curry said, Hey, we used a challenge.

I thought the challenge was a timeout. It was a little, little gray area there. So I'll give, I'll give the four time champion a little bit.

Yeah, I'm not, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let me just give me, give me the, give me the floor to explain. Here we go.

You've got the floor. The best of the best, even the best of the best make mistakes, but every time the best of the best make mistakes, we chalk it up. Ah, it's all right.

They had 20 assistant coaches there and none of them informed them. Okay. What about Mike Boonhoser 0.5? You still have one to burn. They're not going to call that time out. You're not going to advocate for more time on the clock. You're not going to advocate for, you know, Jimmy Butler pushing off on Pat Connaughton. You're just going to let that go.

You're just going to let that 0.5 go. So, and Boonhoser won a championship two years ago. My point is like, even the best of the best make mistakes. Every time Joe Mazula does something, which all kinds of great coaches do, everyone's like, oh, he's too young. He's not ready for the ball. So I don't, I'm telling you right now, the guy's good and he's going to be great.

He could be great this year. He's learning on the fly. He's making mistakes. Just like anybody makes mistakes in, in the playoffs. The only guy I could tell you, like, I really don't think has made a mistake is Eric Spolstra. That guy has not made a mistake in his entire playoffs, but outside of that, like guys are going to do that. So I think it's appropriate for any coach in high stress positions to, you know, like to kind of, you know, blow a coverage here, or not have your team prepared to go against a team without Joe LMD. And, but I tell you what, from game one to game two, you hit all the right buttons. We need to be, we need to impose our will in this game.

So a lot of, and listen, I'm going at you, but really it's a thing up here. Everyone sits around and says, adjustments, adjustments. I always look at them and say, you know, they, and they're all, their adjustment is always, I wouldn't play the guy who played bad. Well, you got to tell me that beforehand.

You know what I mean? Anybody can go back and say, oh yeah, he should have played more. He should have played less, but in the moment you've got to make the decision that you think is best for your team. I think personally, Joe's doing a great job. I think he's getting like kind of a bad rep here and he doesn't handle the outside media very well because he's kind of short to the point just in gets, gets out and it's fine when you're Bill Belichick and you got 10 Super Bowls and all that stuff, but it's not 500 Joe Mazzuva and you're in your first year and people in media got to get out of their feelings when they don't like a guy. And then all of a sudden they think he's not very good.

You can, you can not like a guy and he can be really good, or you can love a guy and that guy could not be very good. It's just the way it goes. I mean, Joe's doing a great job and he's getting sort of unfair shape right now with this team, you know, and everyone thinks that this team won the championship last year. They had their ups and downs last year too and now they're having some.

This year, everyone plays to Joe Mazzuva. Yeah. No, I understand, Scott. It's okay, man. I'm, it's okay, brother. You know, I know how it is when, when, when people are a certain way, like someone goes back at you on Twitter. Now, all of a sudden you're bad at the next guy for asking the same question. That's kind of what it is right now, right now with my man, Joe Mazzuva.

No, I got it, man. Brian Scalabrina, Celtics analyst for NBC Sports, Boston. But you know, the one thing I can see when, in looking at this series now, if Joel Embiid is able to play in game three, what changes for the Celtics approach, you think, for their game plan?

Yeah, so it's really interesting. I thought Doc Rivers really handled that well. A lot of people were saying, Embiid shouldn't play.

Why are you playing him? You got the, you're not going to win this game anyway. But I looked at that game and I think Doc Rivers looked at it the same way.

Like, this is a great game to knock the rust off. Like, you're not going to want Embiid to have 13 days off before he goes and plays and hoists that MVP trophy and all the emotions of that. Like, I thought yesterday was an appropriate way for him to kind of get out there, get his feel back. And I'm expecting Embiid to be dominant. Like, dude, don't hoist up an MVP trophy and go out there and lay an egg. So I'm expecting a huge game from Embiid. And I'm also expecting Jason Tatum to bounce back only seven points. He's scored double figures in 160 straight games. That's fourth all-time in Celtic history. And last night, just seven points, got in foul trouble, just one field goal. So I saw something really interesting. PJ Tucker has been stuck to Jason Tatum, but last night in the third quarter, he switched over to guarding Jalen Brown, who had the hot hand, who really had a great game.

Maybe one of the greatest games, as far as the core game I've ever seen. So where I'm expecting stars to really show up, I'm expecting Tatum to be big and I'm expecting Embiid to be big and I'm expecting a hostile environment. So everyone thinks the Celtics have an advantage. You kind of got to throw it out when, like, the Sixers do have the best player on the floor, even though I believe the Celtics are a better team. He's Brian Scalabrini. He's also a Sirius XM NBA radio host and you cover the entire league, not just the Celtics. And, you know, it's been this narrative.

And I heard you speaking about this the other day, riding around in my car, just kind of what's going on in Memphis. Obviously, Dylan Brooks seemed to be the scapegoat of a basketball team that underperformed, right? We expected this Grizzlies team to possibly compete in the conference finals.

They didn't make it there. And so everyone's saying it's because of Dylan Brooks and he poked the bear in LeBron James and LeBron James basically is going to get him, who's not even on his team, out of Memphis. I know you've been around, you've been in the league, you played for 11 seasons, you won championships and all that stuff. Have you seen something like this to where people are kind of scapegoating one person, but yet it's a lot of deficiencies within that team of why they didn't perform?

No, never. I don't understand why Memphis went down this road. First of all, let's look at it from Memphis' point of view, right? You could use Dylan Brooks as a sign and trade to get something else if you don't want him back. Let's look at it from Dylan Brooks' standpoint.

You want your own team to want you so you can get as much money as possible. Like I don't get it and I don't get who leaked it. Whoever leaked this does not understand in the NBA and free agency.

So I don't know who that is. I don't know if that was Memphis, which I doubt that those guys who run a team don't understand it. And I doubt it's his agent. So I don't know, like maybe they had an exit interview and Dylan Brooks, maybe they just told him like, like, like if it came out like this, like, Kirk, if you, if you heard, man, Dylan Brooks wants a bigger role and he wants 25 million next year, you could say, Hey, you know what?

We ain't paying you 25 million. So that's the case. And you know, like, congratulations. I hope you get paid.

I hope you do well. But the way that they worded it or Shams worded it by any, like by under no, under no circumstances is Dylan Brooks going to be coming back. That's on no circumstances.

So if he signed for a minimum deal, you wouldn't sign him back. Like, it's that bad. So that whole thing is wild. And I don't think Memphis is trying to blame Dylan Brooks.

I think what's happening, this is just my experience with the NBA. I think they got a young player. I think his name is Zaire Williamson.

I'm pretty sure that's, I could be off by that. He went to Stanford. He played with Ronnie at height in high school and he's young up and coming player. It might be one of those situations where no matter what happened, Taylor Jenkins is never going to play that young player over Dylan Brooks. So for the organization, maybe they're saying like, you know what, we need to get rid of Dylan Brooks so we can get the, let's say, let's say, Williams has more talent than, than Brooks. Then all of a sudden you're like, okay, let's go with him instead of, instead of a Dylan Brooks, you feel like his ceiling is higher.

It might take some time, but we have to do that. And I, I don't, I don't know if Danny Ames did that here. I don't know that, but I know that they had to free up space for Jalen Brown as a young player. Like, so I thought that Jay Crowder was kind of put into the Kyrie Irving trade for that reason. I could be completely off by this, but it kind of looked like to me that they were trying to like open up the door for Jalen Brown to get more time so he could develop it to what he is right now.

So there's a lot of that. I don't think they're trying to blame Dylan Brooks, but it just feels like a weird strategy for both sides to have. And this is, this is unprecedented where you have a guy who's a free agent and teams are saying like, we don't want you back. It does, it does kind of feel like they're blaming John Moran's situation as shotgun Willys or the Steven Adams, Brandon Clark injuries, or just the Memphis kind of like, you know, they're supposed to be really good. And John Moran saying, we're going to, we're not worried about no one in the West. And all of a sudden now always still Brooks's fault. So optically, it looks like that, but I think they're trying to open up some space for some younger players to come into play. Yeah.

My guy, Brian Scalabrini Celtics analyst for NBC Sports Boston. Last one before I get you out of here, because you already told everybody, uh, my rooting interest for tonight, the Warriors versus Lakers game two, uh, you surprised at the game one results, or is it kind of the way you thought this series may go back and forth, even with LeBron and AD and this new look Lakers? Yeah. So here's the challenge with that. Like I didn't know how this is going to unfold. The Warriors, they could beat you a hundred different ways and spending the same thing with the Lakers, but here's what I would say looking forward, right?

So forget about looking back. I can tell you what the Warriors need to do to one. Like the ball loony has been excellent, but it allows the empty Davis to sit in the paint. That's going to be a problem for the Warriors. You saw their points in the paint, only 24. They had to live and die by the three.

They could definitely do that. Here's another one that you, you, it is a necessity that you have to do. Like you cannot allow LeBron to sit there in the middle of the key and guard and like dictate everything. So, so I'm looking at Andrew Wiggins and he needs to be way more aggressive and even like a Draymond green, he needs to be more aggressive. If you let LeBron chill defensively and call out coverages, you will lose.

I've seen it. I, you know, he doesn't have to be the young athlete that he was back in 2013 for him to call off people's coverages out. Right. One of the smartest basketball, if not basketball third now, if not ever, as far as he knows everything that everyone's going to do and he knows it on such a high level. So you got to get LeBron engaged. So Wiggins would be the guy and you got to get him moving around because if you let him stand there, the Warriors won't win this series.

But I think the Warriors know that. And I think Wiggins is going to have to have a huge night tonight and look for maybe a little less Kavon Looney in different situations to try to get Anthony Davis out of the paint. I love Kavon Looney. Love him. But sometimes you need that vertical spacer where you can just drive AD steps up, you throw it up, a guy catches it and dunks it. Kavon Looney is not that guy. And Wiseman was supposed to be that guy.

They took him away. They need that vertical spacer behind them to take that pressure off of, you know, guys driving to the basket and getting their shot over the outstretched arms of Anthony Davis. So that's what I'm looking for going forward. I do think the Warriors will win game two.

I think they will make those right adjustments. Skal, I got smarter today. You know that? You just enlightened me. Fine. What happened? You just enlightened me.

Now I know what to look for tonight when I'm watching the game. You've talked to me off the ledge. It's okay.

I'm here in Los Angeles around all these Lakers fans and everybody's already trying to go raise the 17th banner for the Lakers. So I appreciate that. Oh, well. Listen, if you're banking on Wiggins breaking out of this thing, just because I say it doesn't mean the players can do it.

They got to do it. You know that, right? But I know what I'm going to be looking for tonight.

So it's all about Wiggins, man. Skal, I appreciate it, man. Great work, as always. I look forward to seeing your coverage and also hearing you on NBA radio, man. Appreciate the time, Skal. All right, Kurt. See you. Brian Scalabrini, Celtics analyst for NBC Sports Boston.

Follow him on Twitter at Scalabrini. You feel better, Brockman, about all that? Just the way that this Celtics 76 this year is now playing. You can win by 34 and Jason Tatum has 7 7 points. Yeah, I think you need to feel good. It was kind of what I was hoping would happen in game one. But hey, it happens.

And as I said yesterday, it didn't come back to bite me. I think the Celtics were in a better spot with Embiid on the on the court just because of how rusty he's going to be. And they needed to get him involved. And it kind of the way Al Horford was shooting the three last night, even though it did have five amazing blocks, he was kind of all over the glass last night, but just kind of stretch things out a little bit and open the paint up a little bit more for some of those drives. You know, I felt good. It's what I expected last night. Now it's the best of five. Best of five with a much, I guess, more healed up, more healthy, I would say Joel Embiid. I guess, you know, TJ, you know, you didn't want him to play, but I think it was kind of important for him to get out there and knock some of that rust off.

Absolutely. You know, I didn't want them to play because this was the fan more so than the guy just watching basketball as the fan. You're like, man, I just don't want to see him get hurt again. But obviously the right move was to put him on the court.

Like you said, get his he hasn't run in 13 days. So, you know, get the lungs working a little bit, knock some of that rest off. But it's weird to me because I watched some sports shows this morning and all year you have these analysts who complain about guys load managing. Right. And then this morning I'm hearing a bunch of guys saying, well, he just should have sat. Well, it's like, oh, you were you were mad about guys sitting. And now when the guy legitimately had an injury that we do know of, you're like, no, well, we'll sit him like, no, like, what do you want?

You can't have it both ways. Right. Like, I don't know that that was weird to me, but, you know, it was until halftime. It looked like a competitive game.

It was. I just and I just don't see Boston making twenty threes again. The next game, like the third quarter, you guys just Chris, you guys just balled out.

It was it started to make my head throb. It was just got that ugly. But, you know, we won sixers won one.

That's all you really want to do, right? You just want to go in there and kind of take home court. Now it's it's up in the air.

It's wide open. It's the best of five going into Philadelphia. It's going to be raucous, that crowd. I can't wait.

Game was at Game three on Friday. I can't wait to see that match up as well. Coming up, we got Brockman's top five.

You ready? You got your top five ready? Yeah, it's top five. Top five what? Top five NBA Finals match up. Of all time or for this year? That we want to see this year.

Top five matches we want to see this year. That's a good question. We still are holding on. People are holding on for Lakers Celtics, right? Is that a possibility? I guess we'll find out. We'll find out coming up next here on the Rich Eisen Show.

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Just search BLEAV Podcast wherever you listen. Here on the Rich Eisen Show, Kirk Morrison filling in for rich. May the 4th excited about what's yet to come, especially when it comes to the NBA and it's Eastern and Western Conference semi-finals.

I hate saying it. Just the second round. How about that? Second round. Technically it's the semi-finals.

Whatever. It's the second round. But the one thing is that we've got our final eight. It's like the Elite Eight, right?

Got college basketball. But with the eight teams that are remaining, there are some matchups that we may want to see. We may be rooting to see. Do we have betting interest to see? There's so much involving the second round as we get closer to the Final Four and then finally the NBA Finals. So you know what, Brockman? I'm going to let you take it away because I want to know who do we all want to see in the NBA Finals? Mike, hit my music.

Let's go. Alright, this is just me. TJ, as you always say, this is just what I want. This is just my opinion. Oh, this is your opinion.

Okay? Okay, it's all you, baby. You guys can all differ and I'm sure you'll be real generous and level headed in the comments.

It's all you. But this is what I want to see. My top five NBA Finals matchups. Number five, Lakers Knicks.

Okay, look. Two of the most storied franchises in the NBA, a bunch of titles. The Knicks are finally relevant again.

They only made the playoffs one time in the last 20 something years. It's good basketball. TJ, NBA, it's better when the Knicks are relevant and involved.

The Garden's rocking. I mean, the back and forth, East Coast, West Coast, that would be a fun NBA Finals. Not mad at that. Number four, who are the two best big men in the NBA? Joel Embiid?

Yup. Number four, Nuggets Sixers. The big men. The battle of the big men.

You know, I love big men back. I think this would be a really fun NBA Finals, especially if we get the James Harden that we saw game one against Boston dropping 45 looking like Houston Harden. Obviously, the Joker, he's been able to do the back to back MVPs in the second this year.

His supporting cast, Bubble Murray back. I think that would be a really fun NBA Final. I like that.

Number three, another kind of fun one. I know they're in an 0-2 hole right now, but Suns and Sixers. I think this would be really fun because you got a lot of guys on both of these teams that have never won championships. I know Kevin Durant has come into Phoenix now. Two time champ, two time Finals MVP.

You know, probably one of the 12 best players of all time, but just that would be a fun kind of star studded. You got Harden against Chris Paul. You got Devin Booker coming out party.

Maxie is really coming into his own. And then of course you got the big man. You got Embiid.

You got Kevin Durant. I think that would be a really fun final. I like that. I like that. Now the next two guys are just for me.

Yeah, just for me. Number two, give me the rematch. Give me Warriors Celtics from last year. Celtics blow a 2-1 lead or Warriors come back from a 2-1, whatever you want to say. Blow a 2-1 lead because they can't turn the ball over because they're just dumb, but then they got a chance for redemption. You got Steph Curry going for number five.

According to Stephen A. Smith, guys, gets him on Mount Rushmore. LeBron off. Curry on, according to Stephen A. Okay, you got the Celtics going for banner 18. You got Tatum and Brown putting all the critics to bed, finally winning a championship. Joe Mazzullo in his first year. How many rookie head coaches has won an NBA title? Not a lot.

Not a lot. That would be really fun. And of course, number one, get O'Shea Jackson in here.

Where's my camera? O'Shea, I'm talking to you. This is what we want. We want West Coast. We want Northeast. We want Celtics. We want Lakers.

Give it to me. We're going to get there. Are you going to get there? O'Shea, I'm talking to you.

You guys have to hold up your end of the bargain. We're going to be there. Boss is going to be there. The 617 is going to represent.

Is 310 going to make it? I'm talking to you, O'Shea. Celtics, Lakers, that's what I want. Let's go. I like that. Good job. I like it strong.

The East Coast ain't got love for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Let's go. Well, let it be known. I want all the Walbergs. I want Maria Menounos.

I want them all. We're going to be courtside. Let's go. Big Poppy out there.

Big Poppy's hot craft. Pete Mills coming up. He's driving up 95. Even though I know he reps Billy TJ, but let's go. He only wants to see the Warriors in one series.

I'm surprised about that. We've seen the Warriors so many times. How many times do you guys got to make the finals? It doesn't matter.

It's still a good thing. But the thing is, I'm looking at matchups. The Warriors don't really match up with any of the other teams. Warriors heat put me to sleep.

So I got a couple of notes here. So you said number four, Nuggets 76ers. NBA shift. The NBA shift in this world of three pointers and small ball. Is that a shift in the NBA? Because I always say we are a product of what we see. So if we see the big man coming back, does that mean a shift in the way we look at the NBA?

Well, it's so funny. You mentioned the big man coming back. Embiid won MVP last year. He's runner up the last two years. However, the Sixers were the best shooting three-point team in the NBA this year. So it's kind of funny that also, what did I see the stat last night? They had the leading assist man and the points per game and the MVP, which hasn't happened in a really long time. Since 1980.

And I'm glad you brought that up, not to jump in. But the last time that happened that one team had the top point getter and the top assist man was 1981, was a San Antonio Spurs. The thing that made my ears perk up, because the leading assist man in the NBA that year, George Gervin, led the league in points. Leading assist man was Johnny Moore, who is from Altoona. Johnny Moore is actually my God brother.

His mother is my God mother. So it was just nice to hear his name being said last night. So, you know, that was a nice little tie in for me there. But yeah, that was the last time that one team had the top assist getter and the top scorer on the same team. Sun 76ers, I could probably do it out. That was just kind of a way to get Kevin Durant in there. And of course Durant already got his two championships. But Chris Paul still doesn't have his.

So you could play it like that. Chris Paul against Harden, two of the best guards of all time. One of them getting the rings. No, I got you.

I appreciate it. Honestly, and look, this is, I think, to your point, just having the Lakers in the finals, I think it's good enough because you got LeBron, but you got AD, you got the West Coast, you got people rooting against. So you have like two sides of it. But man, I think of all these teams or these games or these finals match-ups, man, if it was Lakers, Knicks, that would break the internet. Lakers, Knicks, that would set TV records. Because you get, think about it, you got LeBron going for number five. That's a whole other thing.

And then the Knicks haven't won a title since like 70, it's like 50 years. So you got that going. I think I'm more... And just the celebrity rows we would get at each game. That would be the most ridiculous. You wrote that down? You already know that's what I wrote down. Celebrity row LA, and then we saw the New York one over the weekend.

It was wild. Who gets turned away? Because some people don't get turned away. Yeah, because there's only so many court-sized seats.

There's only so many court-sized seats, especially in LA. Because you're not moving, Jack. You're not moving Denzel, right? Not moving. Ari Emanuel's got that whole row where Larry David pops in. Correct.

Dr. Dre was there the other day. You're not moving people. Diane Cannon has her seats. By the way, I don't think she's ever missed a game, ever. She's like behind the basket. So Spike ain't moving.

We know that in New York. Ben Stiller ain't moving. Ben Stiller, who else? I'll sell my tickets. I'm just trying to figure out who ain't moving, because it's some people who will get shut out. You know Leo's gonna show up.

Oh yeah. He was there last week. Does Jack show up tomorrow?

Yeah, he's got it. On Saturday night? Saturday night? Oh yeah, he'll be there. Saturday night might be the biggest Lakers home game in years. Years.

I've always said that you cannot... It's all the people with the one name recognition. Yep. One name recognition gets you into the court side, right? Oh, we're gonna see Jay-Z and Beyonce on Saturday night, for sure. Jay, Bay, Denzel, right? Jack, Leo, Jack, Dre, Leo, Spike.

You know what I mean? I'm just thinking about if we have Lakers, Knicks. Who will be the people that can't... You gotta be one name. I'll do respect to our buddy Turtle. I don't think Jerry Farrar is getting those court side seats like he got the other night with Aaron Rodgers. Maybe Turtle, but not Jerry Farrar. I mean, can we get Henrik Lundquist some love? The guy on the right. Exactly.

People don't know him. Only one of the greatest goalies in Ranger history. Yeah.

I like that. With sauce Gardner and Aaron Rodgers. Also, why isn't Garrett Wilson getting the call to go court side?

Aaron Rodgers is there with Breece Hall, with sauce Gardner. With Lazard. Where's Garrett Wilson? Lazard was there the other night. Yep. No Garrett Wilson and now the Randall Cobbs coming in.

Garrett just keep getting pushed off to the side. You know, see, I'm glad that you brought that up because we're talking about court side. And I saw this yesterday, right? Because there were availability for the New York Jets.

Obviously, everybody wants to talk Jets. And so I had to... Do you ever have those moments where you just feel old? Yeah. Yeah, I get it. Sometimes you get out of the bed and all of a sudden the knees ain't working like they used to.

My knees ain't kneeing. Me trying to understand TikTok makes me feel old. Oh, yeah.

I got you. But when you get a chance to talk or you listen to the young players that are entering the National Football League, the younger generation of players, you really start to feel old. And this was yesterday. Ahmad sauce Gardner. I call him Ahmad sauce Gardner because his head coach at Cincinnati when he was there, Luke Fickle, I always ask him, hey, tell me about sauce. You mean Ahmad? So he still calls him Ahmad sauce Gardner. New York people will call him sauce Gardner, but sauce Gardner was available to the media. And he talked about his trip to the garden, but it was a little different because he went with Aaron Rogers.

Here's a little sauce. I got to meet a few movie stars. I got to meet Chris Rock. Who else?

Dave Chappelle, Tracy Morgan. I mean, I met quite a few people, but we were getting seated. He was just he was just picking on me a little bit for being young, you know, like we was getting seated and he was like, oh, we're about to sit by about to sit by Jessica Alba.

And I'm just like, oh, you know, I mean, I'm like, yeah, I don't know who that is. And he just looked at me. He looked at me like I'm crazy.

You know what I mean? So it was just great just being able to sit sit over there. And I got to I got to meet her and one of her friends who was from Detroit, actually, you know, it was great vibes. But that whole night, he just keep asking me out of nowhere. He's like, do you know that person is? And I'm like, oh, that's Amari Stoudemire. I know that is like, now you're just picking on me at this point.

That is funny. Here's the deal. Yes. We cannot shame Sauce for this. No. OK, Sauce is 22 years old. Correct. Jessica Alba looks great. She's from our generation.

Yes, she is in her 40s. OK, like so we can't really hate on Sauce for not knowing who just he didn't grow up watching Dark Angel. He never saw Into the Blue. OK, yes. You know what I'm saying?

Well, good luck, Chuck. Wasn't she? And that was like, we can't hate on Sauce for this. So Sauce gets a pass. Sauce has never seen idle hands, I promise. He's never seen. He doesn't know.

And I saw Kyle Brandt did a big thing on this this morning. And he was talking about, like, what other star from the 2000s like should Sauce know? He shouldn't know any of them. He wasn't born.

All right. So he gets a pass for me. Yeah, he probably would know the like the fans of Fast, Fast and Furious, because they just keep on going. Yeah, I mean, they're on your third generation of films now.

That's the one that just like keeps on going and going. Sauce was watching Disney Channel in 05 when we were watching all these. Sauce wasn't watching Sin City when we were. I got to give you a little sauce, right? A little sauce on Twitter.

He had to respond to all the comments. To be clear, I've seen Jessica Alba in movies before, but I never looked on Google to see what her real name is. So look, he clarified a lot there because I am guilty of this. I am guilty of this. Of what? Of seeing actors.

Not knowing Jessica Alba? No, no. Not knowing actors real name. Yeah. Like, oh, that's dude from from, you know, the movie. Yeah.

And that's always it right there. That's the guy. Yeah. That's the dude. You know, from New Jack City.

What's he doing? You know, the guy, you know, the man, the man. How many movies do we do that? Oh, and that's why I call that guys.

There are that guys in movies and that girl got like, oh, man, he was in that one. And yeah, we've all done it. No shame on Sauce.

I did it a lot. I mean, look, Sauce had no idea that Jessica Alba was Sue Storm in the Fantastic Four. He didn't know that. He's heard the name before. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

But I think even bigger, though, is like, you do have to probably walk around with a name tag on. Right. If you're like for for Sauce, so people can know him.

Oh, yeah. He has to know, like, OK, well, that's got that chain, it says Sauce. He literally has a drip chain.

He does have a chain on it. Yeah, I digress. I forgot about that. Sauce. Yeah.

He's a defensive rookie of the year, by the way. Plus, Sauce is busy. You know, he's making his own craft. You know, he's selling his craft. But walking around with Aaron Rodgers, though, that is that's pretty cool, though.

Yeah. You know, Aaron Rodgers now, look, it's a little bit different than going to a Milwaukee Bucks game, right? For Aaron Rodgers. I'm just saying, like, I know he's got equity. What does he got a little ownership? A little piece of the Bucks.

A little stake in the Bucks. I don't even know, besides Mallory Edens, who sits courtside for the Bucks. It's literally just them two.

Is this them two? And David Bakhtiari? Bakhtiari. I think he's in the second row.

Chugging beers. You know what I'm saying? Is it Robin Yount? Is it Robin Yount? Paul Molitoria? Paul Molitoria. Doesn't want any of this. Is Christian Yellich still with them?

Yellich is still on the Brewers. Yeah, Corbin Burite. What are we doing? Oh, my God. How did I even come up with Robby?

I don't even know, man. That's good. That's a good pull right there. Appreciate that.

Appreciate that. Rob Beer. Rob Beer. Doesn't want any of this. No, man. Oh, man.

That's when the brew crew. Bob Euchre? Bob Euchre.

He's still calling games. That's when the mitt, that hat, that was iconic. They have one of the all-time best baseball hats.

Always. You can still wear it to this day. It was the mitt with the ball. The Orioles have a great hat. There's some old school hats I've been seeing, and I'm like, dude, I love that hat. The old Mariner M with the spikes on it. We need those.

We need those. Lamar Jackson, by the way, signed his contract with the Baltimore Ravens. He is now the highest paid player in NFL history. It is signed, sealed, delivered. And guess what? We finally heard from Lamar Jackson.

And not through social media. He actually talked to the media. We'll give you a couple sounds of Lamar Jackson and his introductory press conference as the highest paid player in the NFL.

Back here on the Rich Eisen Show. Kirk Morrison here filling in for Rich, man. It was nice little top five we had by Brockman in the last segment. I just kind of disagree.

I wish my warriors were on a lot more of those top five matchups. You guys have had your time. I know. I get it. That's just speaking from your heart.

I don't speak it from my heart. I get it. But I do want to see some new matchups, new blood. For me, I just like watching who's going to be on celebrity row. Celebrity row. Because I know a guy who probably doesn't necessarily frequent a lot of games, but when you're the highest paid player in the National Football League history, you can start walking through. And he's also, right now, is he not the most famous one named Lamar?

I mean, think about it. If I say Lamar, who do you think of first now in terms of sports world, even just the movies, entertainment? If I say Lamar, who do you think of first? Yeah, it's just Jackson. Jackson, right?

Is that it? Yeah, because you can't even go LeVar. LeVar is for Burton.

You can't go LeVar. Is he the most famous Lamar right now? Well, it used to be Lamar Luttrell for awhile from Revenge of the Nerds.

LeVar is Bob. And the original Lamar was Odom in LA. Hey, you better put some respect on Lamar Hoyt's name, though. Lamar Jackson is the most famous Lamar to him right now.

He's hot. If I say, hey, one of the hosts in Vegas, they come up, hey, man, I got Lamar with me. We all should know who that is, right?

Yeah, Family Feud, they go famous. Lamar is going to be 90 with Jackson. Well, Lamar Jackson, the most famous Lamar, was introduced to the media after signing the biggest contract in NFL history. I just want to hear a little bit of sound because we haven't heard from Lamar outside of his social media.

So finally, here's Lamar Jackson kind of talking about the process of talking to other teams. I really didn't care for other teams, really. I just really wanted to get something done here. I wanted to be here. It was like, man, okay, other teams cool, but I want to be a Raven.

Like I said, I said some 2018, you know, I think it was April 26th, if I'm not mistaken. And I meant that, you know, I'm standing on that until I get it done. So I really wanted to get this done before anything, before I even want to before my time up and branch off somewhere else, you know, I really want to finish my career here and win the Super Bowl here. Yeah, Lamar. I like Lamar, man. He is who he is, meaning that he's a loyal guy. His teammates love him. The organization loves him. This was just a negotiation between a player and an organization and a general manager and owner that they were going down this route. We had never seen.

This was unprecedented. Had a lot of people caught up in their feelings. Had no reason to be caught up in, had nothing to do with them.

I was never upset. I just wanted to get done. I think that you needed a template for the contract. When Jalen Hurts got his contract, that was the template. That was what needed to happen. That's when I was like, okay, there it is now.

We can finally relax. They can get a deal done. It was so hard because there was no precedent contract to really work off of.

What were you going to work off of? You can't work off the Mahomes deal because that deal was kind of old. You can't work off the Rogers deal because he's in a different point in his career.

You're working off of a deal for a guy who's not, we can all agree. Is Lamar Jackson not even in his prime yet? I mean, he's what, five years in? Is he almost that he's entering his prime? Yeah, he should be entering his prime. He's 26.

26? So I'm saying that the prime years. Remember, he was super young when he entered the NFL.

Correct. You know, we played that Joe Burrow clip. Joe Burrow was still in college and Lamar was in the NFL and still younger than Joe Burrow. So yeah, he should be entering the late 20s, early 30s for a quarterback as your prime. Because I'm looking at what the Denver Broncos gave Russell Wilson last year. And I'm saying you gave Russell that and I got a young thoroughbred over here in Lamar. That has to be, his contract has to outlast that.

It has to be better than that. So a little more of Lamar because look, teams were, I guess, weren't really accepting of trying to give up two first round picks for Lamar. So a reporter asks Lamar about that, about flirting with other teams. Here's Lamar. Oh, and also recruiting Odell Beckham.

Yeah, I seen Odell Beckham was recovering from his injury and stuff like that. And he reached out to me. I'm like, are you thinking about coming to us? Because I'm still part of the Ravens.

I wasn't saying like, nah, I don't want to go there. That's not my team. I was hyped about it. I got Rashard, I got Duve, I got Mark, Likely. I got all these guys and then a new addition like him. With his resume, it's like, yeah, we can prove our receiver room and we can go somewhere. So I was definitely hyped about that.

I always love that you go by everybody's nickname. We got Duve, we got Likely, we got OBJ, we got Shot, we got M.A. So you're like, okay, now you got to go through the checklist of who all these players were. Lamar sporting a new dude where he didn't get the braids done. He just took them out. He just took the braids out.

He got the little crinkle look going on. It's a little Lamar. Yeah, I like that for Lamar, man. But look, the deal is done.

The story is now over with. And now I look at the Baltimore Ravens as a true competitor, a true team that we have to look at, especially with the addition of Zay Flowers. We talked about OBJ already. The Ravens are one of those teams. I talked about it earlier in Kirk's top 10 of the AFC. Baltimore sits at four. Would we be surprised if Lamar finds his way into an AFC championship?

I'm not. They got better defensively, I think, with what they did in the draft. Roquan Smith signs a big deal. They got Trenton Simpson. I'm just talking about linebackers. They got some corners as well. So Rock Yassine also signed with the Baltimore Ravens as well. So they're bringing in some pieces that can get them, I think, to a conference championship at least.

And then all of a sudden, if they're playing in a Super Bowl, man. Do you think Lamar's got to win one in this contract? That's a good question. That's a good question. I think he's got to make one. Make one. Stay in the corner. Give them Lala wherever you listen.