REShow: Chris Mannix - Hour 2 (5-8-2023)

Innovative businesses see every day as an opportunity to create something new. Dell Technologies Advisors are here with tools and expertise to help you do incredible things. Because Dell Technologies believes there's an innovator in all of us. Learn more about smart PCs powered by the Intel® vPro® platform that's built for business.

Find tech that's right for you by calling a Dell Technologies Advisor today at 877-ASK-DELL. New York Jets Head Coach Robert Sala coming up. Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated, Chris Mannix.

From Prime Videos, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, actor Kevin Pollak. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Our number two of the Rich Eisen show is on the air.

844-204-RICH. Great chat with Robert Sala, Head Coach of the New York Jets. Also coming up on this program, Kevin Pollak of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will be in studio on hour number three.

By the way, also on the, let me get this right, Don Rickles would have been today 97 years old. So obviously we'll go down the casino wormhole and a little bit of the usual suspects with Kevin Pollak when he joins us in studio on hour number three. But joining us right here to kick off hour number two, fresh back from Guadalajara where you watched Canelo light up the sky.

Joining us here to talk about the association as well, which he also covers for Sports Illustrated is Chris Mannix. Good to see you. Good to see you, Rich. How are you, brother? I'm good. I'm, you know, getting by. OK, so were you in flight when Jokic and Matt Ischbier went out?

No, I was back. I got back early on Sunday, so I got to watch the Celtics and the Sixers and then whatever happened in Denver with Jokic and Ischbier. I'm just waiting to see what the NBA rules on this.

It'll probably come later today, how they decide to adjudicate all this, because there's a couple of different ways you can go. Number one, you have to look at Jokic and put aside the fact that it was Matt Ischbier. Ninety nine times out of 100, if you see a player interact with a fan in the way Jokic did, some kind of suspension is coming.

Now, there were mitigating circumstances. You had Matt Ischbier seem to make contact first. It was Matt Ischbier, the owner of the Suns, who kind of held onto the ball a little bit too long. Not kind of. He flat out, like I was saying at the top of the show, like if he was back on the Spartan bench, the possession arrow would have been pointing in the direction of the Suns.

But I can tell you this, and this goes back, go back a little bit further to zoom out a bit. When Draymond Green got suspended, most of it was because of the stomp that he did to Tomas Sabonis. But part of it was how he incited the crowd afterwards.

That was taken into account when the NBA made its decision. Adam Silver was sitting right there in Sacramento watching the whole thing, and Draymond was shouting at the crowd, interacting with the crowd. The biggest fear in the league office is a repeat of the malice in the palace.

Like that is on the mind of everyone over there when you have crowd interactions. So the fact that Jokic elbowed someone, putting aside that it's Isbier, the fact that he elbowed someone in the crowd, I think there's going to be a lot of conversation today in Olympic Tower in New York about how to punish him. My gut is find something, like nothing that takes Jokic out of the game, but this is going to be a tough call, Rich, I'm telling you.

It's going to be a very tough one. And I understand that. He even admitted it was a fan. He didn't know it was the Suns' owner, governor. And so it doesn't matter, just the whole concept is that somebody in street clothes was there and received an elbow from him, and you can't make contact with that. But his point is right. Isbier's right hand was on as small of his back, and then he held onto the basketball, which is something...

Still not reason. But he's trying to get the game going again. He's situationally in the moment of the game where he's going to grab the ball from the fan, hand it to the official, and see if he can get a five-on-four break going here. I get his argument.

I understand what he's trying to say. Even if he had grabbed the ball, the referee still has to hold it, and the referee's not restarting play until Josh Okogie is functional and away from the crowd, so it wouldn't have been a five-on-four break. I thought it would have been more explainable if there was a Nuggets player that had fallen to the crowd. If Jokic is just going in there trying to protect his teammate, I think that would have worked more in his favor. But the fact that he just wanted to get the possession going again, and as part of that he elbowed someone in the crowd, it's just not a good look.

It's not a good look for Nikolay Jokic. I'm telling you, there are going to be people inside the league office that are pro-suspension when they have this discussion. Suspension would be...?

Game five in a series this close where they've needed him? I'll be honest. Suspension would be unacceptable. Frankly, I thought... And I totally understand. Look, I've been an NFL employee for 20 years, so I understand the way a league and league management looks at things when it involves a fan. The NFL doesn't have fan contact issues, pretty much, because fans are in the stands. This is a sport where there are fans who are truly one step away from having somebody sitting in their lap. I totally understand the malice in the palace.

I get it. You cannot suspend Jokic. And I understand that he made contact with a fan. Find him if you want.

But then my question is, what do they do about Ishbia? He can't hold on to the basketball like he owns it. Come on. I know he's new to the league, but he's not new to basketball. Let me ask you this. Would a suspension for Nikolay Jokic be more outrageous to you than the suspension to Draymond Green?

A million percent. I'm not sure it would be that much more outrageous. Why? Because he elbowed someone in the crowd. And let's say that wasn't Matt Ishbia. Let's say that's a intoxicated fan of the Phoenix Suns who takes an elbow and comes back and throws a haymaker at Nikolay Jokic.

The fact that it didn't lead to a uglier incident, I don't think that that makes it any better. I actually think I actually would be less outraged by a Jokic suspension than I was over Draymond. I came out right away and said a suspension is outrageous. Sabonis grabbed his leg. Draymond stomped on him kind of like it wasn't. I thought Grant Williams got stomped on a lot worse by Joel Embiid. But I think a Jokic suspension to me would be less outrageous than what happened to Draymond. Really?

Yes. Even though he touched Jokic first? But let's be clear on touching him. He didn't shove Jokic.

Put his hand on him a little bit. Shouldn't have held on to the basketball. He didn't initiate an altercation with Jokic. We're dissecting this a day after and we're not in agreement on how it all played out. This happened split second and Jokic just responded, threw a bit of an elbow there. I think Jokic overreacted in that moment.

I do. Well, I think we can all be in an agreement that what Ishbia tweeted out on Monday morning. He had to tweet that.

I know he had it tweeted, but him saying like, you know, there's nothing to see here. This shouldn't be a story. Come on.

I'm sorry. I mean, he held on to a basketball in the middle of a heated moment. And, you know, he did receive an elbow to his upper chest or his neck area. Flopped a little bit afterwards. Well, I mean, and that also TJ and I were talking about that, too, that if you're if you ever have like the just to defend the moment here, if you ever have like the the folding chair seat right behind the back of your knees, you can easily lose your balance. And I've never been shoved by somebody of Jokic's size. But that said, what adds to the moment is that if you do believe he flopped, it made it seem like the owner was trying to sell the moment to the officials to maybe get something either the tech or something worse on Jokic.

Well, he was because it wasn't just the fall. He threw his hands up in the air right afterwards in kind of a draymond exaggeration. So a governor of the NBA should not be doing that. No. So don't you think a fine or something should be coming in his direction?

Absolutely. And Matt Ishby, if he does get fined, would, you know, pull that out of the seat cushions of his office. The bigger question coming into this is, does the NBA allow Nicole Jokic to elbow someone in the crowd?

No, I would understand why a fine would come. It's just, come on, suspending him. I hope five like like this is I hope I'm really the pivotal game five, you know, like because game fives are either decisive or or pivotal, you know, like this is pivotal. This is going to be you remember how the draymond announcement came out? I think it was late Friday evening and normally these announcements come out afternoon, like during business hours in the league office, because there's unanimity oftentimes on how things get adjudicated. This could be the same type of situation where whatever punishment is announced, whether it's a fine, upgraded to a flagrant foul, another technical attitude, whatever they decide to do. I could see this happening later in the day on Monday, because I think there will be a lot of discussion in the league office about how to handle this.

Chris Mannix here on the Rich Eisen Show. Let's move on to the game tonight where I'm assuming you will be there. And you called Lakers winning the West a while ago. This what you had in mind?

Pretty much. Well, I think I had in mind that their defense is really good. And the numbers back that up ever since they made all the trades they made before the trade deadline. I saw Anthony Davis being dominant all through March and said, look, this is the old Anthony Davis. I understand we have to be wary about Anthony Davis getting injured at different times. But when I wrote what I wrote back in March, I'd seen him play through hard falls, bad ankle sprains, obviously dealing with the foot injury that had been lingering for him.

So I believe that was transferable. And then it comes down to LeBron. How many times do we bet against LeBron and he finds a way to come through? And the Lakers get to the free throw line an awful lot. That was true in the regular season.

It's been true in the playoffs. Davis has been great. The role players are a lot better. Didn't expect Angela Russell to be as good in some pivotal games in this postseason, but he has been an upgrade for them. This is not an aberration with the Lakers. This is what they have been since late January, early February when Davis returned and they shook up the roster.

So I'm a believer in what the Lakers are. OK. And so the Warriors, I asked this question of Ramona Shelburne last week, and I'll ask it to you now. The deep dive that will inevitably come on this Warriors season, what will it reveal?

What is the iceberg we're just seeing the tip of? You're already seeing Greg Anthony tweeted out last night that, you know, Jordan Poole's numbers are down. You know, he said, hey, anything happen that might have altered his mindset before the season? I mean, are we going to be talking about that punch once this thing's all over?

Do you think? I think that we will be talking about how that incident in training camp affected the locker room during the season. But I think bigger picture for the Warriors. One of the things we'll be talking about is how their young players never really stepped into the bigger roles that Golden State expected. I mean, you look at the championship level runs that they've gone on. They've always had their core four.

Right. But they've also had Andre Guadala playing a significant role. Gary Payton playing a significant role. Otto Porter last year, who I think what he started one of those finals games playing a significant role. The Warriors anticipated before the season that Moses Moody, Jonathan Kaminga, and before he was traded, James Wiseman, somebody from that collection of players would step up and be able to be playing right now in significant roles right now.

That really hasn't happened. They have been overly reliant on their star players to play above and beyond what they're capable of. Look, and Steph has been great most of the time.

Yes. Clay has had his previous game was fantastic, but their margin for error got a lot smaller when Iguodala became unavailable, when they lost some of the other veterans that were on the roster. I think that is a bigger issue for this team right now than whatever dynamic exists with Jordan Poole. There will be a autopsy for Golden State after the season where they think, all right, if we do bring Draymond back, can we bring Draymond and Poole back to the next? Do we have to think about trading Jordan Poole to fix whatever locker room dynamic might exist? Because you see, Rich, you hear about what's going on in the locker room, but you also see what's happening on the floor. The Sacramento series, game six, where Jordan Poole brushes off Draymond. The body language from some of these Warriors players when Jordan Poole takes these ill-advised shots. There's obviously fire where this smoke is. I think that's something that definitely will have to be addressed if the season goes sideways.

And a lot of folks thought maybe that was put to bed with the famed Curry post-game six home loss speech. Get on the bus. You're with us.

If not, stay off the bus to Sacramento. And, you know, here we are now three games into this series and we're wondering what's going to happen tonight. Who the heck knows?

I get it. But there's no doubt whatever happened in the beginning of the season is still lingering, right? I mean, isn't we can safely assume that? I think the situation has evolved over the season. I think whereas initially for a couple of months, Draymond lost his ability to speak in that locker room. Like he was he had to prove himself all over again to that team. But I think as the season has played out, you know, I don't want to say the roles have reversed, but Draymond has certainly regained his place as a leader inside that locker room. And Jordan Poole, you know, for whatever reasons, I think most of it's on court, like kind of his lack of production or lack of consistent production on court has diminished him somewhat in the eyes of his teammates. That can change tonight. He could have an efficient seven for eleven type game and the Warriors could run away with it. It's happened before.

But as far as long term, that's definitely something I think will need to be addressed. All right, Chris Mannix here on The Rich Eisen Show Studios. Let's take a break and then we'll come back.

We'll talk about the East and then obviously Canelo. You saw that in person. What a festival that was over the weekend. We'll take a break. Chris Mannix is here on The Rich Eisen Show Studio. Don't you dare move.

Kevin Pollak is also still to come. Let's talk about sleep, people. No matter who you are, you want to reach your full potential. And every person and every night are different. When you sleep on a Sleep Number smart bed, though, you are finally harnessing your unique potential every night, no matter what each night brings. Next level people like you need next level sleep. My sleep number says you need sleep. My Sleep Number says you need sleep. My Sleep Number says you need sleep. My Sleep Number says you need sleep. People like you need next level sleep. My sleep number setting is 60 and my wife's is 70, just 10 numbers apart. But that is the world of difference because we can choose our ideal comfort and support on our side of the bed and change it whenever we like. And it helps us sleep so comfortably. You can see how well you slept to the next day, along with personalized insights for even better sleep with your sleep IQ score.

Sleep next level. Unlock your unique potential with a smart bed that can perform as well as you. And now save 50 percent on the Sleep Number limited edition smart bed, plus special financing for a limited time. Only at Sleep Number stores or sleepnumber.com.

See store for details. I just learned Discover credit cards do something pretty awesome. At the end of your first year, they automatically double all the cash back you've earned.

That's right. Everything you've earned doubled. All the cash back from eating at your favorite soup dumpling restaurant doubled. All the cash back from that trip where you sort of learned to snowboard also doubled. And the best part, you don't have to do anything ridiculous to get it. Nope. Discover does it automatically.

Seriously, though, see terms and check it out for yourself at Discover dot com slash match. Back here on the Roku channel. Couple minutes, our radio audience will return. You've got a Roberto Duran Panama shirt on. What do you got here? I support all former boxers. Roberto Duran, you know. Does he have his own wear? Is that what it is? It's a website that does a lot of boxing gear, so I buy a lot of boxing stuff from them. Hands of stone. What's the oldest boxing thing that you have? Oldest boxing thing? Whether it's an item, whether it's an article of clothing.

I don't know. I buy older, it's newer clothing from older. I buy a lot of like a lot of Muhammad Ali gear, but it's very recently, you know, woven or purchased. So what's the first fight you covered? First fight I covered was Haseem Rahman versus James Toney at heavyweight. And I was in Atlantic City and I was so excited about that fight.

I even got locker room access to both guys so I could write my story. And it was dreadful. It was a draw and it wasn't even a good draw. It was just like one of those draws where it's like, let's let's all get past this and move on. I once covered, I forgot, it was an Akinwande fight in New York.

Henry Akinwande. And it got canceled because he got hepatitis. Which also people were translating is there wasn't enough ticket sales, so they canceled it. That happens a lot. They came up with hepatitis B. That's like basketball. Remember, basketball players used to be out with plantar fasciitis. Yes.

That's the basketball version. They were load managing? Yes.

There wasn't enough of a load of tickets? Was that pre or post title for Rahman? That was for a version of the heavyweight title that he eventually didn't win because it was a draw. And James Toney was going for that heavyweight title as well. Yeah.

It wasn't good. Back in the day. Chris Mannix is here fresh back from Guadalajara where a radio audience is about to join us. We'll talk about Canelo Alvarez and of course the rest of the NBA playoffs. Back here on the Rich Eisen Show radio network sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger is the right product for you.

Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. So Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated still here and we'll talk a little bit about boxing. And I know I said we want to talk about the East and we will.

But I want to just jump in with what we talked about at the end of the first hour with Chris Brockman. And the rest giving voice to what so many NBA fans feel about Scott Foster. Is the NBA front office aware that fans view Scott Foster as not on the up and up in a way.

And I'm not saying that he's on the take. I'm just saying that he does what the league wants to do to get the television audience having a seven game series and stuff like that. Are they aware of this?

They're aware of it. Whenever I speak to league officials about that perception, what often I'll get bombarded with are facts and figures, statistics that show or at least a reference to statistics that show that Scott Foster is one of the most accurate referees that they have. And look, whether it's this game five with Lakers Warriors or the NBA Finals, he's involved in a lot of games. Now, fans might say, well, he's involved because the league, he'll do what the league says. And that perception is because of two things, right? One, his previous association with Tim Donaghy.

You can't wash that away. They were friends before Donaghy was bounced from the league because of the gambling scandal and the Chris Paul numbers. Like every time Scott Foster has officiated a Chris Paul game over the last few years, it's been pointed out time and again that Chris Paul can't win when Scott Foster is out there.

So I think it's been, you know, this two very high profile connections that have enhanced this perception of Scott Foster. I think he's a good referee. Like I, I would challenge people to kind of point to multiple specific moments where he gets the call wrong. Like, I don't think he gets it wrong or not a word, but I don't think he gets it more wrong than other top referees do. Does that help you, Chris?

No. But isn't that true, though? Don't you always, when you think Scott Foster, like what, what do you point to with how he screws it up? It's kind of like the NFL, right? You call holding on every play.

It's about tone, early. Like Anthony Davis is getting two fouls in the first quarter. Okay, but then if he does, then I'll come back here next time and say you're right. But you're, when you're saying that you like Scott Foster makes too many bad calls, I need to hear which ones you're talking about. I'm not saying they're bad. You could call a foul on every drive to the hoop.

You could call hand check on it. It's just tone. Correct, but what, tell me, tell me which, you got to point to a game. You got to point to a specific incident because I think that you are doing what I just said people are doing, which is associating him, whether it's conscious or not, with Donaghy and with Chris Paul stuff. You're probably right, and I don't have any specifics. I'll watch the game tonight, maybe take some good notes and get back to you, but it's just a perception.

Well, he's not alone. You know that, right? I get it, but again, I don't know if the perception, I don't know if the perception is connected to the reality of the situation. What the NBA likes about Scott Foster is that he controls the game. Like sometimes, like the incident from last night, you need a crew chief there that's in control in that situation. Someone with experience, someone that's, you know, been part of big games.

Scott Foster is that guy. That's why, part of the reason why they like him so much. But perception is reality. You can't have referees trend out Twitter.

Like that's just a bad look for the league. Okay, you can't allow Twitter to dictate, like who? NBA Twitter is, though, is a powerful force.

No, but I think... It shouldn't be an influential one, though. You shouldn't be looking, if you're in the league... The league can't be happy that Foster is trending every time he's refereeing a game.

What are you going to do about it, though? Like, if you're Monty McCutcheon, who's the NBA referee czar, like, if you're going to see Scott Foster trending on Twitter, he's also very recognizable. You'll know what Scott Foster looks like. You can't pick, like, Bill Kennedy out of a lineup, most NBA referees.

So I think that's part of it. But if you're Monty McCutcheon, and you're like, alright, big game coming up, we're going to assign a certain referee, oh damn, Stevie7293 says Scott Foster sucks. Like, you cannot, you cannot go by what Twitter tells you. I can't believe you just called out your burner account, Chris.

Sorry, man. But this is Josiah who, like, has pretty big influence and worldwide wob in these guys. They're making reference to all these stats and how Scott Foster is, he's got a perception about it.

And that's why I ask if the league's aware. Does Monty McCutcheon dress like that all the time? All the time. All the time. Oh, come on.

Really? All the time. I was in the NBA bubble with Monty for a while. He's still... He's bow-tied in the bubble?

Bubble bow-tied? Part of the time, yeah. I saw the last game, Monty McCutcheon, referee, I was texting people in the league office, like, I can't take, or Monty McCutcheon was doing some of the talkback. I'm like, I can't take Monty seriously when he's dressed like a leprechaun. Like, I can't.

It's very difficult. I love the guy. He's a great guy. It is funny. Every single time he pops on, I didn't think about this.

I was hankering for a bowl of Lucky Charms. Now I understand it. So, is Scott Foster going to take Steve Javey's role? Right?

Pretty much? One day? Will he be, will he be... This guy, like, again, I like Steve Javey.

Known him a long time. But, like, I need an independent referee's rules analyst that is willing to go after his former colleagues. You need a Mike Pereira. In the boxing world, I used to work with Steve Smoger, who was a great referee, passed away recently. And whenever we would go to Steve Smoger for something that happened in the ring, if the referee got it wrong, Steve Smoger would slap him around a little bit. I kind of want that. I never feel like I get that from Steve Javey. I don't feel like he ever... He always backs the referees. Yeah, I don't want that.

I need, you got to have some independence in that situation, a fearlessness that comes with going after your former colleagues. I've got Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated here on the Rich Eisen Show. What's your take on Celtic Sixers so far and what happens from here on out? First of all, phenomenal game for James Harden. Like, I was among the people on Saturday, or Friday, rather, jumping up and down on him for the way he played. I mean, because when he went in the tank for games two and game three, it gave license to go after him for everything else he's done in the past. All those playoff flame outs in Houston, the couple of bad games he had in Oklahoma City in the postseason. Like, we were once again seeing James Harden wilt in those big moments. Everything he did in game one, inconsequential. Game two and three, just in the tank. For him to come out and play like that and make shots like that, all created in the world for him. I came into the series believing Boston was significantly better.

The Celtics have owned the Sixers over the last couple of years, regular season, postseason. So, James Harden playing like that was remarkable. Can James Harden keep it up?

That, to me, is the biggest question. Embiid's going to be great. People talk about him deserving MVP. He might deserve Defensive Player of the Year. He's such a dominant force in the paint. He's going to be great.

I feel Maxie's going to be okay. I don't know what I'm going to get in James Harden in game five. I don't know which version of him is going to show up. He doesn't have to be the star of games one and game four, but he can't be whatever that was in game two and game three. That's the big question in the series. The Celtics, they've got great perimeter defenders. James Harden's got to be better. That, to me, is the big question going to game five.

So, there's no variables on the Celtics side of things? It's more about how their perimeter defense plays. They've been great. They were great in game two and game three. The strength of their defense is Jalen Brown, who was great against Harden, and then the three guards.

Derek White, Marcus Smart, Malcolm Brogdon. They should be able to make Harden, Maxie, DeAnthony, and Meldon inefficient. They're that good.

They can switch everything. They're that good. It's a battle of strengths in this series with the backcourt of the Sixers and the backcourt of the Celtics. Whoever comes out of that matchup, what's out of that battle with the win, I think, wins the game in the series.

And what about the conference? How do you feel about that sense of having watched the Heat dispatch with the Bucks and then now be up two games to one going into tonight's game against the Knicks? Do you get the sense that the best of three, if you will, that starts in Boston is going to determine the conference?

Or what do you got for me then? Yeah, I think whoever wins this Celtics series will be the favorite going into that round. I just can't figure Miami out. I watched them all season long, and they just looked like something was missing.

You know, whether it was personnel, attitude, you know, whatever. It felt like something was off with that team. And then you watch the play-in game where Atlanta just goes down there and beats the daylights off them.

You're like, all right, they're done. First round fodder for Milwaukee. But they just, starting with Jimmy Butler, they just raised their game.

Everyone top to bottom to another level in the postseason. I think they're a favorite against the Knicks tonight. We'll see, can Julius Randle step up and have a monster game? Can Jalen Brunson play better than he's played in previous games?

But I don't know. Miami's just really hard to figure out. Like Boston last year, they were a Jimmy Butler missed three-pointer, like a couple of inches from losing that series in seven. That's basically the same team down in Miami that they played once again.

Maybe Tyler Herro finds his way back on the floor earlier rather than later. I think the Celtics or the Sixers beat the Knicks. I don't know what to make of Miami at this point. So Miami could actually...

They could. They're a built-for-playoff team. We hear it's a cliche in basketball and sports here. Plug and play, right? Plug and play, player.

Plug and play, player. Miami's proof of that. Duncan Robinson is in street clothes for most of the last three months. Tyler Herro goes out, here comes Duncan Robinson back in looking like the guy we saw in the bubble. Max Troos making shots. Gabe Vinson making shots.

All these guys that anyone could have signed at any point in time. They come down to Miami and all of a sudden they become better versions of themselves. Miami's just different.

The way they do things is different. You can't sit here. We can't sit here and say that we don't get a bubble rematch in the finals. You might.

That's entirely possible. Yeah. With fans and everything this time around. Give me a good Jimmy Butler story.

You got one? I mean, because he is one of the most fascinating to me superstars that got... Bulls had him and the Sixers had a shot. Obviously, Minnesota had him. And he's dominant. He can be as dominant as any superstar in this league. And he's remarkable. The guy's remarkable.

You got a good one for him? I don't have a specific Jimmy Butler story. I heard Jeff Teague tell a good story recently about that famed practice in Minnesota. Where Jimmy Butler with the G League Timberwolves just kicked the crap out of the starters.

Ripped off his warm-up shirt to reveal a Minnesota jersey with the Minnesota cutout of the front of it. Which is peak Jimmy Butler. What you know about Jimmy Butler is that it takes a special type of coach and a special type of culture and a special type of roster to maximize him. Like you put him on Philadelphia next to Joel Embiid and he's great. Because Jimmy and Joel Embiid have the same mindset.

Win-at-all-cost kind of mindset. Jimmy and Ben Simmons don't have the same mindset. And Jimmy was kind of ahead of the curve on Ben Simmons kind of knowing that there was something off. He was. Like there was something a little bit off with Ben Simmons. But you put him in Miami where Eric Spolstra... Remember that scene late in the season this year where Eric Spolstra and Jimmy Butler were going to get into each other? Oh, of course. And Eric says, what, you want to fight me now?

That's Jimmy Butler. But you have to have a coach that is willing to kind of brush that off. It's like, whatever. This is what happens.

It's intense. Watch us in practice. I think there's 30 teams in the NBA. Jimmy might not be able to play for 28 of them. At least not at this level that he's playing at right now. He is in the perfect situation in Miami with that roster, with that coach, with Bam Adebayo, with the guys down there that play with an edge.

And as long as he's playing at this level, you can't count Miami out. I mean, you don't really run plays for Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler just takes the ball and he's like, you know what? I'm better than these guys. I'm going to take it at these guys. I'm going to shoot mid-range jumpers on these guys.

He just believes wholeheartedly that when he has the ball in his hands, he's better than the guy in front of him. Last guy that guy across the way wants to see in the Eastern Conference Finals. I was so happy that the Hawks beat them in the play-in so they weren't the seventh seed. Yeah. To go against the Celtics.

I would not. I mean, everybody kind of attributes the Bucs' loss to Giannis' injury. And there's some truth to that. Look, you missed two and a half games in that series. They won one of those games.

Right. And the Bucs lost all three that Giannis played in. They played any part in. So, I can tell you that being around that Boston organization, they got the matchup they wanted in that first round. A little harder than they thought, having to go six games, but they got the matchup they wanted. And now, if you ask the Celtics right now, obviously focused on Philly, but... They want the Knicks. You'd much rather play the Knicks if you're the Celtics than have to deal with that Miami team. And that coach, I mean, Eric Spolstra versus Joe Mazzulla is a tough matchup. Like, Eric Spolstra's got experience. Got even close.

Exposed so much better. Why doesn't Joe Mazzulla call timeouts? That was a bad look.

I think Joe even admitted it afterward. But that was a bad look. Like, overtime, one possession, ball in the backcourt. I know you don't want Philadelphia to sub in some more defensive players, but you gotta call timeout there.

You gotta set something up. Wait, five seconds walking up, and then Tatum just stood there at the top. And then why is Jalen Brown doubling off of Harden when he's been torching them all night?

He admitted that was a mistake, too. Like, that was a whiff. I don't know that a timeout necessarily helps that, but 15 seconds left, you gotta call a timeout and run the play. It makes you wonder, like, does Joe Mazzulla, do the Celtics, have confidence that they're gonna draw up the kind of play that makes the timeout worth it? Or is it better to just try to catch the Sixers, catch whatever team, backpedaling, not able to set their own defense.

Maybe it's a calculation on their part that the way things are moving is better than if you call a timeout and drop your own play. It just further illustrates that Imeodoka was the toughest guy on that team. Imeodoka got a lot on that team. But look, if Joe Mazzulla wins the series, you gotta give him credit for that, too. Yeah. I mean, you know, Brad Stevens was the king of dialing up plays. Call timeout and they would, what, basically hit 100% of them. I've got Chris Mannix here.

A couple more minutes left for the Sports Illustrated senior writer here. What was it like in Guadalajara being right there for Canelo Alvarez and that whole scene? What was that like? The best sports atmosphere I've ever been a part of. Get out of here.

Best, without question. You had 50,000 Guadalajarans and people from the outskirts of the area as well packed into a soccer stadium. The entrance, the ring walk, the 150 piece mariachi band playing for Canelo Alvarez. Just the, it was, it was intense in there watching Canelo make that walk to the ring. And I give Canelo Alvarez a lot of credit for doing that.

Like, he still made north of $20 million, but he's accustomed to making north of $30 million. He took a pretty significant pay cut to come down to Guadalajara. Ringside tickets for that fight went for like $2,000, which is still pretty expensive for the area. Ringside tickets in Vegas, $18,000, $19,000, something like that. Site fees in Vegas, big money, but he wanted to bring a fight to his hometown.

He did it and I think it was well worth it. Everything about that event was incredible. The fight itself, if you were skeptical of Canelo Alvarez still being the face of boxing, the number one star in boxing, you probably left feeling pretty good about that. Because three years ago, Canelo Alvarez knocks out John Ryder. Doesn't let him survive that fifth round knockdown. Now, not as great stamina wise, maybe not as good a finisher as he used to be.

Still a top 10 pound for pound guy. But I wonder after that fight if we have seen the best days of Canelo Alvarez behind him. But it was still an incredible scene. Incredible scene. We'll never forget. Incredible scene. So I know next up on the fight game is something that you're, give me your itinerary for tonight and where you're going.

You were sitting as you were sitting down. Lakers, this is great, Lakers tonight and then there's a 1.30am flight out of LAX that I'm going to catch. Why not? That takes me to Dallas for the Jake Paul, Nate Diaz press conference on Tuesday, which is going to be quite the scene. Is Jake Paul, we were talking about this before we went on air about Nate Diaz does that incident he had in New Orleans put the fight in jeopardy. Not this kind of fight. That makes the fight even bigger. Nate Diaz just randomly choking out some guy.

But isn't there a lesson learned in that? Don't step to Nate Diaz. I don't know how that all happened. Why would you ever step to Nate Diaz?

What are you doing? You have to know who you're stepping to. I have a feeling alcohol was involved.

Bourbon Street? Yeah, I have a feeling about that. But that only makes that event I think a little bit bigger.

Okay. And so how huge is this event going to be? It's going to be big.

It's at American Airlines Center on August 5th. And look at, you know, Jake Paul, people always want to see him now test himself against real boxers. This is why he doesn't do it, because even if Jake Paul fought a rematch against Tommy Fury, it wouldn't be anywhere near as big as what Jake Paul against Nate Diaz is going to be. Jake Paul against Anderson Silva in Arizona was huge in mostly because all of Anderson Silva's fans showed up. Jake Paul wasn't the attraction at that point.

Anderson Silva was. In Dallas, there are going to be 10,000 plus Nate Diaz fans packing that building. The faceoffs are going to be intense. The fight week is going to be intense.

Security is probably going to be tripled because of what could happen between these two guys. I'm telling you, when you get to that first week in August, it's oftentimes a dead week in sports, right? NFL training camp just starting to open.

Basketball is basically wrapped. The sporting world is going to take notice of Jake Paul against Nate Diaz. I'll be, I'll be at the potential polar opposite in terms of intensity event that, you know, Pro Football Hall of Fame speeches. Yeah, there you go. I'll be in Canton, Ohio, you know, Paul Diaz, you know, in terms of the intensity of a Paul Diaz fight and then the intensity of a Joe Cleco acceptance speech. You know, I mean, by the way, I say that just because Cleco is the funniest word I could possibly say. Although I'm very excited as a jet fan to see a member of the SAC exchange go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But that's where I'll be on that. I'll send pictures. Chris, really quick, since we're still on the boxing thing, Haney and Lomachenko is coming up, man. And to me, I mean, I know Paul and Nate is a spectacle, but this is a real fight to me. What are your thoughts on this fight coming up? Yeah, I was talking to somebody this morning associated with that fight, and he was telling me that a couple of weeks out, Lomachenko is in as good a shape as he's ever been.

He is completely locked in for this fight. And I think the big question going into fight week is how hard is it for Devin Haney to get down to 135 pounds? He is a big, big 135 pounder. If this Lomachenko fight did not materialize, he would probably be fighting already at 140 pounds.

Devin is as disciplined as they come, but he's in his mid-twenties now. He's been fighting at 135 pounds for a long time. If he is at all diminished going into this fight, at all drained weight-wise, this is a fight for Silly Lomachenko. Even at the backstage, the Canelo stage, if you will, of his career, this is a fight Lomachenko can definitely win.

Okay. What's next for Ryan Garcia? I would guess that after Ryan Garcia decides on a new trainer, whether it's a return to Eddie Reynoso, which I think is possible, I think someone like Dean Campos, who used to train my colleague Sergio Mora, is someone that would work well with Ryan Garcia. You're going to see him in at least two lower-tier fights. I think Mercito Hesta, throw a name out there, he's someone that beat Jojo Diaz in his last fight. That's a fight that's a safe fight for Ryan Garcia to take before the end of the year. Then one more fight before we start talking about Ryan against any of the big names in the 140-pound division.

Yeah, take Davis, kind of put him to sleep there. I think you learn a lot from a fight like that, for sure. And a perfect person to have here on the show today, talking boxing and NBA playoffs with Chris Mannix. So I guess the final question is, when is Jokic Ishbia 2?

When does that happen? Man, I can tell you, Matt Ishbia is praying right now that Nikola Jokic doesn't get suspended. He does not want any part of being... Hell yeah, of course not. And that tweet was perfect. That was exactly what he needed to say. But to put a button on this, there's going to be a lot of conversation today.

I'm telling you, a lot of conversation. You cannot put your hands on anyone in the crowd. If it was a regular season game, no question, Nikola Jokic suspended for the next one. But game five, can the league do it? They shouldn't do it.

I hope they don't do it. And you're right, Ishbia's tweet was perfect. Like, hey, great game last night.

That should be front and center. I have nothing but respect for Jokic. Go Suns.

It's just like, but, you know... What a run from Matt Ishbia. Like, takes over the team, 15 minutes later trades for Kevin Durant. Second round of the playoffs. He's in the stands, literally physically altercating, if that's a word, with Nikola Jokic.

Look, you're right. The league should just call up Jokic and say, don't touch a fan. And call up Ishbia and say, no more jump balls. What helps Jokic... No held possession. What helps Jokic is that he doesn't have history of this.

Like Draymond, obviously, a lot of history there. So I think that's going to certainly work in Jokic's favor. And if I was in the prediction game, I think whatever punishment is something less than a suspension for game five. But there will be people pushing for a suspension. Here's my answer.

Jokic gets fined and Ishbia's got to sit next to Jokic's brothers at the next Nuggets game in Denver. Have you seen video of those guys? I have. Yes.

Okay. Those guys don't... They don't play. They don't play. That's his punishment. His seat, he's got to sit right in between Jokic's brothers in Denver.

There's tough and there's Serbian tough. Okay? Like, just saying. I was waiting for his brothers to come bum-rushing when that whole thing happened.

I was like, where are they at? By the way, Ishbia would give up possession. Oh, yeah, for sure. Thanks for coming in. Anytime, Rich. That's it.

Chris Mannix here of Sports Illustrated here on the Rich Hyzen Show. Don't go anywhere. 844-204-rich number to dial. Let us know in the comments below. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time.

Jeff from Chicago. Connections that nobody else has. That's true. Well, you know what, Rich? I'm not going to swear. But I got to tell you, your little social media boy, he's going to get his. Oh, my God.

TJ, do you have anything to say to Jeff Garland? Yeah. Happy April Fool's Day. What?

All right. Hey, TJ, you don't know what you've brought down on yourself. You don't even have a clue. I'm ready for it. You know the power that I have, especially in practical jokes. I'm going to nail you so hard. Pause. You know what? I hope you enjoy your testicles right now because they're going to disappear.

No, but I need them. Oh, my God. Fantastic. That's on our archive, YouTube.com slash Rich Hyzen Show, our full almost nine-year archive of this program.

April Fool's. Here on our program, fun stuff with Chris Mannix right there. Great.

Soup to nuts, if you will. He covers a lot of ground, too. He does, man. He sure does. So I just had a nice chat with Kevin Pollak in our green room. Oh, nice. So great to see him here, man.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, one of my favorite shows, period, end of story. And then, of course, so many great movies that Kevin's been in. He'll be joining us in just a little bit less than a half an hour from now. Nice. It was a huge moment for me personally this this weekend.

Yeah, it was. I just want to say this. My son, Coop, who doesn't want to be called Coop Tawny, doesn't like that. He's got to get familiar with it.

He doesn't either. My 12-year-old son stepped to the plate. Man stands at the plate.

It's time for what? Individual achievement. Individual achievement. OK. And so he had not had a home run in his Little League career, and he was coming close. And his first home run, he hit it on Saturday. Right around where the Kentucky Derby was, might have been around post time. So I missed the Derby. How was it, by the way? It was the fastest two minutes of sports.

Run for the roses. It was good. So I was missing it. And I was wondering, maybe I should stream it because my son's team gave up a seven spot in the first.

Oof. And was down 9-0, then 9-1. And then just when you thought we might get mercy ruled, they put together a huge inning in which they went from 9-1 to 9-8. Two outs, bases full of Little League Rockies. And my son stands at the plate, bases full, and yanked it out of the park for a grand slam home run.

So awesome. And I lost it. As you should.

As you should. I totally lost it. It was my greatest achievement of my life. No, it's definitely one I'll never forget it. And he ran around and his teammates jumped at home plate with him. He was doing the Kirk Gibson round in second. He put his hands on his head like Tom Brady after winning his first Super Bowl. He couldn't believe it. I'll never forget it. He crushed it.

He absolutely smoked it. Yeah, you sent us some video. Sent you some videos.

The sound right off the bat, you can tell. Went and got the baseball. Yeah, because that's the last thing you said in the video. I gotta get that ball. I sent you guys the video. It was awesome, man. It was the thing that we all do when we watch games and someone hits one and you're like, get out! I did scream that.

You wanted to go? It was the no doubt about it. And so, incredible. Just an incredible moment. I'm going to put that on our IG story if you don't mind.

Well, I don't know if I want to, I don't know. What was post game? Did you want a celebratory meal? Well, again, Susie and I went to a bar mitzvah. As a matter of fact, she wasn't there because she was getting ready for it. Oh, she missed it? It's truly one of the only games she's missed all year.

Wow, I know that hurts. I know, but we FaceTimed as we were picking up the baseball. And then she said hi to Coop because, you know, it's not a major league game.

He can go right into the dugout. You know, Rich, my favorite part of that video that you sent us was Taylor going and hugging him. Because I know how brothers and sisters are. I had two myself. So that moment was, that had to be almost as grateful. She did hop in there as well.

And, you know, bless her. How am I doing today on this program? Because I'm a little bit sleep deprived. Pretty good. Thank you. I appreciate you saying that. You're doing better than Tom and Shiv, so you're fine.

I appreciate that. Spoiler alert. When she has a bad dream. We've been going through that a little bit recently.

Have you really? Okay, get ready. I hope Cage doesn't do what she does. Well, Cage is doing flat out screams in the middle of the night. Okay.

I don't know if that's better than this. But she, cause she comes in the room and says nothing and then whispers, like that. And then that kind of gets me awake.

And then I look up and she's at the foot of the bed and she's got long hair. Oh gosh. So standing there, there's a very Blair witch vibe to this whole situation. The ring. The ring. Oh my God.

The ring. It's like middle of the night. I'm glad she whispers cause it prevents, you know, any, anything to keep Susie from being awakened cause and you're 14 dogs to two dogs. Oh my God.

She just stands there at the end of the bed with this long hair and doesn't say a word. My heart skips a beat. Then I kick into father of the year mode. So, so I'm a little bit, uh, I'm a little bit out there.

Oh Hey, by the way, uh, the phrase that pays on this show is what? Hell going on. Hell going on. Yeah.

We know that right. Of the hell going on month of, uh, of March, two marches ago with his huge, huge day in the NFL off season, Stefan Diggs tweeted out the hell going on. And then we had him at the Superbowl say the words cause he tweeted out the hell going on for the free agency month. And when I guess Tyreek Hill was getting traded and all that craziness was happening. So James Harden had a huge game on the playoffs right yesterday.

A lot of folks were wondering, well, was there anything different? Well, I guess Doc Rivers texted him a gospel song, um, on his phone coming to work and Harden talked about receiving said text. I'm on the way to the game and I get a text from doc and I'm like, this was a gospel song and I'm like, all right, whatever. I just told my homies, let's play this song. It's a seven minute song, but it's like, I let the whole song play and I'm like, all right, it gotta be some kind of good juju in this song or whatever.

However, he's feeling, I want to feel like that. I guess it works. So he said the hell going on. We got another one. Hell going on. We got another one.

We're going to collect them. So now you wonder. Now if you're, if you're doc rivers, do you send him a gospel song every time he's going to work? Absolutely. For game five. I would think so.

Literally you go down whatever greatest hits you can get. Absolutely. How about doc? Also good on James Harden. He had one of the Michigan state shooting victims in a wheelchair, pre and post game.

That was cool. James Harden is having, he went to Vegas too, and they're off off. He's living his best life, but he's living the right life. I love James Harden.

You would never guess it about you either. James Harden's one of your favorites. The hell going on. The hell going on. Kevin Pollak's going to join us shortly on this program. Overreaction Monday still to come as well.

Right here. So your son is screaming out in the middle of the night? I don't know what's going on. So you're like dead asleep and then suddenly you hear a three year old in the other room screaming. Just screaming. It goes on for, you know, several seconds.

It's long and then we kind of kind of do the grog awake. You're like, did you hear that? Yeah.

What should we do? Well, let's see if he keeps doing it. Yeah.

And then a second one will come and then, all right, one of us gets to go in and. Okay. Yeah. The whispering in the standing wordlessly with the long hair. And you see the silhouette through, you know, sleep covered eyes. Oh my God.

I feel like I should take a picture of it and then we'll create a movie poster. The Awakening. Doesn't that sound like a horror movie? The Awakening. The Awakening. Mom, Dad. That actually might be a horror movie. Mom, Dad.

Mom, Dad. Did she tell you what the nightmare was? The Awakening was a movie in 2011. There you go. Is it a Sam Raimi film?

Dominic West, though. Okay. From, you know. So, no, I didn't ask that because I don't want conversations. We need to go back to sleep.

We don't need conversations. It'll be something when I pick her up from school today if I do. Then you'll talk about it. Yes.

Correct. Does she tell you what she's dreaming about? Because Cage can't say that yet. She can. She can do it.

She can do it. Okay. But like I said, at four something in the morning, we don't want that. Right. We're not chit-chatting. Right.

Right. We're kind of calm down and go to sleep so you don't stand there and whisper to Daddy when he's dead asleep. Dad. You love Lala Kent on Vanderpump Rules. Now get to know her on Give Them Lala. With her assistant Jess. What you did not see is when Raquel arrives and she wants to talk to me, I made her sit in a corner. Explain. Sat in a corner booth all by herself in the dark. Waiting for to talk to you. Waiting for me to finish dancing to 50 Cent. It's my birthday. Sit in a corner. Give Them Lala wherever you listen.