REShow: Lisa Salters & Michael Kay - Hour 1

As the Stanley Cup playoffs continue on ESPN, anything is possible. So, the decorations could get a little out of hand.

And a city could get a new landmark. Could a Kraken arise? Could the storm surge? Could it happen for the first time? Could it happen again?

Yeah, that could happen. That is playoff hockey. The Stanley Cup playoffs continue on ESPN. ESPN NBA reporter Lisa Salters. UCLA running backs coach Deshaun Foster.

Basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Suzy Schuster. Well, hi everybody. So happy to be back here with you on the Rich Eisen Show. Thrilled to be in the chair as Rich takes, shall we say, a break.

More on that later of course. Listen, he's a big guy. He's 53. We can say it. He's having a colonoscopy, people. I'm just letting you know that right out there because you two should get out there and check out how the Roto-Rooter's doing. But in the interim, here I am with you, TJ Jefferson. How are you this morning? Great to see you. How you doing today? I am awesome, Chris Brockman. How are you?

Hey, I'm great. Mike, hit it. Well, old Dr. Jones with my rubber glove is going to make sure every one of you are safe.

That's what Rich is doing right now. In other words, Mikey D came correct today. Much better than last time, Mike, when you hosed me.

Oh, the use of hose accidentally. I screwed up, Mike. I owe you, Suzy. I owe you. By the way, it's going to be a long three hours.

Start them up. I let everybody know ahead of time, Mike. I said, Mike, I've got a couple drops for you. Don't screw me on it this time, like last time.

I'm with the Roku channels out there watching. I want to be prepared. I want to be prepared to have excellent drops for you today.

I'm psyched to be with you again. 844-204-rich. I wanted the poll question to be donut related because I know that usually if it's food optics, people will call in. And you guys all know I love calls. So 844-204-rich, Roku channel. And you know, I love that we're here on Roku because even an idiot like me can find the Roku channel.

While I'm driving with one foot up on the on the dashboard with one hand on the steering wheel, TJ, I can find the Roku channel on my app. I would rather you didn't do that. But, you know, I get it. Yeah, but don't you want me to call it and hit you during commercial breaks and non-commercial breaks to give you some pointer producing advice? It's always great. So yet again, Chris Brockman, another night last night, Game one in the Western Conference Finals, another night where it's third quarter. Jokic already has a triple double.

I think I can go be a mom and put my kids down. I come back in like, oh, what did I miss? Not in these playoffs. Lakers back within three. And then breaking news, LeBron James loses the game for the Lakers and all the haters are freaking out.

Oh, my God. LeBron James missed a free throw. He missed a three pointer. You could have tied the game. They would have won if LeBron James hadn't missed.

Right. Can't you hear all the haters out there like freaking out over that the turnover with Jokic underneath the basket looks like Jamal Murray put a finger in. It looked like the slowest turnover of all time.

Remember, it looked like it looked like it came over like Jamal Murray had like a left hand. Jokic is under the basket. LeBron turns it over. The slowest turnover. The Keystone Cops turnover of all time.

And Jokic, Jokic, who is there, Mikey D, go. He looks like Mike. He looks like Dolph Lundgren from the hat. Was it Rocky? Is it Rocky? Yeah.

Which one of them does he not look like? The Joker? Yeah.

That's right. Did you see Dolph Lundgren in Rocky? Yeah, it looks like it looks like the Joker. No, he was a block of muscle. He looks nothing like. Oh, I think I totally think I have the enhancements.

It's my show. And that's how I see it. True, true, true joke. Jokic looks like to me, Dolph Lundgren, by the way. I mean, let's just talk about his performance last night. And we're not surprised.

He is the greatest basketball player on the court right now. Come on. Sorry, TJ. I know that you might take some umbrage with that. You said on the court.

So I'm OK with that. Don't forget to ask me how I feel about Ben Simmons and his tweet the other night with the wine. By the way, watching a game that he's not playing in like that was such a such a lame move.

I felt like I felt like calling him myself and saying, hey, Ben, if you're playing the game, then you can tweet something out. But like, don't spill the red wine on the white carpet. And oh, by the way, don't carp when you're not playing the game. But whatever. That's a whole nother conversation.

And I'm here for three hours that I'm just getting started. So we have a lot to talk about. I hit Lisa Salters up my old buddy. This is like another old buddy session. I texted Lisa Salters after the game said, hey, babe, nine twenty, ten twenty.

She said, remind me, I might be sleeping. So Lisa Salters will join us after her night with game one. We'll also have Michael K joining us from the Yes Network.

Michael K is one of my oldest friends in the business. I can't wait to talk to him about his home run calls. See ya.

Because it's all Cooper wants to hear. And also, obviously, Chris, if you want to sit that one out, you can. Absolutely not. I'm going to hold Michael K to the fire. Let me go here. There's some weird stuff going on with the Yankees. Do you think so? There's nothing going on.

Wait, are you looking shifty right now, Chris? So I tried this out guys. And I know a lot of people want to talk basketball off the front.

They want to hear about this. But I did. I did try to. Now, I can't see anyway because I'm too old.

But I tried that. Like, can you really can you really see over to like the clubhouse like that? Can you really make out the pitch? And also, by the way, last time I checked, isn't that part of baseball? I mean, baseball is all about like it's not illegal to like help out a guy.

I mean, it's not like it's not part of the culture of baseball. Let's not be like. And by the way, I don't think he can see all the way over there. Do you think he was tipped off? Do you think he was tipped off, Chris? Even?

No, but even if he was, I don't care. I also didn't think it was a big deal, really, what the Astros were doing. Kind of the wrong person to talk to about the Astros were like basically buying walkie talkies or Radio Shack and telegraphy.

And guess what? Whatever. It's the evolution of, you know, baseball gamesmanship.

OK, I think I think you're so wrong, but it's only like 906. I mean, again, this was like Altuve. This is almost like wearing a wire in Watergate. Like this was like. Right. But it just felt a little dirtier, a little trickier.

Because we felt like it felt it felt dirtier because we don't like them. What if he was maybe what if he was just honest? What if his eye was a G? No, no, no, look it up. And he hit it.

Four hundred and fifty feet. He hit a bomb. Oh, my God. He hit it again last night. He did the yes camera again.

We should be starting with basketball, but whatever. The yes camera on judges first at bat was so tight on his face because they were just where his eyes, where his eyes. Are they looking at the dugout? No, they're looking at the pitcher.

Cool. Zoom out. Five hundred foot home run. So let's let's ask Michael K. At what point did he know something was going on? Because he's calling the game. It's not like he's it's not like he's watching every camera angle. It's like he's calling the game. He's in it.

I want to know when it was that he actually got a whiff of something going on here. So that'll be at the bottom of the sour. I'm doing the math for everybody all over the world. Bottom of the sour. We will have that. Obviously, you can see it later if you missed it. So you're watching a rerun. Guess what?

On YouTube, if you're on Roku, because the Roku will just spin and spin and spin. You can watch me all day. You lucky guys. But yeah, we're going to talk to Michael K. We have Deshaun Foster coming in. Thanks to you, T.J. Jefferson.

Thanks a lot. I'm so thrilled for that. I haven't seen Deshaun since his first year playing for the Carolina Panthers after I covered him at UCLA.

Wow. And I was with him and Freddie Mitchell and Brian Pulley Dixon. Corey Paz, Ryan Nese, I mean, Bob Toledo.

Guess who was on that staff, by the way? Al Borges was back then the offensive coordinator and was one of the backs' coaches. Was that Cade McDown's quarterback back then? Well, when Deshaun came in, Cade was there. And then Cade left. That was a hot mess of a team. That was a hot mess. You know, Deshaun was going to be the Heisman Trophy winner.

And he was heading for a great place. And we're going to talk to him about his experience at UCLA, why he's so good now, why four of his backs have gone to the NFL, what makes him so successful. And I'm just happy to catch up with them. And then, of course, I'm going to start to sweat because Shaquille O'Neal will call in on the top of the third hour. You know, whenever I have Shaq on, I'm thrilled.

It's so great. But I'm in a cold sweat until after the interview because I'm still waiting to make sure that he got on. And last time I checked, he was on a flight to Boston. We will ask him how many changes of clothing he brought to Boston.

I'm kind of curious about that. And we'll talk to him also about the Ja Morant situation. I might as well hit that really quickly. Obviously, here's a little heads up. Not happy with Ja.

That should give you a little, like, harbinger of things to come later in the show when we break that down. But let's just talk a little bit more, T.J. and Chris, about the game last night. Because, you know, as a sideline reporter, I'm trained to ask about second half adjustments. It's like, that's like, no, right? Rule number one is, hey, coach, what's your second half adjustment coming out of the half?

What do you see out there? What are you going to do differently in those 12 minutes that you were in the locker room? I mean, the three hours that you were in there. So anyway, let's face it. This is a game about second half adjustments and we've got two days now before we have another game.

What will the adjustments be? If I'm the Nuggets, I'm just thinking I'm going to go out there and play like I did. But I'm also going to be aware of this roaming that Anthony Davis will do now. I think that you can't compete if you're not going to stop transition basketball, right? I mean, you have to think the Lakers are going to come back and play a little stronger.

And maybe grab some boards. Might want to rebound a little bit. But boy, Nikola Djokic, what a joy to watch him. And we talk, I mean, I can read every stat that you've already read a million times.

I was prepping. I'm like, oh, I'm writing down, OK, 34 points or new on boards, 14 assists, triple double halfway through the third, 12th career playoff. Triple double was the only magic and.

Kareem, maybe there was a big stat going around last night. You've all seen the stats. He's great. Yeah, he's amazing. Great and agile and cool and and build nothing like Dolph Lundgren and looks just like Dolph Lundgren to me. And I just watched him last night and I just thought to myself as we come off of the draft lottery, look at the size of this man.

And when Victor Wembanyana comes out. A 19 year old and they're saying like the greatest draft prospect of all time. He looks so thin and spindly compared to Nikola. But he's also five inches taller than Djokic. I mean, so much taller, but so much wayfier.

Yes, that's true. But he's 19 years old. He is. Greg Popovich. Have fun, pops.

Seventy four years old. You have to think that's going to breathe some life into his coaching career. I wonder if it's going to be fun for him to have this or he's like, oh, God, this is going to be a project.

Either way, that'll be a lot of fun. But I digress yet again. Back to the game. That was great to watch. The last couple of minutes were amazing.

I think it's going to be fun to see everybody just chewing this, chewing it up. Lebron. He missed. He missed a free throw. Lebron doesn't miss free throws.

And that turnover. What if the Lakers had come out of Game one with that win, Chris? Because as we know, I mean, Denver doesn't lose at home in the playoffs. It would have been remarkable if they won Game one. I'd be apt to sit here today and say they're going to win the series as it is now. They might have a tough time winning in Denver, but I think T.J. watching the game last night, I was just thinking this is really high level basketball. Like these both of these teams, the way they're playing are probably better than both teams in the East right now. Just Boston's inconsistency and Miami is just kind of on a wave right now that you think is going to kind of come to an end here soon. Jokic, it's like watching an artist kind of paint a masterpiece every time he's playing basketball.

The guy is unbelievable. He might have, might have, should have been the MVP this year. I still think Embiid should have won last year. And this year it was kind of Jokic's year.

That way everyone's kind of happy. But man, Austin Reeves hits that three to make it 124-121. I kind of thought for a split second, are the Lakers going to steal this? By the way, Austin Reeves, I mean, that kid, the ball goes in his hands.

It's usually going in the basket. I mean, he has been on fire. He has been a really good player. He plays just incredible under stress.

It feels like he has no fear, which is really important. I mean, it helps playing with LeBron. I think when you play with LeBron James, though, you need to have no fear. And LeBron likes those players.

So a young guy like Reeves, you know, maybe sometimes the moment might be a little too big for him. Doesn't seem like it right now. I think LeBron will help calm those nerves because, you know, he's going to put you in the position. He's going to get you the ball in the right spots and he's going to, you know, he's going to hype you up to make you want to play better because I don't think they want to let him down. You know, and also Anthony Davis yesterday with 40, just like that kind of I didn't see that coming. This is going to be a great series, man.

It really is. Yeah, Anthony Davis was awesome last night and I found myself watching him thinking, wow, Davis is playing unreal. Haven't really heard much from LeBron. And then I looked at the box score and he had 22 and 10 at that moment.

And I was like, wow, this is the quietest 22 and 10. LeBron finished one assist shy of a triple double last night. It was just so sublime where he's doing things and it's not even really noticeable, but he's making an impact all over the court, if that makes sense.

Oh, yeah. Well, he played like a captain last night, Chris. I mean, he really was dishing out. He was dishing it out. He was trying to haul it in. He was trying to make it happen everywhere. And we just saw the typical thing that he'll do at the end where he wants to control the ball at the end.

I get it. You want to have the rock in your hands. You want to have it there to make the right play. And when it's just so funny and it comes down to fundamentals, when you miss a free throw and it could be everything, it can change the game. And then there was there were a couple questionable moments like not going for layup, dishing it out, maybe like looking at the time on the clock. A couple of weird little head scratches towards the end of the game. But LeBron wanted the ball in his hands to end it. And had he tied it up, had he tied it up, we would be having a completely different conversation this morning.

But he didn't. And so now we go on to Game 2. We'll talk to Lisa Salters about that.

And I think for the Lakers, I'm excited to hear what Lisa's perspective being there in the building. For the Lakers, DeAngelo Russell can't go 4 of 11. He was minus 25 in the game.

They need something out of Schroeder. He was only 2 for 3 in 32 minutes. And Lonnie Walker, who's been awesome in this playoffs, TJ, ever since his kind of breakout.

20 minutes, 2 of 6. So for the Lakers to win these games, Anthony Davis isn't going to score 40 every night. So they need the shooters. They need the Russles.

They need the Walkers to kind of chip in, step up. Because this is what this is who Denver is. They're a team that can score. They're not going to shoot lights out every game.

But they're going to be in the 120s. So the Lakers really need to kind of answer and score some points, put the ball in the basket if they want a shot in this series. Great night for Cantavius Caldwell Pope, former Laker. I mean, great night for him. And you have to think that he was kind of happy getting out that Game 1.

Don't you think, TJ? Also, I told Chris before the show started, it would have been kind of hard for me to believe the Lakers take Game 1. Especially because going up to Denver and playing in that altitude, everyone knows football, baseball, basketball.

That's a real thing. So for a team to just like step onto that court and have to deal with that error, that's, you know, from what I've understood, that's a very tough thing to get acclimated to. So for them to take that Game 1 was probably going to be a hard thing to happen. Now to see how Game 2 goes and see if they if they're able to adjust. But of course, I've never played a game in Denver, so I don't know. But this is just what everyone says. Yeah, I've done sidelines and that was just exhausting.

So I can't compare to the other one. Did you find yourself having a hard time? Well, I actually like I was standing there freezing behind the Broncos bench and put my glove in front of it to try to heat up my glove on one of those air blowers. Caught on fire?

Caught on fire. That's a whole different conversation, TJ. Jamal Murray, another great night for him as well. And he missed a couple of games. I mean, I mean, a couple of days of practice, not feeling so great. Jokich made a nice joke.

He's like, I just don't think he wanted to practice. See some humor from the big man as well. Yeah, but it's not it's not his team is it's a really nice team, man.

They've got a lot of balance. And but the way Joe, like you said, he is an artist. Yeah, he really is. And it's fun to watch him play basketball because he's relatable. Chris, like most of us can't jump 40 inches.

You know, most of us aren't super fast. This guy is like your typical YMCA player that we've all played with, except he's the best guy on the court. You go to L.A. fitness and there's always like that one tall guy. And it's like, it's this guy. And then he just shreds you and you just walk away after the game. You just lost eleven to four.

And you're like, how did that just happen? That dude had 10 points. What? But that also plays into kind of what we were talking about earlier. Sometimes you can have the height, but you're still not a great player. Right. How many Michael Ola candies do we have to watch where that just doesn't translate? Right.

I mean, there are so many players. Yao Ming, you know, I think it's like as we talk again about women, Yama, we talk about his height because, by the way, much more on him later, his mom's six three. How about that? Wow. His mom.

I mean, she'd make me look a midget. But, you know, when you when you have all that height, but all you have is your height, you know, the kind of like it gets. What was it, Sean? What's his name? Old sixer, Sean. Come on, Sean Bradley.

Thank you. I mean, like he looked like he was going to break half the time. Shaq used to love playing against him because he could just destroy him. But well, Shaq, in defense, destroyed everybody. That's true. And this is something we'll talk to Shaq about in the third hour as women. I mean, like here's this 19 year old little wisp.

Don't you think Shaq would have been like, excuse me, young boy, move over. And yeah, so we're going to take a break. We're going to come back with Lisa Salters, the greatest of all time, the ESPN worldwide leader of reporters from Denver. Let's hear about her experience last night. Much more ahead on the Rich Eisen show. Don't go anywhere.

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Just search BLEAV podcast wherever you listen. Back here on the Rich Eisen show with Lisa Salters from the worldwide leader of sports, my old friend of about 25 years. Tell me about that game, though, last night and what you saw from Joe Gitch. I mean, you've seen everybody play, Lisa.

What's it like covering him, watching him just set up shop? It's funny, though, Susie, like I have never seen him play before. I never I haven't done a game here in Denver. And I was trying to figure out when it's been at least 10 years. Maybe I had a game of theirs in the bubble.

I think maybe I did. But this is really the first time I've had a chance to watch him play. And I got to admit, I have been sleeping on this guy. He is spectacular. He is ridiculously good and just unstoppable. Just watching him play last night, I was texting people saying, you know what? This guy is really good.

And they're like, we've been trying to tell you that. And I admit, like I, you know, hadn't really been paying much attention. I haven't had a lot.

I haven't had any games with Denver either on the road or with them here at home. So I hadn't really paid much attention to him. Of course, I knew all of the, you know, I know all of the great things that people say about him. I know his stat lines.

I know his numbers so that I knew I knew he was a great player. But until you see it in person, dude is phenomenal. He is just he's just he's a beast.

He really is. He's got such a quiet way about him. He really doesn't want any of the fanfare. He's almost seemingly embarrassed by it and just would rather do without it.

He just wants to go to work and to think about who he was eight years ago, that chubby kid, second round draft pick. He's just he's phenomenal. And here on the Roku Channel, we're looking at a still of Anthony Davis with Jokic. And it's just like there's something about him. It's his agility.

It's his grace. It's the way he attacks the basket. And obviously, AD had a great night last night. But you have to wonder if the Lakers made it clear that this won't be easy, at least they did in the fourth quarter. But you have to wonder about what the adjustments will be between game one and game two. Yeah, I think the Lakers kind of, you know, they switched off AD. They switched him off of Jokic late in the game and had Rui on him.

And that seemed to be successful. And so the question, you know, the question I have is, will Rui be starting now? Are you going to insert him in the starting lineup? Take DeAngelo Russell out? DeAngelo didn't have a great game last night, but he's still a huge part of what they do.

And what are the numbers that they're what, seven and 0 when he scores 16 points or more or something like that? He didn't get that last night. But you're thinking like, all we got to do is kind of get him going.

And perhaps we'd have better success. But you can't deny what you saw. And that was when AD was switched off of Joker and ended up playing. I think it was he was on Aaron Gordon and having Rui play Joker. Then they just had, you know, things started to flow for them.

So I would be surprised if they didn't go with that to start the game in game two. ESPN's Lisa Salter joins us here on the Rich Eisen Show. Lisa, how for real do you believe the Denver climate is adjusting to the altitude, et cetera? You know, I'm not an elite athlete, so that is hard to say. But I know just as a an old lady who tries to work out every day that I had forgotten about the altitude. And yesterday morning when I got up and I did my workout, it was fine.

I did the workout and it was fine. You know, I was huffing and puffing, but that's normal. It was only after when I walked to breakfast and was walking back from breakfast that I thought, my God, I'm having a hard time catching my breath. Like, did that workout really tax me that much? And I really just and I just talked it up to like, wow, I'm really getting old. It's taking me a long time to recover even from that workout. And then I got back to my room and I started kind of studying more for the game. And I started reading about the altitude and the players talking about the altitude.

And I thought, oh, that's right. We're in Denver. OK, so maybe I'm not as old and and out of shape as I thought. Maybe maybe the altitude does have something to do with it. So, you know, whether or not it's affecting the Lakers, I do know that that it takes weeks for an athlete's body to adjust to being at altitude and to not have the symptoms. So them just being here, the Lakers just being here for a few days. That's really there's really not a whole lot that they can do to lessen to lessen the effects. There are some things, but but not a whole lot of things.

So without being here for at least a couple of weeks, your body is just not going to, you know, they're not going to be as used to it as as the Nuggets are. You know, we asked, you know, Joger the same question. Hey, do you think the altitude has an effect on posting players?

And he's pretty funny. He's like, I don't know, but we'd like to think it's us and not the altitude. And it's hard to argue that like at the beginning of the game yesterday, I was thinking, you know, how much of this is just, you know, the Lakers kind of finding their legs because they were not getting back in transition.

Right. They look kind of sluggish that first half yesterday. But then how much of it was the Nuggets and them just being a really good team? I think game two, you know, not that the altitude won't still be a factor for the Lakers, but, you know, I'd be interested to see how the Lakers start the game in game two.

Yeah, Lisa. And that's the thing is that we basically have the outline of how the Lakers can beat the Nuggets. We have the outline. It's just a question of actually putting it into play because it goes the other way, too. I mean, the Nuggets just saw exactly how they can take care of business. And then that will be that'll be what makes it so much more interesting for this game, too, because it looked like a blowout and then all of a sudden it wasn't.

And that's what makes this game and this series more exciting. Didn't you kind of think that when you put your kids to bed, did you think that, OK, the Lakers are kind of they're kind of done. They're going to like, you know, let go of the rope and wait for game two. That's kind of how it looked like it was going when it got up to 21 points. I thought this is going to be one of those games where they're just going to be like, you know what, let's just start over. You know, game two. But, you know, to see to see that fight and to see them come back, I think they left that game thinking, you know what?

We can you know, we we can do this. And I would be surprised if game two if they were to start as slowly as they did in game one. So do you think the Nuggets took their foot off the gas?

What do you think? You know, I mean, that would be human nature. They were up 21 points. But I remember my interview at the end of the third quarter with Mike Malone and he was I mean, they were still up 14 at that point, but they were up 14 because of that buzzer beater that that Nicola hit at the end of the third quarter. And Mike Malone, he was he was not happy. He was like, you know, they shot 75 percent in that quarter.

Like that's not going to cut it. So he kind of saw where the game was trending and he wanted to nip that in the bud. And he was right. It continued going that way with the Lakers kind of being able to looking like they had figured looking like they had figured things out. So, you know, did they did they take their foot off the gas?

Maybe in the third quarter. But I think in the fourth quarter, they certainly knew that they had a ballgame. And, you know, it just it was a it was a back and forth game down down to the end. And I think the Lakers again, I think the Lakers came away from that game thinking, you know, confident, thinking that we figured some things out. And, you know, that first game I was saying to you, OK, after the game that the game, you know, game number one in the series is always kind of feeling each other out. And I feel like that that was the case for for both of them. But I think the Lakers, even though they got the loss, I think they came away feeling pretty confident and pretty positive that they had figured some things out.

That's exactly what I saw, too. That's exactly what I saw in those postgame interviews that they that was not a a team with their head down. That was the team like, oh, I think I saw something there that I can manipulate for game two.

You know, maybe we're wrong. Maybe we'll get blown out in game two. But it just seemed like things started to click like the light bulb went on for the Lakers. And, you know, like I think the first quarter, the first half of game number two is going to be really interesting to see if that carries over. Yeah.

It's like the old Monty Python. You know, we're not dead yet. I mean, I think you think that they had to see something. LeBron's not going to give up either. I mean, we were talking about it to start the show, Lisa, that all the LeBron haters are like, LeBron lost the game. He missed a free throw. He missed a three.

He turned it over. And people love to get all excited, like, you know, the headlines like, is LeBron James done? So I don't think so. OK, right. Haven't they learned in 20 years not to count out LeBron James? That just seems ridiculous.

But oh, well. What do you see in the East, Lise? Who do you think who's going to come out on top there? I mean, I'd have to go with the Celtics just because of I don't know. The Celtics and I haven't seen Miami play at all this season, other than on television. Jimmy Butler is playing great out of his mind right now. But other than Jimmy, I don't see a whole lot there that I would be afraid of if I were the Celtics. And when I look at the Celtics roster, I see lots of guys who can beat you. You know, of course, Jason Tatum. But even if he's not hot, like Jason Tatum, like against the Sixers, Jason working in game five where he was or game six where he was awful through three quarters, you know, and he's still in the ballgame because they've got Jalen Brock. So for you know, I just have to say for depth wise, I would I would go with the Celtics just because other than Jimmy Butler, I don't know where you go after that. And I'm not saying that Jimmy Butler can't be the guy to take you through seven games.

He absolutely can. But I would say, you know, if I if I were a betting person and I am not, I put my money on the Celtics. Lisa Salters from ESPN least. Have you even looked at the Monday Night Football schedule yet or do you just have to get through NBA and then you can start looking at that? I have. I've glanced at it. I haven't studied it a whole lot, but I have I have looked at it, of course, because as soon as it comes out, you know, I want to know where where am I going to be? And especially where am I going to be in December? That's really what I look at. Where am I going to be in December?

So, yeah, I've looked I've looked at it. And at the start, like I thought that was phenomenal to start with Aaron Rodgers in New York against the Bills. The Bills against anybody would have been great. But, you know, up against Aaron Rodgers, his debut in a Jets uniform, that's going to be that's going to be fantastic. Yeah. Aaron Rodgers on September 11th, as if it won't be charged enough.

That'll be quite a game. You're spending Christmas in San Francisco, Lisa. You know that, right? Plan now? Plan for a little something with Sam?

That's another thing that you look at. You look at the holidays. Thanksgiving. OK, where am I going to go right after Thanksgiving? Is that going to be an easy trip? And then Christmas. Am I going to be able to be with my family at all?

Can I have my family come to me? And the answer is no. So that won't be happening. But I'm curious to find out if I will be doing an NBA game. You know, it had it been the Warriors. Had the Warriors won the championship again this year, they would have hosted a Christmas Day game and they probably would have had me doing both. Christmas Day game, the NBA game and the football game. But I don't I don't know how that how that might work this year. I mean, the Warriors might still be hosting a game.

By the way, they might. Yeah. Yeah. Steve Kerr might still be sleeping right now, sleeping in.

I don't think Steve Kerr is the sleeping kind of guy. But yeah. And by the way, if you need me to do one of those games, just like ping me, text me, you know how to reach me. If you want me to cover for you on one of those games, you know, I'm just saying, like, don't be so selfish. I'll let you know. I'll let you know. Lisa, I miss you. How's everything? Everything good on your end? How's everything? Everything's good.

Everything's good. Cooper's taller than you are. Well, it doesn't take much. I mean, you're not that tall.

Yeah, I'm only 5'3". Yeah. Yeah. Everything's good. Kids, Cooper hit a grand slam through a complete game shutout. He's got a nice floater, a little lefty floater down the lane.

And so we got that going for us. You know, what's up with Xander up to? Xander's great.

Xander is into anything with theater and as you can imagine, is just really bossy. And he's going off on a two day trip. He has to live in a tent for a couple of days. Let's see if he comes back or not.

It should be interesting. How old is he now? He's almost 15. 14? He's 14.

He'll be 15 in August. And then your girl Taylor is in Sacramento today for a trip. I texted somebody in the government.

I was like, look, if you come across a very bossy fourth grader trying to tell you how to run the state of California, that'd be mine. Taylor Mattingly. It's all good. Taylor Mattingly. Speaking of Mattingly, we're going to go because Michael K is calling in at 940 or 1240, wherever you are. Do the math, people. You know, I can't do the math. So we're going to talk Yankees next.

So thank you for that lovely caveat. I feel like that was a I should have had my glasses on and off. I could have done a Bryant. And speaking of the Yankees, Lisa, we miss you. Come on out and visit. Bring that Sam.

We'll do faces. Have fun. Have fun, Lisa. There's Lisa Salters from the worldwide leader in sports and also just like a really great human being and a great friend. And good to have her on. I pinged her last night. I always know what kind of game it is if I can reach her during a game. You know, I used to be stressed out during these games in all business. Lisa's like, what's up, Zeus?

I'm like, oh, you're so cool. She's only done 700000 games. But you heard it here first, Chris. She thinks she thinks Boston.

I agree with her. I guess we'll find out tonight. I mean, need to come out and take game one.

Can't do what they did against six years and immediately put themselves in a hole by losing game one at home. So I expect a big night from Tatum and the boys. And are you wicked nervous?

Not as nervous as I was for game six and seven against Philly. That's for sure. Yeah. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we will switch gears.

Talk a little baseball. Michael K. calling in another one of guests from Susie's pass. Much more ahead on The Rich Eisen Show. 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 has the right product for you.

Call click ranger dot com or just stop by as Michael K. did and did me the favor of calling in just now here on The Rich Eisen Show. Michael, are we making a big deal out of nothing? I mean, Chris Brockman's over here in the corner and he's just ready to roast you because he's a Sox fan. But I'm just curious about the judge of it all. Obviously.

Number one, when did you know something was brewing the other night? Absolutely. Not at all during the game, Susie, because if you remember, Boone got thrown out earlier in the at bat. So we are actually showing the shot from high center field. There's no way you can see eyes darting. We were not even on that radar.

It wasn't on our radar. I don't know if the Toronto broadcast had been tipped off that maybe he looks down at the third. The first base coach could be not sure, but they were zeroing in on his eyes. It looked like an Eyes Wide Shut movie. And it was weird.

And I didn't find out about it until I got back to the hotel in Toronto and I was just scrolling through social media and I saw that it became a big thing. Now, I don't think it's a big thing at all, because let's say that the first base coach picked up a tell that the pitcher Jackson was giving on certain pitches. He has every right to try to relay that to Aaron Judge. If Aaron Judge has the mental dexterity and mental acuity to in the middle of an adapt right before the pitch is being delivered to check, and just dart his eyes toward the first base coach good on him, that's not cheating.

As long as there's not electronics involved, that's good old gamesmanship and they've been doing that for 130 years. So I just think that Judge is kind of upset about it, because he has a pristine reputation. He had 62 home runs, nobody ever insinuated that anything was untoward last year. And to even have it out there that he might have done something wrong, I think bothers him because he didn't do anything wrong and Major League Baseball said he didn't do anything wrong.

I think that's exactly it. Isn't that part of the game? There's been so many people jumping on the bandwagon, Michael, and saying, just trying to break this down, trying to accuse him of something, where it seems to me that getting a sign is part of baseball. It's as old as baseball itself. And if he can manipulate that ball, and it seems to me like he can hit anything anyway, I mean, I don't really understand actually what the big deal is. Well, I think the thing that makes it laughable, let's say that the first base coach, Travis Chapman, found out location, because I don't think he could pick up pitches anymore, just a pitch comp.

So let's say he found out the location and Alejandro Kirk is setting up low and away, which he was. It was a hanging slide right over the plate. So knowing the location of that pitch didn't help judge at all. I think it became a big thing, Suzy, because the ball was then hit 462 feet.

So people were trying to put two and two together and make it five. Again, if you say I'm in your house every day, I'm not a Yankee homer, I try to call the games down the middle, he didn't do anything wrong. There's nothing wrong with stealing signs with your eyes and passing them along by giving signs with your hands or where you place your leg, if your foot is facing forward, that's been done forever.

If anybody could prove that anything was gotten from electronic means, then that's cheating. I mean, there are clear rules about that. This, I think, was old-fashioned hardball. Sorry, Chris Brockman's over here and I see the look on your face, Chris.

Why are you guys cheating so much? And then, Herman, yesterday, what's going on in that dugout? I'm only kidding. Well, Herman, that's unfortunate. Obviously, he did something wrong. He had stuff that was so sticky, the umpire said that he'd never seen it before. This is a guy, Chris, that was pretty much targeted after the Minnesota game, where they looked at him twice and actually gave him a warning and didn't call him out. So he has to know he's on the umpire's radar and they just did a check when he was coming out of the dugout. And that's on him, man. That's on him.

If he is not better at policing himself, then he deserves to get suspended and he deserves to get thrown out. And he made that a very costly win to the Yankees because it ended up getting Ian Hamilton hurt and ended up using the entire bullpen. And it might impact how they do in the next couple of games. That was not great for Domingo Ramon. Also, back to Judge, shout out to the director on Yes last night for getting as close as you possibly could get on Aaron Judge's eyes during his first at-bat. And then he proceeded to hit it 500 yards. It was incredible. It was great camera work.

And then Judge proceeds to spit on it 500 feet. Yeah, it was impressive. The home run yesterday, I mean, that was a major flex by Judge. If you notice, his eyes never left the pitcher.

This guy doesn't need any help. He and Charlie Otani, I believe, are the two best players in baseball. So, I think that's what annoyed him the most is that any aspersions were cast. And I got to tell you guys, there's another narrative out there that the Blue Jay broadcaster did something wrong. They didn't do anything wrong. They had a shot with the MVP of the league.

His eyes were darting away from the pitcher. Of course you're going to bring it up. And Judge is mad at them for some reason. And I guess I understand because it started this narrative about him.

But Dan Schulman is one of the best in the world at what he does. I don't think they did anything wrong. They just showed what the camera zeroed in on. And they talked about it. But they didn't say, he's cheating.

They just said, I wonder what he's looking at. Yeah, and that was Rich's point yesterday when we were talking about it. Is that, you know, suddenly this gets brought up and now this cloud begins to kind of move in, not hang, but move in over Judge's record-breaking season last year, which is obviously unfair.

Totally unfair. And, you know, this guy's a good dude. Now, you know, one of the defenses I heard yesterday, he's such a great guy, he would never, ever do anything wrong. Now, I think he's a great guy. And I doubt he'd do something wrong. But that's not a defense that you could use in court because one of the best people I've ever met in all my years in sports is Andy Pettit.

The best. If my son grows up to be like Andy Pettit, I'd be very happy. And he used PED. So being a good guy doesn't mean that you didn't do anything wrong. But I think in this case, I take away the fact that Judge is a great guy, really, really a top-light human being. He didn't do anything wrong.

He really didn't. Michael Key joining us here on The Rich Eisen Show. Suzy Schuster in for Rich Eisen.

You know, since Rich is out for the day, I'll ask this just for fun. I can't imagine why Artie Marino would let Shohei Ohtani go. I can't imagine why you would let one of the greatest players of all time go to New York. But God, Rich would be so excited to see Judge and Ohtani playing together. Michael, can you imagine what that would be like for you calling those games all the time?

Because you spent time with Ohtani and, you know, Judge being who he is. I mean, I can't ask you to look into the crystal ball like the old like, you know, stereotype or the cliche of, you know, can you imagine that, Michael? But just watching these two players, the possibility of him playing New York is so delicious. I can't even think about it. It would be unbelievable.

I'm sure that Steve Cohen, the owner of the match, thinks the same thing. I don't think Artie Marino is going to let him go or trade him. I think it's going to be up to Shohei Ohtani. Does he want to stay in Anaheim and maybe not make the playoffs? I mean, he can look at Mike Trout and go, do I want to do that?

You know, Mike Trout, as great as he is, one of the greatest ever, has played three playoff games in his career. I think that Moreno will give Ohtani anything that he wants because they make a lot of money off him off the field as well. But it'll come down to the fact, does Ohtani want to leave? Does he want to go to a situation where he knows he's going to contend every year? And does he want to go to the East Coast when it comes to the Yankees and the Mets? The Yankees were really in on him when he was coming over from Japan, but he wanted no part of the East Coast.

Has that changed? If it's changed, even if it hasn't changed, Susie, it'd be very wise for him to say it's changed because you don't want to eliminate the Yankees and Steve Cohen from driving up the bidding. But you know, judging Ohtani, that would be theater.

That would be Broadway for sure. By the way, shout out to Aaron Boon for his fantastic gum toss the other night. By the way, vintage Boon.

Great spin rate. That was fantastic. It reminded me of the old days.

I have to say I got a kick out of that. And by the way, when you see that Boon will argue over one thing one night and not argue the next night, I mean, that's when you kind of know that Boon tips his own when it comes to how he feels about a player's performance, whether it's a gum toss or not. Well, I think he was really angry because I think there was a stat that we had yesterday. We never got to use it because the game was so crazy. Since he came into the big leagues, Aaron judges had 435 strikes called on balls that were out of the strike zone on the low end.

And the next closest in that time had 280. So I don't think the umpires have really adjusted to the fact that he's 6'7", and they don't call that low pitch the right way on him. And I know it's always Boon, Boon a lot. And he ended up getting tossed, and when he's really angry, he does go and get rid of the gum. So I think the whole Yankee organization is saying, why can't you call that low pitch right on this guy? He should be at the hollow of the knee.

And they're calling it around the shin, which is a tough pitch for him to hit. Michael, say hi to Boonie for me, will you please? And also to John Sterling, because God knows we love him so much. I love the old days, I think, back on hanging out with you and John when you were just doing radio. And that was such a fun way to get to know you back in the day. You want to feel really old? Yeah, how old?

I already feel old, but how old? Well, John Sterling's not on this trip because last weekend, two of his triplets graduated college. And this Sunday, the other one is graduating college. So it's pretty amazing. I just love him. And again, because Cooper is such a total Yankees homer to go with this dad, it is high.

It is fine. When Cooper hit a grand slam last week, humble brag, of course. I just kind of wish that I had John Sterling in the background calling it for me. Michael, I miss seeing you. Thanks for calling in last minute. I really appreciate it. Andy Tarasuzzi, tell Cooper hello and Rich as well. Oh, I sure will.

Michael Kay from the S Network. Thanks so much, Michael. Chris, are you okay over there? Are you sweating through that? No, I'm great.

Do you want to make sure you're okay over there? I had judges back yesterday. I just like ribbing Rich. He is such a machine, though. Listen.