REShow: Hour 1

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Call a Dell Technologies Advisor at 877-ASK-DEL. That's 877-ASK-DEL offered to business customers by Web Bank who determines qualifications for and terms of credit. Taste some of this? This OMG is the Rich Eisen Show. No other way to put it. With guest host Brian Weber.

Oh my gosh. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'm not talking to you. I talk to anybody out there. The haters. Rich Eisen. I talk to the haters right now. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Welcome to the program.

Always a delight to have the wonderful opportunity to sit in for Rich and the fellas. The goal when I was show prepping last night was to be comprehensive with the NBA as it was looking more and more like the Nuggets would pull off the sweep over the Lakers. Plus, we knew that the Heat were getting ready to have a chance to do likewise and sweep the Celtics tonight in Miami. And then everything changed postgame. Suddenly, we're not talking about the NBA Finals. We're not talking about Denver making history with a run to the championship round for the first time since they were in the ABA.

LeBron broke the sports world last night. Now, you have my assurance. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. If you want to pick up the phone and hold me accountable, 844-204-7424.

Twitter's always the best way to get involved. B.W. Weber.

Weber with two B's. I am not doing three hours of LeBron James audio today. Might be a poor business decision. I probably should not have said that out loud and articulated it hitting all my T's because the phone's going to ring when I step aside coming up in about 20 minutes. I understand every show on television right now is all about all the time. I'm sure the other programs going on across the radio landscape are all in with the king and I'm not going to overlook it.

We're going to jump right in. I've got strong thoughts about what really LeBron was trying to achieve last night. But because there are other things going on in sports and because the Nuggets are going to the NBA Finals, Denver fans, I'm not going to ignore your achievement. And that's really, as a sidebar, in a sports sense, injustice of what LeBron did last night because even before he started contemplating his future postgame, I'm sticking around to see the postgame celebration and how Jokic would celebrate with his teammates. And the moment that game was over and they threw to the studio, what was the first question posed? This is before LeBron contemplated but didn't use the R word.

He didn't say retirement, but it was clear what he was talking about. This is before any of this happened. All the studio wanted to talk about was where do the Lakers go from here?

Now, some of that, I'll take you behind the curtain, is a content strategy. And I mentioned it yesterday. The start of the NBA Finals is locked in.

That's planned out well in advance. Game one does not start until next Thursday, so everybody knows they've got to pace themselves. We'll be talking Nuggets and Heat because we saw it again last night. No team in the history of the NBA has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit. Credit the tenacity of the Lakers. We'll get to the game itself in a moment. But I thought it was an injustice. Again, now I'm going to get sanctimonious on a big word Tuesday. I just thought it was a raw deal for the Nuggets because they outplayed the Lakers and undeniably they were a better team.

As we saw again coming back from 15 down and then we had LeBron going LeBron postgame. So, just to prove, and the guys will be back tomorrow. I'll tell you why they're not here today. Coming up, I'm Brian Weber.

The phone number is 844-204-7424. B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's on Twitter.

Just to demonstrate that I am going to live up to or at least try to make sure that I'm not just throwing words out there and I'm not holding myself responsible. In 20 minutes we're talking NFL. OTAs are underway. That's not really important, although moments ago Aaron Rodgers appeared to tweak his ankle to a degree at the Jets facility. I am scanning Twitter. Remember, it's May. So, we have to worry about how this impacts anything that's material. But OTAs allow us to go back to football, which most hosts are just so lazy that's all they can talk about. I'm not even talking about on the field development.

I'm talking about the latest example of the raw greed of the National Football League. That comes up in 20 minutes, and the goal really is to create as many chances for you to hit me up, either with a call or with the tweets, because my normal formula I think is successful. Just two guests per program, and we don't do it until deep, deep, deep into the program.

So, coming up, hour number two, 1.40 Eastern Time. We will talk some baseball for two reasons. I try to have a comprehensive approach, and once we get beyond the NBA Finals, and I watch and listen to Rich every day, Rich talks a lot of baseball. It's his show.

I want to defend his brand. We wrap up the program getting back to the NBA in addition to about the 75% distribution of labor that I'm going to connect to hoops. 2.40 Eastern Time, NBA analysis from a terrific writer, Joe Vardon of The Athletic. The guys aren't here because they went to New York, and what an honor it was for the second consecutive year to be nominated for a sports Emmy as they made the transition over to the Roku channel on the simulcast in the category of best studio show. As I mentioned, two consecutive nominations. Unfortunately, a little program called Sports Center, never heard of it, they took home the Emmy, although I guess that's fitting because Rich helped build that show into the brand it used to be. So, congrats to the fellas.

It is an honor to be nominated. That's not just a cliché, a throwaway like we hear on Oscar night, and the gang's back tomorrow with their travel tales, and they'll take you inside the room because all the heavy hitters in our business gathered in New York. But I'm sure everybody postgame was talking about, well, what did LeBron mean? So, why don't we start with a quick overview of the game itself because if I ever get lucky enough to get called in to do the simulcast, and I'm very happy being the reliable bullpen option, audio only. You don't need to see me on TV. I'm even more annoying when I'm gesticulating.

But I am old school. I take notes during games. Right now, I'm trying to discern my handwriting on a manila folder, and I do that just in case there's a gust of wind inside our regal studios as I come to you, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Granger, and I'm writing as the game's going on. I get to halftime. I write, LeBron 31?

Can he keep it going? This is legit. I should post this someplace. I wish there was a social media platform.

I could take a picture, and you could share in my information. And the answer was no, because he is mortal after all. Even though he's 38 and finished with 40, the most points ever in playoff history by someone of that age, and he had 10 rebounds and was a cyst away from a triple-double. Oh, by the way, Nicole Jokic had another triple-double, but nobody wants to talk about the Nuggets today, and I'm gonna make sure we give Denver the recognition they deserve. But I would be committing professional malpractice if I said, yeah, LeBron did something. Let's go right to why Jamal Murray has transformed his game. So LeBron was transcendent, as he typically is. In no way am I going to say anything critical about LeBron James the player.

That would be the biggest troll job of all time. But he is a human being, and he's pushing 40. So it was clear what the challenge was, especially because he was also spending a lot of time defensively, both on the Joker and Murray, so he's expending even more energy.

He was going to, presumably, hit a wall of some kind, and he did slow down. That's understandable. The problem for LeBron was the last two possessions. So Lakers up 15, but as we've seen in every game in this series, and I hope you watch them, and maybe your local host didn't, and you are discernible, I think when it comes to who's prepping, who's not, and you have ears that pick up on folks who just watch highlights, if you watch these games, I know this is going to sound like a complete over-the-top assessment, in no way was this really a sweep.

Go back to game one. Lakers down 21, they come all the way back, they're down three with 45 seconds to go. LeBron misses the three, and then each of the subsequent games comes down to the fourth quarter. Going into last night's game, I mentioned in our preview during the show yesterday, and not just because of geography, I'm here in Southern California, but in no way am I a Laker fan, you could make the argument the Lakers should have been up 21, but Denver's the better team, and that still matters, even in a superstar-driven sport like hoops. So Denver rallies one more time, and now we're going back and forth. Less than a minute to go. 30 seconds left, Lakers have the ball, LeBron takes an abysmal shot, with the shot clock winding down, it grazed off the side of the backboard.

Not good. Nuggets have it, they miss. So, Lakers still with a chance. Timeout, they play it in, LeBron, on the drive, gets denied not only by Eric Gordon, who's a tremendous defender, and he had that little kerfuffle with LeBron in the first half when he wouldn't let go of his arm, but Jamal Murray was sensational coming over, effectively not allowing LeBron to even get the shot up before trying to go into his motion to get it off. So, the game ends with that less than ideal sequence, and now I'm starting to think about how I want to frame the show today. And I stick around for the postgame, and then LeBron changes everything with the notion that he's going to consider his future moving forward. Quote, going forward with a game of basketball, I've got a lot to think about. Postgame, and I want to give credit for the reporter who hustled here. In fact, I've interviewed him in the past.

Dave McMenamin does a terrific job. Essentially, he's been on the LeBron beat between Cleveland and LA. He has that relationship with LeBron, like Brian Winters used to. So, he has access, he also has rapport, and I think a degree of trust from LeBron because he hasn't burned him, he felt confident enough to try to continue the conversation with LeBron postgame after the news conference, and he asked him directly, would you walk away? And here's the quote that has everybody now trying to figure out if LeBron is ever going to play basketball again, here's the answer, yes.

Quote from LeBron, I've got to think about it. So, what's going on here? First of all, consider the setting, and I realize the media is not a respected profession. I'm a member of it.

What's the old Groucho Marx line? I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member. I understand a lot of you, I'm not even getting into mainstream media. I'm just talking about sports media, and that's not just a paradox like jumbo shrimp. There are actual reporters out there. I'm a guy who's loud spouting opinions, but I was a reporter when I started.

So, we all have a degree of journalistic background, even if you don't believe it and you think it's all fake news. A lot of you think when players have to come to the podium after losing, or even worse, if reporters go into the locker room, it's intrusive and it's taking advantage of people when they are emotionally and physically trained. But we saw the latest validation of why we have those media availabilities last night. Because LeBron James, if you believe he was being candid, doesn't say that if there are no reporters to talk to. So, just a quick affirmation of what we do in our industry, that's the whole reason for those press conferences. A lot of time, they yield nothing.

And most of the time, they feel like a colossal waste of time. But, because LeBron is calculating, because he is extremely sharp, I think he knew exactly what he was doing. Now, if you want to just default to the most obvious explanation is the right explanation, he was gassed, understandably so. Not only did he ball out for the entire game, that was a really tight series. He played a gargantuan amount of minutes at the end of the year in which he averaged 29 points and became the all-time leading scorer in the history of the NBA. And I know he missed some time with the foot injury, but whatever you think of LeBron, you can never question his availability nor his work ethic between the lines.

No load management when it comes to the king. So, that's one way to frame what he said yesterday. He was emotional, he was drained, it might have been spur of the moment. Gonna take time to process things.

I'm going to take it a step further. I think LeBron knew exactly what he was doing. I think he did not want blowhards like me spending their monologues talking about those last two possessions that I just drilled down on. Because the other thing I wrote on my pad, Willie Mays.

And that's the illusion. Anytime we talk about an old guy having a moment, and it's completely unfair, because as I just documented, LeBron was sensational for three quarters, then wore down, understandably. We think about Willie Mays stumbling around in the outfield when he came back to New York and finished his career with the Mets after starting there with the Giants before they came to the Bay Area.

That was unfair. But I'm thinking of comps. I'm thinking of players in the end portion of their careers. And it's going to end for LeBron at some point. In my view, it's not ending now. But I'm starting to think about, okay, what's the historical overview here?

I think LeBron certainly knew that the talking point from the end of that game was going to be, my goodness, is this really a reflection of where LeBron is now? That he can do amazing things. I probably tweeted something to that effect. And I'm Brian Weber, Infra Rich Eyes, and you can tweet at me. Be nice. B.W. Weber. Weber with two Bs. We get to the NFL in 10 minutes with just the latest reminder that the National Football League does not care about you as a fan in any way, especially if you actually go to games.

That is on the docket. So I think LeBron wanted to shift the narrative. More importantly, he knows how to create leverage.

Now, if you think he truly is contemplating retirement, you could say, hey, Philon host, whoever you are. LeBron also is very self-aware. And when he feels like he's maxed out of a situation, he leaves. Look at Cleveland, right? He did the impossible. You come back from the 3-1 series deficit. You bring a title to Cleveland.

You do it in your home area. The kid from Akron is the king. And then he left. So maybe he feels like he's maxed out with his team. Other thing he talked about was not being satisfied going to the conference finals. I get it. Because he's now in the final stages, and I think it's another year or two at least. I'll tell you why in a moment. He's got nothing left to prove. I'm still a Jordan guy, but I remember Jordan at the end playing for the Wizards.

And again, that's what I wrote on my pad because I can be a bit snarky. That felt like Jordan laboring on a lousy Washington team when LeBron couldn't get that shot up. Now I should be balanced because I keep telling myself I want to praise the Nuggets. That was phenomenal defense. That's the very embodiment of team defense.

Gordon matching up and Murray helping. That's why Denver was the better team. The deeper team. The younger team.

The top seed in the West. The regular season should have some meaning. But since it's LeBron who's dominating the conversation, to me, the real takeaway from what he said last night. Understanding he's 38. He's been playing for two decades now.

Nothing lasts forever. What he was really saying, and I can speak LeBron, the translation was simple. Get me Kyrie.

Because he was creating the only leverage he has publicly. You know, and again, I'm based here in Southern California. I'm not going to pretend to have deep sources, but I know people who know people. LA is amazing. It's a big small town. It's a series of communities, so it's not hard to pick up a scent, especially from a family business like the Lakers. That's how Jay Moore is marrying it to.

I need a podcast to discuss that. LeBron wanted Kyrie. He made it clear and credit Rob Polinka for telling LeBron effectively, hey, you've been the GM since you got here. I'm going to actually make some moves. And those moves were tremendous. Here's a team that started 2-10.

Looked like they weren't even going to sniff the playoffs. You dump Westbrook. You make the additions of players like D'Angelo Russell.

Today is another day to be heaping praise on D'Lo. But it worked in the regular season because there were more complimentary talents. The Lakers had a phenomenal, tremendous, outstanding, you pick the adjective, transformation defensively.

How about the pickup of Hajimora? Who thought he would be that impactful in the postseason? That was all Rob Polinka, not LeBron the GM. If LeBron the GM had his way, it would have been Kyrie Irving. And don't you think it was more than a coincidence that Kyrie was sitting courtside last night?

Hmm. I love old school professional wrestling. I could sit here and talk about Abdullah the Butcher and Haystacks Calhoun for the next two hours and 40 minutes, but it'd be my last show. I love the theater of the NBA. It replicates wrestling in some ways because these guys understand the power of their brand. There's Kyrie soaking it all in. So what should the Lakers do? Do they allow LeBron to run their franchise? Do they call his bluff? Is there any way they should be open to getting into the Kyrie Irving business?

The answer is an unqualified no from my perspective. I'm going to go through all the reasons why I feel that way, but I'm going to do it at the top of the hour because I'm going to hold myself to the roadmap that I had in mind. We're going to talk more LeBron here coming up as we progress deeper into hour number one, but the focal point of the upcoming jumping off point into the second hour of the show will be the reasons why the Lakers shouldn't even ponder. Why would you ponder passing, picking up Kyrie if they have to? If LeBron holds them hostage and it feels like he's starting that scenario, maybe you give him a one or two year deal as a show me proposition, but I can't believe I'm talking myself into this. But that's the brilliance of LeBron because if you want him to stay, you have to massage the relationship and give him something, but he's definitely extending his career because he wants to play with his son or at least be able to get his son into the NBA. That means one more year because his son Bronny has at least committed to playing at USC.

So you could talk about all of these exotic what ifs. Maybe he steps away for a year, regenerates, lets that foot heel and then comes back to play with his kid. I don't see it because this is what LeBron does and he also has a history and I'll get into this in much more specific detail coming up in the second hour of the program. He has a history of using postgame press conferences to change what we're talking about. I mentioned head to head against the Warriors. Go back to that press conference when he showed up in a de facto cast.

Remember he magically had that hand injury after losing to the Warriors and that's all we talked about at that point because LeBron is playing 12 dimensional chess. So to put a button on it for here, I don't think he's retiring. I think he's extremely shrewd. I think he's trying to shake down the Lakers to get what he wants and what he wants is Kyrie Irving, which to me is a recipe for disaster. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. It's a good topic if you want to jump in.

844-204-7424. Am I being too strategic here? Am I trying to come up with a back story that doesn't exist? Maybe we should take LeBron at face value and he's telling us the truth. I just don't see it.

You can tell me I'm wrong on Twitter. B.W. Weber.

Weber with two B's. And yes, I got your feedback. When I get rolling, it's not trying to be ostentatious. There's another big word. I sometimes slip into a vocabulary I had before I got into broadcasting. I'm not trying to talk down to anybody.

Maybe we all learn a thing or two. But if I pause, I'm trying to simplify my verbiage because I know sometimes it can sound a little bit highfalutin' as my grandpa used to say. In 20 minutes, a little college football, a power of five college coach pushing back on Deion Sanders for all of the personnel moves he's been making in Colorado. Straight ahead, we're talking NFL. Undeniably, the future is now for streaming. In fact, you can catch Rich and the Guys tomorrow on the Emmy-nominated simulcast on the Roku channel as well as the audio experience. But as the NFL finally got way too far to satisfy a streaming partner, that's coming up. I'm Brian Weber, always having a good time with you.

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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.com slash match. Welcome back to the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network. I'm Brian Weber and I'm 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 clickrainger.com or just stop by.

844-204-7424 the number to call. Keep the tweets coming. BW Weber. Weber with two B's.

Back to the NBA in 30 minutes to ease into our number two of the program. More thoughts on LeBron. If you want to know the big word I was going to throw your way, he was Machiavellian.

Oh, look it up. LeBron is smart. He's a great businessman. What's the line from Jay Z as I try to sound less suburban? I'm not a businessman.

I'm a businessman. He's his own industry. And I think last night's brushing up against retirement saying he had to contemplate his future was calculated and was a wonderful diversion from what was a semi embarrassing. And yes, I'm hammering a guy who almost had a triple double who was out of his mind in terms of productivity for the majority of the game after he had 31 the first half. He looked old, understandably.

He looked gas especially on the last two possessions. I think he wanted to shift our attention from that and I think he was speaking directly to Jeannie Buss and Laker GM Rob Palenka. Get me Kyrie. I'll tell you why that would be the wrong decision undeniably coming up in 30 minutes. Got to talk more about the Heat trying to join the Nuggets in the NBA Finals. Jalen Brown is going Kevin Millar, Cowboy Up, quote, don't let us win tonight. I know what he's doing, especially in Boston.

We're looking for the comp. Hey, the Red Sox did it. You can come back from 3-0 down.

It's never happened in the history of the NBA for a reason. I'll tell you why coming up in 30 minutes. This show typically is a simulcast and a wonderful one at that since I also work in television for the time being. As the clock is ticking, good thing I can do radio and audio excellence as well. So check out Rich and the Gang with a return from New York City tomorrow on the Roku channel. Of course, listen to our audio experience as well.

Take us wherever you go. I am not anti-streaming. If you care at all about my background, I currently have about three and a half jobs. Two involve streaming. I appeared on ESPN Plus a couple months ago. I was surprised at the pay scale.

I'll take you down that road on my podcast, Dollars and Cents with B Web. Streaming ain't broadcast, kids, but it's another way to bring you, the sports fan, even more coverage. And a lot of it, I think, is a nice advance because it's on demand. So I did a gymnastics meet. Yeah, postseason.

A lot on the line at UCLA on ESPN Plus. And I went home and watched it and fell in love with myself one more time. So I am not anti-technology. I am not somebody who lives at home with a candle. I actually pay my power bill when I can afford it. And I want to do this as long as I can.

So the future is streaming when we're talking about video. But you know there's a Nevertheless coming. And I am not poking the NFL bear. I am aware that I am filling in for Rich Eisen. I am here because Rich believes in me. And if you don't know, this is Rich's show. I admire his entrepreneurial spirit.

I admire that he bet on himself. You know how hard it is to find a way forward in a crowded media landscape with your own show, both on the streaming component now and nationally syndicated radio? Rich, brilliant guy, and we worked together briefly at NFL Network.

That changed my career. So I'm not anti-NFL. But I have to call it like I see it. And to channel Cosell, how do I know?

I was there. Tell it like it is. You might think this is a small deal. Unless you actually go to NFL games, I don't. So this does not impact me in any way.

I am way too cheap to spend my own money. Plus, I don't like going to stadiums anymore. Now, that sounds jaded. It's not about, you know, I've been doing this for 30 years. Obviously, I love the games. I don't like big crowds.

I'm just going to be straight up with you. That's why I live alone and I work alone. Some things happen for a reason. But if you are an NFL fan who goes to games, you love the experience, you plan your work and personal life schedule around it. The NFL just kicked you in the groin again because yesterday Roger Goodell got what he was looking for with the option of now flexing Thursday Night Football. It barely passed the ownership vote. He needed 24 votes.

He got them. And I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Giants, the Jets, the Packers, the Bears, the Raiders, Lions, Bengals, and Steelers for saying no. This is wrong.

Why is it wrong? Why should we not be open to having a couple flexes to make it better for those watching on Amazon Prime? And the details are important. Limited to weeks 13 through 17. They gave it a little bit more cushion. Flexes must be done with four weeks notice. 28 days, four weeks, we can do the math. And teams cannot play two road games on Thursday night in the season.

Okay, so at least it's mitigated, it's controlled. But why is this happening at all? The answer is Amazon is writing a gigantic check to the NFL. So big they bought themselves a Black Friday game. Did anybody need NFL football on the day after Thanksgiving? And your answer is going to be, hey Phil and Hack, I'll take football every day of the week. I get it. But as someone who got into this business largely because of college football, I prefer a time in which the day after Thanksgiving was dominated by college football. And I realize Oklahoma and Nebraska haven't played for a long time. Johnny Rogers and the Game of the Century, I didn't see it.

I think I was five when that was played. But I don't need the NFL after having three NFL games the day before. Why is this going to exist? Because Amazon is paying gigantic dollars because they have virtually unlimited resources. Oh, by the way, some large layoffs as well because they have to protect the stock price. But Amazon can do whatever they want. They have cash flow that's comparable to the gross domestic product of Guatemala. So the NFL wants to appease them.

And let's also be candid. The Thursday night games have been straight garbage for many obvious reasons. Thursday night football shouldn't exist. The NFL claims to care about players' safety.

In fact, getting some cover today, and it was shrewd because the NFL, like LeBron, knows what they are doing. The league has agreed to a new quote-unquote players' safety rule on kickoffs. It's the college rule. You can call for a fair catch anywhere between the goal line and the 25.

You advance out to the 25, which I support. Some of you are going to say, well, no, I love the excitement of the collision of kickoffs. The league has to pretend like they're going to do everything they can to keep the folks who are responsible for generating the revenue healthy. If they actually cared, Thursday night football would never have been created and would be abolished today.

But that's never going to happen because of the money. And why is streaming important? Because the NFL is the last thing propping up traditional television. No one is watching.

I get it. It's a 5 billion channel universe. You know, the only thing they are watching on the networks? NFL football. NFL is concerned about what the future looks like.

They want to make sure Amazon is as happy as possible, so they've thrown them this bone. Why should you be offended if you're a season ticket holder? Well, good luck making plans. Even with a month's notice, remember, weeks 13 and 17 coincide with something called the holidays.

And how about if you spent the time, the energy and the money, to map out a trip and, well, here's the flex, and that game you thought was going to be playing on a Sunday is magically now moving to a Thursday. So I'm not naive. I understand why this is happening. Go back to the oldest line in show business or any walk of life.

You want to know why something happens? Follow the money. Stealing from all the president's men here. But it doesn't make it right.

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to. But the NFL continues to grab every dollar they can, and the fans get screwed once more in the process. All right, I'm rolling now up on the soapbox. I'm going to keep going because now we get into player empowerment in college football with much more LeBron talk coming up at the top of the hour. As promised, we will shift on campus of fellow power five college football coach blasting Deion Sanders for his radical roster turnover at Colorado. Who was it? What did he say? Details next. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen.

It's a Tuesday edition of The Rich Eisen Show. Oh, no, he's coming your way. It's a good thing built in malware production keeps you safe and sound.

Not from Darryl, though. Sorry. There's no place like Chrome.

Download Google Chrome on your phone. The boys of summer are playing on the Believe podcast. The product of baseball is much more watchable. Get your baseball fix from podcasts like Wake and Rake, Farm to Show and Ring the Bell.

He's not really hitting both through the screws. Plus local podcasts like Believe in Astros and Believe in the Bronx. You're going to have to get some more innings out of the rotation. Just search BLEAV podcast wherever you listen. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen.

The phone number is 844-204-7424. The conversation never stops on Twitter. That's BW Weber, Weber with two B's coming up in one hour.

We'll incorporate our first guest. We're talking baseball in broad strokes. Topics you care about.

Not breaking down because everything's local. Angels and Red Sox. I don't know why I was watching it last night.

Mostly because it was so crisp as I was going back and forth between the Lakers and the Nuggets. We'll talk show Aotani. That's why I mentioned the Angels. In the last 24 hours, two new teams have been mentioned beyond the Yankees and the Dodgers as potential destinations either in a mega trade or free agency. We'll go over to our latest conversation with Joe Sheehan, who's covered baseball for decades. You've read his work in the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and now he's got his own business, the Joe Sheehan Baseball newsletter.

Joe's also highly entertaining. 15 minutes back to the NBA. More LeBron quote unquote retirement thoughts.

What do the kids say? I'm going to give the Nuggets their flowers and we'll spend some time talking about why the Heat could be the most unlikely NBA champions we've seen in a quarter century. Although remember they were the number one seed last year that's on the way since I mentioned Denver. Great time to be in Colorado, not only from the sports perspective, but we'll do the Travel Channel recommendation to go to Colorado this time of the year.

You don't have to worry about snow. It is a stellar location. Deion Sanders has changed everything for CU. When's the last time they were relevant? When my friend Cordell Stewart played there. You want to go back to the glory days of the Big Eight and Bill McCartney. Deion has moved the needle in a radical way.

They sold out their spring game. We're talking about Colorado football, at least I am, because of Deion Sanders. And in no way can you undermine his achievements at Jackson State.

He had great success there. Going to be interesting to see what he actually does in the Pac-12, which might be the Pac-10, but could be adding San Diego State and SMU. Those would be favorable matchups for Colorado with UCLA and USC certainly departing.

We know that's happening. But Deion was hired because of the buzz he is generating and because of the name recognition he has, in addition to jump-starting Jackson State. And Colorado had been dormant for years. I know they had the decent COVID season, but I'm talking about a larger sample size. However, Deion has certainly been non-traditional.

Let's go with unconventional. With how he is building his roster, he did the same thing at Jackson State. We have effective free agency now in college football, and I'm all for it. Because in an era in which now college football has become a billion-dollar industry, players have to have much more power. They're the one responsible as a collective. We've got two sides here, right? We have the schools and we have the players.

Pick one. Without the players, there's no game. And the coaches are making obscene amounts of money. Not only Saban and Dabo and the names you know. I'm talking about coordinators, strength and conditioning coaches now making a million bucks because all this money is sloshing around. And the players should participate, in my view, far more than just name, image, and likeness. And the day is coming.

They're going to be part-time employees at some point based on what's happening either with the National Labor Relations Board or the courts. But in the interim, because the NCAA had no choice but to loosen up transfer rules, Transfer Portal has effectively brought in free agency. Which is tough if you go back to the old school notion of playing for the alma mater and rah, rah, rah, let's go out on a Saturday.

Those days are long gone. It's second only to the NFL in popularity. Talking about college football. We love college football, especially now with gambling becoming more and more mainstream because of the tonnage. You wake up on a Saturday.

I'm here in Southern California. Games start at 9. They go all the way until Pac-12 after dark.

Or if you're a real degenerate, you stay up and watch Hawaii football chasing your action. So the current realities are a vast departure from the sports grounding in amateurism, which never happened, or stability and coaches being at the same job for 15 years. Everything's changed because of the money. So I can't fault Deion for taking advantage of the new outlook, but he's done it in such an over-the-top fashion. 51 scholarship players have answered the call in large measure from their coach. Remember when Deion arrived in Colorado and everything's being documented for social media, plus I believe he's working on a reality show because Deion knows how to make a buck any way he can.

There are cameras following wherever he goes. And he had that speech when he arrived in Boulder, effectively saying, I want you to hit the portal because I'm going to go get players who are better than you. And I'm paraphrasing here, but you've probably seen the video. In fact, I do have a quote in front of me. Let me grab it right here. I want y'all to get ready to go ahead and jump in that portal, telling the players, get out of here. I need your roster spot because I'm going to go out and recruit somebody better than you. And you could say, welcome to modern college football. It just seems a bit unseemly and even more transactional than we understand the sport to be. And if you're thinking about 51 players leaving, that is incredible. But because Deion is Deion and he's a masterful recruiter, he's already got 47 players coming in and he'll fill those spots. I have no question. Now, here is the question.

What about fundamental concepts like chemistry, cohesion, a team being assembled? This is the old 25 players, 25 cabs from baseball a million years ago. Well, there's one power five coach who's not afraid to go on the record and highly critical of what Deion's been doing. And that is Pat Narduzzi of Pitt.

Now, you may remember, Pat has had these issues with the transfer portal since it came into inception. In fact, he was very vocal last year, understandably so, when he lost Jordan Addison, who was just a first round pick out of USC. Narduzzi went public hearing that USC was outright recruiting him. He called, according to reports, Lincoln Riley several times to vent.

Nothing changed. He worked for Jordan one year for USC. The Trojans are back and now he's a first round draft pick after he put up huge numbers when he played for Pitt. So this is no departure for Narduzzi. But talking about Deion, he said, quote, that's not the way it's meant to be.

That's not what the portal rule was intended to be. It's not too overall your roster. What I'm to say, I grew up in a profession that you can't tell a guy he's got to leave based on athletic ability. When you become a head coach, you inherit the team and you coach that team. If someone wants to leave, that's great.

You don't kick them out. And I agree with that. Although. Neither one of us could do anything about the current environment in college football. It is a replica of the NFL in so many ways, except the players don't get paid directly.

I understand millions of dollars now are available and an ideal deal. It's the wild, wild west. And you got a lot of coaches calling for federal regulation because they know. And we've seen it for over a century in college football. If you don't police what's going on, the folks with money are going to take advantage of every loophole.

And there are no rules to break because it's just that ambiguous. So good for Pat. You know, he's got job security. No one's going to bother him at Pitt.

He wins just enough that he can say what he wants to. At the same time, I understand what Dion's doing. I just don't like how overt it is.

And I don't like the magnitude of it. 51 players gone. We don't know how many were pushed out the door, but a lot of these players have gone to social media announcing their departure.

And the subtext is, well, I didn't want to leave, but it was a good time here in Boulder. But when you hire Dion Sanders, this is what you're signing up for. And we know what the end game is. Not only winning, but if you're not going to win, have notoriety, put butts in seats, sell merch, and get broader exposure for the program. And Dion has checked each of those boxes. Let's see what he can do on the field. Although, if you believe past is a predictor, he had a lot of success at Jackson State. And he's hired a good coaching staff because Dion is more of a figurehead.

He's the CEO and certainly head marketer. One hour down. We're getting back to the NBA coming up to start hour number two. I'll tell you why.

You shouldn't believe LeBron's contemplation of retirement last night while the Lakers should call his bluff. Plus, we'll get you ready for the Heat looking to close out the Celtics trying to complete the sweep tonight in Miami. I'm Brian Weber. In for Rich Eisen. We continue. It's the Rich Eisen Show. Dancing to 50 Cent. It's my birthday. Sit in the corner. Give them Lala wherever you listen.