Rich Eisen Show with Brian Webber Filling In Hr 1

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. Haters. Rich Eisen. I talk to the haters right now. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Welcome to the program. We are live.

We'll do it live. On Memorial Day, other shows go for Best of. Not the Rich Eisen Show because the man whose name is on the marquee also runs the operation.

He is a small business owner. Rich knows. With everything going on today, it's worth efforting a fill-in host. And when you're in my position, your best ability is availability. So, I'm thrilled to be in the chair. Here's the good news for you.

If you're already groaning and reaching for that dial, don't hit that button yet. I got a lot of content to get to. Jamming four hours of material into a three-hour bag. But, if I'm not your bag, baby, Rich and the fellas back tomorrow.

Just enjoying the holiday and a three-day weekend. They will have all the fallout from what's going to happen tonight in Boston. It's going to be the centerpiece of the program. It's going to crush you with only NBA analysis. We're getting set for Game 7 tonight. Celtics trying to do what no other team in NBA history has achieved. Come all the way back from a 3-0 deficit.

Not only are they favored, they're heavy favorites. Eight points is the view from the Sharpies in Nevada. So, as we frame how things could come together tonight, and I do want to hear from you. If you have put up with me in the past, and I had a great opportunity to be in for Rich and the crew last Monday and Tuesday, my philosophy is straightforward. I say what I mean. I mean what I say. Phone calls are taken selectively.

844-204-7424. If you want to chime in, I have the Twitter account percolating. That's B.W. Weber. Weber with two B's. In fact, as I was scanning the tweets prior to hitting the button and cracking this mic open, I can update who the lead official will be tonight in Boston. You can probably say the name with me.

Not Tim Donaghy, but it's close. Could be more bad news for the Heat. We'll run through all of the different ways this game could play out if past is a predictor, but I think in this series, it's meant nothing because momentum has been as grounded in the last play, the last quarter, more so than anything that happened in the game before. Yes, there is a team waiting for whomever emerges from the matchup tonight at the Garden between the Heat and the Celtics. Michael Malone, don't call him Mike, has to be just furious again. He's steaming in Denver because nobody's talking about the club that has already made franchise history by earning a spot in the NBA Finals for the first time, the Nuggets. We're going to have to try to shake off all of this rest.

Will it be Rust? The Game 1 of the NBA Finals analysis will kick in later in the program because I do want to talk some Nuggets. After all, they deserve it after completing the sweep of the Lakers, so we will have a degree of balance and try to ascertain where the Nuggets are as they wait for their opponent with Game 1 of the Finals coming up on Thursday. Because I'm a traditionalist and I am older than hopefully my energetic delivery would suggest, I'm talking a little bit of baseball coming up in 20 minutes. I realize the NFL crushes everything in its path. I work briefly with Rich Eyes and at NFL Network.

If you have any idea of who I am, maybe that's the case. We'll get to the football. The situation surrounding the Raiders is getting more fascinating by the day and this was a wonderful development that a lot of people did not pay attention to towards the end of last week because hopefully you have a life and we're making plans for the long holiday weekend. Jimmy Garoppolo not only needed a foot procedure in March, it altered his contract. We're going to get into all of the ramifications of that and everybody now including the sports books pointing in the direction of Tom Brady.

Could that actually happen? Would we be looking at the NFL's version of Succession with a lot of shows spending a lot of time on the prestige TV that we saw last night on HBO if you can find it on your streaming platform. So we'll address that coming up and only two guests along the way because I am talking baseball.

There's a lot to get to. Our number two features our first conversation unless you want to pick up the phone 844-704-24 Rich Eyes and show Brian Weber 844-204-7424 the number to call. Coming up at 1.40 Eastern time we check in with Scott Miller, baseball writer for a variety of platforms. You hear him on Sirius XM radio. You read him in the New York Times. Final hour of the program we will have NBA analysis provided by Mike Vorkanov who covers the league for the athletic.

Alright enough of a filibuster. Boston fans how you feeling? I would imagine you are more than confident because you had the same swagger that Jalen Brown had and I spent a good portion of the program last Tuesday reacting to Brown channeling his inner Kevin Mullah.

That's a horrible New England accent. When he laid it down heading into game four quote don't let us win tonight because he was saying we're going to cowboy up and do what the Red Sox were the first team in baseball history to pull off. Of course it was all the more poignant because it came against the Yankees in 2004. We know that no team has ever come all the way back from a 3-0 deficit in NBA postseason history.

We've seen it in hockey. But this is a very different matchup and a different time from the last time. A team had even clawed their way back from 3-0 down to get to a game seven.

For that you got to go all the way back to 2003 but the key distinction not only that we're 20 years down the road. The Celtics are the first team ever to be in this position playing game seven at home. Now home court advantage has meant virtually nothing for the Celtics and they have been one of the strangest teams to try to get a handle of every step of the way. Because other than the addition in the offseason that should have made this team even more formidable when they picked up Malcolm Brogdon although he's banged up we'll see what his status is tonight. This is entirely the same cast that made it to the NBA Finals last year had a 2-1 series lead over the Warriors returning other than the head coach. And it's been easy to take shots at Joe Mazzulla because he's provided so much material.

He's looked overmatched many times throughout the postseason not only in this head to head series against Miami and it really was glaring because early on as the situation looked extremely dire for Boston one of the key takeaways was Mazzulla is an impediment for them to try to figure things out. Plus he's getting embarrassed by the other coach he's matching wits with because Eric Spolstra is looking like a modern day version of red hour back. Now everything has changed because we talk about the Heat as the ultimate example of the team concept. Their own branding uses the word that we always rely upon to sum up a winning situation in sports. Culture. What does any new coach talk about when they get a gig?

I'm going to instill a winning culture. Well Heat Culture and the superhuman play of Jimmy Butler along with just enough from the supporting cast. Undrafted guys like Gabe Vincent, Gaucho Gabe from UC Santa Barbara went off for 29 points in that blowout that gave Miami what seemingly and historically would have been an insurmountable 3-0 series lead. Well what does that mean now? Not much because if we're thinking about how things came together at the business end of Game 6 wasn't it interesting that Derek White was all alone had just enough space for the tipping that won the game because the Heat didn't box out.

Now if we're going to be candid it was a flukey bang bang play. But it is intriguing that the team that relies on doing all of the little things right that finds their way because they support each other. Because they don't cut corners.

Because they pay the price. Because Spulstra is mixing and matching not only personnel but defenses and pushing all of the right buttons and yes there's a T in there. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. I do know the phone number. The reason I couldn't spit it out is I don't take many phone calls.

844-204-7424. I see some tweets piling up. I'll address that coming up. B.W. Weber.

Weber with two B's is the Twitter handle. We'll talk baseball in less than 15 minutes. I am a convert. Now on the demo over 52 in the grave that baseball has. But if you've heard me in the past I've had a lot of low hanging fruit bashing the grand old game because the analytics crowd ruined it. But they've got me now with the rule changes.

This is a good watch. Now the question is why do some of you think that the pitch clock is such a tragic development. It's blasphemy as if Moses handed down the rules of baseball on the stones like Mel Brooks in History of the World Part 1.

I have these 15 crash 10 10 commandments. We'll talk about it coming up in less than 15 minutes. A lot of you want the pitch clock to go away in the postseason to which my counter would be what are you nuts. But if we're going to connect the dots between a profound fundamental change in baseball to why the Celtics are in position to do what no other team has ever done in NBA playoff basketball. We've got to spend time on the three point shot. Now it's too easy to say just track the development of threes made by the Celtics but that's been the key metric in addition to the defense finally kicking in. And to me that was a reflection not only of a mindset change with Missoula being more offensively focused than Amy Odoka who just pounded away on that team that defense would tell the tale. Defense also comes down to wanting it more and it looked like at times early on as the Celtics just could not find the rhythm they also had lost their identity.

Well that's changed in a monumental way. In game six they held Miami to 36 percent shooting from the floor. Butler just five of 21 floor but he still found his way to get 24 points worked his way to the line late in the game looked like he had it one before White made that play for the ages. But the real through line if we're going to go through all of these undulations games four or five and six has been the three point shot. Now let's just do basic arithmetic.

I'm not good reading numbers and I shouldn't be doing your taxes but even I can understand. If you make a lot of threes it does not expend the same kind of energy that the other teams that have faced a 3 0 deficit had to even with the advent of the three point shot. So if I'm talking about the 2003 Blazers that I mentioned 2003 I was just two years out of the NBA during my nine year stint as the sideline reporter for the Golden State Warriors. 2003 basketball didn't feature a barrage of threes like the current NBA does. So Boston not only utilized the three while it's a couple things that point to the eight point spread that's been established in Nevada a lot of that comes down to home court. Also Boston's a better team. They're not as spent as teams were back in the day pounding away in the paint paying the physical price to overcome that 3 0 hole. They're able to do it more efficiently with a three point shot. So it was only a matter of time before someone was in this position.

I'm sitting in the very same studio that used to host one of several versions of the Brian Webber show that has been canceled over the years. I'm 13 minutes into this you probably understand why I had a lot of longevity but I was here in 2018 just throwing lava filled hot takes out there among them I may or may not have said in college basketball in my lifetime and I was still relatively young in my 40s then top seeds never going to lose to a 16 seed. Okay well I had to come back the next day and pretend like Maryland Baltimore County didn't shock UVA and then we just saw it again in March right with Fairleigh Dickinson taking down Purdue because that's what Purdue does come at CAA tournament time. So just as it was inevitable in the field of 68 a 16 was going to win at some point it was inevitable we would reach critical mass in the NBA and Boston is the better team undeniably. I'm not going to frame this as a heat collapse as much as a Celtic comeback the Celtics need I remind you have Jason Tatum if we're going back to that three point storyline remember how abysmal he was specially in critical situations fourth quarter early in the series. He has found his way Jason Tatum all NBA first team Jalen Brown while the erratic in the series body of work matters all NBA second team two of the best players in the league teammates they may not be best friends but they don't have to go on vacation together. They just have to make their shots and beyond that Boston has waves of talent they lock you down defensively when they show up on that and the floor with Marcus smart handling his business you think about even Robert Williams when he has a chance to get on the floor with matchups. Derek white was the last time he even thought of him before he was the hero Boston entering these playoffs considered and I don't think it was in any way a novel opinion as the best and deepest team I realized Milwaukee had the best record in the regular season. But there were questions about that club primarily because Chris Middleton was banged up over the course of 82 regular season games and then Giannis went down early on helping Miami pull off a quote unquote stunning upset an eight over one but Miami is not your typical eight.

They were the eight because they messed around in the play and fell there. Miami back in the conference finals for the third time in four years, mostly because Jimmy Butler is doing it all as a solo act, but you got to have a little bit of help you have to have some support on the margins, and that has gone away as this series has progressed. You throw out the last time the game was in Boston, because the Celtics finally showed up and defended the home floor.

The question becomes I'll throw it out to you at 8442047424 you can start the conversation on Twitter BW Weber Weber with two B's. Let's get us more tonight let's just take the view from Vegas, out of the equation, a Boston team five and O facing elimination in this playoff run, the better team if we were just going to stack personnel and go position by position or just have a roster comparison. This is virtually the same Miami team I understand the absence of Tyler hero, a major void they had a fill although I mentioned, even though he's banged up last time they played in Boston, when you get 29 at a game Vincent, you're doing something right. But here's a team in the heat that took the Celtics, albeit in Miami last year for game seven because Miami was the top seed but go back to, and I was in for rich.

A year ago today. If it's a holiday there's a good chance I'm going to be keeping the chair warm that game seven last year in South Beach was a game for the ages came down to the final minute. Jimmy Butler was out of his mind, had a good look at a three fell just short Boston survived and advanced so I'm not just going to crowd anybody, mostly because I don't want the mic to fall out of its moorings. I'm going to go back because they found the path forward based on their defense, and because whatever the catalyst was maybe it was the urgency of facing elimination games just like in life deadline spur action, some teams play better, knowing they have no power, but I'm not that surprised I might have buried Boston, six days ago when I was in the chair last Tuesday, but if I'm taking a step back and being more objective with my reasoning Celtics are a better team. They have the weapon of the three point shot that everybody now has become one dimensional using Miami is limited on a variety of levels, and the Celtics finally showed up.

So, put it all together. When Boston wins tonight yeah I'm locking it down with a guarantee. What would a Boston Denver NBA Finals look like, starting with game one coming up on Thursday, how much will the long layoff hurt the nuggets will get back to the NBA. As we get deeper into the program, coming up 20 minutes from now, oh I owe you the officiating update because I'm talking about the latest burner conundrum on a big word holiday edition of the program in the NBA, involving a ref. Don't you know Scott Foster has been assigned to tonight's game in Boston.

What does that mean. I'll give you the view once more from the sports book over the last two seasons, the heat in games, officiated by Scott Foster, two and 13 straight up three and 12 against the spread. It's not looking good for a team that's trying to avoid the calamity of a three Oh collapse although to me it feels much more like a Celtic comeback. I'm Brian Weber, just getting warmed up, I will check the Twitter feed coming up. I'll give you Weber Weber with two B's more NBA on the way in 20 minutes we'll get to the NFL coming up in hours two and three of the program but because I'm old timey and because the calendar says Memorial Day. I do need to talk some baseball in an entertaining fashion I'm not going to be reading the old roto updates and try to see how your fantasy team is doing, have the new rules, save the grand old game, or am I a sucker have I been seduced just by some tweaks to the rule book. Great to have you with us on a jam packed Memorial edition day edition of the program, always a delight to be in for rich, I'm Brian Weber, it's the rich eyes and show.

Do you get distracted during the day thinking about your underarm sweating itching or emitting an odor to those thoughts keep you from showing care when it counts, new and improved dove men plus care anti perspirant with 72 hours sweat and odor protection and one quarter moisturizing cream helps you forget about your underarm so you can be present for the moments that matter, don't let underarm insecurities keep you at arms distance from the ones you care about by new and improved of men plus care anti perspirant wherever personal care products are sold. Hiring for your business can feel harder than hitting a half court shot with a seven footer in your face. But thanks to indeed hiring top talent just got top tier easy. Indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract interview and hire all in one place, don't spend hours on multiple job sites looking for candidates with the right skills when you can do it all with indeed. Find top talent fast with indeed suite of powerful hiring tools like matching assessments and virtual interviews. If you hate waiting, who doesn't indeed us data shows over 80% of indeed employers find quality candidates whose resume on indeed matches their job description. The moment they sponsor a job. Indeed knows when you're growing your business, you've got to make every dollar count. That's why with indeed you only pay for quality applications that match your must have job requirements. Visit indeed.com slash rich podcast to start hiring now find top talent fast. Go to indeed.com slash rich podcast indeed.com slash rich podcast terms and conditions apply cost per application pricing not available for everyone needs to hire you need indeed. Welcome back to the rich eyes and show radio network Brian Weber with you. Appreciate you spending part of the Memorial Day holiday with us.

I am sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry Granger has the right product for you call click ranger.com or just stop by. We'll keep this concise. We're going to link baseball to the NBA.

Even a fellow hack like yours truly could stumble across the point of continuity with the Boston linkage cowboy up. Could it be Boston making playoff history all over again after the Red Sox ripped the heart out of the team I rooted for as a kid the Yankees in 2004 Celtics even seem to be more of a momentum driven team now than the Red Sox were when they got hot the right time. Plus let's be candid the heat aren't as good as the Yankees now a mixing sports, but I'm going to talk a little baseball here. We'll do it in entertaining fashion. We'll get back to the NBA in 15 minutes. What is it about professional hoops and burner accounts and there's a huge reason why the younger demo gravitates to the NBA. It's about the stars who are transparent.

They share so much of their lives on social media, but that also leads to apparently referees and relatives cloaking themselves in the darkness of burner accounts to weigh in on officiating. That's coming up. I do my best to be transparent. I'm flipping my hours this week. I'm sure you were enjoying every moment of your fill in host whispering calling the action of Roland Garros from Paris. I'm not in Paris.

I'm in Southern California. That's how I was able to do the double duty when Rich was kind enough to go to the bullpen. But also last night I was trying to stagger my hours because I wanted to catch a little bit of succession and then unfortunately have an ill relative that did not make it.

So as I went to bed, my phone lit up and it's amazing now with technology and I'll just do 30 seconds of personal material. We'll get back to the baseball in a moment. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen. Conversation never stops on Twitter.

That's BW Weber Weber with two B's. I heard from relatives I have not spoken to in 20 years and while it's very kind to get condolences, I'm not sure what to do with that because I haven't talked to these people in 20 years. So the first thing to do is be cordial and then you respond. But I'm also looking at the clock.

I got to get up at midnight to go to work and I want to be fresh for Rich after tennis. So my apologies if I meander a little bit today. I'm going to give you my best fastball. But as a veteran, sometimes you have to go to your second, third and fourth pitches because I have found my mind wandering at times throughout the day. But that's more information than you need because I'm sure the moment you heard with guest host Brian Weber, you hit that button hard and said, I'll be back when Rich is back.

Baseball is back. All right, that's over the top. But because this is the Rich Eisen show and because I listen all the time on the Odyssey app, because I watch the Emmy nominated simulcast on the Roku channel, I'm aware of the topics and Rich will be talking a lot of succession. I bet he handles that skillfully tomorrow. I'll lay off of it till the boss is back. Plus on a holiday weekend, a lot of you probably didn't get around to watching the show.

I don't want to be that guy as I give you the grand reveal and then you're even angrier at me and suddenly I'm cousin Greg. But Rich talks a lot of baseball and maybe that's because we share our common roots growing up. He's Staten Island. I went to high school in the Bronx where baseball is still king. But I've made a living, especially on holidays, because I'm back with you on July 4th, bashing baseball because it has been so easy to crush the game. You pick the topic. A cheating scandal in which none of the actual principles are punished. A league that has become slavishly led by, and I used to be fairly bright, but let's just tell it like it is.

I'll be kind. Number crunchers? Do you want me to say nerds? Yeah, the nerds won and the game became unwatchable with all or nothing at all. With analytics saying don't put the ball on the ground, bad things happen there. It's okay to strike out at a rate that would have had you exiled from baseball even 15 years ago. Get it in the air so it became effectively home run derby or a wave of strikeouts. If you put the ball in play, it's going into the shift and we're going to have 19 relievers come out there throwing 99 at you in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. So the game needed systemic change and begrudgingly, because I have no affection for Rob Manfred, but begrudgingly, and also you got to give credit to Theo Epstein here. And I don't know that you should give people credit for doing what's obvious and what's the right thing, but baseball's been so damn stubborn, I got to give them some recognition. If you've not been watching, I understand.

I'm not telling you what to do or how to live your life. But if you had drifted away, and it's my job, I'm supposed to keep following sports, theoretically, right? It's a sports program. Brian Weber and for Rich Eyes. And I couldn't bluff my way through an entire show, hopefully.

844-204-7424. You have any questions about what's going on at the French Open? What a win for Denis Shapovalov in five sets over Brandon Nakashima.

That will be sidebar to Twitter. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. But I was skeptical as to how these rule changes were going to work. And let me say it clearly, and with a loud voice, I was wrong.

Another thing you're never supposed to utter, especially with no gravitas, as a guest host. The games are fun to watch, and they move. And there's no distinction now between the leagues, right? So it's not like the old days with the chess protector umpires in one circuit at a clear line between the National League and American League strike zone. With the Universal DH, ump's work in both leagues, and interleague play, it's all one big league.

But it's a good watch. The games are moving. I have yet to go in person, but I've had friends who tell me they weren't ready for how fast the game unwinds. And they've had to adjust their conversation patterns, because they're used to having the ability to multitask because the games were so damn slow, and it was never even the time of a game. It was the lack of activity.

The ball just was not in play enough. That has been rectified to a degree, and the pitch clock has been a phenomenal advancement. So, and you're noticing I'm not breaking down why the Rays are playing 709 baseball. I saw how the Dodgers put up a 10 spot yesterday in that big series, if you care about regular season ball between the Rays and the Dodgers. LA still lost, and in many ways to me, as I come to you from Regal Studios in Southern California furnished by Grainger, something's missing from this Dodger team. With their unlimited payroll, just a game and a half lead over the Diamondbacks, and we'll talk about the actual developments on the field in one hour when we incorporate our first guest, that's Scott Miller, contributor to New York Times.

You hear him talking about baseball on Sirius XM Radio. To me, the biggest development on a holiday that used to be the first report card issuing day for casual fans, as a veteran of Working Memorial Days, you would focus on, okay, 25% of the regular seasons behind us, who's real, who's reaching, where do we stand? That's not even close to being compelling anymore because of the expanded postseason, but I think the overall major theme is baseball is a lot better product now, and they deserve to be acknowledged for that. Now, one quick thought, and I'm not a purist in any sense of the word.

I think you got to evolve or you are irrelevant. Baseball has resisted change for so long, so we finally get to the pitch clock, and if you care about my background, I call college baseball. It's worked in the college setting. It's worked in the minors for years, so I'm not surprised it has clicked. I thought there might be more pushback from the players, but it's been an instant adjustment because these guys are the best in their profession. I'm hearing a sentiment out there, well, the postseason is different. Why are we going to throw the gimmick of the pitch clock into playoff games? The whole point of the pitch clock is it has fundamentally changed the tempo of the game, so no, we're not going back to step in the box, adjust, step out, think about what you're having for dinner, back on the rubber, back off, pick up some rosin. There's no need for 4 hour and 15 minute playoff games now that the mindset of fans have changed, so let's drop that knee-jerk reaction. I read a lot of baseball blogs just to stay on top of what's going on, and I see a growing sentiment that somehow this is the same thing as the Ghostrunner gimmick, which is not used in the playoffs, and I support that. This is totally different. This would be like having the mound at one height in the regular season and then scrapping it and going back to what it was before the year of the pitcher in 1968, as I dust off the history books for you.

So, sum total, I'm not trying to convert you. If you just want all football conversation all the time, I will satiate that for you as we move along. We'll get to the Jimmy Garoppolo injury update with the surgery that he had in March we didn't find out about until the end of last week.

The contract implications, is this opening the door for Tom Brady to usurp Jimmy G again? That's all coming up, but I did want to point out that sometimes baseball can stumble into a positive outcome, and they deserve props for the current state of the game. So we'll talk about what's happening between the lines. How about the solid start for Bruce Bochy's return to the bigs? He's guiding the Texas Rangers, and they took some big swings in the offseason.

Jacob DeGrom threw another bullpen session. Friday in Baltimore getting closer to coming back from his latest injury. We'll talk about all of those pertinent topics when we say hello to Scott Miller of the New York Times in an hour from now. Coming up, back to the NBA, and that's going to be the focal point of how we tip off our number two as well. We have a curious case of an NBA ref and a burner account, plus it's been weeks since Jon Morant had another gun-related incident on social media.

What's taking the league so long with its investigation? I've got a theory. I'll spell it out next. It's Memorial Day. I appreciate you spending part of the holiday with us. I'm Brian Weber, in for Rich Eisen, on The Rich Eisen Show.

Brian Weber back with you. Always having a good time when I have the splendid opportunity to be in for Rich and the guys. 844-204-7424 is the phone number. Twitter's always the most direct way to get a hold of me.

BWS is always the most direct way to get a hold of me. We have sprinted through the first hour of the program. We'll keep it going. Coming up, in just over 15 minutes. Get back to the NBA. I'll let you know the travel plans for the Miami Heat. this first hour of the program. We'll keep it going.

Coming up in just over 15 minutes. Get back to the NBA. I'll let you know the travel plans for the Miami Heat. Psychology from Pat Riley. More heat culture on display.

Here's a hint. Apparently they told everybody pack for Denver and I get it. That is old school. That is straight out of Hoosiers when we win this game. One more wrinkle to factor in as we're doing our best to dissect what's coming up tonight in Boston. A game seven with not only a chance for the Celtics to duplicate the run of a year ago, get back to the NBA Finals, duplicate the history made by the Red Sox, the first and only team in Major League Baseball to overcome a 3-0 series lead against the hated Yankees back in the day, but to become the first NBA team to achieve the feat. I laid out the reasons why and it's pretty straightforward, especially with the validation of the view from Vegas. Boston established as an eight-point favorite. I told you why I believe Boston will defend home court finally and it probably won't be as big as a blowout as what we saw the last time they were there or that game seven against the Sixers in which Jason Tatum looked like Larry Bird combined with Steph Curry, but we'll flip it over to the Miami point of view. Why should we have confidence in the heat after they have suffered what we would call regression to the mean?

That's how they looked in the regular season, although they were anything but a typical eight seed. We'll get there coming up as we get to our number two of the program. As I was mentioning with a little bit of family sadness to process, every time I say my late dad that's a moment that gives me pause, but as my dear father used to tell me, I should have gone to law school. I didn't. I made a series of bad decisions, although follow your dreams, right?

Everything is going to coalesce nicely. Even I know having never used that poli-sci degree to go to law school and earn a legitimate living, even I know what's the first thing we all hear on any crime show about lawyers. Never ask a question you don't know the answer to, right?

Correctamundo. But I'm going to throw it out there because I believe in the wisdom of crowds and you're smarter than I am after all. There's a lot of you and just one of me. What is it about the NBA and burner accounts? Go back to the situation in Philly when then GM Brian Colangelo, good to have a successful dad as Jerry, one of the most one of the most important names, not only the NBA, but also international hoop circles, had to step away because he and his wife were linked to burner accounts criticizing some of his team's players. We know that Kevin Durant can be temperamental, a bit sensitive on social media, and he's admitted that he had multiple burner accounts that he used when he was on the Warriors to clap back at fans who took a swipe at him.

So that's checking a lot of boxes. Front office, check. One of the 10 best players in the league in KD, check. Now we have a referee situation. Now because I do watch a lot of games on NBA TV and they always ID the officials and we're all fascinated that Scott Foster, of course, gets a side to tonight's game.

Another reason to lean hard on the Celtics. I'm aware of who Eric Lewis is just because he's been around for a long time. So I have the wire copy in front of him. 19 seasons as a referee, better than a thousand games officiated. So he's done something right because they evaluate these fellas and grade not only every game they call, with the advent of technology, every call they make gets a second guess from their bosses. Still, you gotta love that this really only happens in the NBA for a reason that I can't articulate.

It's another burner account situation. And you have to also admire the internet sleuthing skills of NBA Twitter. NBA fans are relentless.

Bloodhounds and Sherlock Holmes have nothing on them. Dig it around finding an account that the league is investigating now because there are reasons to believe it belongs to Eric Lewis. This account had one strong opinion it would constantly put out there. And that strong opinion was Eric Lewis is a gem of an official. In fact, Eric Lewis rarely made a wrong call, at least according to this account, with the username Blair Cutcliffe, not Blair Underwood, back in the day on LA Law. Blair Cutcliffe. That's a good handle.

That would be a name I might use when I have to come up with a pseudonym and get a side hustle to my side hustle. So the league is investigating. You're gonna say, okay, why are you making a big deal out of this? It's human nature, right? Everybody wants to stand up for themselves, especially a job in which you are criticized as part of the overall fabric of your profession. Why would anybody want to be an official or an umpire behind the plate? Come on, what a horribly challenging job. Well, the answer is they want to be close to sports, and if you do it on the highest level, it's a well-compensated gig. But it does call into question what is the key element of anybody involved in the outcome of a game, and especially in the NBA when it comes to officiating. We're talking about integrity, and don't you want whomever's blowing the whistles, especially years after Tim Donaghy?

I love when David Stern used to call him Mr. Donaghy, the rogue official. So maybe this is just Eric Lewis being too sensitive. Maybe this is him sitting around on the road.

It's a lonely life, and he's going, wait a minute, I'm getting blasted by these trolls, these eggs? I got a great idea. I'm going to defend myself with not only the strength of my opinions, with a cool username. I'm Blair Cutcliffe. I got a hot take, so the league's looking into it, and it could have real negative consequences because anything that broaches into fairness, integrity.

I'll give you the doomsday scenario, and it's not over the top. Maybe Blair Cutcliffe gets it in his head. He's getting tired of being second-guessed on social media, and he swallows the whistle. That's the concern and why the league is investigating.

Couple minutes on John Morant, and here is, in my opinion, as somebody who's in my early 50s, here's a young man in crisis, and he desperately needs more help. Now the league, also from my perspective, did not do him a service by allowing him to come back so quickly. That was effectively an eight-game suspension. He got time served for when he was initially taken off the active roster after the first gun-related event at a gentleman's club in Denver on social media. He gets a strong warning from the league commissioner Adam Silver, who's trying to be more of a quote-unquote players commissioner than David Stern. Adam Silver would never have messed around with something that had racial implications like the dress code. So Silver tries to be more of a conciliator, and he allows John to come back.

If you're just worried about on the court, obviously Memphis imploded and Dylan Brooks didn't help matters at all, but that was a dysfunctional team every step of the way, even though they had the best record at home in all of Pro Hoops. You put that down as Jah saying all the right things. The interview with Jalen Rose in which he claims that his time spent in counseling has laid the foundation for him to become a brand new individual, and then we have a second gun-related incident on social media. What is taking the league so long to drop the hammer metaphorically on Jah Morant?

And it was a scary moment during the week when police had to conduct the welfare check. When it turned out, Jah was just saying I'm taking a break from social media, but there's so much swirling around him I can understand that sentiment. We got to make sure this guy is doing okay.

He's not going to harm himself. So what's taking the league so long? Sometimes the right choice is right in front of us. They don't want this to be a distraction throughout the NBA Finals, especially had we had the long layoff with a pair of sweeps, which still has never occurred in the modern playoff format. So the league is hoping that when we get to the fallow period, and they certainly don't want it to distract us from the frenzy of free agent activity when we get to the summer and all of the sign-in trades we've heard about potentially in the offing. So the league is going to do this on their own schedule, and you could also say what's the rush? Regular season doesn't roll around until we get to the fall, but back to the notion this is a young person in crisis and doesn't he need more structure and shouldn't the league be stepping in now in a public way and demand that he gets more treatment and know that what he is doing is not only embarrassing the league, potentially putting himself in real danger of serious harm. I'm Brian Weber, one hour down, another big hour coming up as we get set to take you back to our preview of what flies ahead tonight in Boston. Hang with us. Weber in for Eisen. It's the Rich Eisen Show.