REShow: Guy Torry & Jim Jackson - Hour 3 (6-9-2023)

This is the Rich Eisen Show with guest host Mike Hill.

I don't understand the devaluation of the running back position. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. The Vikings in my mind are not a better team the minute they release Dalvin Cook. And in the NFC North, guess who's up? Hey Detroit Lions. Earlier on the show, senior writer for the athletic Joe Vardon, author T.J. Newman. Coming up, Fox Sports NVA analyst Jim Jackson, actor and comedian Guy Torrey. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Mike Hill. Back on the Rich Eisen Show Radio Network, Mike Hill filling in for the great, phenomenal, the incomparable Rich Eisen, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show Desk Furnace by a Granger. Can I get one of these desks? This is a really nice solid desk right here too. With supplies and solutions for every industry, Granger has the right product for you.

Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Jim Jackson coming up momentarily on the show to talk NBA Finals. Hanging out, my man Chris Brodman, Jason Feller here. Of course, my man T.J. over there.

T.J. was accusing me of black on black crime. I thought the brother was gonna come in here and we was gonna be able to chop it up. You know what I'm saying? We was gonna bond together. I'm disappointed, Mike Hill.

You trying to shame me about first classing. Coming in for Rich and O'Rokel. What's his light skin? Light skin, sweet little light skin brothers, man. What's one of the gender girls? Kendall. Kendall. Did you see the shirt that... Kim was wearing the shirt with her starting five on it. She got it tight. By the way, her starting five could win a series.

Oh yeah, they could. All them brothers in the NBA, all them light skin brothers too, man. We winning. Steph Curry. We winning.

We winning. Let me welcome in a winner. My man, a good friend of mine.

I've been knowing this cat for about 15 years now. One of the funniest guys in the business. Actor, comedian. He is now a producer.

Big time producer on one of the best documentaries on Amazon right now. Fat Tuesday. Josh. Guy Torrey in the house. What's up, guy?

Good to see you, man. Excuse my hat. I didn't have a chance to get a haircut before I came to the show. And my hairline is kind of like yours, Mike. We got that free safety hairline.

We back it up. Only covers certain areas. So excuse the hat. It's called Beijing. It's important for the brothers. You don't do the Beijing?

No, I ain't doing the Beijing. I'm just going, you know... Because it would just blend in with your skin color. God is my barber now. God is your barber. God is my barber now.

I'm just going to have to fall out with my follicles and just tough it out. It's important in our community to go get a fresh haircut every week. Yes, it is. It makes you feel better. Does it make your skin feel clearer? It does. Haircut, it helps your self-esteem, man.

It does. Right. So right now I'm really low right now. You just got off the plane. You just came in from Oakland? Literally right across the street. Came in from Oakland. I was in Oakland, California last night.

I left just like all the teams are leaving. But no, my good friend Lunell, very funny comedian, shot her comedy special last night. She's from Oakland. Dave Chappelle produced it and I had to go support her. Every time I've called on her, she's come to my projects, my documentary, everything. So I had to fly in, surprise her, pull up on her, and just support her. Heavy hitters, man. You didn't get on stage last night?

No, man. Tony Rock killed it last night, you know, opening the show for her. And Lunell, she's a queen. I was just a fan last night. You know, Gary Payton. You saw GP? GP was there last night.

The Grub. What's GP up to now? Man, we're working on a project together, man. But he was coaching and, you know, the big three is starting up again.

So he's getting ready for the big three. Yeah. So yeah. One thing I love about you, man, is like you're unfiltered.

You are unfiltered. You will say what's on your mind no matter who's there. You will talk about people's mamas. Yeah. And, you know, you I think you really came in the fame. I think it was the Shaq roast or Emmett Smith's roast? It was the Shaq all-star comedy roast featuring honoring Emmett Smith. Okay, featuring honoring Emmett Smith.

And you go in on everybody. It's ironic that you bring that up because just right before I went to Oakland, they're doing a documentary on that roast. That's how iconic that roast was and still is, is that they're doing a documentary on it. Jamie Foxx, Doug Williams segment was just like Hall of Fame. If it was a Hall of Fame or a goat of roast moments, Jamie Foxx, Doug Williams, not the football player Doug Williams, comedian Doug Williams moment was the best. Doug Williams doesn't want to remember that.

Doug Williams was like, that was like Kwame and Biggie. Yeah. Yeah. When Biggie said something about the polka dots.

Yeah. Kwame was in a club with women around him and they put on a Biggie song and Biggie had a lyric saying, you played out like Kwame's polka dots. And I heard the women left inside real quick. And that's what Jamie Foxx kind of did with Doug Williams that night. It was the funniest roast moment in the history of roasts.

So when you're on stage and you're in the city and you see an NBA player or NFL player or whatnot, and you start going in, has anyone ever gotten upset with you? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You know, the Shaq roast, I mean, now I've spoken with him and we cool with Jason Kidd. You know, when the Lakers beat the Nets in the series doing that roast, I talked about Jason Kidd's son, who's who I met. Oh, he's grown now. Yeah, he's grown.

He grew into that head because he looked like Mr. Stay Pump now from Ghostbusters. But yeah, no. And I met him and it was, it's all good. It's all clear. I was scared of Jason for years running from him because I thought he wanted to, you know. So you heard that he was looking for you?

I heard through, yeah, at Shaq's wedding when he got married one of the times, like you, Mike, he said that Jason wasn't too happy about, you know, me talking about a different T.J. And I was scared. Okay, all right. But I FaceTimed with him, you know, during the end of the season, that season, everything is all good. All good now.

All good now. Big Lakers fan. Huge.

Huge. How long did it take you to get past the Western Conference Finals? Well, you know, what's funny is that in the first half of the season, I kind of didn't have expectations.

I'm a big Ham fan, you know, the coach of the Lakers. And I, but we just weren't winning. But then Palenka, you know, went in his bag of tricks and some magic dust up. And then we, you know, we got in the playoffs and we went further. But I kind of had no expectations because it's still new players jelling and everything. So it was good that we got as deep as we got.

You know, I'm, you know, it is what it is. But I can't wait to see next year's team. Is LeBron going to be on the team? Oh, yeah, he be there.

LeBron ain't going. So you don't feel like the whole retirement talk is just him talking? It's in the moment.

Prisoner moment. He gonna be back. Okay.

Yeah, he gonna be back. We gonna have some, we got to get some new players in there. A few new pieces.

What do they need? Whoo. Well, you know what surprising is? Because I love, you know, Schroeder, you know, as the point guard. And, you know, Chris Paul is out there. I would love to see Chris Paul get a ring. So you want, okay, so you want Chris Paul.

Yeah. And I love Chris Paul. Don't get me wrong. Play off Chris Paul doesn't stay healthy.

But you know what? But LeBron is breaking down a little bit. And Anthony Davis is a game time decision before the game starts.

The AD stands for any day he may not play. Pretty much. Yeah.

But no, I think a few more pieces, man. I think Ham is a great coach, man. I think we gonna be all right. All right. And you're also a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan too from St. Louis?

St. Louis fan, period. And you're going to England? London. London. London. This year, last year. Well, London's in England. Yeah, but I want to make it, you know. Last year, the Red Sox and the Yankees played in London.

This year, it's the Cardinals and the Cubs. So I said, you know what, I've never been to London. I'm gonna go check out my squad. So I'm going, my sister and I were going over to London. So you're going over there for the game? Yes, for the game. And just so happens, my nephew, shout out to Eric McWoods, plays soccer for Sweden.

And that's- Did you have a professional soccer player in your family? Yeah. Yeah, man. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Professional person, period. Nobody else is professional. I should call him a stripper, a professional.

A couple of sisters are strippers. But, yeah, I'm going over there to watch the game. That's right.

I'm gonna have to see if they slip these DMs. Yeah, so I'm going over there just for the Cardinals-Cubs game and catch my nephew in a soccer game. That's awesome, man. That must make you feel really proud, man, to see a guy that's a professional athlete. Man, I watched this kid go from a young age, man, through high school, through college, and now playing professionally. Is this the same kid that I met when I came to L.A. that time?

I think it is, yeah. When you brought him to the airport, when I came over here and I was hanging out with- I believe so. This is Joe's son. No, not Joe's son, no. Oh, it's not Joe's son. Joe's kids aren't athletic at all. This is my sister Roberta's, she's the star. No, Joe's an athletic kid, TJ, but another TJ. But anyway, yeah, no, this is Eric McWoods.

This is my sister's son. And you actually got an athlete. You and Joe have an athletic background, too, right? Oh, yeah, man. I was nice.

I was nice with it, man. I played football, man. You played in high school? In high school. Played against Trent Green in high school.

Oh, really? How did that go? How would you describe your high school career? My high school career was great. The rest of the team was terrible. I was great. And Trent Green only played three quarters because they was beating us that bad.

Oh, wow. So bad that they took us off the schedule the next season. Yeah, we're not playing this team. Yeah, not the JV team?

No, we're not the JV team, we're varsity, but we look like a JV team. What position did you play? I was running back and receiver. Running back and receiver. And defensive back.

I played three positions. Okay. All right. Okay.

All right. How far do you think you could have gone if you would have had a good team? Oh, man, I'd have had a ring. I'd have been in college. I'd have had a bowl.

I'd have had a ring. But, you know, I picked up a microphone instead. And the rest is history.

Hey, man, you're a pretty good comedian, man. Great. Great. I'm sorry. Great. I'm sorry.

Great comedian. You're one. Okay.

Go because I'm a Capricorn. I got it. I got it.

I got it. A goat's a goat, man. We always talking about greatest of all time, right?

The goats out there. When it comes to... And you've always made a distinction between comedian and comic. Right. What's the difference between the comedian and comic? Comics and the comedians. All right. Comic says funny things. Okay. A comedian makes things funny.

Okay. A comedian is someone that you get... They're transparent. They take you on a journey. They're vulnerable. They take their life. They make their life funny. Okay.

You know, comics set up punch, set up punch. You don't know who they are as a person. When you leave the show, you laugh, you had a good time.

But who is this person? Comedian, you know who this person is. They take you on a ride.

You grow with them. You know exactly where they're coming from. So who are some great comedians right now?

Right now? Comedians. Oh my God. So many, man. Is that the Chappell's of the world? Chappell, Tony Rock, Chris Rock, you know, Mike Epps. I love DC Young Fly. You know, one of the young guns coming up.

Set it to entertain. I mean, the Kings of comedy for sure. Right. But then there's so many others, man, that are... Cat Williams. I mean, you name it.

They are some funny, funny cats. Earthquake. Earthquake. I mean, Joe Torre, my brother.

I got to say that because it's in our family contract. Joe Torre. Yeah. So many funny comedians out there. Lunell, who just beasted it on stage in Oakland for her special. You know, Marlon Wayans has grown into a great stand. His last stand up was excellent.

Very well written, executed. So yeah, it's so many names. I know I'm forgetting some people gonna be mad. Mark Curry, you know, another Oaktown guy. So yeah, it was a lot of funny comedians. Yeah, Cedric the Entertainer from St. Louis. All those guys, like you said, the whole Kings of comedy. Is there one comedian that you... Not that you'd be afraid to follow anybody. Right.

You shouldn't be. But if you think you wanted the best, you shouldn't be afraid to follow anybody. But is there one person that you have followed?

Let's say that you have followed this. You're like, oh, I gotta bring... Like, can you remember a show? Well, the thing about it is I hadn't had to follow to me those guys, the headliners. But I would say when I hosted the Kings of comedy, I was the first host of the Kings of comedy tour. Bernie Mac.

I mean, Cedric gave me some, you know, some struggle too. But Bernie Mac was that dude, man, that just left nothing. On stage, he left it all on. He left it all on the stage, but left nothing. No stones unturned. I mean, he set it on fire.

Yeah, he did. Yeah, man. Gone too soon, bro.

One of my favorite comedians of all time. NBA finals going on right now. Let's talk a little sports, man. A little bit more sports.

Yeah, let's do it. Denver Nuggets, Miami Heat. Nobody expected, you know, this NBA finals match up. But we're here now, game four. What'd you expect tonight? I thought Miami was win game three.

Okay. But they didn't. I think they'll win game four.

Why? I think they're going to figure it out. You know, Coach Bo is a hell of a coach. And, you know, he's going to figure out what they did wrong in game three. And he's going to fix it. And they're going to win game four. Are you concerned? When I hear Jimmy Butler's talking about the effort, the energy.

Right. And I heard Michael Malone talking about the energy in game two after game two after the loss. Like, does that surprise you?

I'm surprised because it's the NBA finals. You know what I mean? You shouldn't need motivation. You shouldn't need motivation.

The championship is motivation. You know, any given day. I mean, there's some days it has a stand up, man. I just say got it, you know, and you want it. But it's just the universe and the stars are not aligned. Okay.

It's just not your day. Okay. So, for example, you finally, you know, you're a great comedian, right?

And you've done for many years a goat, one of the goats. But you finally get this. Everybody wants this Netflix special, right? Right. Yeah. It's not just Netflix.

There's a lot of streaming platforms. I'm sorry. You were Amazon. You finally got that big special. You finally got this big showcase, right?

And it's your time to be on stage. Right. Is your energy going to be down?

It depends. Sometimes you can get too anxious, have anxiety, and can work against you. You never know what you're going to do on that day. That's the thing. You just got to be ready.

And hopefully all the training you did and the muscle memory will allow you to have a good game or a good show. Because you've done it so many times. It's muscle memory after a while. Right. So you don't know. You're hoping everything is aligned right. Right. Because you can get over emotional, too. Yeah.

Yeah. You can call, get a call, you know, in the middle of the day that could, you know, from an ex or something. Oh, man, you had to bring that up. And it could be just ruin the rest of your day. Your energy. Kill your energy. So that's why on days where you have, I think, shows of very something important, a game, you got to isolate yourself and isolate yourself and keep.

I don't even answer the phone sometimes. I have a very important show. Okay. Therapy works for me. Oh, yeah. Therapy. Therapy is the cure for everything. Yes.

Same here. Yeah. Cigars and tequila therapy. Yeah. That's really good therapy. Yeah.

In other ways, too, that I can't mention. That's how I got these shoes on. I got a story to tell you how I got a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes. I saw the shoes, man. The most expensive shoe ever bought in my life and the most uncomfortable shoe ever wore in my life. Yeah. My feet was, my toes were throwing gang signs at me.

After about 30 minutes, my feet was killing me. It makes you wonder why women buy these expensive shoes. They look good in them.

Louis Vuittons, the red bottoms. Yes. And they say they're so uncomfortable. They could take more pain than we can. Well, that's obvious. They have babies.

They don't think we could have a baby. But you see at the end of the night, you know, we had a club at the end of the night, and the girl's being mean to you. It's not you. It's her feet. You know we hurt, you know? And she's like, no, but he good looking.

I don't care. Them feet start throwing gang signs. Like, yo, we better get up out of here.

Raise up off me. Her feet start set tripping with her. It's the feet. It's not shoes. Fellas, don't lose your confidence when a woman is not giving you play at the end of the night. It's her feet.

It's her feet. All you do is take her over to the couch, ask permission first, and say, can I just rub your feet and talk to you? You get along with it, but ask.

Just don't do it. How often does that work for you, guy? It's never worked. It's never worked. It's never worked? It's never worked. Have they actually gotten to the point where they've allowed you to sit down and put their feet in your lap?

Well, sometimes once you take them shoes off, they'll give you up. You changed your mind. Yeah.

Oh, and the Cheetos, huh? Yeah. All right. Hey, can you stick around?

Yeah, let me, yeah. I want to stick around because I want to talk to you about Fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday. Greatest documentary ever. A great documentary. It's phenomenal.

I know how long you worked on it. We'll talk a little bit more about your football team, the LA Rams as well. Right. More with Guy Torre coming up next right here on the Rich Ozzens show.

That's the Ram Gang side right there. 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.

Buy new and improved of men plus care antiperspirant wherever personal care products are sold. Get an inside look at Hollywood with Michael Rosenbaum, actress, Kristen Ritter. Your parents let you travel by yourself. It was a different time. They just put you on a train. As a 15 year old girl, you went to New York. I went on a bus and I did get picked up at Port Authority. They thought I was a runaway. What would they do?

They detain you and get people on the phone and then they finally let you go to your modeling job. How many times did it happen? Once or twice.

It just seems like it wouldn't happen. It happens. Yeah. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum, wherever you listen.

Now you told him about how you are the Bill Walsh of audio. Exactly. You can't screw these up.

Your favorite catchphrase from the original Predator. Go ahead. Here's one.

If you please, we can kill it. All right, that's number one. Here's number two. Okay. Yes.

So what I'm going to do, I'm going to, I'm doing this blindfolded. Wait a minute. Did Bill Walsh not have the volume up?

Did the Bill Walsh of sound engineers not have the volume up for the second? Oh my God. Oh, this is not bode well.

Oh, there's a method to his madness. Do you want to try one more time? Now we can kill it. Okay.

If it bleeds, you can kill it. Okay. Here's the next one. And here's the other one. Okay.

There's that one. Okay. Dark bench cut.

All right. Get to the chopper. It's cut because it's only an incidental line. And the only reason we remember it is because he's Austrian. If anybody else said get to the choppers, it wouldn't have been a line. It wouldn't have been a line.

It's only because he's Austrian. Cut, cut. It's superfluous. We're going to bench your one ugly and effort. So what you're going to do is you're going to start. If it bleeds, we can kill it.

Because it, because it's a succinct line and it's done in a very naturalistic way. If it bleeds, we can kill it. Very well done. Now for everybody else who comes in here on the rich eyes and show, we're going to show them, we're going to show them this start bench cut because you have raised the bar. Keep setting the bar right here. We're going to edit out. We're going to edit that out.

No, it's too good. Perfect. Back on the rich eyes and show, Mike Hill filling in for rich eyes and today on the radio side, can't hear what they're doing on the TV side. They had Kia and Michael. Kia. Oh man, Kia. Oh man, he's funny.

Talking about, about, what is it? Bench? What was the second? Well, we're playing start bench cut.

Start bench cut, right? And, and they'll twofold, who's not here today, Jason's in, they, uh, did not have the sound up. He's supposed to be the bill Walsh. The best part about that was, is Mike was bragging about how he was bill Walsh and he has this audio tree and everyone that he's taught that's gone on to their careers. And then he didn't have the sound up. Did they'll too far teach you Jason? Yeah, he taught me.

I mean, I'll give him credit, but he also made an excuse in that clip that was just so wrong. Hanging out with a comedian guy tour. We're going to talk about fat Tuesday's a moment. Uh, Jim Jackson is going to join us in just a second.

Jack, Jim is, uh, his son graduating, uh, from kindergarten today. Wow. Yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's my, my, I couldn't color. You couldn't stay inside the lines. Maybe that was a, what was that? Maybe you were colorblind. No, I just stayed outside the lines.

It's like my career. I'm always outside the line. There is no box when it comes to, there is no box, man. Yeah.

You stay in the glove. Hey, you was talking about Gary Payton earlier. You met, you saw him and you said you asked him a question. Yeah. You know, it was, you know, two goats talking last night, you know, uh, a hall of famer and a Capricorn. And he was just asking, you know, Tony rock and I was asking him questions like, yo, who was the hardest like to guard in the, in your career.

And he said, John Stockton. Wow. Yeah. Thinking, of course.

Magic or not magic. Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan. He said, John Stockton. He said, John Stockton was smart. Yeah. A smart player and was like, it lights you up.

And it like a silent assassin. See, now, see, this goes to my point, right? This goes to my point. What's your point? John Stockton top five should be a top five point guard of all time.

All time assist leader, never won the championship. Short shorts, short shorts. Just play the game. Yeah.

I played in some, some go-go show. I was making the point earlier. Nicole Jokic will be a top five center of all time. But when you name the top five centers of all time, 30 years from now, you won't remember his name. You don't think so? Because if he wins, if he wins multiple, if he wins four or five championships, maybe. But if he wins this one championship or doesn't win a championship at all, despite how great he's been, because he's just not dynamic. Right.

I don't think, just like Tim Duncan, the greatest power forward of all time. And both built terrible. Both built like a refrigerated box. There's no definition in the arms.

None. You know, and Duncan's hairline was always jacked up. Jokic's nose was always red. Like he's like Rudolph, the red nose center.

Yeah, just built terrible, but dynamic. Just, I think that, I think he will be in the conversation 30 years from now. Ah, he's incredible, man. I just think he should be. That's what I'm saying.

He should be. And when people say, what about Jokic? Oh, yeah. Yeah, man. Yeah. He's definitely top five. That's the way they'll remember Nikola Jokic.

Because he's just not that dynamic. Should have been MVP. Yeah.

Should, you think so? What was your old MVP this year? I think so, yeah.

Okay. Three-time MVP. Who's still playing?

Huh? Who's still playing? But, you know, it's a regular season of war.

Who's still playing? Well, that's true, but it's still a regular season of war. And Embiid is a beast.

Don't get it twisted. I love Embiid. He had a great season. Defense matters, though. The Rams didn't, you know, when it came to defense. We going there?

No, I'm just saying, I thought that was a nice segue. All we need is Aaron Donald. Yeah, that's all you need is Aaron Donald. A bunch of giants. We made the playoffs last year. Okay. What did the Rams do? Don't worry about it. We had more current championship.

Huh? More current championship. Current? Current. 2019, 2020, yeah.

We talking about current. That's what we doing now? Yeah. Yeah.

That's what, see, that's what I used to always get into. We used to always get into an argument with Red Sox fans. Oh, who won? And then who's won in the 2000s? I'm like, 27 championships, bro? I mean, are you serious when it come to Yankees in a row? Come on, man. We ain't doing that. We're not doing that.

We're not doing that. Let's bring in my guy. Okay. My other guy.

Okay. A good friend of mine, Jim Jackson. Fox Sports NBA analyst. TNC.

NBA analyst does a great job. What's up, Jim? What's up, Metropolis?

What's going on? Yeah. What up? So congratulations, by the way. I don't know if we can tell people, but congratulations.

I just want to give you that. Congratulations on the air. What happened? I got married or something.

Well, we know that's not happening. I got to tell you, Jim, so earlier today, about an hour ago, there was this guy trying to deliver flowers. Not flowers, but flowers and some balloons. And it said, congratulations. And it was knocking on the door. It was like they got the wrong people were knocking on the door. And TJ went. And TJ, what happened when you went to the door?

He's looking at his phone. He's like, I got a delivery for a Mike Hill. And we were like, what in the balloon? Say congratulations into some flower. I'm like, man, I didn't get nobody pregnant. I didn't know if that was an announcement or something. That's the way you're going to tell me. I can't afford that. I can't afford that, man.

Thanks a lot. Not much. My son, he graduated from preschool to kindergarten. And for those of everybody who had kids and been through it, it's like, man, you see your son, you get emotional.

You watch it. He's grown so much. Five years, probably five years old, going to kindergarten. And over at Children's Palace, they did a great job of accepting him and treating him like he was one of theirs. He's learned so much and grown so much. So it was just one of those days, man, as a parent.

Emotional, but a special day. Is he almost five? Yeah. Yeah, actually, he was born on Father's Day in 2008.

Wow. From Percy. And he's coming up next week. He's probably taller than me, too, huh?

Hey, guy, I wasn't going to say that, but yeah. He really is. He is. Zobby, right?

Zobby? He really is growing. He looks really good. He's a good-looking kid, man. Good-looking kid, man.

So congratulations. Did you cry? No, I didn't cry. But there was some couple of times when they were singing some songs and the teachers were talking, and they came up and kind of walked on stage to kind of get their picture taken with a sign indicated their graduation. It was emotional, man. That's nice.

That's awesome. All right, man, let's talk some basketball. What are we seeing right now? When you look at Nicole Jokic and Jamal Murray, 10 years from now, what are we going to be saying about this performance?

Well, it depends. You know, for them, their legacy is etched in, of course, they're going to be remembered as outstanding basketball players, and maybe Jokic goes down as one of the best to ever play the game. But of course, winning the championship solidifies that even more, because you're in rare air when you do that. You know, it's interesting the transition that both have made, you know, from when they first entered the league. When you look at Jokic, it was a little bit overweight, not as athletic, of course. Youth of Nurkic was there in Denver. Denver had to make a choice for Nicola or Nurkic and what they did. And you look back at his transformation as it's always been skillful, but him dedicating himself to losing the weight, you know, COVID and keeping it all.

I think it's paid huge dividends for a couple of things. One is endurance is a lot better. The strength is a lot better. He's able to finish games, you know, with a pressure mindset and body because of that. And the skill set that he had is ridiculous. And I hate that people want to compare Joel Embiid and him and then take away and criticize the other to justify, you know, their argument as to why one is better.

I don't think you should do that. They're both individually skilled and they're both really effective at what they do. But Nicola, just what he's able to do, how he's able to control the game from the center position just totally affect how defensively you're able to not defend the width of the court.

He's special. And I would say this about Jamal Murray. He had a lot to learn as a basketball player. OK, how so maturity basketball, IQ, just understanding the game and how to play the game from a point guard position because he was a score by nature and understanding what it means to run and often a team. But I think what helped him really, I think, were really you hate to see this. The injury, I think, matured him a lot. And I say that because he was able to sit and watch and understand what the game was all about from a deeper content and how and what he needed to do as a player to improve. You know, from the leadership perspective. And now you see the fruit of that knowledge paying off big time at the biggest moment right now in the championship stage.

Yeah. There are two games away from their first NBA championship. The Miami Heat down to one. They seem to play better, though.

And I know you covered the Eastern Conference finals for TNT when they were the heat in the Boston Celtics. So you see the resolve that they have. Obviously, they want to 30 in that series. And then 03, but they seem to play better when their backs are against the wall. So what do you expect tonight? I mean, the heater, but the heat figure out ways to win.

Okay. Just like Denver. Now you got to give Denver a lot of credit. They were the best team in the Western Conference. The team has been together.

You add Bruce Brown and then KCP. That solidifies what they do. This heat team. Keep in mind that during the course of the year, they may have been top two teams that have lost games to injury.

They didn't suit the ball well. So they've been through so much through the course of the year that their resilience is the reason why they're always able to after a loss to come back. Now, keep in mind, I think it was the last three games. They lost the last three games at home. But they figure out ways to come back and win games.

It's not always going to be pretty. They don't have to shoot the three ball well, because they're going to grind you out. They're going to make you work. They're going to force you to have to play the shot clock.

They're going to force you to have to play a physical brand of basketball physical in the terms of what today's game is. And Eric Spoelstra to me, probably behind pop coaching the league. And I got a chance to see Eric when I was with the heat. He was our film guy. And I think what makes Eric special, just like a lot of coaches that come through this way, he was in the film room, breaking down takes.

We got to see the game from a different perspective. He got to talk to different players and get their likes and dislikes and how to communicate with players. He talked to coaches. He talked to scouts. He Mickey Erickson owner. So he got this full knowledge of not just the X and the nose, but how to communicate with players, how to communicate with other coaches, how to communicate with the media, how to communicate with the ownership.

And then you groom all that, put all that together. What he's been able to think about this early in his career time, but what is he the right guy for the heat? And look at where he's at right now. So the response to me is going to be one of they're going to play harder, play smarter. They have to do a better job of pick and roll defense. I can see them trapped a little bit more, but also taking away the points in the paint. The two games of Denver is one. They've won the points in the paint, so it's going to be interesting to see the strategic move that they make. Miami Heat makes it tonight. Yeah, it seems like the heat of missing a lot of bunnies too in the paint.

You know that Denver's a taller team, so they could have the advantage in the paint when it comes to rebounding. But Bam is missing a lot of bunnies. Jimmy's missing a lot of bunnies. Jimmy doesn't seem to be himself. I know he's still obviously the leader of the scene, but he's maybe there's expectations because we expect playoff Jimmy. And even though he's scoring and at times he had a good first half the other night, we're not seeing playoff Jimmy.

We're used to seeing like we saw against Milwaukee. Well, but it's a difference. You give Denver a lot of credit because they have positional side, meaning that even with switches, Jimmy doesn't have the advantage. Even against the Jamal Murray, Jamal still 64. You see what I'm saying?

It's different than maybe a different kind of switch. So give the Denver Nuggets a lot of credit. One, we didn't talk about them, how good they can be defensively, but they've influenced the way that Miami attacks the basket because of that size. But Jimmy is going to be Jimmy. You guys understand something. Jimmy Butler is not a high volume shooter. Okay, he's going to pick and choose his spots. He wants to set his teammates up, get them involved. And when it's time for him to do his thing, that's when he'll do it. So he's patient in his delivery of offense. He's not going to force the situation, not going to force shot if he's not going. But I can see Jimmy being, I think, more aggressive the game.

And I think in the third quarter, fourth quarter, he'll come around and he'll figure out ways along the coaches to kind of get his money on when he needs to. Talking to Gary Payton last night, Tony Rock and I, we asked him about this series and Tony brought up the fact and Gary Payton said, yes, that this team is crappy. You know, that's what Gary Payton said about this Miami Heat team. And he said it reminded him of the Miami Heat team that he was on when he won the championship. How scrappy they were back then.

And so it was like the comparison was kind of like was was blew my mind, actually. Yeah, you know, but I mean, the difference with that team, you had still star power. Now, maybe Gary Payton wasn't the Gary Payton of old, but he had that DNA, that All-Star DNA in him that at any given time to turn on, turn the pages back and contribute. So the makeup of that team that they had back then when they won it is a lot different. But the ingredients on how hard you play, the tension, the detail, being professional, all of that, those intangibles were there. With this Miami Heat team, you have, you know, the story has been told about the undrafted players trying to figure out how to make the roster, but they bought into playing their role, which is very, very important. And if you think about it, it's Bam Adebayo, superstar, but in Cal Lawry again, All-Star, but not the same player, but yet has the pedigree. But look at the roster and how it's built and we'll have a lot to prove who were kind of counted out in situations as far as making an impact in the NBA and even making the roster.

But yet and still, these pieces fit together. And by fitting together, they know and understand their role and responsibilities, gotten them to a championship. What would be interesting, guys, is if other teams take that blueprint and try to emulate that. Yeah, it'd be interesting. Win or lose if Miami, you know, in the championship process, it'd be interesting to see if other teams do that.

Yeah. And remember, Miami's playing without Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo. And the fact that they got here as an A seed and they are a game away from tying the series up after four says a lot about everything that you talked about, starting with air exposure in that whole organization game adjustments are great, too. Yeah, the best coaches. Man, I'll tell you, Michael Malone has to get a lot of credit because they lost some games in the playoffs of some series. And, you know, he talks about is Michael, Michael Malone the right person for the team?

Well, yeah, he is. Yeah, the fire. And you lose order to get there. I mean, Michael Jordan, the Detroit Pistons, they lost the playoffs here before they were finally able to cut down the net. Right. Yeah, Jim, as you know, they ain't that many good coaches out there. So if you fire them, who are you going to get? That's the thing.

There ain't that many great coaches out there, man. Well, yeah, you know, you get rid of it. OK, so will you bring it in? Yeah. I'm happy for both because I love to see and, God, you brought up a great point that both make the end game and adjustments.

OK, little tweaks up. OK, when Nicole Jokic is out the game, OK, we're going to play zone a little bit more. We're going to double team Jamal Murray. When Jokic comes back in, we'll switch it back up.

We're trying to hold on as long as we can. But Jokic is just so good in the middle of the court that he'll break you down. So, you know, both coaches love the end game, but also the preparation part of it and holding their star players and the rest of their players accountable.

Yeah, I think that's the key as well. That's what makes a great coach. Jim Jackson, great analyst, better man, great father as well, man. Thanks for hanging out with me as always, my friend. I know you got a golf course and a cigar in your future somewhere.

It's a little dreary today. I played yesterday a little dreary today, but you know the cigars will definitely be there, especially tonight for the game. Always on point, man. I'll catch up with you soon, man.

Congratulations again to your son. I appreciate you. God, great talking to you, brother.

Likewise, bro. All right, Jim Jackson hanging out. I love Jim, man.

That's my guy. I work with him obviously over at Fox Sports all the time, man. Just like a just a cool dude, man. I've been introduced to a lot of good people through Jim Jackson. I was in Philly one time doing a show. I went to a cigar lounge and I'm walking in and somebody said, guy! And I'm like, this is Jim Jackson.

Yeah, both of you guys in the cigar lounge all the time. I can't. Asthma.

Can't do it, bro. You don't know what you're missing. Stinky clothes. What I'm missing? Death.

That's what I'm missing. I like to breathe. I don't know if you know that or not.

I like to breathe. We're going to be back to wrap up the show right here on Rich Ozzie. So stick around. For decades, Rolling Stone has set the bar for entertainment publications. Today, Rolling Stone music now takes over in podcast form. Songwriter and producer Jamie Hartman reacts to the Ed Sheeran verdict.

You need to create something new. And of course, you're going to use traditional paths to get there. Are you going to sue the Rolling Stones for making a samba out of Sympathy for the Devil?

You're going to sue Elvis Presley for writing bars and no, but it's like saying you're not allowed to use a pencil to create a piece of art. Rolling Stone music now, wherever you listen. Is it true that you met Lorne Michaels as a vendor at Yankee Stadium, the SNL founder? Is that true? Gate 4.

Gate 4. And I was a kid. And he was my friend. So that's Lorne Michaels.

That's Lorne Michaels. He came out of the players gate and I overcharged him for like three bats and some shirts, some Yankee shirts. And then when I became a cast member, I gave him back like $14 and some cents. And he said, what's this for?

I said, because I overcharge you for some items. He started dying. This is what you said, game four, like what? The 96 World Series. Is that what that was?

Tracy, what do you think? It was a no, no, no, no. Okay. So that was probably like 95 or something like that.

Okay. So what were you doing out there? You were selling stuff. So we were shopping tickets, a scalp ticket, I sold souvenirs and I sold cocaine. And that's when it was $21 a gram.

I'm getting $45 an hour go down for me. So this is true. True story because I live right up to hell. So I had tickets, I had cocaine and I had souvenirs.

You got it all. So you're saying back in the day, $21 a gram. And so you sold hats and bats and stuff like that. And that's how you met.

Don't forget to go. You got something that Tracy really was hustle man from Martin. Back in the day, really was hustle man.

Boy, I was, I was, I worked souvenirs and I was Tony Montana on the side. Mike in for Rich here on the Rich Ozzie show. Some of the funniest things happened. Like the clips you guys show from the old to the old man. It was your Tracy Morgan, man.

Hilarious. Mike with Guy Torre hanging out with me. Brockman, Jason, TJ, first class CJ over there. Still a little hurt over there. Yeah, it still hurts. Your feelings are hurt, man.

I'm sorry, man. You don't get that upgrade bro. I'm going to have to now. I had an upgrade once. I can upgrade it all the time. I had some horror upgrade stories though. It was, I almost took out Russell Westbrook.

Like it would have been no more Russell Westbrook. I was flying back to LA from Miami and Russell Westbrook was on my flight along with Amber Rose and our plane breaks down. So now we've got to go back to the terminal and they rebook us on a flight four hours later and I lost my upgrade. So now I'm from first class and middle seat and coach, middle seat. And in that four hours, I bump into my ex-wife and her new husband in the airport for the first time and our new husband, she married up because he was 6'5".

She married up. And so now I'm thinking, okay, wait a minute. We're all going back to LA. I'm now in coach in the middle seat.

They're doing very well. So I know they're in first class. And I'm like, if I got to walk past them in first to go to coach, I'm taking this plane down.

No more Amber Rose, we are all going down today. We almost had a situation. And I found out that they're on a different flight. And I was like, Lord, won't he do it? My ego couldn't have taken that. To walk past my ex-wife and her new husband in first class to go to coach in the middle seat?

He probably would have given you a little snicker. Man, what? Speaking of planes, how about the Jets? Everybody's talking about the Jets in the AFC this year because of Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers came out today. I think you got some new sound from Aaron Rodgers talking about, you know, spent all those seasons in Green Bay. He'd been in New York a hot second.

And this is what he's saying already. Yeah, I think it was good. I had originally planned on being back on the West Coast for at least a week to get with my bodywork people and my trainers. But when I heard my calf, it was best that I was just here the entire time rehabbing and then just being around the guys. So I made for a lot of opportunities for some, you know, some get togethers in the city and obviously, you know, Taylor Swift concert. And we had some good team dinners and a lot of hangout time.

So I was good. The last six weeks have been about the most fun I've had in a while. So it's fun to come to work and be excited about what we're doing. We've got a great quarterback room to be able to work with Todd Downing and Rob and Hacks in there all the time.

And, you know, we get some other randoms come in and sit in the room, which is nice, too. But to work with Zach and Tim and Chris has been a lot of fun. Most fun he's had in a while.

Wow. And they got a great quarterback room because he's now in the quarterback room. He was grounded. Now they're back flying high.

Now they're flying. A lot of expectations on this this just seen this year. If they don't win and win early, he's going to be the host of Jeopardy. You know, I'm concerned. I'm concerned about Aaron Rodgers, only because, you know, I was born in New York and I know New York's all my teams in New York Giants fan Yankees, Knicks. I know it takes a certain mentality to play in New York. Yeah, you're right. And not just because of the fans, but because of the media, the fans, though, the fans are tough. Let me tell you, I went to a draft and radio music call years ago and, you know, the jet crew was there.

Right. And this little kid and his dad was a kid. That'd be maybe 10, 11 years old, a Browns jersey on. When I tell you those grown but men heckled this little boy, little boy, man, he was crying. I'm like, Jeff is a brutal man.

It's a 10 year old kid. But his dad, his dad couldn't do anything. It was him. He was way outnumbered.

He took his son and left. That's when, you know, when, you know, you're about to get your beat. He's just like, hey, man, just go ahead and take this L, you know, talk smack on Twitter afterwards or whatever. A brutal bro. They are brutal. But once they can as quickly, as fast as they love Aaron Rogers right now. Right.

Quickly to turn around. Oh, yeah, they will. They will flip the switch on him in a heartbeat. He can go from two and four. Yeah, yeah.

Out the gate, two and four. And it might not even be his fault. Man. They will turn and see the thing. The problem is he's not used to that. And we know Aaron Rogers, how he's kind of surly, tossed back, doesn't like too much.

The media only toss suit. What's my man's name over ESPN now? Pat McAfee. Pat McAfee. Basically, that's his boy. You know what I mean? So sleeveless, sleeveless. You know, nothing against Pat.

You know, put the guns out. But at the same time, like when the media wants to turn on you, it's great. I love Michael Strahan is my guy. Love him to death. You see Michael Strahan smiling on GMA. Right. I covered Michael when he was with the Giants, when I was working in New York. Right. Michael went like that. Surly. Surly. No.

Patrick Ewan wasn't like that. I seen the media. I've heard the media in New York talking about wait until what you see, wait until you see my column tomorrow. I've heard them say that. Wait till you see my, I'm going to kill them. I mean, that's that's how they are, bro.

So they'll turn, so if Rogers, Aaron can't adapt to that. He has thick skin. Go have some issues, man. Put your big boy pants on. You better put your big boy pants on. Mike, we still don't know who's on hard knocks and everyone's like, got to be the Jets.

Got to be the Jets, man. Yeah. Robert Sala is talking about he doesn't want to be on there real quick. Hey, I got it.

We only out of time. Fat Tuesdays. Fat Tuesdays documentary is out on Amazon Prime. It's doing well. One hundred percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

It made one hundred percent on Rotten Tomatoes and made the best documentary of 2002 on the New York Times list. So it's great. It's funny. It's great.

You laugh, it educates you, inspire you, enlighten you. And it's just a wonderful piece of work. It's great. It is great. You saw it, T.J.? Oh, yeah.

A couple. I've watched it twice as a matter. Oh, wow.

It's about the black comedy scene here in L.A. in the 90s, doing the riots and everything else going on. Yeah, it was good. Hey, man, I'm proud of you, too, because I remember I've been knowing you for a long time when I first got here ten years ago. You were working on it then. Brian, I've been on this show before when I was talking about what I was working on. And to finally see it come out and do well is amazing. That's great, man.

I'm happy for you and everything that you're doing, all the projects that you got going on. We're actually working on something, too, behind the scenes. So we'll see what happens right there. Might be able to help you out, T.J. Might be able to help you out. Get you in first class. Get you in first class. We're going to upgrade you, T.J. You're going to be able to get some warm nuts in the bowl, in the hot towel.

It's an important towel, though. Thank you to Joe Varda, the athletic, T.J. Newman, the author, Jim Jackson, for coming on, and of course, the great guy, Tori. And I want to thank you guys. Thank you, brother. Good job, Mike. Jason, thank you, T.J. I appreciate you, man. Thank you, Rich, for allowing me to be on the show. Hopefully, I haven't said anything that's going to be so crazy that I won't be able to come back for another four years. But enjoy your weekend, everybody.

It's the Rich Johnson Show. We'll see you next week. Peace. Bye.